Peter Gabriel 'Steam'

Chart Peak: 10
YouTube

'Steam', a Top 10 hit in January '93, was Gabriel's biggest solo success since the classic 'Sledgehammer' in 1986... His live performance of the song was a highlight of the 1993 Brits Awards [sic] show.

The last of Peter Garbriel's four Now appearances, coincidentally (other than perhaps for generational reasons) on the same album as his former colleagues Genesis bow out. Indeed all four Now albums that feature Gabriel also feature his old band, though Ashley Abram resisted the temptation ever to sequence them next to each other.

Released in the UK as the second single from the album Us, 'Steam' is a highly atypical track, much more fun than the rest of the disc both in its upbeat musical mood and in the light-hearted wordplay and unusual rhymes of the lyric ("You know your sinner from your saint/ You know your stripper from your paint/Whenever heaven's door are shut, you'll get them open but/ I know you". Although the song is ostensibly about a woman who understands everything except herself, there's a subtext of the same sexual energy as 'Sledgehammer', the song in his catalogue this most closely resembles. Indeed the song seems in places almost a conscious attempt to produce a successor to his biggest hit, but is saved from the appearance of cynicism by its genuine joie de vivre and the uncommercial decision to release a six minute single with no radio edit; the video edit is a little shorter though, presumably because of the cost of the special effects. It was reported at the time that Gabriel had been scanned into the computers to such a level of detail that future music videos could theoretically be made without his direct involvement, although I don't think he ever tested that theory. Whatever format they were encoded in is probably obsolete these days anyway. Besides, with the dark and highly personal nature of the album it's no bad thing to have a spot of light relief. It would have been false advertising to make this the first single off his album, but that's probably why it wasn't. It still works out of context anyway.

I hadn't seen the Brits performance before. It looks like it would have been quite something if I wasn't viewing it through an ancient VHS recording.

Also appearing on: Now 7, 8, 23
Available on: Us (Remastered)

Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush 'Don't Give Up'

Chart Peak: 9
YouTube

The follow-up to 'Sledgehammer' went straight into the chart at No. 31 after just one week on release.

Hard to imagine that even in 1986 a new release from one (or even two) established stars entering the Top 40 in release week was really that noteworthy, but I guess they had to make it sound exciting somehow. Presumably they went to press too soon to mention that by its second week, 'Don't Give Up' had progressed to the Top 20 and been joined in the 40 by Kate Bush's solo single 'Experiment IV'. It's fairly well-known now that Peter Gabriel was originally inspired to write this song by images of Depression-era America and so intended the song as a duet with Dolly Parton but she turned it down (Gabriel speculates that she didn't actually know who he was) and forced him to go in another direction.

Tantalising as it is to imagine a Gabriel/Parton duet, his old friend Kate does a more than sterling job. Not only is she obviously a very good singer but the contrast between their two voices accompanies the contrast between their two parts, the despairing man in the verses and the determinedly hopeful woman in the chorus. What saves this from glib sentimentality is the pain in her voice; you know she's not just handing out platitudes, she's struggling herself but they both need each other to keep going. This is accompanied by a relatively minimal soundscape, which fits with the desolate beauty of their situation without suggesting any specific place or time. The most famous element in that production is of course Tony Levin's bass part, which was recorded partly by using one of his daughter's nappies to damp down the strings. One certainly hopes it was a clean nappy.

The resultant track is quite possibly the best on this album, certainly the best in this sort of style (it's harder to compare this with something like 'What Have You Done For Me Lately') but also a song that's not an easy or comfortable listen. Sometimes I don't feel up to it.

Peter Gabriel also appears on: Now 7, 23, 24
Kate Bush also appears on: Now 6, 16
Available on: Hit

Peter Gabriel 'Sledgehammer'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

Hi-ho, it's back to the 1980s we go for the first time in what seems like ages. I've got quite a few eighties albums queued up here, but for now let's wind the clock back a quarter of a century (less a couple of months) with an album that's unique in the entire series for one reason that I shall reveal in due course.

Sleevenotes aren't quite as exciting here as they are the later albums of the 1990s, but let's plunge in to get a flavour of the style, and justify my 99p.

Peter's biggest hit since 'Games Without Frontiers' in March 1980, 'Sledgehammer' made No. 4 for 4 weeks in May/June 1986

Curiously, the notes don't mention the other notable achievement of this single: it was Gabriel's first (and so far only) US Number One single, which of course is one more than he's managed in his home country. Admittedly, this isn't really a qualification for inclusion on a UK compilation, but it'd seem like a point of interest to buyers. The other thing they don't mention is the video that's surely the first thing many of us think of when this song is mentioned: so much so that I contemplated looking for a YouTube link that didn't include it.
As this blog isn't about videos I don't intend to say much about it except that I do remember seeing a lot of it at the time, exceptionally so for the days when we only had four TV channels. I even remember seeing that bit at the start with the sperms, not that I knew that was what they were when I was eight.

By the same token, I didn't recognise what Gabriel was singing about - the song is a parade of more or less subtle sexual innuendos. Of course, the other effect of being the age I was is that I didn't know who he was, so I didn't expect him to be singing about hobbits or whatever early Genesis songs were supposed to be about. Nor did I know until much more recently that he was initially a reluctant singer who took to songwriting before performance: his vocal on this particular track is impressively direct, and though confident it's more like a soul singer than a rock frontman which makes the lyric rather more palatable. The music beneath it combines elements of jazz, African music and old-fashioned RnB in a way that is, with hindsight, not entirely unlike the sort of thing Talking Heads were doing around the same time. I went through a long phase of not liking this record, even giving away the copy of the single I bought by mistake, but I rather enjoy it now.

Also appearing on: Now 8, 23, 24
Available on: Shaking The Tree - Sixteen Golden Greats

Peter Gabriel 'Digging In The Dirt'

Chart Peak: 24

YouTube

One of the more unlikely tracks to show up on a Now album, not least because of its lengthy running time, 'Digging In The Dirt' was Gabriel's first new single in five years. Perhaps it was because his last proper album So had been such a big success that this comeback was thought worth including here, but in the event it was only a minor hit - no wonder given its rather dark nature, apparently inspired by a relationship breakdown. The obligatory state-of-art video is pretty creepy too.

In its way, it's actually a really good record. The disturbing atmosphere is quite convincing and there's just enough melodic interest to make it enjoyable. At the same time, though, it's not his most obvious crossover hit, and indeed not the biggest hit off the album. It's hard to imagine what the kids who are the stereotypical Now audience would have made of it, or for that matter how many of the people who would appreciate it were prepared to sit through the Mario Brothers record to get to it.

Also appearing on: Now 7, 8, 24
Available on: Hit