Video hit Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel - Mercy Street (Live on London's O2, 2013)

"Mercy Street" is a song written by Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So.

The song deals with the life and conflicting emotions of the poet Anne Sexton, and makes frequent allusions to incidents from Sexton's life and a number of her poems, in particular the work 45 Mercy Street.

Themes touched on in the song include suicide attempts, troubled parental relationships, a desire to become whole, attempting to come to terms with the past, and confessing.

This is based on the book of poems of the same name by Anne Sexton. An American mental patient, she wrote as a form of therapy. Gabriel was impressed that she wrote entirely for herself rather than an audience.

Sexton made five suicide attempts, the fifth being successful: she died of carbon monoxide poisoning in 1974.

The title came from Anne Sexton's 1969 play 45 Mercy Street. She was also working on a poem with the same title at the time of her death.

Gabriel could relate to Sexton as a deep thinker with a troubling depression who searches for meaning through her art. He used the image of darkness on Mercy Street to signal her depression.

The end of this song was very intense when Gabriel performed it during live shows, where he used a high-pitched wail to simulate Sexton's death.

The song also came out of an experience that Gabriel had on a plane. He told Mojo magazine September 2013: "Pan Am had started doing mileage programmes. I got up to 100, 000 miles from touring, so I booked a free flight from LA to Rio. The catch was that I had to travel economy. On the way onto the plane, I said hello to the bass player in Earth Wind & Fire (Verdine White)."

"After we took off," Gabriel continued, "the plane developed a fault - something with the landing gear - and the pilot told us we had to fly over the Pacific and dump some fuel. That's when everyone became very scared, writing farewell letters. I even scribbled some notes. Earth Wind & Fire's bass player came back from First Class to see me in economy and just said (in a sonorous voice ) 'Pray brother'. The pilot got us down, thank God. In Rio, I met the drummer Djalma Correa. I worked on some ideas with him, and that led to the track that 'Mercy Street' was built around."

The lyrics:

Looking down on empty streets, all she can see

Are the dreams all made solid

Are the dreams all made real

All of the buildings, all of those cars

Were once just a dream

In somebody's head

She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam

She pictures a soul

With no leak at the seam

Let's take the boat out

Wait until darkness

Let's take the boat out

Wait until darkness comes

Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey

Nowhere in the suburbs

In the cold light of day

There in the midst of it so alive and alone

Words support like bone

Dreaming of Mercy Street

Wear your inside out

Looking for mercy

In your daddy's arms again

Dreaming of Mercy Street

'Swear they moved that sign

Looking for mercy

In your daddy's arms

Pulling out the papers from 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

Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips

Of kissing Mary's lips

Dreaming of Mercy Street

Wear your inside out

Dreaming of mercy

In your daddy's arms again

Dreaming of Mercy Street

'Swear they moved that sign

Looking for mercy

In your daddy's arms

Looking for mercy

Looking for mercy

Looking for mercy

Mercy, mercy

Anne, with her father is out in the boat

Riding the water

Riding the waves on the sea

Video hit Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel - Come Talk To Me (Live in Fairfax, 2012)

Come Talk To Me (Live in Fairfax, Virginia) taken from Peter's 'Back To Front tour of North America.

On this album, US, Gabriel explored the pain of recent personal problems; his failed first marriage, his relationship with actress Rosanna Arquette, and the growing distance between him and his first daughter.

The album was supported by the "Secret World Live" tour, named after its ultimate track, "Secret World".

The tour spawned a live album and a concert film.

The album was also promoted through a first-of-its-kind interactive multimedia software released for Macintosh computers called Xplora1: Peter Gabriel's Secret World, which featured several music videos from the album.

The lyrics:

The wretched desert takes it's 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]

Video hit Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (Live in Athens, 1987)

Sledgehammer is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So.

It hit number one in Canada on July 21, 1986, where it spent four weeks; number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on July 26, 1986 and number four in the UK singles chart, thanks in part to a popular and influential music video.

It was his biggest hit in North America and ties with "Games Without Frontiers" as his biggest hit in the United Kingdom.

The song's music video has won a number of awards, including a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards.

Gabriel was also nominated for three Grammy Awards: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year.

As of 2011, "Sledgehammer" is the most played music video in the history of MTV.

In October 1987 after many months on the road, it was in the elevated surroundings of the hillside open-air theatre at Lycabettus overlooking Athens, that the "So" tour came to a climactic close. The three nights were filmed in what was the first-ever Peter Gabriel concert to be committed to film. As a concert film, it was brilliantly shot and has now been equally brilliantly remastered, a crystal-clear record of Gabriel and band in their mid-80s pomp. The viewer is placed right in the heart of the action all the way, from the band's synchronised choreography on opening number "This Is The Picture", right through to the skin-pricking closer "Biko". In between, we're lost in music, spellbound by the spectacle, totally absorbed by the imperfection-free tightness of a band that's been on the road for so long.

The song was influenced by 1960s soul music, in particular the music made by the Memphis label Stax. The distinctive horn track was provided by the Memphis Horns, house musicians at Stax. The song also features a synthesized shakuhachi flute generated with an Emu Emulator II sampler.

The lyrics are a mosaic of sexual innuendos, with references to steam trains, bumper cars, Big Dipper (roller coaster) and fruit cage as metaphors for male and female sexual organs and references to pollination, acting like a sledgehammer, fruit and bees as metaphors of sexual acts.

"Sledgehammer" was Peter Gabriel's first and, to this date, only number-one hit in the United States. It replaced "Invisible Touch" by his former band Genesis, which had been that group's only US number-one hit the previous week. "Sledgehammer" also achieved chart success on other Billboard charts in 1986, spanning the range between Album Rock Tracks (two weeks at the summit in May and June) and Hot Dance Club Play (one week atop this chart in July).

The single release also included a previously unreleased track called "Don't Break This Rhythm" and an "'85 Remix" of his 1982 single "I Have the Touch." US versions of the single contained an extended dance remix of "Sledgehammer." It was among the first singles released on compact disc.

The lyrics:

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 fruit cakes

'Cause I will be your honey bee

Open up your fruit cakes

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 kicked the habit (I kicked the habit)

Shed my skin (Shed my skin)

This is the new stuff (This is the new stuff)

I go dancing in, (We could go dancing in)

Oh won't you show for me (Show for me)

I will show for you (Show for you)

Show for me (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, come on and help me do, come on and help me do

Video hit Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (live)

In Your Eyes is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So with Youssou N'Dour singing some choruses translated into his native Wolof. The song was the main-theme of the 1989 teen-film Say Anything... starring John Cusack.

The single was only released in North America and achieved strong radio airplay and MTV rotation. It reached #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1986.
It was not released as a single in the UK. However, Gabriel did release two extended versions of the song as a 12" vinyl single in the US. The first (the Single Mix) ran 6:15. The second (the Special Mix) ran 7:14.

The song was the finale of the Secret World Tour and is the final track on the 1994 Secret World Live album, where it is over 11 minutes long and includes the extra lyrics from the Special Mix, in addition to solos by the other singers and players. It was included on the US version of his 2003 compilation Hit, but not on the European or Japanese versions.

In 2005, the song brought Gabriel his first Gold single, certified in the U.S. by the RIAA.

Licensed uses

In 1988 (at the end of the 1987 NFL season), NBC Sports used "In Your Eyes" in for the prologue (narrated by Dick Enberg) of the AFC Championship Game between the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns.

The theatrical trailer for the 1993 film Benny & Joon features In Your Eyes.

In the 2005 Cold Case episode entitled "Family", the song appears towards the end as a 1988 murder case is resolved.

The song is featured in the 2008 film The Rocker when A.D.D. plays their first gig at a high school prom.

Sampled portions of the song can be heard in the 2010 Girl Talk album All Day.

The song was also featured at the end of the series premiere to Felicity in 1998 on the The WB.

The lyrics:

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

The grand façade

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

In your eyes

Of all the fruitless searches

Oh, 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

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 façade

So soon will burn

Without a noise

Without my pride

I reach out from the inside

In your eyes, in your eyes

In your eyes, in your eyes

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

In your eyes

Of all the fruitless searches

Oh, 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

-------------------------------—

Peter Gabriel -- lead vocals, keyboards.

Richard Evans -- guitars, mandolin, whistles, backing vocals.

Melanie Gabriel -- lead and backing vocals.

Tony Levin -- bass, electric upright bass, backing vocals.

Ged Lynch -- drums, percussions.

David Rhodes -- guitars, backing vocals.

Rachel Z -- keyboards, backing vocals.

Special Guests

Sevara Nazarkhan -- vocals.

Toir Kuziyev -- Sax?

Video hit Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers

The lyric repeated at the beginning and end is "Jeux Sans Frontieres," which is French for "Games Without Frontiers."It is frequently misheard as "She's So Popular."

This song is about the childish antics of adults, which is especially prevalent when their countries are competing in the Olympics.

Gabriel wrote this before the US boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980. This reinforced the theme of adults acting like children over the Olympics.

Kate Bush sang backup - that's her singing "Jeux Sans Fronteires."

Gabriel got the idea for the title from a 1970s European game show of the same name where contestants dressed up in strange costumes to compete for prizes. A version of the show came out in England called "It's a knockout," giving him that lyric.

This was Gabriel's first UK Top 10 as a solo artist. It had an interesting impact on his American distribution: Gabriel's first two solo albums were distributed in America by Atlantic Records, but they rejected his third album (which contained this track), telling Gabriel he was committing "commercial suicide." Atlantic dropped him but tried to buy the album back when "Games Without Frontiers" took off in the UK and started getting airplay in the States. At this point, Gabriel wanted nothing to do with Atlantic and let Mercury Records distribute the album in America.

The whistling is Gabriel along with producers Steve Lillywhite and Hugh Padgham.

In 1991, Gabriel's performance of this from Holland was beamed to Wembley Stadium in England as part of "The Simple Truth" concert for Kurdish refugees.

The video includes film clips of Olympic events and scenes from the 1950 educational film Duck and Cover, which used a cartoon turtle to instruct school kids on what to do in case of nuclear attack. (thanks, Patrick - Conyers, GA)

Part of the song goes: "Andre has a red flag/ Chiang Ching's is blue/They all have hills to fly them on except for Lin Tai Yu.

Andre could refer to Andre Malraux (1901-1976) the French statesman and author of the book Man's Fate, about the 1920s communist regime in Shanghai. Red flag may refer to Malraux's leftist politics. Chiang Ching could refer to Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) Chinese leader of the Kuomintang who opposed the Communists - hence, the rightwing Blue Flag. Chiang's forces lost the civil war in 1949 and fled to Taiwan, where they set up a government in exile.

Lin Tai Yu may be Nguyen Thieu (1923-2001), South Vietnamese president during the height of the Vietnam war. After the Communist victory of 1975, Thieu fled to Taiwan, England, and later to the United States where he died in exile.

The lyric could refer to the fact that while leftist politicians like Andre Malraux had a secure position in France, and rightist leaders like Chiang Kai Shek had a secure country in Taiwan, those caught in the middle like Nguyen Thieu were pawns in the Cold war and had no secure country. This could also be a reproach to either Thieu or his United States backers, saying that he was now a nobody.

A remix by Lord Jamar was used for the theme for the 2009 Winter X Games. The new version was dubbed "X Games Without Frontiers."

The lyrics:

Games Without Frontiers

Hans plays with Lotte, Lotte plays with Jane

Jane plays with Willi, Willi is happy again

Suki plays with Leo, Sacha plays with Britt

Adolf builts a bonfire, Enrico plays with it

Whistling tunes we hid in the dunes by the seaside

Whistling tunes we're kissing baboons in the jungle

It's a knockout

If looks could kill, they probably will

In games without frontiers-war without tears

Games without frontiers-war without tears

Jeux sans frontieres

Andre has a red flag, Chiang Ching's is blue

They all have hills to fly them on except for Lin Tai Yu

Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games

Hiding out in tree-tops shouting out rude names

Whistling tunes we hide in the dunes by the seaside

Whistling tunes we piss on the goons in the jungle

It's a knockout

If looks could kill they probably will

In games without frontiers-wars without tears

If looks could kill they probably will

In games without frontiers-war without tears

Games without frontiers-war without tears

Jeux sans frontieres

Video hit Peter Gabriel feat. Kate Bush

Peter Gabriel feat. Kate Bush - Don’t give up

Don't Give Up is a song written by Peter Gabriel and recorded as a duet with Kate Bush for Gabriel's album So. The single version spent eleven weeks in the UK Top 75 chart in 1986, peaking at number nine.

The lyrics, sung by Gabriel, describe a man's feelings of isolation and despair; the choruses, sung by Bush, offers words of hope and encouragement.

Two videos were created for the song by Godley & Creme. The first consisted of a single take of the singers in an embrace, as the sun enters total eclipse and re-emerges; the second featured Gabriel and Bush's faces superimposed over film of a town and its people in disrepair.

Other artists who have covered this song

The Shadows did an instrumental of the song on the album "Simply Shadows" in 1987.

Gregorian and Sarah Brightman covered this song, and it is found in Brightman's "The Harem Tour" Limited Edition and Gregorian's "Masters of Chant" albums.

Jody Watley recorded the song for her Midnight Lounge album in 2001.

Show of Hands included a cover of this song on their album Covers

Xavier Naidoo covered the song on the Zwischenspiel/Alles für den Herrn album in 2002.

Take 6 recorded an A cappella version of the song on their album of covers "Beautiful World" in 2002.

Senegalese singer/guitarist Jimi Mbaye covered the song on his 2005 album "Yaye Digalma"

Tara MacLean covered the song on the Songs For Sunset album in 2006.

The song-writer/guitarist Shark from Wild Colonials and Dead Rock West singer Cindy Wasserman released the song in 2008. The proceeds of the record going to the charities Farm Aid and the Red Cross, to help the farmers affected by the floods of 2008. The sleeve design is an homage to the original Peter Gabriel / Kate Bush sleeve with similar typography.

In November 2008, Tina Arena and former Tea Party frontman Jeff Martin performed a live cover of "Don't Give Up" during an episode of Australian quiz show RocKwiz.

In May 2009, a version by The Midway State featuring Lady Gaga appeared online. According to Lady Gaga the cover was done so "that young people would hear and learn something about Kate Bush."

P!nk and John Legend cover the song for Herbie Hancock’s The Imagine Project.

Dutch singer Chielie(.nl) (uncredited) sang the Gabriel part on a cover of the song (Bush part sung by also uncredited unknown female singer - Chielie and she never met for the recording but did their work separately) produced at Flowerhouse Studios of Haarlem, Holland, on a CD called 'Duet for lovers' (90.807-2 UK), released 1994 by PMF Records.

Tarja Turunen covered the song, alongside Liv Kristine (Leaves' Eyes) on the European leg of her, What Lies Beneath Tour.

David Archuleta covered the song (with Libbie Linton) on his 2012 album Begin.

Dr. Ring-Ding released a Rocksteady version of the song on his 2012 album Dr. Ring Ding Ska-Vaganza - Piping Hot, duetting with Skatalites singer Doreen Shaffer.

Usage in film and television and books

This song was used during the end credits of the Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie thriller The Bone Collector, based on the novel of the same name by Jeffery Deaver.

It was also used in the end of the NBC made-for-TV movie Perfect Body.

It was also used in the Miami Vice episode "Redemption in Blood" in which Crockett (Don Johnson) recovers from a case of amnesia.

A Kids Incorporated episode from 1989 featured Kenny Ford and Jennifer Love Hewitt providing vocals.

Song was used in the closing credits of the surfing movie In God's Hands.

It was also used in Cold Case TV series episode no 117 .

The group Take That by a majority vote chose the song for their entry for the 2009 book Inspired By Music. The book which raises money for Prince's Trust consists of famous people listing songs that inspired them.

The lyrics:

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