Games Without Frontiers: When Peter Gabriel Went Political I New British Canon

I was lucky enough (and am old enough 👵) to have attended this concert in San Francisco back in the day. Went with my first boyfriend, who was a huge Peter Gabriel fan, having been a long time Genesis fan. The show opened with the band members entering one by one from the audience, after flashing on hand-held spotlights. As we we watching this, a light flashed on right next to my boyfriend, and there stood Peter! The pure surprised joy on my boyfriend's face is something I remember to this day.

Jane Plays With Willy & Willy Is Happy 😊 Again.

His score for Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ is breathtaking.

Kate Bush also provided backing vocals on No Self Control. Those repeated yelps in the verse, the slightly breathy voice in the B section, and then as the B section ends trading the "no self control" refrain with Peter

I had NO idea it was Kate Bush until watching this video 😱 I always heard it as Gabriel singing in falsetto!!!

Still one of my favorite songs 40+ years later. I always heard Kate singing it as either “She’s so popular” or “She’s so funky, yeah!”

For a long time, I thought Kate Bush was singing, "she's so funky, yeah!" And I just thought it was a computer effect or something, and then went, "wait... that's an actual PERSON??" That was the first time I had heard of Kate Bush, and my mind was blown.

Excellent summary. I love how you note Phil Collins's contribution to Peter's third album. He was cool with 'No cymbals' and later ran with the accidental gated drum sound that took over the '80s soundscape. Also, highlighting Kate Bush's contributions is essential. The discussion of his lyrics is thoughtful and reveals the depth of Gabriel's mind. And his integrity to his music comes through and through. Poking a finger in Atlantic Record's eye was brave, if risky. Always pushing the envelope Peter found getting hugely popular was the best revenge. He is a knockout!

Even decades after learning that the line " Jeux sans frontières " was Kate Bush prettily crooning as she always does, i still have a hard time not believing it's PG just singing "She's, so funky-ee-oo" in falsetto, which i assumed in 1981-82, when i heard it on the local rock radio station here. Of course i loved it, & consider Peter Gabriel 3 a masterpiece of back-to-front unskippable listening magic which PG touched upon often, but never equalled in his career since. No shame there - 'PG3' or '_Melt_ ' set a benchmark that pretty much any artist (just ask Sting) has yet to acheive.

I find it forever funny, that one of the most pornographic songs of Gabriel ("Sledgehammer", go and check out the lyrics...) flew under the radar of all the censors, whilst the video for GWF was considered something it utterly wasn't. (and Stewart Copeland being hired to just play the hihat on Red Rain is another of those in-jokes)

Peter G is a genius. Very few artists in the UK can pretend to this title. Roger Waters is another one. Beside their superior artistic skills which goes beyond music, it is their humanity and their ability to connect with it that make them stand out and transcend the boundaries of space and time.

Can I just say as a music lover I am in awe of you. The amount of work you put into these videos and your knowledge on the minutiae of these artists is just immense. Keep doing what you are doing mate. You are a star and should have way more views.

I feel Peter Gabriel is chronically under appreciated if not forgotten about by those who either aren’t music nerds (used endearingly) and therefore may not know the history of Genesis or weren’t glued to MTV in the early 1980s. In an oh-yeah-I-forgot-he-did-that-song sort of way until it randomly comes on the radio. He’s one of rare personalities in the industry in that he’s not just a song writer, or a lyricist, or vocalist, or a musician…he’s an artist in the purest and truest definition of the word.

This is the quality content that MTV should be doing. Tip of the hat to you sir.

OMG did you really have to play a clip of Psychedilic Furs "Sister Europe"? 2 hours later and I've gone through their whole discography and come to the conclusion that a) "Sister Europe" is their first great song b) their 2nd album Talk Talk Talk was their best. Another great video covering one of my favourite musicians.

Thank you for this. I've always wanted to scratch under the surface beyond his hits! The line "Collins instantly knowing that it sounded f*cking awesome" made me laugh out loud. 😂😂

While I've always liked the song, I had absolutely no idea about the depth behind Gw/oF. What a staggeringly brilliant piece of art.

Thanks for making this. Peter Gabriel has been one of my favourite musicians my whole life. As a teen I discovered Melt, Car, etc in guitar shops. Then in my early 20s I discovered the dark, and mysterious Genesis which existed before a Golden voiced drummer took over. As a boy I loved the Sledgehammer video. The man's whole career has been an artwork, and as an artist I'm enamored.

I was today years old when I found out Kate was singing French. I always thought it was "she's so popular"

He is constantly evolving his sound and his live performances, that is what I like about him. I went to his concert in Stockholm this year and he had a great performance with his speeches about the passage of time.