To mark its 25th anniversary, Peter Gabriel set out on a tour which would see him play his classic 1986 breakthrough album So in its entirety for first time. The So album was Gabriel's bold leap from the experimental margins into the mainstream and benchmark of intelligent avant-garde pop music.
This spectacular live concert captures Peter Gabriel's celebration of the 25th anniversary of his landmark album "So". To mark the event Gabriel reunited his original "So" touring band from 1986/87 and for the very first time fans saw them play the multi-platinum selling album in its entirety. Whilst the core of the performance is the "So" album, there is so much more to the concert with unfinished, previously unreleased and re-imagined songs sitting effortlessly alongside classic hits reflecting what a multi-dimensional artist Peter Gabriel is.
Greatest-hits albums are a traditional way of buying time for artists between albums. Peter Gabriel's, entitled Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats, arrived in December of 1990, as he was toiling away at the follow-up to his smash So, which was four years old at that point. As greatest-hits albums go, it's pretty good, containing all the hits, plus an effective re-recording of "Here Comes the Flood" and a good new song in the form of the title track. While the sequencing may leave something to be desired – it is neither chronological, nor as supple as a good mix tape – it does contain nearly everything a casual fan could want (nothing from the second album, though; both "On the Air" or "D.I.Y." would have been nice additions), making it an effective sampler.
The latest addition to the acclaimed & award winning Classic Albums series tells the story behind the making of Peter Gabriel's 1986 album So. It was Gabriel's fifth solo album and the first one to have a title (the others all having just been called Peter Gabriel ). The album spawned a number of hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic including Sledgehammer, Big Time, Don't Give Up (a duet with Kate Bush) and In Your Eyes which drove So to multi-platinum sales, the No.1 spot in the UK and No.2 in the US…
Released a year after Martin Scorsese’s controversy-laden film first hit the big screen in 1988, "Passion" tends to be regarded as a work in its own right rather than just being a movie soundtrack. It features additional music than was included in the film; this extra material was the result of Peter Gabriel (ex-Genesis) continuing to record and to resolve "unfinished ideas", hence the later arrival of the record. Built on a foundation of Middle Eastern and North African rhythms and melodies, "Passion" is unsurprisingly Peter’s most spiritual work, no more so than when the alternately ascending voices of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Youssou N’Dour and himself interweave on the title track. Nusrat and Youssou are far from the only notable guests; the cross-continental gathering of musicians also includes Senegalese griot Baaba Maal, jazz drummer Bill Cobham and avant-garde trumpeter Jon Hassell among many others…
Passion is in actuality Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ, retitled as a result of legal barriers; regardless of its name, however, there's no mistaking the record's stirring power. Like much of Gabriel's solo work, the album is a product of his continuing fascination with world music, which he employs here to create an exceptionally beautiful and atmospheric tapestry of sound perfectly evocative of the film's resonant spiritual drama; inspired by field recordings collected in areas as diverse as Turkey, Senegal, and Egypt, Passion achieves a cumulative effect clearly Middle Eastern in origin, yet its brilliant fusion of ancient and modern musics ultimately transcends both geography and time. Remarkably dramatic, even visual, it is not only Gabriel's best film work but deserving of serious consideration as his finest music of any kind; equally worthwhile is Passion – Sources, which assembles the original native recordings which served as his creative launching pad.