security

Peter Gabriel explored hope and fear and moved closer to a more accessible sound with the dark and vulnerable exotic rhythms and multi-cultural reflections of his fully digital fourth album.  Gabriel remembers:  "The fourth album was done at Ashcombe House and I was working with David Lord who I'd known a bit, in Bath he had a studio there, but he'd come really more from a classical background. It was the first time really that I had a studio situation but of my own and when you did something really good the cows would come and lick the windows...I'd been dreaming for some time of an instrument that could sample stuff from the real world and then turn it, make it available on a keyboard. Larry Fast told me that he thought he'd heard rumours of such an instrument. It was £10,000 which seemed an unearthly amount of money, got very excited with this thing, it's called the FairLight, and spent a lot of time then collecting sounds going to factories to the university, getting interesting samples that were then used on that record and the ones after, it was really one of the key things that gave that record a different sound."

With Gabriel on vocals and keyboards, Tony Levin on bass and Chapman Stick, David Rhodes on guitar, Jerry Marotta on drums and percussion, and Larry Fast on synthesizers; the sessions also included John Ellis on bass vocals and guitar, Roberto Laneri on treated saxophone, Morris Pert on timbales and percussion, Stephen Paine on Fairlight CMI, David Lord on synthesizer and piano, Peter Hammill on backing vocals, Jill Gabriel on bass vocals, Simon Phillips on drums, Chris Hughes on Linn LM-1 programming, and the Ekome Dance Company on Ghanaian drums.  

The lyrics deal with topics that run from Carl Jung’s experience with African drummers, the dissolution of Native American culture, ritual sacrifice, and the treatment of political prisoners in Latin America. The heavy subject matter is lightened somewhat by different pop touches; but overall the moody music is difficult and dense, as is the album cover.  Gabriel says:  "The artwork on album 4 was something that I'd been working on with a sculptor called Malcolm Pointer who's work I thought was really strong, he used to do these things out of very dark heads...There was a book I'd seen too, on distortions. A little like fairground mirrors and we started using that with some Millonex, which is a sort of bendy mirror."

The album was titled eponymously, like his previous three, intended to be differentiated by the artwork as a sort of magazine series; but in the US and Canada his new label Geffen Records insisted on a title.  Gabriel balked; but eventually settled on 'Security'.  The album went to twenty-eight in the US, eighteen in New Zealand, fourteen in the Netherlands and Norway, six in the UK, five in France, and number two in Canada.  







http://petergabriel.com/






According to Gabriel, "'Shock the Monkey' is probably one of the better known tracks...most people saw that as a sort of animal right song, but it wasn't - actually it was a song about jealousy."  The video was directed by Brian Grant and spent nine weeks at the top of the MTV play list.  The single went to fifty-eight in the UK, twenty-nine on the US pop chart, twenty-five in Australia, ten in Canada, three in Italy, and number one on the US hot mainstream rock tracks chart.  It was his first chart topper.  


Wheels keep turning
Something's burning
Don't like it but I guess I'm learning







'I Have the Touch' was inspired by a study that compared the amount of physical contact that occurred between people from different cultures.  It only charted at number forty-six on the US hot mainstream rock tracks chart.  


Pull my chin, stroke my hair, scratch my nose, hug my knees
Try drink, food, cigarette, tension will not ease
I tap my fingers, fold my arms, breathe in deep, cross my legs
Shrug my shoulders, stretch my back - 
But nothing seems to please
I need contact







Gabriel says 'Lay Your Hands on Me' is "about trust, about healing and sacrifice."  During live performances he would stage dive into the crowd and let himself be carried through the crowd.  


I'm living way beyond my ways and means, 
Living in the zone of the inbetweens
I can see the flashes on the frozen ocean, 
Static charge of the cold emotion
Watched on by the distant eyes  
Watched on by the silent hidden spies
But still the warmth flows through me
And I sense you know me well
No luck, no golden chances
No mitigating circumstances now
It's only common sense
There are no accidents around here

full album:



The Rhythm of the Heat -- 0:00
San jacinto -- 5:17
I Have the Touch -- 11:50
the Family and the Fishing Net -- 16:28
Shock the Monkey -- 23:37
Lay Your Hands on Me -- 29:09
Wallflower -- 35:15
Kiss of Life -- 41:51




in the studio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3MeYgGeIW4

fairlight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON8lVgJxMQA&feature=related