We’ve spoken about Scratch My Back, Peter Gabriel’s anticipated Bob Ezrin-produced orchestral covers collection featuring reinterpretations of Radiohead, Arcade Fire, the Magnetic Fields, Bon Iver, Elbow, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Regina Spektor, David Bowie, etc. In a couple of interesting, intimate-seeming podcasts, Gabriel gives plenty of background and insight into the project. In the first installment you hear bits of the Bowie, Paul Simon, and Elbow. (He calls Elbow’s “Mirrorball” “a bitch to sing” and says it reminds him of singing some of the old “awkward” Genesis melodies he wrote.) The second installment offers discussions and snippets of Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, and the Magnetic Fields, a band Gabriel tried unsuccessfully to sign to his label and who Eva Longoria apparently loves. He regards Arcade Fire as a “self-contained universe,” though he doesn’t quite make an even more poetic connection between this “self-contained universe” and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which he brings up in relation to “My Body Is A Cage.” He also talks briefly about the Scratch My Back tour (Europe is announced; US/Canada to come) and Reed as love poet. We offered you an “alleged” tracklist at one point. Now we have the real one. Take a look at that and then have a listen. And remember: “Giving an artist total freedom is castrating them.”
Tracklist:
01 “Heroes” (David Bowie)
02 “The Boy in the Bubble” (Paul Simon)
03 “Mirrorball” (Elbow)
04 “Flume” (Bon Iver)
05 “Listening Wind” (Talking Heads)
06 “The Power of the Heart” (Lou Reed)
07 “My Body Is a Cage” (Arcade Fire)
08 “The Book of Love” (The Magnetic Fields)
09 “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” (Randy Newman)
10 “Après moi” (Regina Spektor)
11 “Philadelphia” (Neil Young)
12 “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” (Radiohead)
You’ll find both podcasts at realworld.co.uk. After you listen, remember the live orchestral take on “Boy In The Bubble.”
Scratch My Back is out 2/15 via Virgin.
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Lou REED, he’s not dead YET
I want to hear the Radiohead cover (both “by” and “of”) soooo badly.
Me too. Also “Listening Wind”, “My Body is A Cage”, “Philadelphia” and I think “The Book of Love” is an interesting choice. Can’t wait.
Anyone else think Elbow’s “Mirrorball” already sounds like it’s being sung by Peter Gabriel?
..I’m anxious to hear both back to back
They were taking down the Virgin records sign down outside today…sad…
Elbow sounds like Peter Gabriel fronting Radiohead most of the time and I’m TOTALLY fine with that.
That thing looks like something I need to put my dick in.
An album of covers? I’ll quote:
“Seems so unnatural
Peter Gabriel too?”
Quoting Vampire Weekend you say?!