What can I say about Peter Gabriel that you who read this blog don’t already know? Not much I bet, so this is going to be short.
Just in case you are like me and somehow missed it, I’m just going to tell you that if you haven’t seen the 2003 concert movie, Growing Up Live, then you should. I hadn’t seen it until recently, and as much as I already liked Peter Gabriel, that video made it clear to me that his game has only gotten better. He now carries himself with the calmness and confidence of a high priest of music. It really is a marvel to see and hear.
Here’s a couple of clips.
And the one that’s been seared into my mind since I saw it a few weeks ago:
By comparison I recently saw on TV a concert movie of Phil Collins at the Montreux Jazz Festival. I like some Phil Collins stuff, I don’t completely disregard him or hate him as some do. But watching him right after watching the Peter Gabriel DVD was a little gross. The similarities are so many and at the same time they are nothing alike. I don’t even think that Phil is trying to imitate Peter, though the thought does occur. It is more as if they both had some similar formative experience and while Phil made ketchup out if it, Peter made seared tuna steak with ginger and peanut sauce over fresh leaf lettuce. Ketchup is ok sometimes, but not after what Peter has been cooking.
What could follow Peter’s show? Who could be the tiramisu?
Don’t you mean the high priest of getting fat and riding a bike on stage? I like Gabriel as much as the next guy, but those videos are frighteningly bad. What the fuck is Tony Levin’s deal with the gay walk during Salsbury Hill? I love those songs, but the performances are so dialed in to me. I much prefer Levin in Crimson, and it is fair to argue the merits of Collins in the post-Gabriel Genesis no matter how goofy it got later on.
Tiramisu? This is your worst post ever.
‘Evers’ two weeks in a row. woohoo!
The previous ever was probably more accurate. I agree, that was an awesome post.
Then again, there is the whole tiramisu issue…
I’m not much of a Peter Gabriel fan – I guess I’ve heard these songs too much. But going in with low expectations after reading John’s comment, I have to say I enjoyed the bicycle stunt (but not the gay skipping around).
Little known Roberto fact: Once a Tiramisu-specific restaurant critic for a New York based webzine. True Story.
I love those songs, but the performances are so dialed in to me.
Ditto. He’s singing the notes, not the song. I feel that way about the whole band, actually.
An ex-girlfriend, while we were dating, flew to San Diego from Portland and spent hundreds of dollars seeing Peter Gabriel live (I think it would have been this tour), and she raved about the show. Maybe I would have enjoyed it in context, but on the basis of these clips, I don’t regret missing it anymore.
(My favorite thing: the lighting above the stage in “Red Rain”.)
After my post about how weird I thought “Shock the Monkey” was, I downloaded Security and I’ve listened to it several times over the past month. It still seems weird. And awesome.
I don’t understand the purpose of the bike in the first video. It doesn’t belong on a stage. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the lyrics of the song. But it’s just that kind of “Where the hell did that come from?” thing that I like. Even if Gabriel looks sort of ridiculous riding it.
By the way, I think Gabriel pronounces “San Jacinto” as “San Ya-Sinto” in the song of the same title. That’s just wrong. I mean, you can use the Anglicized “San Jah-sinto” or the proper “San Ha-sinto” pronunciations, but trying to German it up makes my ears wince. Also, Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush pronounces it the German way in W. and I had the same reaction. At least Josh Brolin got the pronunciation right.
He’s singing the notes, not the song.
I think this is the danger of touring and playing those songs every night, especially with a big stage production like that. Everything has to be in its place and there isn’t a whole lot of room for error. That said, I bet the people in the room didn’t really notice.
Phil Collins definitely did some decent stuff with Genesis after Gabriel left. Though, the bads were much worse than the goods were good.
Is it just my imagination, or is every male in that band bald?
I had the Plays Live album and really liked some of the melodies as they were kind of minor but not and had a complex feel to them, kind of like a wine, I’d say. Rhythm of the Heat was one that was my favorite. I can’t even recall it now, so I hope I’m not completely embarrassing myself. Ah, just listened to a bit. Good drums.
I wasn’t so into the songs that were overplayed as they were a bit more standard, but that was the interesting thing about him is that he could break out a bit and make things melodic, haunting, and memorable in ways that appealed to those who only listened regular radio, or to a bit of the alternative.
He was a secret like of mine, though not so secret now.
The videos are obviously to taste, because, if I wanted to be negative, I’d say it looked like people who sang those songs for 20 years and are bored to tears with it but still like money.
But Roberto saw something in it that was definitely more the opposite of that. He sees somebody so into it that he can ride a bike while singing so perfectly. Show off.
Thankfully, every male has learned that if they are balding, just shave the shit. So much better.
thinking about it the next morning, wondering if Gabriel’s tight almost pinched vocal performance is deliberately taking into account the reverb of the space – and actually hearing it in context would breathe a lot more than hearing a close-mic’d mix of the performance.
I’m always surprised about how what I would consider a mediocre post on a tired subject such as Peter Gabriel (who probably has whole blogs dedicated to his every fart), can garner comments from such a large percentage of the people who read this blog. Yet what I would consider much better posts, elicit little or no response at all in the way of comments. Why is that?
I wrote this post in about 15 minutes. I almost just went for the one line post – Saw Peter Gabriel’s ‘Growing Up Live’: I liked it. i would’ve been ok with that in terms of how much i really want to discuss Peter Gabriel.
On the other hand, I thought last week’s post had a decent description of an experience of playing music and i was hoping (against hope, based on my previous experience with the commenting on this blog) that others would chip in on how they feel about the experience of playing music. Of course i didnt just come out and ask this straight out (that would’ve been like writing the one line Peter Gabriel post), but I thought there was material in that post for a much more of a lively discussion (on a number of topics) than there is in this silly Peter Gabriel post.
So can someone explain to me why this is, please? Am i just backwards?
Oh and Charlie, I wondered the same thing. I was thining PG made them shave it off to give off that monastic vibe.
And he is a fat old fart and maybe the songs are dialed in, but i still loved this concert video. especially the way i heard it on a great tv with a super stereo system (maybe that helped).
I’m always surprised about how what I would consider a mediocre post…can garner comments from such a large percentage of the people…Yet what I would consider much better posts, elicit little or no response at all…
I notice that not just here and on comment-enabled sites with larger appeal than this one. “Light” posts require less thought to respond. Of course you also picked a universal subject – everybody has a relationship to PG.
Also, don’t discount Cramer’s baiting
Well-thought out posts leave me feeling like I have nothing to contribute other than “Gee, that was a good post”, which seems like commenting for commenting’s sake, or feel like they deserve a really thoughtful reply, more thoughtful than I usually have time to give. Whereas brief tossed-off posts easily justify a brief tossed-off response and then start a conversation.
Put differently, it would take me hours to express as eloquently as you did how it feels to play music, much less put something useful of my own in it that felt like it was advancing the topic, but it took me just watching the song and a couple sentences of typing to post on this thread. (Also the fact that I had a strong distinct opinion didn’t hurt.)
Some forums have the ability to put votes on entries without comments, so that you can give the entry a thumbs-up regardless of whether or not you comment on it, and I expect that this would be a much more accurate representation of what people like than the number of comments. I wish we had that, there’s been many entries in the past I’ve had to scan for time and meant to get back to but never did. At least with something like that, we could easily see what everyone else’s favorite entries were. Of course, then it becomes a different popularity test, egos get bruised if somebody puts their heart and soul into something that doesn’t resonate with anyone else, et cetera.
Yeah, guilty as charged. But I am with DD on this one as well. Your better posts leave my happy and I tend to find them to be complete without my trash heaped on top of them. This post was more of an gaseous expulsion, and who doesn’t like to add to one of those?
So basically post crap and you will talk to me, or post good stuff and get silence? no wonder the world is going to shit.
I like the thought about commenting to, what the author thinks as, mediocre posts.
The thing is, you took sides on an issue that you knew there were sides.
Asking what people think about playing music is a huge topic. Maybe if you’d whittled it down a bit and chosen a viewpoint with a known alt side, that would have helped to have garnered some discussion?
Some posts practically beg for commentary, while more arty ones do not (generally speaking).
Look back over some of my more expressive stories, they got little to no comments either. However, if I took sides or went off on a dick tangent (which I did probably much too often if I were pressed to be honest), then I tended to get more vocal interest.
Seriously now, creative writing in here is about the same as pissing in the wind, Roberto. Haven’t you figured that out yet?
I’ve pretty much figured that out John, though I do hold hope that I’m wrong (as i often am), but more than that, I don’t really care, I write cause i like to write, and so far the exercise of this blog has been great for my writing, so even if no one is reading it, I’d rather it be out there somewhere than hiding in my computer at home (and i do know that some people read it and appreciate it, even if just one or two people).
If i had to constantly write stuff like this peter gabriel crap or continually have to take sides in order to encourage discussion, then i better start getting paid, cause I dont want to do that.
And further more, there are other ways to have conversations that dont involve people having to take sides. If the only way the readers of this blog can have a conversation is by taking sides then I dont particularly want to talk to them all that much either. How’s that for taking a side?
Unfortunately you can tell more by readership and in that regard our numbers have decreased over the past six months.
Although I share roberto’s dismay. A large readership isn’t my primary goal. I’d like to see more discussion. In that regard, I often fail and lean towards simply ranting out my preferences. I have lost my way.
I would that it goes without saying that there are other ways to discuss things. Hell, there are many way for people to take sides without it degrading.
As far as baiting goes, I’ll take yours Roberto and say that I liked the way your previous post veered from exposition into storytelling. The first part of your last post reminds me of the “groove,” which is an infamous Roberto story in the Mike Gunn. It revolves around your playing out of tune but claiming that you can still pull it off because you are “in the groove.” That is the stuff of dreams dear sir, magic realism at its very finest.
haha. yeah, i think I’d heard that story, though I dont think kyle ever thought it was all that funny.
i’m sure i said it though, and i’m sure i’m still saying some other versions of the same crap. you know i’m always an optimist even when facing a wall of totally out of tune garbage wall of noise like so much of what we did back then was. If i hadnt thought that i wouldn’t have lasted much longer than you did in that band.