SKELETONS IN MY CLOSET (9)

Newer visitors to the blog might be wondering what the hell the title of today's post is all about. Y'see, for a while back there, I was proudly posting some songs which I was happy enough to admit having a lot of affection for but which might come as a bit of a surprise to anyone expecting jingly-jangly pop. Quick recap:-

Spandau Ballet - Paint Me Down (22nd October 2008)
Robert Palmer - Johnny and Mary (28th October 2008)
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (10th December 2008)
Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Oooh (13th December 2008)
Chic - Everybody Dance (20th December 2008)
Sugababes - Overload (14th January 2009)
Klark Kent - Don't Care (4th March 2009)
Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Tropical Gangsters LP (24th June 2009)

And so the series makes a comeback with one of the founding fathers of prog-rock, although by the time this particular single was released in 1980, he had long left Genesis behind.

One of the reasons I began to listen to Peter Gabriel was the fact that he was championing the end of apartheid at a time in my life when I was just beginning to become more socially and politically aware of what was going on in the world. In particular, he recorded a song demanding justice for the death in custody of Stephen Bantu Biko which he featured on his LP Peter Gabriel III, and which he later released as a single (a record I've long intended to feature on TVV but never quite found the right reason to do so).

This was also the LP that brought Gabriel his first real degree of solo success, thanks to the lead-off single Games Without Frontiers which was a #4 hit in the UK. Today's offering was the follow-up single, a rather dark number that focuses in on lust. The fact that it has the utterly delicious Kate Bush singing away rather erotically on backing vocals somehow only adds to its intensity.

mp3 : Peter Gabriel - No Self Control

I'll quietly ignore the fact that it is Phil Collins who plays drums on the record. Actually, that's a bit unfair....if he had stuck solely to his original day-job as a sticksmith, then Phil Collins would probably be lauded as a superb musician. As it is, we all think of him as the chart-topping man of the 80s loathed by loads, but as the record sales demonstrate, loved by millions in the Thatcherite era.....

Quite clearly, the record label weren't all that fussed about whether or not folk would buy this single, for the b-side was a track lifted from the LP.

mp3 : Peter Gabriel - Lead A Normal Life

A strange little number, largely instrumental in nature, it ids kind of out of place on its own as a b-side as it always felt as if it was written to be the perfect lead-in to the next, and indeed closing track on the LP, which was the aforementioned Biko.

Incidentally, fans of the modfather might be interested to know that Paul Weller played guitar on one of the other tracks on the album - a fact that in its day was also enough to make me curious about the record and lead me to buy it.

Happy Listening.