…Kαι ένα τραγούδι από το πρώτο και καλύτερο, κατά την άποψή μου, άλμπουμ του Peter Gabriel [γεν. Φεβρουάριο], κυκλοφορήσαν το 1977, άτιτλο όπως και τα επόμενα τρία. Θυμάμαι τη διαφήμισή του, με τη ζωντάνια μιας εφηβικής ανάμνησης: “expect the unexpected on the first Peter Gabriel album”.
…A song from [February born] Peter Gabriel’s first, and best album in my opinion, released in 1977, untitled like the next three of them. I remember the ad for this one, with the vividness of a teenage memory: “expect the unexpected on the first Peter Gabriel album”.
Caught in the chaos in the market square
I don’t know what, I don’t know why, but something’s wrong down there
Their bodies twistin’ and turnin’ in a thousand ways
The eyes all rollin’ round and round into a distant gaze
Ah, look at that crowd!
Some are jumping up in the air say “We’re drowning in a torrent of blood!”
Others going down on their knees, seen a saviour coming out of the mud
Oh Mother! It’s eating out my soul
Destroying law and order, I’m gonna lose control
What can I do to stop this plague, spread by sight alone
Just a glimpse and then a quiver, then they shiver to the bone
Ah, look at them go!
Bunderschaft, you are going daft? Better seal off the castle grounds
“This is Moribund, the Burgermeister, I’m gonna keep this monster down,
Somebody sent the subversive element; going to chase it out of town.”
No-one will tell what all this is about
But I will find out.
This thing’s really outrageous, I tell you on the level
It’s really so contagious must be the work of the devil
You better go now, pick up the pipers, tell them to play
Seems the music keeps them quiet, there is no other way.
Ah, close the doors!
“We’ve tried potions and waxen dolls, but none of us could find any cures, “
Mother please, is it just a disease, that has them breaking all my laws,
Check if you can disconnect the effect and I’ll go after the cause
No-one will tell what this is all about
But I will find out
I will.
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Different!
Not a huge Genesis/Collins/Gabriel fan but I have to say I really find it hard to tell Collins and Gabriel apart vocally (if you’d have played this track to me and told me to name the artist I would have said Phil Collins!). I’m sure that’s what fed the stories of the reason why Gabriel left, untrue though they were. I often wondered if they were related but apparently not. Still, I know of no other artists who sound so identical. Weird they were in the same band!
As a colossal Genesis-’70s era fan [and not one of Gabriel’s / Collins’ solo careers] I’ d say PC is a lighter, poplike alternative to the heavier, more soul – oriented Gabriel’s voice.
Given that, it’s easier for Gabriel to sound like Collins, as he certainly does here, but not the other way around.
Another guy who sounds quite close to Collins [including the “lightweight” element] is Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam. Funny thing is, I can instantly imagine PC singing “Oh Very Young”, or “Morning Has Broken”, or Cat Stevens singing …the entire Phil Collins repertoire. But not Cat Stevens doing much of Gabriel’s stuff…
The officially given reason why PG left Genesis is that, having family issues [his wife’s difficult first pregnancy] he couldn’t follow the band’s exhausting schedule, something the other members weren’t willing to tolerate.
Interestingly, of all 4, it was basically Phil who pushed for ousting him!
Ah interesting, I researched and my understanding is that his young daughter was very ill and the demands of touring meant just too much time away from family. It was agreed six months in advance that he would go but the band asked him to keep it quiet. ‘Officially’ there was no rivalry with him and Collins despite definite artistic differences. At Genesis’s reunion a few years ago, Gabriel was there in the audience and hung out with them all afterwards. We perhaps will never entirely know if or what extent a rift was but I think it was all more amicable than the press likes to make out. I’m no expert though. As I said, not a huge fan of them in any era!