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Have a Wonderful Day in Our One-Way World

First Page
  • General Methods and Opinions
  • Albums
  • Songs B-E
Second Page
  • Songs F-R
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Fourth Page
  • Genesis

Songs S-Z
San Jacinto
Peter Gabriel's song introduction at the Glastonbury Festival 1994
PG: "When we were touring America a few years back, we met this guy working as a porter who turned out to be an Apache Indian. And he needed a lift to get back to his apartment, which was burning at the time. So we chatted on the way. He seemed very unconcerned about his possessions; he was only concerned about his cat. We spent the rest of the night talking and he told me how he had to come out to the midwest to get out of a trumped-up murder charge.
But when he was growing up, he had been initiated, and that meant going up to the mountains with the medicine man. And the medicine man was wearing a sack, and in this sack was something moving. And when they got to the top of the mountain, it was quite clear what was in it - it was two rattlesnakes. And the snakes were made to bite the boy's arm and he was left on the mountain to have his visions. And if he got back down at the end of it, he was a brave. If not, he was dead. Very simple.
This is the story of what he came back to and what America had done to his culture. This is called 'San Jacinto.'"
(Note: The San Jacinto Mountains range along the edge of Palm Springs, California. Palm Springs is known for it's expensive resorts, golf courses, swimming pools.....'white man's' culture surrounding the poorer looking (but spiritually rich) Indian culture. )

From the British television show "Southbank" on "The Making of PG IV"
PG (1982): "In San Jacinto I was trying to get the picture of the clash of cultures between this artificial white world of swimming pools, golf courses, Frank Sinatra, which is being stuck on top of the desert landscape, and then San Jacinto Mountain towers above that. Then just around the corner are the Indian Canyons and the Indian reservations, and the mountain was for them a holy mountain. So there is this sense of the American Indian and their relationship to the world in which they lived in the natural lands. And so in San Jacinto, there's the intent for this one man to find this and to hold onto this line of instinct and not be seduced into this world which increasingly is moving around him."

From the British television show "Southbank" on "The Making of PG IV Album"
PG (1982): "I have here, I think, very abstract sounds and what I'm doing is trying emptying everything else out of the track at the end of San Jacinto except for this because I think it crystallizes the mood better than anything else I've got so far. This is from one of the scrap yard sounds, the blown drainpipe, but if I put it into a small repetitive sequence, I think it sets up a sort of pathos (?) very well."

(Note: Earlier in the show, Peter Gabriel records different sounds in a junk yard, one being a drainpipe that he blows into. He then sets up the recorded sounds through his Fairlight (a keyboard that can take sounds from a computer) and then can "play" these newly created sounds on the keyboard.)

Secret World
From "The Box" December 1992 - issue 1
PG: "'Secret World' is about the private world that two people occupy and the private worlds that they occupy as individuals within that space, and the overlap of their dreams and desires. It came out of a difficult period, many years of marriage and then a powerful relationship afterwards; there were some mixed references for me."

Shaking the Tree
From Real World Notes #3 - interactive movie PG2, December 1996
PG (1996): "Shaking The Tree is about understanding the problems and doing something about it - action, empowerment."

From the Eve Book - Published by Real World Multimedia Ltd. (1996)
PG: "'Shaking the Tree' was co-written with Youssou N'Dour as a critique of predominantly male society and in praise of women's growing confidence and place."

From the Radio Real World web site:
PG (1992): "The song lyric is about the women's movement in Africa, which is very behind and they are very restricted in what they can do and in the way they are treated by men. And so, this image of shaking the tree occurred to me as something like rocking the establishment."

Shock the Monkey
From "Rock Lives / Profiles and Interviews" by Timothy White (1990)
Earlier, Gabriel had stated that the song was not about shock therapy but rather "just a love song, although it's not really seen as that. It refers to jealousy as a trigger for an animal nature to surface."

Shosholoza
From Boetie, Dugmore (Barney Simon, ed.), "Familiarity is the Kingdom of the Lost" (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1969), pp. 71-72
'Chocholoza!' Chocholoza is the song that South African blacks sing under hardship. Especially by long-term convicts when engaged in hard labour. Chocholoza is like a child with no parents. Nobody knows when or where it originated from, but what everyone knows is that when there is some kind of deep-rooted ache in the heart, the first thing to visit the lips will be 'Chocholoza'. The song with no beginning and no end, as old as misery itself.

This mystery song of dark ages was passed down to us by our ancestors through generations of hardship. Its sound rises from the very depths of a tortured soul. It encourages faith to take up when hope threatens to leave off. The word 'Chocholoza' means 'Go forward' or 'Make way for the next man'.

From the liner notes of the Biko single issued in 1980
PG: "SHOSHOLOZA (Go In Peace) was one of the tracks off the soundtrack LP DINGAKA that inspired the direction for the music of the song "Biko". The original is an unaccompanied chant to which I have added an arrangement and a new rythmic section of the song."

Sledgehammer
From the book "Peter Gabriel" by Spencer Bright
PG (1989): "This is an attempt to recreate some of the spirit and style of the music that most excited me as a teenager - Sixties soul. The lyrics of many of these songs were full of playful, sexual innuendo and this is my contribution to that song writing tradition. Part of what I was trying to say was that sometimes sex can break through barriers when other forms of communication are not working too well.
There is a phrase by Nietzsche about what constitutes a good book, which he said should be 'Like an ax in a frozen sea'. That triggered me off to think of tools, not to put too fine a point on the word. Obviously there was a lot of sexual metaphor there. I was trying to write in the old blues tradition, much of which is preoccupied with mating activities. The idea was the sledgehammer would bring about a mini-harvest festival."

From Musician Magazine, Issue #93. "From Brideshead to Shrunken Heads" by John Hutchinson (July 1986)
Mag: The word is out that your new single, "Sledgehammer," is the first step of a concerted effort to rival Phil Collins' recent success. Is that true?
PG: "No, it isn't deliberate! I knew that by using any brass at all I would invite comparisons with Phil, but ever since I was at school, Atlantic soul and Stax have been a pivotal influence on me, and I've always wanted to emulate them. In fact, I've been considering doing an R&B/soul album - it's still possible, and it's sitting on the shelf as a project. On "Sledgehammer" I had the opportunity to work like that. I consider my approach to be very similar to 60s soul, whereas I think Phil's style is more contemporary. In any case, I was definitely trying to borrow the style of that period, and it is no coincidence that the man leading the brass section is Wayne Jackson, who is one of the Memphis Horns. I remember sneaking out from school to see them at the Ram Jam Club in Brixton. It was probably the best concert I've ever been to. With regard to Phil - I respect his music and I would like my own to reach as large an audience as possible, but I would strongly refute the suggestion that I'm just trying to copy him. That pisses me off, because about the time of my third album there were considerable stylistic changes in Phil's music, and I feel that my influence on him hasn't been fairly acknowledged."

Slowburn
From Peter Gabriel - Roxy Club 1977
Introduction to Slowburn
"I'd like to tell you about my Grandmother. My Grandmother came from a very well-to-do English family and before entering any room, she had to purse her lips into the correct position. And the correct position was assumed merely by saying the words 'prunes and prisms.' You should try it. The only thing was that each time she said 'prunes and prisms' her voice materialized before her very eyes. However, on one occasion on a warm spring evening, it was the mating time for prisms and one of the prisms became extremely erect - and the other prism became aware of the first prism's erectness. It began to melt. There was an awful mess, but the sunlight which was stealing through the window, was focused by the two prisms rubbing themselves together and it burned a small piece of paper. The heat was so strong - and on the paper was written one word...Slowburn."

Solsbury Hill

*Sharon's Note: Here is a bit of Solsbury Hill History - Peter Gabriel style.

From Rockbill, Nov. 1982 "Peter Gabriel: The Rhythm and the Rhyme" by Robert O'Brian
MAG: I was looking through a book on Stonehenge and there was some mention of Solsbury Hill....Is that near you?
PG: "Yeah. It's about half a mile from where I live. There's another Solsbury Hill and Salisbury Hill. They're all based on the sun. There was this King Bladrid who discovered the hot springs of Bath. Supposedly, he went to Greece to study with Pythagoras and then he returned to England and set up a Druid university and also build seven temples on the seven hills around the city of Bath. Solsbury Hill is supposed to be dedicated to Apollo." "There are no visible ruins of the temples but you can still find the 'grain' preserved in the earth packed tight. There was a good television drama called "The Stone Tape Memory". The idea was that the rocks had a sort of memory bank and stored deeply emotional events somewhere in its makeup. Though it sounds very fanciful, I'm quite attracted to it as an idea. It fits in also with the Buddhist idea of all things having energy."

From "Musician" July 1986 - #93
The first, high-energy affair produced by Bob Ezrin, contained "Solsbury Hill," a haunting valediction to his old band.

From "Rock Lives / Profiles and Interviews" by Timothy White (a SPIN Sept. 1986 interview)
Songs like "Solsbury Hill," an uplifting tale of the exhilarating loss of childhood innocence that was an allegory for the breakup of Genesis,

In General

From "Peter Gabriel" by Armando Gallo (1986)
PG: "It's about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get, or what you are for what you might be. It's about letting go."

Steam
From "The Box" December 1992 - issue 1
PG: "'Steam' has been described as 'hot, wet and wobbly' and in some ways it's the most up track on the record. It's got all these soul references and comes out of the same family that 'Sledgehammer' grew out of - Stax, Atlantic and the other music from my early years. Steam itself is hot and wet so I think there was an obvious sexual reference there. There is also a character situation in the song about a relationship between a man and a woman....It's accusatory, but not really auto-biographical. I mean, there are references but it's not directly addressed to anyone, it's more having fun. The woman in the song is very bright, sophisticated, cultured -she knows everything about everything. What he does know is about her, and she doesn't really know a lot about herself."

That Voice Again
From "Peter Gabriel" by Armando Gallo (1986)
PG: "I like this song a lot. It began as a song about judgment and the original title was 'The First Stone,' but I made it less biblical and more personal. You know, when you make people wrong, you mess things up for yourself...it's much better not to judge. I tried three different lyrics and I wasn't happy with it, so in the end I got help from David Rhodes. I still have the feeling it has not been fully explored."

This is the Picture
From Musician Magazine, Issue #93. "From Brideshead to Shrunken Heads" by John Hutchinson (July 1986)
Mag: You're including the song you co-wrote with Laurie Anderson on the cassette and CD. She called it "Excellent Birds" on Mister Heartbreak, and you've named it "This Is The Picture." Why the change?
PG: "I'll tell you the story about that. Some time ago I was hustling her for a video project, because I was interested in setting up a video company - which never materialized. Later the video artist Nam June Paik approached both of us for a contribution to a show he was doing on television. We were being pushed to combine forces, so we wrote and recorded the video and song in three days, which may be a record. We quite liked the song, so we agreed that we could both use it on our separate albums. Hers came out ahead of mine. The TV version is closer to Laurie's recording; mine is based on the groove, while hers is more fragmented."

Wallflower
From Melody Maker - "The Burden of Dreams" Interview by Adam Sweeting (October 1982)
PG: "That bit was 'middle class middle aged man finding conscience, part two'. That was from seeing the Amnesty stuff last year, when they had all those programmes. The song's got obvious sentimentalities, so I thought it would be better to hook it into that than another love lyric or something like that, which we already have in abundance."
MAG: Ironically, one source for the song had been an Amnesty pamphlet about the regime in Argentina, which Gabriel had read before the Falklands business blew up.
PG: "In the village where we live there's one couple and the wife is Argentinian. I was talking to her a while back, 'cos it frightened me the speed at which these people who'd been perfectly acceptable friends for Englishmen suddenly became ruthless enemies within the space of about a week."

From mikelbiko@aol.com (PG listserv member)
PG was quoted in music mag interviews at the time as saying the song was a reaction to the 'house arrest' of Lech Wallesa, leader of Poland's Solidarity movement. He said that after what happened to Stephen Biko, he decided that this time he would react quickly, and write a song intended to focus attention on Walesa. Although the lyrics are rather oblique, it is an attempt to lend support to Lech and his actions, telling him not to give up hope.

From bharmon@eagle.wesleyan.edu (PG listserv member)
We discussed the meaning of 'Wallflower' a couple months ago and I think the general conclusion is that it was written based on Lech Walesa's experience being thrown into a mental 'hospital,' but was meant to be a general commentary on psychiatric imprisonment as well. His friendship with R.D. Laing (a life-long crusader for the examination of what we call 'crazy' and against the civil rights abuses of people in mental institutions and a developer of the 'Ride of Fears,' an experience to be part of the now abondoned ? experience park in Barcelona that Peter, Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno were developing); his song 'Lead a Normal Life'; his comment at an Amnesty benefit that 'Wallflower' was about a 'different kind of political prisoner;' and some of the lyrics make it clear he intended larger meanings beyond Lech Walesa's incarceration.

Washing of the Water
From BOX Magazine Issue #1, December 1992
PG: "In 'Washing of the Water' there is a sort of spiritual reference. Directly it's a love song about being in a painful place and recognizing that. In a sense there is this image of the water from the river and the sea and the washing being healing, cleansing and purifying. I hadn't thought that my work was becoming more spiritual, but as I look at it now, I think very often you need a little distance from what you do, to get a real sense of what it might represent. I think in the desire for the water to wash over me there is a spiritual yearning as a result of emotional pain."

We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)
From "Peter Gabriel" by Armando Gallo
PG: "This is based on a well-known and controversial psychological experiment on 'obedience and authority' conducted by a Professor Stanley Milgram in the 60's. He had advertised for volunteers to visit his university to participate in an experiment, supposedly on the effect of punishment on learning.
The volunteers were divided into two groups; teachers and students.
The volunteer 'student' was taken into a laboratory and two electric terminals were connected to his hands. The volunteer teacher was taken into a control room and sat in front a box, with 32 buttons. These were capable of delivering variable electric shocks to the 'student'. Both participants were presented with a list which the 'student' was asked to memorise.
The teacher was then asked to test the 'student' and at each mistake to increase the punishment. In fact the student was an actor, pretending to respond to the shocks. The real test was to see how far the volunteer 'teacher' would obey instructions before his conscience stopped him.
In the first experiment, 63% of the volunteer teachers were prepared to go to the 'Triple X' button - a shock apparently severe enough to injure.
In the film of the experiments it is clear that many of the volunteers eased their conscience by protesting, but they were told by the university staff that the experiments were important and were asked to continue - most did.
There are many implications from these experiments, but I believe that until we understand how and why we behave as we do and recognise what it is we are the slaves of, we cannot move toward freedom. It is also a reminder to look into our own nature before we judge others."

* Sharon's Note: To add a little context and clarity to the above quote:
These experiments are sometimes called the notorious "Eichmann Experiments" referring to the war crimes trial of Adolph Eichmann, Nazi Germany's "I had to follow orders" mentality, and notorious because of the stress that Milgram's experiments put his subjects through. Psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to measure the obedience of subjects ordered by a legitimate authority to harm another human being. For control, the 'student' was in fact a confederate of the experiment and scripted as to when and how to react to the fake electric shocks as was the 'authority' conducting the experiment. The authority used in sequence four specific scripted prods to goad the 'teacher' in continuing to deliver the electric shocks.
The findings were beyond what Milgram and his colleagues expected (they all believed no one would push the XXX shock button), and the variations of the experiment conducted are no less interesting and enlightening. Books on violence and aggression, group dynamics, and social psychology could give you more details. Check out the 301.6-302.4 sections at your library.

From "Rock Lives / Profiles and Interviews" by Timothy White (a SPIN Sept. 1986 interview)
"I know why I took so long to record it," Gabriel Mulls. "I think I had to wrestle with the subject matter until I could find an interpretation that identified the heartening side of the story, but that also had the ring of objective reality."

Zaar
From "Peter Gabriel's Tickle Therapy" (Musician Magazine June 1989)
PG: "'Zaar', for instance, was built around an Egyptian rhythm I heard and liked. But it was a very different speed so we slowed it down - not to half-speed but it's getting down there. And from being a driving, uppish sort of thing, it became a quite dark and moodier spine on which to base the track."

Mozo

The following is taken from "Peter Gabriel: An Authorized Biography" by Spencer Bright, 1988, pub. 1989 by Headline Book Publishing PLC, London, ISBN 0-7472-3231-8.
Little more than a year after Rael was conceived, Gabriel invented the 'mercurial stranger' Mozo. "He was partly based on Moses, but he was a fictional character who came from nowhere, disrupting people's lives and causing changes and then disappearing," said Gabriel. Mozo was part of a 'master plan' dreamed up during his sabbatical in 1975-6 which he alternately wanted staged or filmed.

Mozo was inspired by Aurora Consurgens, a medieval alchemical treatise based on the Song of Solomon. It was brought to light by Carl Jung who thought it the work of St Thomas Aquinas. The text is full of alchemical and religious symbolism and apocalyptic imagery.

Jung saw alchemy and psychology as having the common aim of self-transformation. Gabriel was captivated by Jung's alchemical writings. "I have always been interested in transformation of one sort or another," said Gabriel. "When Mozo came in he upset the status quo and the story is about the struggles after his appearance. Mozo was a catalyst for spiritual change. This was true alchemy of which changing base metal to gold was a mere analogy."

Mozo was at the core of what Gabriel tries to express in music. Perhaps he sees himself as that mercurial stranger able to transform and uplift people.

Gabriel wanted to scatter songs about Mozo over several albums, though they would make a complete story when put together. The songs were

"Mozo is set in this fishing village, which is very upmarket, not quite Mediterranean, but something of that ilk," explained Gabriel in 1987. "There is this volcanic sand which gives the sea a red colour. Everything is focused on the sea, which is very rough, and the great macho feat is to cross the water, which no one has done."
"Mozo is discovered in a tip, in a house built out of rubbish, on the edge of the city. And initially kids and passers-by are just very curious to look inside this little shed, and they see in it what they are most afraid of. They project their fears on to him because he is different."
"I remember in Horsell Common near Chobham, where my parents live, there was this beaten up old caravan, with newspapers in the windows. I used to think there was a witch inside there. And I think it probably fueled this setting for Mozo."
"Eventually the people who have discovered Mozo in this hut on a tip get disturbed. They are getting upset by what they are seeing, by what they are projecting onto him and they try to kick him out. He escapes, and he proves later that he has crossed the sea. So he goes from being the tramp underneath society to the hero on top of it."
"And then having been placed above other people he is challenged by the people who put him up there. They then have him as a target to push down to the bottom again."
'On The Air', on the second album, introduces Mozo, who lives in a fantasy world created by what he picks up and transmits on his short-wave. "Through short-wave radio he becomes whoever he wants, but in real life, on the street, he's totally ignored," explained Gabriel.

I got power, I'm proud to be loud; my signal goes out clear
I want everybody to know that Mozo is here
On the air...
"On The Air" Gabriel 1978

'Down The Dolce Vita', from the first album, introduces characters setting out on the intrepid journey across the sea. Aeron and Gorham, like Mozo, have corrupted biblical names.
'Here Comes The Flood' was written at the height of Gabriel's fascination with short-wave radio. If radio signals got stronger at night, he reasoned, maybe psychic and telepathic awareness could be similarly increased and made to flood the mass consciousness. Those who were honest and straightforward could take on board their new insights, while those who hid their thoughts and feelings would be lost.

When the flood calls
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You're a thousand minds, within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn, they'll use up what we used to be
"Here Comes The Flood" Gabriel 1976

'Exposure' from the second album, is stark and minimal. The music was co-written by Gabriel and Robert Fripp, who named his 1979 album after the track. The version sung by Gabriel on Fripp's album is introduced by a recording of English sage J. G. Bennett uttering, "It is impossible to achieve the aim without suffering."

The final Mozo-linked songs to appear on record were 'Red Rain' and 'That Voice Again' from the So album. 'Red Rain' is about repressed feelings and pain that become expressed by the elements.

"'That Voice Again', Gabriel explained, was about 'judgmental attitudes being a barrier between people. The voice is the voice of judgment. A haunting internal voice that instead of accepting experience is always analysing, moralizing and evaluating it." The song was originally called 'First Stone', but Gabriel abandoned the biblical allusions. He went through three sets of lyrics before David Rhodes came to the rescue and co-wrote them with him.

Gabriel first sought to perform Mozo in early 1976, soon after the Genesis album "A Trick of the Tail" became their biggest success to date. It was an unfortunate time to make an approach. Genesis' good fortune overshadowed Gabriel's. There was little enthusiasm from publishers and record companies for what promised to be an expensive exercise and Gabriel was forced to wait until he had commercial success as a solo artist.

He had discussed his ideas with Bob Ezrin, the producer of his first solo album. Ezrin told him about the Czech theatre Laaterna Magica and the pioneering Josef Svoboda. Gabriel visited him twice in Prague in the late seventies. He was interested in Svoboda's 'perforated screen' combining cinema with theatre. In it a film was complemented by live action using a device that made actors appear to go in and out of the screen.

Gabriel was later introduced to Czech animator Raduz Cincera who developed his 'Kineautomat'. Cincera was working on opera sets for London Coliseum when he met Gabriel. "The Kineautomat has cinema seats with yes/no buttons," said Gabriel. "There were about a dozen decision points, the plot chosen by vote. So, for example, an actor would come out of the screen and say to the audience, "Should I stay with my wife, or go with this woman?" And the cinema would become as lively as a football match."

Eventually the Mozo idea lost impetus, though in autumn 1985 Gabriel was still considering working on developing the story into an hour-long video.

"Maybe I should look at it again some day, there's still stuff in it I like. It's always the thing, the new is more attractive than the old," Gabriel said in 1987.

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