This week Vaylor is checking out an earlier Peter Gabriel album he missed the first time. I pop up to tell you all stuff you already know about Genesis and his solo career.
What do you remember about hearing 2 the first time?
How does it rate for you in his catalog?
Interested to check out the video! This album seems to provoke some widely varying opinions. The cover is so distinctive and unsettling that I was disappointed in the relatively normal sound of it when I first heard it, and for a long time my sense of it was dominated by the song White Shadow, which felt like the only track that really evoked the power and dark mystery of the cover. I've come around to it a lot in the last few years, though; if you approach it on its own terms there's a lot of evocative sensitive writing and cool musical details, even if it doesn't have the sonic breadth or creativity of his other early solo work.
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My fave solo Gabriel.
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After two listens, PG2 became my favorite Peter Gabriel album. Unbelievably underrated. And yes, “White Shadow” is not only a huge standout, but the best solo song Peter Gabriel ever recorded.
I think it is a better and more coherent album than the debut which really was a mixed bag. Still not as good as the 3 albums that came after.
This is a funny album. The first half has definite highlights ('DIY', 'On The Air', 'Mother Of Violence', 'Indigo' and 'White Shadow') but I've honestly never warmed to much of the rest. I re-listened to it again a few times recently but I haven't changed my mind. The somewhat dry production also doesn't work for me.
'A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World' (I really don't like that jaunty synth riff), 'Animal Magic' and 'Perspective' (ugh, that sax) are some of my least favourite Gabriel tracks.
Bruce Springsteen is mentioned in the video a few times- 'Home Sweet Home' is very much like one of his songs IMHO.
Agree! I have never really warmed to the debut.Originally Posted by thedunno
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Even though PG2 is my favorite Peter Gabriel album, I will definitely concede that PG3 is his best album! But I think PG4 was a big step down.
Pg4 is my favorite.
PG3 and PG4 are my favourites. Up, Passion and Us are the next ones.
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I like his first album - but nothing after seems to resonate with me.
'I would advise stilts for the quagmires"
My least favourite PG album by a long way.
When I first listened to Scratch in the record-store the week it was released I wasn't impressed. A few weeks later I bought it after all and have played it many times. Like I wrote somewhere before I discovered at some point that I would consider II as Rael's own record; it has that punky attitude the leading actor in The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway has, while it also has some of those symphonic moments. I connected with Mother Of Violence, White Shadow and the Randy Newman-like Home Sweet Home a lot.
But my favorite still is IV.
Ah yes, back when Gabriel still came across as a bit of a scoundrel !!
It’s very much of its time (1978) and I think it’s mostly great. He should have played “White Shadow” live in later years. It’s a great song.
Rockpalast 1978
The sound production and lack of a genuine masterpiece relegates 2 to be my fifth favourite: 143So2UsUp and then the rest for me.
Killer album. I like it a lot. White Shadow is always a favorite.
I'm not going to choose favorites. It is a rare album that does not have at least one song that does not match the best of the rest.
Of the first four Scratch has the fewest IMHO lower grade songs. Some of that opinion is based on being sort of burned out on some songs due to heavy rotation over the decades on some of the other albums.
Perhaps the lack of 'hits' on this one improves my view of it.
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2nd was the last one before songs driven by wild/jungly or creepy rhythms started (3rd had Intruder, IDR, NSC, and 4th had RotH, StM), though DIY was maybe foreshadowing I guess. Absence of such rhythmically "wild" songs, i.e. presence of only both straightforward songs and somewhat unusual songs (such as MtB, HaWD) (but not rhythmically), made 1st and 2nd similar. To me, 3rd and 4th are each more interesting than 2nd for various reasons incl songwriting and rhythmic foundation. 1st might tie with those two. In 2nd, at first listen, my interest was probably mostly on OtA, WS, Indigo, Exposure, and maybe DIY. WS stood out – and I too wondered about connection to that TV show "WS" which I used to watch (in probably the early 80s).
For the record, PG2 was released almost six months before the TV show White Shadow premiered. I never noticed the coincidence of the word “coaches” in the opening line before.
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I suspect the coaches were like covered wagons.
Since chrome and fuel are mentioned in the same context, I assumed the coaches were buses.
Good point.
Memory is foggy, but I think I came to II after I and perhaps even after III. For many years it was the one I listened to least often. Perhaps for that reason it continues to be a grower for me. I really like the idea of it being the Rael character singing these tunes. I never minded the sax on the album until I saw Timmy playing on the video above. Yuck. For me the star of the show is TLev - he's way more up-front and aggressive on this album, and his tone on the final section of On The Air is monsterous. It's also great to hear his early stick playing, sounding like he's taken to his new instrument like a duck to water.
David
Happy with what I have to be happy with.
It's not the word "coaches" that made me think about the TV show, long time ago when I heard the song; only the song title by itself. I wondered about but didn't think that was a real connection to the TV show-- just a coincidence. I was actually not aware the lyrics said "coaches", until today.
I really don't remember any of the lyrics to this so you all are figuring it out quicker than I am.
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