Peter Gabriel 'So' Classic Albums BBC

[Clint Hopkins]

Must see if you're a fan of this album:

[Morgenthaler]

Peter Gabriel: One of my favorite artists of all time
Daniel Lanois: One of my favorite artists of all time
Kate Bush: One of my favorite artists of all time

Thanks for sharing.

[Clint Hopkins]

Peter Gabriel: One of my favorite artists of all time
Daniel Lanois: One of my favorite artists of all time
Kate Bush: One of my favorite artists of all time

Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, can't go wrong with when Daniel is in the production chair. I don't think they could have found a better female singer than Kate Bush for 'Don't Give Up'. Peter's decision to call Dolly Parton was... an interesting choice.

I have always loved Manu's playing on 'Sledgehammer', with the 'Superstition' vibe on the hi-hat and ghost notes peppered throughout. Sounds like the drums were recorded live.

[bstocky]

LOVE Peter Gabriel. I'll watch this tonight. Thanks for the tip.

[Da Chooch]

THANK YOU!!

[Kurtis]

thanks for the links! great album. every song is well crafted.

[patdrums]

I just sat and watched the whole thing. Just brilliant. Thanks so much for posting it! I absolutely LOVE the Classic Albums series and have bought just about all of them. I'll have to get this one too. I especially loved hearing Manu talk about how he had no idea what to play on "In Your Eyes" and Peter dancing in front of his kit is what made him just throw off the "session guy" chains and go for it. What an amazing track he played.....

Thanks again for sharing!

[Christopher]

So good...

Thanks, Clint.

Gabriel embodies that true artistic “I don’t care what everyone else is doing, I’m making music that I like” attitude.

What, if anything, sounded remotely like ‘So’ when it was released? And since then, really?

Ground breaking and original to the enth degree.

‘In Your Eyes’ is still my favorite Manu performance.

[Julián Fernández]

Kevin Killen on So sessions...

"I came into the So record a month after it started (Dave Bascombe who worked with Tears For Fears had done the initial tracking). Because I ended being there for almost 10 months, songs changed dramatically as Peter's and Dan's production evolved. Decisions were made based on the instrumentation during the basic tracks. Then again some of that information was replaced by later sessions and overdubs.

To all of us, the high hats had some much fantastic movement and "sex" associated with them. As the tracks became more and more layered , I tried to get them to sit in a very specific place, almost dancing above the kit. I did infact pan them to the left, maybe at a 9 o clock position, sometimes wider. With Red Rain for instance, we panned the two performances on opposite sides to give a greater sense of motion.

With most of the tracks, careful attention was given to their position and then their eq.
There is also a significant amout of percusion and drum programming added so it was important to be able to separate and blend the parts. For drum tracking I used a Nuemann KM 84 and or AKG 451. The overheads were U87's, sometimes AKG 414's.

The record path was very direct, throught the SSL console with minimal eq. We spent more time trying different cymbal combinations and that in conjunction with the talent of Jerry, Manu and Stewart, it was hard to go wrong"

[langmick]

This video made me love drumming even more.

When I complain about the hip hop influenced R&B that is so popular today, about it being so static and having no melodic movement whatsoever, this illustrates exactly why I feel that way...maybe it's just laziness on the producers part, wanting to churn out product...doing So was hard work, not just putting up a rhythm and scatting over it...you can hear in the music the struggle and the sweat. I love that.

There is no philosophy behind the music, Peter had a philosophy, and attitudes. Maybe that came from being in a progressive band for so long.

If you want to hear prime Jerry Marotta, throw on the live double album...FANTASTIC drumming and the music is just fucking incredible.