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Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Real World Records
Released: 1994.09.13
Time:
 58:52 / 40:56
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Peter Gabriel, Peter Walsh
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD double
Web address: www.petergabriel.com
Appears with: Genesis, Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, Tony Levin, David Rhodes
Purchase date: 2001.07.27
Price in €: 19,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


Disc one:
[1] Come & Talk to Me (P.Gabriel) - 6:13
[2] Steam (P.Gabriel) - 7:45
[3] Across the River (S.Copelend/P.Gabriel/D.Rhodes/L.Shankar) - 6:00
[4] Slow Marimbas (P.Gabriel) - 1:41
[5] Shaking the Tree (Y.N'Dour/P.Gabriel) - 9:18
[6] Red Rain (P.Gabriel) - 6:15
[7] Blood of Eden (P.Gabriel) - 6:58
[8] Kiss That Frog (P.Gabriel) - 5:58
[9] Washing of the Water (P.Gabriel) - 4:07
[10] Solsbury Hill (P.Gabriel) - 4:42

Disc two:
[1] Digging in the Dirt (P.Gabriel) - 7:36
[2] Sledgehammer (P.Gabriel) - 4:58
[3] Secret World (P.Gabriel) - 9:10
[4] Don't Give Up (P.Gabriel) - 7:35
[5] In Your Eyes (P.Gabriel) - 11:32

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


PETER GABRIEL - Vocals, Harmonica, Producer, Concept

JEAN-CLAUDE NAIMRO - Keyboards, Vocals
DAVID RHODES - Guitar, Vocals
TONY LEVIN - Bass, Vocals
MANU KATCHÉ - Drums
LAKSHMINARAYANA SHANKAR - Violin, Vocals
LEVON MINASSIAN - Doudouk

PAULA COLE - Vocals
PAPA WEMBA - Vocals
REDDY MELA AMISSI - Vocals
STYNO MUBI MATADI - Vocals

PETER WALSH - Engineer, Mixing
DAVID TARASKEVICS - Engineer, Production Coordination
RICHARD CHAPPELL - Engineer, Assistant Engineer
KEVIN KILLEN - Engineer
ALEX FIRLA - Assistant Engineer
RODOLPHE SANGUINETTI - Assistant Engineer
JOE HAMMER - Digital Editing
IAN COOPER - Mastering
MIKE COULSON - Art Direction
TONY STILES - Design
MARTHA LADLY - Design
STEPHEN LOVELL-DAVIS - Photography
ARMANDO GALLO - Photography
GUIDO HARARI - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1994 CD Geffen 24722
1994 CS Geffen 24722
1995 CD Real World 8
1999 CD Import 68086



BC: I see that Secret World Live was recorded in just one night in Italy, earlier this year. Was that a special challenge for you to record a CD and a video in just one night?

PG: Actually that isn't true. It took two and a bit nights, but they were both at the same place, in Modena, so we had a bit of time to do some pickup shots for the filming as well; and we also cheated a bit afterward, with some overdubs.

BC: Now you did that on your previous live LP, Peter Gabriel Plays Live, you did take a few production liberties, shall we say, didn't you?

PG: Yeah, well in fact I don't know any artists who don't, but I always think it's better to own up about it.

BC: The new CD begins with Come Talk to Me, as did the live show itself, and I was curious how you came to choose beginning the show emerging from a phone booth, and what was the symbolism behind that?

PG: Well, that's a long story. I was with a visionary theatre playwright/designer/director called Robert Lepage, and I had this idea to do two stages, a square stage and a round stage. The square stage we put in the more traditional proscenium position, and then the round stage we put right in the center of the audience, and there was a mobile walkway between the two of them. The square was sort of male/water/urban, and the round one was female/fire/organic, and we looked at all the songs and tried to find a place for them in terms of one stage or the other, or transitions between the two. Out of this urban, masculine environment of the square stage came the telephone box, from the center, and out of the center of the female stage came this tree, so in a way I think it was nature and technology also, as an extension of this sort of male/female, yin/yang thing.

BC: And if you saw the Secret World Live Tour, you noticed that Peter would emerge from the phone booth, and carry the telephone, and the cord extended further and further and further as Peter sang this first song actually into a telephone.

{Played Come Talk to Me}

BC: Secret World Live seems like to me it was a big challenge for you. Was this the biggest challenge theatrically that you've taken since The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Tour with Genesis, which was almost twenty years ago now?

PG: I think so. I've always loved visual things and that was perhaps a good opportunity, with The Lamb Lies Down. In fact, we worked with an artist there called [Jefferey Shaw], and then some other people. I just recently met him because he's ended up running a sort of multimedia lab in Germany. So I just give that as an example, because I think some of the old hippies that were trying to do stuff in the late 60's-early 70's have ended up again involved in multimedia in the 90's. Because I think there is some sort of relationship--it's quite different but it's grown out of some of the same sensibilities.

BC: Did you intentionally stay away from that Lamb Lies Down style, for lack of a better way to put it, because you had done that at one point in your career? Seems like you moved away from that style for awhile.

PG: Yeah, I decided not to do visual things for awhile, because when we did The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway that was sort of the last fling for me. I really enjoyed trying to develop it visually, but I think while I was still with the band, I was credited unfairly with having sort of written most things and being Mr. Everything, whereas it was quite a democratic process, particularly with Tony and Mike at that time. And then, after I left the band and they continued and did better without me, then I think they thought Oh, he must have just been the guy that wore the masks. So I thought OK, well maybe what I need to do is leave all the visual stuff and just prove that I can come up with some music that has something to it. So in terms of the production, I stripped it back, and didn't get into it for quite a long time. Then more recently again I was...I've always loved visual things, and the increasing possibilities of multimedia etc. encouraged me to think again and start playing with it. And I have a lot of fun doing it. What was interesting about this whole last period of touring, which has been the longest I've ever done, about 18 months, is that we've done three sizes of tour, a little like pizza: small, medium and large. The large one being the Secret World and the small one being the Womad, where we just get up with our instruments and play with what was available on the stage. And then there was the medium size, which we took to South America etc., that had elements of the Secret World, but it wasn't the full production. But it meant that we were, on the one hand, constraining the whole visual performance environment with Secret World, and on the other, just being musicians on the Womad tours, so it was a good balance.

BC: The next song we're going to play is an absolutely incendiary version of Shaking the Tree, one of the standout songs on this new double live CD album, and it gives you a chance to introduce your incredible band. The nucleus of that band has been with you for quite a while now, haven't they?

PG: Yes they have. Tony Levin has been with me since the beginning; he's really burning on that version of Tree. He's just a great person to have in the band, very very solid bass, and personal in terms of performance too, so it's a real pleasure. And then Manu, the rhythm section, who is just an extraordinary drummer, and I think gave a lift and an air to what I do. David Rhodes, who's blasting away, and I think [...] textures, rhythms and very tasteful use of sound. He gives a lot. And Jean Claude Naimro who's perhaps the newest of the touring members. He has a band that he works a lot with called Kassav, who are very big in the French-speaking territories and the Caribbean. It's great-spirited happy music. He has wonderful grooves. In fact he was recommended to me by Youssou N'Dour. Shankar, who is just an exatraordinary violinist and singer, and worked with us from Womad days. It was wonderful to have him there. And Paula Cole, who is now carving out what I think is a very strong career for herself as a singer. She has a wonderful voice and it has been a real pleasure working with her too.

BC: Peter, along with Secret World Live on CD, there's a 1 hour and 40 minute video that also will be released. Tell us a little bit about director Francois Girard and his involvement in the video.

PG: Francois I was introduced to through Robert Lepage--this French-Canadian mafia found its way into my life. But they're actually I think an enormously talented group, and Francois has had a lot of success just recently with a film he made called 32 short films about Glenn Gould which is certainly well worth checking out. Glenn Gould, if anyone doesn't know, is an amazing classical pianist, dead unfortunately, but a real interesting character. Francois is a young filmmaker, but I think he has a fresh approach and a lot of good ideas.

BC: You have mentioned Robert Lepage several times. What is his background, and what was he able to bring to the table, so to speak, with this project?

PG: We were working on a project to create an experience park with Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson and a few other people, and a mutual friend introduced him, thinking he would be able to contribute a lot of ideas, which certainly he is, and I went to see some of his shows. There was a wonderful thing called Needles and Opium in London, which is a one-man show he did, basically around the lives of Miles Davis, Jean Cocteau and himself, and it's very simple in a way, but very strong. It was great use of visuals. So we began brainstorming, I got to know him and thought that he would be a great person for this, and I discovered in talking to him that he had been an old fan and seen a lot of my concerts in Montreal, so he knew my songs, probably better than I did, which was a good start.

BC: We're going to play Red Rain from Secret World Live. You actually weren't performing this in America, were you?

PG: No, it was one of the occasional numbers. I think it was later on in the tour, probably in Europe, that we got it together into a more presentable form, but it's one of the ones that I've really enjoyed doing. It's a different groove than we did in the album; it's a little slower. I think it allows the extra air to breathe, it allows more time for the band to get into it.

BC: That is one of the songs that's on the CD but not the video, and there are actually a couple of songs that are on the video that you will find are not on the CD. One is San Jacinto, and the other The Feeling Begins. Tell us a little bit about Levon Minassian and The Feeling Begins, Peter.

PG: Levon is a doudouk player. Doudouk is an Armenian instrument which sounds vaguely like an oboe. When I was doing research for the Last Temptation of Christ film, which later became the Passion record, I was introduced to this instrument, and I just fell in love with it--it was one of the most evocative, haunting, mysterious instruments I've ever heard. But trying to find a doudouk player is a little more difficult than I thought--you try Yellow Pages and the doudouk column is very empty. So we then tried for any Armenian contacts we could find; in other words, people selling carpets or jewelry or whatever it is. We had a lot of interesting avenues trying to find someone, and eventually got hold of Levon, who actually works as a jeweler in Marseilles. He's a wonderful player. He was quite suspicious of us, and rock and roll at the beginning, but then I think really had a great time and jumps at the chance to do anything ever since.

BC: Yes, the Yellow Pages are bereft of doudouk players these days. Now, does Levon shut down his business to go on tour with you?

PG: There's a family business. They've got I think two or three jewelry shops around there. Sometimes you can bribe a distant relative to take care of the shop, but I know when he was out with us for two or three weeks he just had to shut it down. So whereas most musicians are discussing wages, with Levon we were discussing costs of shutting down the shop.

BC: That's marvelous. I'd like to, in just a moment, play Kiss That Frog. This song has almost a fairy-tale quality about it, Peter. What can you tell us about Kiss That Frog? What are you trying to get across in this particular song?

PG: Sex.

BC: You have our full attention.

PG: It was actually a book--The Uses of Enchantment I think is the title of the book--it was basically an analysis of fairy stories from the point of view of subtext, what else they might have been trying to say. In the case of The Princess and the Frog there was the idea put out that perhaps it was a way of Victorians dealing with sexuality, in the sense that the princess is initially scared and horrified and disgusted by this frog, which could be seen as sexuality, and then eventually learns to love it, and the frog turns into a handsome prince. So in a way it's a way of overcoming fears and anxieties about first sexual experiences. The theory being that if you tell stories you can leave imprints in the patterns in people's heads that will help them feel basically more comfortable confronting this later on. So I was just curious with all that and it was really quite playful.

BC: Do you have a virtual reality video that goes with this song?

PG: The ride isn't technically a virtual reality ride, but it is a simulation ride, so the seats of the vehicle in which you sit as you watch the video and listen to the music is going to dance and move and dive with the video. It's like the technology a lot of people will have seen in Disneyland or Universal Studios, but it's a smaller version of that. And for me again, because in the long run I'm interested in trying to generate these interactive eaxperiences, it was a good learning step, and I think I will want to try and do a lot more in this type of area.

BC: Peter, you recently played at Woodstock '94. Were you with your band, as a solo artist, with Womad--what was the situation there?

PG: I was there with my band, and also we had a small Womad section too, on Sunday morning, and I was very happy really that we had a chance to introduce some world music there. Also, Youssou N'Dour was playing under his own steam on Saturday. To me, the openness toward other musics and other countries is part of what the idealism that emananted from the first Woodstock should have led us towards, so it was an event that I went through all sorts of mixed feelings about. Initially I was very keen because I was nineteen and still failing exams when the first event took place. As an aspiring hippie it was a big inspiration for me; it seemed to be a sort of community gathering as a coming of age ritual for my generation, and so I was excited at the idea of Woodstock 2--Son of Woodstock. And in fact, all these reports of the ticket prices, the sponsorship and the rules and regulations started coming out and I had second thoughts and was thinking about pulling out, and had a long impassioned talk with John [Scherr] who I've known for a number of years, who was promoting it with Michael [Lang], and then decided to stay in. And then when I got to the site and got up on the stage and felt what it was like there, there was a very good vibe. There was still a lot of chaos, and the mud was miserable, but the feeling was a very good one, a warm feeling.

BC: We're about to play Solsbury Hill. This song is a showstopper when you perform live. Is it still a fun song for you to play after all these years?

PG: Yeah, there was a period--I think in the last batch of touring--when I was getting very bored with it, but I'm enjoying it and we're now just playing around with it, Tony and David and I particularly, fooling with each other quite a lot, so it's fun, usually.

BC: Peter, you've mentioned Womad a couple of times since we've been talking about Secret World Live. How do you see the future of Womad; would you call it bright, dim...what's your feeling about it?

PG: Overall, Womad is looking very good at the moment, in the sense that it seems to be on a more secure financial base. In a lot of countries now it's established and accepted, and it has a great atmosphere. In this country it's still in birth pains, I think, and we're trying to get it better known and get it established, and basically we're telling people that we're not going away, that we're going to stick around, because I think that persistence is nine-tenths of it. In every other country where we've just stuck at it, it has come good. In England this time, there's one city [Reading], which is not far from London. I think it was the fifth year this year, and it was the first year we had a complete sellout. So it seems to be a pattern that it's a slow start, but we'll hold. And I think it still serves a great purpose, because it is a vehicle. An artist can come from another country and get onto a circuit that they will find very hard to achieve anywhere else--and get visibility, get heard, and hopefully find an audience that will allow them the following year to come back and tour under their own steam.

BC: Time now to put on the head cam which actually faces Peter as he performs Digging in the Dirt. This I guess was one of the ideas of Robert Lepage, who you have mentioned several times--to turn the camera back on you--is that the case?

PG: Right. Originally I was thinking of it on the So tour to be showing the audience, because this was the time when I used to dive into the audience, and I thought it would be good to get the shots as I dive. Unfortunately that camera, when we were doing that bit of filming, arrived too late in the day and actually didn't fit my big head, so we couldn't rebuild the hat in time. I was relaying that to Robert as we were talking about ideas for this show, and he said Well maybe you should turn it back in on yourself. I liked that idea a lot and we did that for Digging, as you see, which is a song about self-investigation. Although I must say, when I was doing it at Woodstock, I was thinking it was more applicable to the audience.

BC: That's Digging in the Dirt by Peter Gabriel, a song that expresses some rage, some anger, and a little dirty laundry as well. We mentioned the head cam, which sounds like a David Letterman bit. You told a story on David Letterman that perhaps everyone didn't hear, Peter, about being taken to jail on a tour. Tell us more about that--could you relate that story for us please?

PG: We were traveling in Europe a few years back, and we were in Switzerland, and were late a little bit for a concert in France, at least for the sound check. So I got on the phone--we stopped in the middle of the town--and made the phone call to the promoters to say we were running half an hour-forty five minutes late. Then we noticed that it was outside a bank, and there was a yellow line that we parked on because we were running behind, had been looking for a phone for so long we just had parked there. And then all of a sudden two big vans arrived--people with automatic rifles, and policemen, about twenty policemen, and there were five of us. We were at the time dressed in scarves, and someone had some military fatigues which were fashionable at the time. Some of the upstanding Swiss citizens--in fact I think four of them--had telephoned the local police to say that terrorists were robbing the bank, because we hadn't noticed that we were outside this bank, and German Hans Martin Schleier had recently been assassinated, so everyone was very jumpy and afraid of these Baader-Meinhof terrorists. So not only were we scared by the enormous number of guns that we found pointed at us, but what was more scary was that the policemen were sort of quaking, because they were really afraid of us, and they were refusing to talk to us, as I was trying to speak a bit of English, French and German. They'd obviously been instructed not to say anything to us--just get us down against the cars and frisk us. And they discovered our tour manager had a case full of different currencies, a case full of cash, and in that too was a little pencil drawing which seemed to match the layout of the bank--it was actually a map to show us how to get backstage at the gig in France that we were trying to get to. We were then separated and taken in vans to the local police station, put behind bars, and we were all the time protesting we were musicians. And when eventually they would deign to speak to us they said So if you are musicians, where are your instruments? Of course our instruments were not with us, we said, they're on a lorry. And they said This is ridiculous, musicians traveling without their instruments. But there was in there too some sort of paperwork from a chief of police for a concert in Geneva, and that helped us, but before they checked that out, we actually tried singing a barbershop to convince them that we were bona fide musicians. I'm not sure our singing skills actually achieved that! But it was very scary and then that grew to be a very funny moment. They didn't release us till about 8:00. We then drove like the wind to get to the gig in France, and in fact I think it was about 11:30 before we actually got to play. Fortunately the audience had mainly remained there.

BC: And that is the title track for the new double live CD by Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live. Why did you choose that for the name of the CD, the tour, and the video, Peter, instead of saying the Us tour or whatever?

PG: Good question. I'm sure there was a reason but it's sort of escaped me at the moment. I think in a sense we were trying to create other worlds and allow some sort of dreaming to take place, with the show. It seemed to be a lot about relationships and the way that male and female relate to each other. The record was in a sense that the no-man's -land in which we try and work things out was the secret world, so that seemed to be a good name for the environment for the tour.

BC: And I'm curious if there's a particular Peter Gabriel favorite that you have--is there anything that you really look forward to performing live each night?

PG: I think In Your Eyes has always been one of the things that I've enjoyed most, and it's partly because we've always had a lot of guests on it, and so we never quite know what's going to happen. It's the end of the show, so we're on the home straight, if you like, and so people will just relax at that point and run with it. It's a good feeling from the stage, and it's a great feeling from the audience, so I think that's one of my highlights.

BC: As we prepare to play an 11 1/2 minute version of In Your Eyes, which is nothing short of stunning, I'm also curious if that song was inspired by anyone in particular?

PG: Directly, no, but it certainly had a lot of influence from African music, which we used on the original music, and Papa Wemba is doing a bit here. Unfortunately, it's one of those things, because Papa is an extraordinary singer, and has done some brilliant stuff, and on the night that we recorded it, we didn't get such great things out of him. And he was unfortunately in [...] when we were trying to do some patching in the studio, so we couldn't extend on that. But still what he gives us is I think beautiful and spirited. The lyrics were quite influenced by African music in the sense that I was quite fascinated to discover that a lot of the love songs were written so that they could be ambiguous--that they could be religious songs talking about love of God, or more physical earthly songs talking about love between a man and a woman. So that was the starting point, in a way, for the lyric--trying to combine the two between religious love and romantic love.

BC: Peter, often when an artist releases a live album, it's to punctuate the end of a particular era or phase. Is that the case here?

PG: It's definitely the longest period of touring that I've ever done, so it is indeed a punctuation mark, a full stop. And my next cycle will begin very soon. I'm going to start doing some more CD ROM work, first of all, and then get into writing and recording another record.

BC: Well, if you saw the Secret World Live tour, you know at the end of the show Peter and the band disappeared into a suitcase on stage. Peter, I'd like to say to you thanks so much for sharing your time and your thoughts with us, and our North American audience. It's always a pleasure to talk with you, and thank you very much for being with us.

PG [voice descending and muffled]: Thank you very much, and I'm disappearing into my suitcase right now.

radio show - Fall 1994 ]
by Bob Coburn, interviewer



Peter Gabriel's second double-disc live album doesn't have the energy of Plays Live, which isn't surprising; his newer material is more subtle and doesn't easily lend itself to live performances. That's part of the reason why the Secret World tour was filled with cutting-edge visuals and stage effects. Unfortunately, it's very hard to record a light show, and the result is a thoroughly bland album.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All-Music Guide, © 1992 - 2001 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



It's a rare moment when an artist takes his established, even iconic work and makes it still stronger, but Peter Gabriel's live two-CD set Secret World Live is just such a moment. Recorded in Modena, Italy, during a January 1994 performance on his Secret World tour, the album and the concurrent video release bring songs threaded together by the images of earth and water into a cycle that explores relationships between men and women. The result is tantamount to a religious rite, merging grandeur with the intimacy of feeling, the public with the secret. Gabriel draws most heavily from the songs on his most recent studio album, Us (1992), assuming the emotionally ambitious task of reaching the places found deep within intimate relationships. "Come Talk to Me," a plea to bridge a widening gap of misunderstanding, establishes the urgent passion of Secret World. The ethereal introduction of "Steam" gives way to the song's sinuous, powerful energy. Peter Gabriel's veteran band – including bassist Tony Levin, drummer Manu Katche and guitarist David Rhodes – lays relentless grooves for "Shaking the Tree," "Red Rain" and "Solsbury Hill," the originals slowed and deepened into an emphatic swing that is exuberant as well as majestic. Yet bitter despair runs through "Blood of Eden": "I can hear the distant thunder/Of a million unheard souls/Watch each one reach for creature comfort/For the filling of their holes."

The prayerful "Washing of the Water" seeks to purge the taint of broken love: "In the washing of the water, will you take it all away/Bring me something to take this pain away." "Digging in the Dirt" captures the in-your-face fury and the wounded vulnerability of an argument and suggests the eroticism of such passion as it bursts into the sexual fire of "Sledgehammer." Transcending the heat of "Dirt" and "Sledgehammer," Secret World arrives at sober grief, posing the wrenching, solitary question "In all the places we were hiding love/What was it we were thinking of?" and finds no answer but only the response: "With no guilt and no shame, no sorrow or blame/ Whatever it is, we are all the same." "Don't Give Up" contrasts Gabriel's male persona – bearing the unbearable weight of identity and success – with a feminine voice, which offers a reminder that help is present and offsets that consuming tension. And "In Your Eyes" is a jubilant paean that takes abandon to an epic level. In the wake of questions, pleas, anger and sexuality, the song affirms a love that is innocent but not naive, substantial but not heavy.

More than Gabriel's Plays Live (1983), this album maintains a powerful continuity that loses neither pace nor momentum; more than the studio originals, these versions elaborate on the dramatic potential inherent in them – the heat and magnitude of rhythm, the human/animal ambiguity of an otherworldly cry. Secret World enters an inner realm that is knowable only through the range of emotion it gives rise to, joining ecstasy and agony into music that avoids being larger than life and instead is as large as life itself. (RS 693)

SUSAN RICHARDSON - Rolling Stone (10/20/94, pp.142-146) - 4 Stars - Excellent
© Copyright 2001 RollingStone.com



Ein Wanderer zwischen ethnischen und popschwülstigen Welten, der seine Berufung darin sieht, unsere Wahrnehmung zu schärfen. Wahrnehmung "anderer" Kulturen, anderer Geschichten, anderer Meinungen, anderer Menschlichkeit. Ein Monument, das diesen Bestrebungen in den 90er Jahren entsprechen soll, war seine "Secret World"-Show, die mit ungeheurem Aufwand, der uns schon aus seinen Videos vertraut ist, realisiert wurde (übrigens auch gefilmt - wir hoffen, das Video in der nächsten Ausgabe besprechen zu können). Der Soundtrack der Show ist ebenso perfekt inszeniert, die Musik klingt so perfekt, daß das zeitweise jubelnde Pubilkum zu Statisten wird. Der "Klatscheinsatz" wird zum dramatischen Verstärker, die Stadien fliegen am Hörer vorbei. Opulente Kompositionen sind uns vom früheren Live-Werk "Plays Live" in Erinnerung, wurde doch mit der Doppel-LP die 7minütige Anti-Apartheid-Hymne "Biko" zum Eckstein der GABRIELschen Karriere. So glänzen auf dieser Doppel-CD große und aufgeblasene Stücke wie "Steam" mit sieben Minuten, "Shaking The Tree" mit neun Minuten und schließlich "In Your Eyes" mit 11 Minuten. Die Musiker nehmen uns in ihrer Routine als GABRIELs Live-Band mit auf eine 1 1/2 stündige Reise durch Sphäre und Rhythmik - renommierte Namen von MANU KATCHÉ (Drums) über TONY LEVIN (Stick, Bass) bis hin zu SHANKAR (Violine) standen Pate. Mankos sind allerdings vorhanden. Einerseits verliert PETER GABRIELs Musik immer mehr an akustischer Athmosphäre durch seinen sehr angepaßten Popsound, aus dem lediglich die Perkussion heraussticht. Weiterhin hatte ich beim Hören zeitweise das Gefühl, daß ich das visuelle Erlebnis der Show vermisse. Abschließend hat es mich richtiggehend gestört, daß über die gesamte CD-Länge lediglich "Greatest Hits" verbraten wurden (überwiegend von "So" und "Us"), was vielleicht der konzeptionellen Gestaltung der Show entgegenkommt, aber auf keinen Fall einen guten Einblick in das Schaffen GABRIELs gibt. Wäre ich jetzt dem Idol meiner Jugend sehr mißgesonnen, würde ich die Platte als pure Geldmacherei abtun...

Carsten Sandkämper / Intro - Musik & so
mehr unter www.intro.de



Live is live? Bei Secret World nicht ganz, wie Peter Gabriel zugesteht: Hier und da hat er beim Live-Mitschnitt aus Modena - fast die komplette Hit-Show - nachgebessert. Aber nicht so, daß es an Atmosphäre mangelte oder gar einer Mogelpackung gleichkäme; das beweist sein leicht wackliger Gesang bei Digging In The Dirt. Dafür klingt die Doppel-CD recht prägnant. Ein dickes Plus, daß kein Song eine 08/15-Schablone der Studioaufnahmen ist. Manchen könnte nur sauer aufstoßen, daß bei reichlich treibenden Funk-Rhythmen Feinheiten etwas untergingen.

© Audio
 

 L y r i c s


COME TALK TO ME

The wretched desert takes its form, the jackal proud and tight
In search of you, I feel my way, though the slowest heaving night
Whatever fear invents, I swear it make no sense
I reach through the border fence
Come down, come talk to me

In the swirling, curling storm of desire unuttered words hold fast
With reptile tongue, the lightning lashes towers built to last
Darkness creeps in like a thief and offers no relief
Why are you shaking like a leaf
Come on, come talk to me

Ah please talk to me
Won't you please talk to me
We can unlock this misery
Come on, come talk to me

{Chorus 1:}
I did not come to steal
This all is so unreal
Can't you show me how you feel now
Come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me [x2]

The earthly power sucks shadowed milk from sleepy tears undone
From nippled skin as smooth as silk the bugles blown as one
You lie there with your eyes half closed like there's no-one there at all
There's a tension pulling on your face
Come on, come talk to me

Won't you please talk to me
If you'd just talk to me
Unblock this misery
If you'd only talk to me

{Chorus 2:}
Don't you ever change your mind
Now your future's so defined
And you act so deaf and blind
[And you act so deaf so blind]
Come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me [x2]

I can imagine the moment
Breaking out through the silence
All the things that we both might say
And the heart it will not be denied
'Til we're both on the same damn side
All the barriers blown away

I said please talk to me
Won't you please come talk to me
Just like it used to be
Come on, come talk to me
I did not come to steal
This all is so unreal
Can you show me how you feel now
Come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me [x2]

I said please talk to me
If you'd just talk to me
Unblock this misery
If you'd only talk to me
[Chorus 2]


STEAM

Stand Back!
Stand Back!

What are those dogs doing sniffing at my feet
They're on to something, picking up
Picking up this heat, this heat

{Chorus 1:}
Give me steam
And how you feel to make it real
Real as anything you've seen
Get a life with this dreamer's dream

You know your culture from your trash
You know your plastic from your cash
When I lose sight of the track
You know the way back
But I know you

You know your stripper from your paint
You know your sinner from your saint
Whenever heaven's doors are shut
You kick them open but
I know you

{Chorus 2:}
Give me steam
And how you feel to make it real
Real as any place you've been
Get a life with the dreamer's dream

Stand back!
Stand back!
Can't you see I've lost control I'm getting indiscreet
You're moving in so close 'til I'm picking up
Picking up this heat, this heat

[Chorus 1]

You know your green from your red
You know the quick from the dead
So much better than the rest
You think you've been blessed
But I know you

You know your ladder from your snake
You know the throttle from the brake
You know your straight line from a curve
You've got a lot of nerve
But I know you

[Chorus 2]

Everybody nosedive
Hold your breath, count to five
Backslap, boobytrap,
Cover it up in bubblewrap
Room shake, earthquake
Find a way to stay awake
It's going to blow, it's going to break
This is more than I can take

Oh yeah, I need steam
Feel the steam all around me
Ah you're turning up the heat
When I start to dream aloud
See you move your hands and feet
Won't you step into this cloud of steam
This steam

[Chorus 1]

Help me yeah
Ready to steam out the log jam
Stir crazy from the freezer to the boil
Water's bubbling, it's b..b..b..bubbling
bubbling [x4]
like it's coming to a boil
Give me steam, lady
Give me steam around me now
Aah coming alive [x2]
Said give me some steam


ACROSS THE RIVER

Across the river
Across the river
Across the river I go


SLOW MARIMBAS

(Instrumental)


SHAKING THE TREE

(with Youssou N'Dour)

Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree

Waiting your time, dreaming of a better life
Waiting your time, you're more than just a wife
You don't want to do what your mother has done
She has done
This is your life, this new life has begun
It's your day - a woman's day
It's your day - a woman's day

Turning the tide, you are on the incoming wave
Turning the tide, you know you are nobody's slave
[ 1989 version - Find your Brothers and sisters ]
[ 1990 version - Find your sisters and brothers ]
Who can hear all the truth in what you say
They can support you when you're on your way
It's your day - a woman's day
It's your day - a woman's day

Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree

Changing your ways, changing those surrounding you
Changing your ways, more than any man can do
Open your heart, show him the anger and pain, so you heal
Maybe he's looking for his womanly side, let him feel

You had to be so strong
And you do nothing wrong
Nothing wrong at all
We're gonna to break it down
We have to shake it down
Shake it all around

Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree
...


BLOOD OF EDEN

I caught sight of my reflection
I caught it in the window
I saw the darkness in my heart
I saw the signs of my undoing
They had been there from the start
And the darkness still has work to do
The knotted chord's untying
They're heated and they're holy
Oh they're sitting there on high
So secure with everything they're buying

{Chorus:}
In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
With the man in the woman
And the woman in the man
In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
We wanted the union
Oh the union of the woman
The woman and the man

My grip is surely slipping
I think I've lost my hold
Yes, I think I've lost my hold
I cannot get insurance anymore
They don't take credit, only gold
Is that a dagger or a crucifix I see
You hold so tightly in your hand
And all the while the distance grows between you and me
I do not understand

[Chorus]

At my request, you take me in
In that tenderness, I am floating away
No certainty, nothing to rely on
Holding still for a moment
What a moment this is
Oh for a moment of forgetting, a moment of bliss
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I can hear the distant thunder
Of a million unheard souls
Of a million unheard souls
Watch each one reach for creature comfort
For the filling of their holes

In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
With the man in the woman
And the woman in the man
In the blood of Eden
We wanted the union
Of the woman and the man

In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
I feel the man in the woman
And the woman in the man

In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
I feel the man in the woman
And the woman in the man

In the blood of Eden
We've done everything we can
In the blood of Eden
Saw the end as we began
With the man in the woman
And the woman in the man
It was all for the union
Oh, the union of the woman, the woman and the man.


RED RAIN

red rain is coming down
red rain
red rain is pouring down
pouring down all over me
 
I am standing up at the water's edge in my dream
I cannot make a single sound as you scream
it can't be that cold, the ground is still warm to touch
this place is so quiet, sensing that storm
 
red rain is coming down
red rain
red rain is pouring down
pouring down all over me
 
well I've seen them buried in a sheltered place in this town
they tell you that this rain can sting, and look down
there is no blood around see no sign of pain
hay ay ay no pain
seeing no red at all, see no rain
 
red rain is coming down
red rain
red rain is pouring down
pouring down all over me
 
red rain-
putting the pressure on much harder now
to return again and again
just let the red rain splash you
let the rain fall on your skin
I come to you defences down
with the trust of a child
 
red rain is coming down
red rain
red rain is pouring down
pouring down all over me
and I can't watch any more
no more denial
it's so hard to lay down in all of this
red rain is coming down
red rain is pouring down
red rain is coming down all over me
I see it
red rain is coming down
red rain is pouring down
red rain is coming down all over me
I'm bathing in it
red rain coming down
red rain is coming down
red rain is coming down all over me
I'm begging you
red rain coming down
red rain coming down
red rain coming down
red rain coming down
over me in the red red sea
over me
over me
red rain


KISS THAT FROG

[Aah, yeah]

Jump in the water

Sweet little princess
Let me introduce his frogness
You alone can get him singing
He's all puffed up, wanna be your king
Oh you can do it
C'mon [x6]
Lady kiss that frog

Splash, dash heard your call
Bring you back your golden ball
He's gonna dive down in the deep end
He's gonna be just like your best friend
So what's one little kiss
One tiny little touch
Aaah, he's wanting it so much
I swear that this is royal blood
Running through my skin
Oh can you see the state I'm in
Kiss it better, Kiss it better
[Kiss that frog]

Get it into your royal head
He's living with you, he sleeps in your bed
Can't you hear beyond the croaking
Don't you know that I'm not joking
Aaah, you think you won't
I think you will
Don't you know that this tongue can kill
C'mon [x6]
Lady kiss that frog

Let him sit beside you
Eat right off your plate
You don't have to be afraid
There's nothing here to hate
Ah, princess you might like it
If you lower your defence
Kiss that frog, and you will
Get your prince [x2]
[Huh!]

Jump in the water, c'mon baby jump in with me
Jump in the water, c'mon baby get wet with me
Jump in the water, c'mon baby jump in with me
Jump in the water, c'mon baby get wet [get wet, get wet]

Kiss that frog, lady kiss that frog [x4]

Jump in the water, c'mon baby jump in with me [x3]
Jump in the water, c'mon baby get wet
[get wet, get wet] [x6]


WASHING OF THE WATER

River, river carry me on
Living river carry me on
River, river carry me on
To the place where I come from

So deep, so wide, will you take me on your back for a ride
If I should fall, would you swallow me deep inside

River, show me how to float
I feel like I'm sinking down
Thought that I could get along
But here in this water
My feet won't touch the ground
I need something to turn myself around

Going away, away towards the sea
River deep, can you lift up and carry me
Oh roll on though the heartland
'Til the sun has left the sky
River, river carry me high
'Til the washing of the water make it all alright
Let your waters reach me like she reached me tonight

Letting go, it's so hard
The way it's hurting now
To get this love untied
So tough to stay with thing
'Cause if I follow through
I face what I denied
I get those hooks out of me
And I take out the hooks that I sunk deep in your side
Kill that fear of emptiness, loneliness I hide

River, oh river, river running deep
Bring me something that will let me get to sleep
In the washing of the water will you take it all away
Bring me something to take this pain away


SOLSBURY HILL

Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
I just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
"Son," he said, "Grab your things, I've come to take you home."
To keepin' silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut
So I went from day to day
Tho' my life was in a rut
'Till I thought of what I'd say
Which connection I should cut
I was feeling part of the scenery
I walked right out of the machinery
My heart going  boom boom boom
"Hey," he said, "grab your things, I've come to take you home."
When illusion spin her net
I'm never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free
Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes,but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me
Today I don't need a replacement
I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going boom boom boom
"Hey," I said, "You can keep my things, they've come to take me home."


DIGGING IN THE DIRT

Something in me, dark and sticky
All the time it's getting strong
No way of dealing with this feeling
Can't go on like this too long

{Chorus:}
This time you've gone too far [x3]
I told you [x4]
This time you've gone too far [x3]
I told you [x4]

Don't talk back
Just drive the car
Shut your mouth
I know what you are
Don't say nothing
Keep your hands on the wheel
Don't turn around
This is for real
Digging in the dirt
Stay with me, I need support
I'm digging in the dirt
To find the places I got hurt
Open up the places I got hurt

The more I look, the more I find
As I close on in, I get so blind
I feel it in my head, I feel it in my toes
I feel it in my sex, that's the place it goes

[Chorus]

I'm digging in the dirt
Stay with me I need support
I'm digging in the dirt
To find the places I got hurt
To open up the places I got hurt

Digging in the dirt
To find the places we got hurt
[x7]


SLEDGEHAMMER

you could have a steam train
if you'd just lay down your tracks
you could have an aeroplane flying
if you bring your blue sky back
 
all you do is call me
I'll be anything you need
 
you could have a big dipper
going up and down, all around the bends
you could have a bumper car, bumping
this amusement never ends
 
I want to be your sledgehammer
why don't you call my name
oh let me be your sledgehammer
this will be my testimony
show me round your fruitcage
'cos I will be your honey bee
open up your fruitcage
where the fruit is as sweet as can be
 
I want to be your sledgehammer
why don't you call my name
you'd better call the sledgehammer
put your mind at rest
I'm going to be-the sledgehammer
this can be my testimony
I'm your sledgehammer
let there be no doubt about it
 
sledge sledge sledgehammer
 
I've kicked the habit
shed my skin
this is the new stuff
I go dancing in, we go dancing in
oh won't you show for me
and I will show for you
show for me, I will show for you
yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do mean you
only you
you've been coming through
going to build that power
build, build up that power, hey
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
going to feel that power, build in you
come on, come on, help me do
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
it's what we're doing, doing
all day and night


SECRET WORLD

I stood in this sunsheltered place
'Til I could see the face behind the face
All that had gone before had left no trace

Down by the railway siding
In our secret world, we were colliding
All the places we were hiding love
What was it we were thinking of?

So I watch you wash your hair
Underwater, unaware
And the plane flies through the air
Did you think you didn't have to choose it
That I alone could win or lose it
In all the places we were hiding love
What was it we were thinking of?

In this house of make believe
Divided in two, like Adam and Eve
You put out and I recieve

{Chorus:}
Down by the railway siding
In our secret world, we were colliding
In all the places we were hiding love
What was it we were thinking of?

Oh the wheel is turning spinning round and round
And the house is crubling but the stairways stand

With no guilt and no shame, no sorrow or blame
Whatever it is, we are all the same

Making it up in our secret world [x3]
Shaking it up
Breaking it up
Making it up in our secret world

Seeing things that were not there
On a wing on a prayer
In this state of disrepair

[Chorus]

Shh, listen...


DON'T GIVE UP

in this proud land we grew up strong
we were wanted all along
I was taught to fight, taught to win
I never thought I could fail
 
no fight left or so it seems
I am a man whose dreams have all deserted
I've changed my face, I've changed my name
but no one wants you when you lose
 
don't give up
'cos you have friends
don't give up
you're not beaten yet
don't give up
I know you can make it good
 
though I saw it all around
never thought I could be affected
thought that we'd be the last to go
it is so strange the way things turn
 
drove the night toward my home
the place that I was born, on the lakeside
as daylight broke, I saw the earth
the trees had burned down to the ground
 
don't give up
you still have us
don't give up
we don't need much of anything
don't give up
'cause somewhere there's a place
where we belong
 
rest your head
you worry too much
it's going to be alright
when times get rough
you can fall back on us
don't give up
please don't give up
 
'got to walk out of here
I can't take anymore
going to stand on that bridge
keep my eyes down below
whatever may come
and whatever may go
that river's flowing
that river's flowing
 
moved on to another town
tried hard to settle down
for every job, so many men
so many men no-one needs
 
don't give up
'cause you have friends
don't give up
you're not the only one
don't give up
no reason to be ashamed
don't give up
you still have us
don't give up now
we're proud of who you are
don't give up
you know it's never been easy
don't give up
'cause I believe there's the a place
there's a place where we belong


IN YOUR EYES

love I get so lost, sometimes
days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
when I want to run away
I drive off in my car
but whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are
 
all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside
 
in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes
 
love, I don't like to see so much pain
so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive
 
and all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside
 
in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light,
the heat I see in your eyes
in your eyes   in your eyes
in your eyes   in your eyes
in your eyes   in your eyes


 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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