Me too. That section was going to be different. I knew he was the first artist to have and use it. Only through actually seeing 2 different documentaries back in the day. One of them with Al Jourgensen of ministry Who purchased his through Peter Gabriel’s company. He was one of the first Americans to have one. And produced a lot of early famous hip hop records without credits.
But yeah I fact checked myself and according to what I could find. It said that sledgehammer was the first time PG used it in a recording. I still find that shockingly odd. Unless he uses it earlier but live only? Not in studio recordings.
This piece really hit home for me. So is one of my most beloved albums of all time, but more than that, it served as an entry point into so many later musical adventures.
That is what makes certain records so important. They do not simply remain as memories of where we were when we first heard them; they continue opening doors long after the first listen. For me, So became one of those maps: into Peter Gabriel’s earlier work, Kate Bush, Tony Levin, Daniel Lanois, Real World, and eventually into whole musical territories I might not otherwise have explored.
I also really appreciated how personally you framed the album here. The school, the Walkman, the sense of carrying the record almost as protection — that is exactly how music can work at that age. It becomes shelter, identity, and possibility all at once.
Beautifully written, and a pleasure to read someone else engaging so deeply with an album that has meant so much to me.
Thanks for sharing your appreciation, and yeah this became my conscious entry point. After this my next stop was the double cd Peter Gabriel plays live. Which may now be out of print. It was like a 1980 or 1981 US tour and had amazing live versions of the earlier albums. So I started hunting them all down after that.
This is 33 and a third quality writing. Gabriel is an artist whose songs i obsess over even as albums never work in toto for me. But this makes me really appreciate the moments that don't connect in a new way and makes those songs that saved my life then and now really sparkle.
Love this comment, and thank you so much. I am so glad this resonated in that way with you. As you said, even though, we may not love each and every song equally or an entire album so completely. His process in and of itself is such a wonder, and a journey that is fun to go on. I love to geek out, pick apart and share those things with fellow music lovers such as yourself.
So was the zenith of Peter Gabriel's solo career. But leading up to that, his albums barely charted and he had only one true hit single, Shock the Monkey, which had caught on with dance clubs. In the late-70s and 80s, Gabriel was considered too "arty" by most rock and pop fans, which is why the huge commercial success of So (5x platinum) came as such a surprise at the time. He really didn't stray far from his original style on So, but deciding to come up with two crowd pleasing singles (Sledgehammer, which reached #1 and Big Time, which reached #8), made him a superstar at the time. I think by the mid-1980's the audience had become tired of consuming empty-calorie pop and punk, and were looking for something meatier and more intellectual to enjoy - So was that album.
Thanks John. I have not always felt this way about the album, So. But by virtue of my own experience, it held its own energy, presence and power in my life. The fact that it became a (5x platinum album) or that Sledgehammer and Big Time became juggernauts, was just a point of fact or anecdote in this article. Their popularity, in an of themselves, kind of repulsed me perpetually from those songs. This article truly was a labor of love, not with the rose-colored glasses of my 5th grader-self. But to what I have become as a 50 something year old, liking a wide array of music and genres. It was quite interesting for me research the stories behind all of those songs, and give each their space. Which is why i’m taking the time to express this in such depth. The deep dives into each album track are not as an obsessive fan of each song. But of someone who loves the artist and the art behind them. I truly respect those songs in a way, that has no bearing on how many times they appeared on the radio, how many Video Vanguard awards they won on MTV. But the fact that when he was recording the album, he wasn’t like. YEAH BABY, this is my money maker. But more of, “how can I write a song, in the style of my childhood hero Otis Redding”. The fact that the leader of the Memphis horns arranged part of the music.
I was 33 when So came out. I had been a Genesis fan since I was 21, when Peter was still in the band. I followed both after Peter left Genesis and went out on his own. I enjoyed all of his albums, including So, and even what came afterward. If I remember correctly, Peter’s record deal only had one more album left before it had to be renewed by the label. I’m pretty sure he was operating under an ultimatum from his record company that he needed to have a hit, or else. Therefore, for So, Peter agreed with his label and went with U2’s producer. What that producer learned was that Peter and Tony Banks, former best friends and founders of Genesis, loved R&B music from their time at Charterhouse School. The producer tapped into Gabriel’s latent love for R&B, and Sledgehammer and Big Time were written. When the record company’s A&R guys heard those songs, their reaction was, “At last he has songs that could be hit singles!” Overall, So was a brilliant blend of art rock and R&B pop which I still enjoy to this day.
I prefer Melt (PG3) and Security (PG4) - Peter’s peak albums - but I do love So too - particularly Red Rain, Don’t Give Up, and Mercy Street. I have been fortunate to have seen him live every tour since Scratch (PG2) in 1978.
A good article about my least favourite Peter Gabriel album. After Melt and Security's depth, and the Birdy soundtrack's night music, came the Commercial juggernaut that was So. He didn't sell out, but it was shallow and much too accessible. Too many people liked it for me. It took him until Up in 2002 to produce another great album. I find his latest stuff insipid and over-produced. I guess he's a much older man. We had a good run for our money.
Thank you for this essay and especially for revealing how your personal story intertwines with the album. So was an extraordinary release 40 years ago and remains (ahem) so today.
IIn the summer of 1986 I had just returned from working overseas for three years and found a radically changed music scene. In the years I was outside the U.S., MTV blew up, cassette tapes had become the music delivery system of choice, and I had started working in Q Records and Tapes in South Florida. So was an absolutely monster release, with Joshua Tree (Lanois was everywhere back then!) following a few months later. Only a short time later, CDs would outsell both cassettes and LPs.
I'd become a Gabriel fan with IV (Security) and when So appeared I was obsessed, particularly with "In Your Eyes." I've since seen him perform twice, in 2002 and 2023, and have collected dozens of live shows, one of which is an extraordinary performance by Kate and Peter singing "Don't Give Up" live for the first and (I believe) only time. That song has gotten me (like so many others) through some tough times, but Peter's music has long been a source of comfort for me. To read the details you've provided here only adds to that richness.
Finally, I remember a "Behind the Album" type special I saw a few years back that went into great detail about the hi-hat on Red Rain, with Lanois noting Peter had never used a hi-hat on previous recordings. The other nugget of information was that the original running order placed "In Your Eyes" at the beginning of Side 2 because the LP wouldn't support its placement at the end. For streaming purposes, the song now appears at the end of the album, and if memory serves, on CD reissues, as well.
Matt. That video or documentary you are talking about, is the inspiration behind 90% of my post. Just bits and pieces I could remember. Albeit, not always accurately.
Yeah that is why I wanted to focus on his rhythm, and the drums/beats being the foundation of every song. I remember in that video, PG plays back some of the collected sampled percussion sounds he had gathered, and the raw beginnings of what led to the songs.
Yes I also remember hearing or seeing something about that melting face album, where Peter Gabriel removed all the cymbals and high hats from the drum sets in the sessions.
Lanois, I believe, tried to take the same approach on one or more U2 albums, and again, my memory doesn’t serve me well. I believe Larry Mullen Jr. almost came to blows. He might have relented for a song or two, but after that, he didn’t comply. LOL.
Another who was turned off by Sledgehammer and Big Time, but somehow fell in love with Us, which drew me back to So. Such a powerful album listened to 40 years later. Mercy Street is incredible, Milgram 37 too.
"Musically, the song marked the return of the 12-string guitar to Gabriel’s solo work for the first time since The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in 1974,"
I immediately recalled 'Solsbery Hill" with its distinctive 12-string sound and opened Wiki. Actually it was not 12-string guitar, but three layered standard Martins. So you're right. Thank you for bringing back my half-forgotten feelings and memories.
Great piece. I saw Gabriel perform this album at the Hollywood Bowl about a decade ago and he did the songs in backwards order. As I had everything on this album memorized I was surprised to know I knew the backwards order also.
John Cusack came out revisiting the scene from Say Anything for In Your Eyes holding the boombox over his head. The audience went bonkers.
Peter’s amazing, one of the best, but this band is so talented. Saw the 25th anniversary tour at Jones Beach. Beyond words whenever I’ve seen him. Thank you for this nice piece.
Also listened to it on a Walkman in my early 20s. Loved the invention, the syncopation and his use of sound as texture. Also the harmonies especially “In your eyes”. Appreciate the backstory to the songs.
Loved reading this. I thought tho that the fairlight was used first on “melt” aka “3”.
Me too. That section was going to be different. I knew he was the first artist to have and use it. Only through actually seeing 2 different documentaries back in the day. One of them with Al Jourgensen of ministry Who purchased his through Peter Gabriel’s company. He was one of the first Americans to have one. And produced a lot of early famous hip hop records without credits.
But yeah I fact checked myself and according to what I could find. It said that sledgehammer was the first time PG used it in a recording. I still find that shockingly odd. Unless he uses it earlier but live only? Not in studio recordings.
In any event…. So, what an album!
This piece really hit home for me. So is one of my most beloved albums of all time, but more than that, it served as an entry point into so many later musical adventures.
That is what makes certain records so important. They do not simply remain as memories of where we were when we first heard them; they continue opening doors long after the first listen. For me, So became one of those maps: into Peter Gabriel’s earlier work, Kate Bush, Tony Levin, Daniel Lanois, Real World, and eventually into whole musical territories I might not otherwise have explored.
I also really appreciated how personally you framed the album here. The school, the Walkman, the sense of carrying the record almost as protection — that is exactly how music can work at that age. It becomes shelter, identity, and possibility all at once.
Beautifully written, and a pleasure to read someone else engaging so deeply with an album that has meant so much to me.
Thanks for sharing your appreciation, and yeah this became my conscious entry point. After this my next stop was the double cd Peter Gabriel plays live. Which may now be out of print. It was like a 1980 or 1981 US tour and had amazing live versions of the earlier albums. So I started hunting them all down after that.
In Your Eyes
I literally used to “run away… drive off in my ca-ar and blast this song”
🤣
😁
Fantastic piece!
This is 33 and a third quality writing. Gabriel is an artist whose songs i obsess over even as albums never work in toto for me. But this makes me really appreciate the moments that don't connect in a new way and makes those songs that saved my life then and now really sparkle.
Love this comment, and thank you so much. I am so glad this resonated in that way with you. As you said, even though, we may not love each and every song equally or an entire album so completely. His process in and of itself is such a wonder, and a journey that is fun to go on. I love to geek out, pick apart and share those things with fellow music lovers such as yourself.
So was the zenith of Peter Gabriel's solo career. But leading up to that, his albums barely charted and he had only one true hit single, Shock the Monkey, which had caught on with dance clubs. In the late-70s and 80s, Gabriel was considered too "arty" by most rock and pop fans, which is why the huge commercial success of So (5x platinum) came as such a surprise at the time. He really didn't stray far from his original style on So, but deciding to come up with two crowd pleasing singles (Sledgehammer, which reached #1 and Big Time, which reached #8), made him a superstar at the time. I think by the mid-1980's the audience had become tired of consuming empty-calorie pop and punk, and were looking for something meatier and more intellectual to enjoy - So was that album.
Thanks John. I have not always felt this way about the album, So. But by virtue of my own experience, it held its own energy, presence and power in my life. The fact that it became a (5x platinum album) or that Sledgehammer and Big Time became juggernauts, was just a point of fact or anecdote in this article. Their popularity, in an of themselves, kind of repulsed me perpetually from those songs. This article truly was a labor of love, not with the rose-colored glasses of my 5th grader-self. But to what I have become as a 50 something year old, liking a wide array of music and genres. It was quite interesting for me research the stories behind all of those songs, and give each their space. Which is why i’m taking the time to express this in such depth. The deep dives into each album track are not as an obsessive fan of each song. But of someone who loves the artist and the art behind them. I truly respect those songs in a way, that has no bearing on how many times they appeared on the radio, how many Video Vanguard awards they won on MTV. But the fact that when he was recording the album, he wasn’t like. YEAH BABY, this is my money maker. But more of, “how can I write a song, in the style of my childhood hero Otis Redding”. The fact that the leader of the Memphis horns arranged part of the music.
I was 33 when So came out. I had been a Genesis fan since I was 21, when Peter was still in the band. I followed both after Peter left Genesis and went out on his own. I enjoyed all of his albums, including So, and even what came afterward. If I remember correctly, Peter’s record deal only had one more album left before it had to be renewed by the label. I’m pretty sure he was operating under an ultimatum from his record company that he needed to have a hit, or else. Therefore, for So, Peter agreed with his label and went with U2’s producer. What that producer learned was that Peter and Tony Banks, former best friends and founders of Genesis, loved R&B music from their time at Charterhouse School. The producer tapped into Gabriel’s latent love for R&B, and Sledgehammer and Big Time were written. When the record company’s A&R guys heard those songs, their reaction was, “At last he has songs that could be hit singles!” Overall, So was a brilliant blend of art rock and R&B pop which I still enjoy to this day.
What a fascinating footnote to the story of the recordings.
Thanks for sharing.
I prefer Melt (PG3) and Security (PG4) - Peter’s peak albums - but I do love So too - particularly Red Rain, Don’t Give Up, and Mercy Street. I have been fortunate to have seen him live every tour since Scratch (PG2) in 1978.
I love those albums too.
Oh, what I would give to travel to the late 70's to see those performances live.
But I am fortunate to have seen him in great form performing my most favorite songs live.
A good article about my least favourite Peter Gabriel album. After Melt and Security's depth, and the Birdy soundtrack's night music, came the Commercial juggernaut that was So. He didn't sell out, but it was shallow and much too accessible. Too many people liked it for me. It took him until Up in 2002 to produce another great album. I find his latest stuff insipid and over-produced. I guess he's a much older man. We had a good run for our money.
Thank you for this essay and especially for revealing how your personal story intertwines with the album. So was an extraordinary release 40 years ago and remains (ahem) so today.
IIn the summer of 1986 I had just returned from working overseas for three years and found a radically changed music scene. In the years I was outside the U.S., MTV blew up, cassette tapes had become the music delivery system of choice, and I had started working in Q Records and Tapes in South Florida. So was an absolutely monster release, with Joshua Tree (Lanois was everywhere back then!) following a few months later. Only a short time later, CDs would outsell both cassettes and LPs.
I'd become a Gabriel fan with IV (Security) and when So appeared I was obsessed, particularly with "In Your Eyes." I've since seen him perform twice, in 2002 and 2023, and have collected dozens of live shows, one of which is an extraordinary performance by Kate and Peter singing "Don't Give Up" live for the first and (I believe) only time. That song has gotten me (like so many others) through some tough times, but Peter's music has long been a source of comfort for me. To read the details you've provided here only adds to that richness.
Finally, I remember a "Behind the Album" type special I saw a few years back that went into great detail about the hi-hat on Red Rain, with Lanois noting Peter had never used a hi-hat on previous recordings. The other nugget of information was that the original running order placed "In Your Eyes" at the beginning of Side 2 because the LP wouldn't support its placement at the end. For streaming purposes, the song now appears at the end of the album, and if memory serves, on CD reissues, as well.
Matt. That video or documentary you are talking about, is the inspiration behind 90% of my post. Just bits and pieces I could remember. Albeit, not always accurately.
Yeah that is why I wanted to focus on his rhythm, and the drums/beats being the foundation of every song. I remember in that video, PG plays back some of the collected sampled percussion sounds he had gathered, and the raw beginnings of what led to the songs.
Yes I also remember hearing or seeing something about that melting face album, where Peter Gabriel removed all the cymbals and high hats from the drum sets in the sessions.
Lanois, I believe, tried to take the same approach on one or more U2 albums, and again, my memory doesn’t serve me well. I believe Larry Mullen Jr. almost came to blows. He might have relented for a song or two, but after that, he didn’t comply. LOL.
Another who was turned off by Sledgehammer and Big Time, but somehow fell in love with Us, which drew me back to So. Such a powerful album listened to 40 years later. Mercy Street is incredible, Milgram 37 too.
"Musically, the song marked the return of the 12-string guitar to Gabriel’s solo work for the first time since The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in 1974,"
I immediately recalled 'Solsbery Hill" with its distinctive 12-string sound and opened Wiki. Actually it was not 12-string guitar, but three layered standard Martins. So you're right. Thank you for bringing back my half-forgotten feelings and memories.
Thanks for fact checking me Dmitry.
Because that is right. I’ve always thought Solsbury Hill was on 12 string.
Great piece. I saw Gabriel perform this album at the Hollywood Bowl about a decade ago and he did the songs in backwards order. As I had everything on this album memorized I was surprised to know I knew the backwards order also.
John Cusack came out revisiting the scene from Say Anything for In Your Eyes holding the boombox over his head. The audience went bonkers.
I saw that show too, I loved it!
Do you remember exactly when it was?
Octoberish 2012
Thanks.
Fantastic post. As a bass player, Don’t Give Up, especially, still sounds so fresh.
Yeah I was thinking about that. Especially the outro Levin gets a good groove on.
Peter’s amazing, one of the best, but this band is so talented. Saw the 25th anniversary tour at Jones Beach. Beyond words whenever I’ve seen him. Thank you for this nice piece.
Also listened to it on a Walkman in my early 20s. Loved the invention, the syncopation and his use of sound as texture. Also the harmonies especially “In your eyes”. Appreciate the backstory to the songs.
You post the best albums period.