Mercy… This Guy is Good

For some time, I have wanted to write about one particular rock musician/songwriter that I have admired since I (re)discovered his work in the mid-1990s. Namely, Peter Gabriel.

What? The mid-1990s? 

Well, back then I had just purchased a new-fangled contraption called a Mac II personal computer (yesss!) and quickly discovered that I could - using a MIDI keyboard and software that came on (brace yourselves, young ’uns!) a floppy disk - write my own music! (Primarily instrumental pieces back then.)

So, of course, I became interested in other artists who used MIDI instruments and software to create their music, and Peter Gabriel had, for at least a decade, been on the vanguard of this movement.

Up to then, I only knew of Peter’s 1986 MEGA hit song and its delightfully insane video called “Sledgehammer”. But as I delved into his other musical works, I really began to appreciate him as a song crafter. 

At the time, he and the masterful producer, Daniel Lanois, were creating songs I can only describe as “layered”. And I don’t just mean a keyboard track on a guitar track on a bass track on a drum track… I mean, sonic layering. Creating a mood, an expression, a gestalt with a combination of real instruments and modified MIDI patches. Like tiramisu set to music.

But Peter Gabriel is not just about integrating engineered sound into his music; his lyrics, song forms, and outstanding rhythm arrangements all contribute to the genius of his creations. In that regard, his best songs stand in sharp distinction against some of the more cotton-candy, bespangled pop tunes of the 1980s and early 1990s.

For example, juxtaposed against the zany “Sledgehammer”, and also from the same 1986 “So” album, is one of the darkest, most sublime and beautiful songs I’ve ever heard: "Mercy Street" which is based on an opus by the American poet Anne Sexton. My mind’s eye drifts to a misty, deep blue, shadowy place whenever I hear the intro to this song.

Seriously. Look at these lyrics:

She pictures the broken glass, pictures the steam

She pictures a soul

With no leak at the seam

(OMG). And this:

Pulling out the papers from the drawers that slide smooth

Tugging at the darkness, word upon word

Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box

To the priest, he's the doctor, he can handle the shocks

Wow. Any wonder why I totally dig this guy’s work?