Thursday, August 7, 2008

Re-watching The Last Temptation of Christ last night, I told myself that Peter Gabriel's score is maybe the best thing this ugly studio rat's ever done: it's certainly the liveliest thing he's committed to tape since his rerecording of that Laurie Anderson number on So. I bought the cassette in the summer of 1990, and, as it was for most people, it was for a few years my gateway to "world music." The years have revealed Gabriel's very real passion for Linn drums mixed loud and prominent, and some of his keyboard work is equally strident; but, still, this is the rare fusion that honors its sources while perfecting the artist's obsessions (how you feel about the artist's obsessions is up to you). Especially touching is my realization that the music and images often collide, never more so when Scorsese aims for a Tarkovksy kind of reverent contemplation; the vulgarity of a few of the pieces is what I'd expect from an English introvert with too many keyboards and a studio at his disposal. Nevertheless, it's best to appreciate Passion as a stand-alone album: a purer listening experience, let's say, if against the creator's wishes.

4 comments:

  1. "Sledgehammer" not lively? Bah! All his odes to his penis are bursting with joie de vivre.

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  2. But "This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds)" is, sequentially, the last song on So! "Sledgehammer" is a great karaoke number, but "Big Time" is a better dick song (gimme a few days on "Kiss That Frog").

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  3. ah, sorry, I kinda misread "last thing," as a dismissal of all BUT Laurie (which I tune out on). Sorry!

    And don't forget "Steam!" That song is kind of unpleasantly lively.

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  4. I started an ILM thread on "Sledgehammer vs Steam." While "Steam" is more than five minutes long and has the disadvantage of being one of the only fast songs he's recorded in the last 15 years, it's still fun, if only cuz Peter reminds us that only big-dicked guys know their plastic from their cash, their sinners from their saints, and their straight lines from curves.

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