Gabriel Murders Mirrorball?

Just got the new Peter Gabriel covers album 'Scratch My Back'. I have to say I was really looking forward to hearing his interpretation of Mirrorball, sadly it fails to deliver. It bears no similarity to the original musically, and just sounds like the lyrics being spoken/sung over an orchestral arrangement for a completely different song. The rest of the album is much the same. After hearing the likes of Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell doing some great versions of other artists work on their recent covers albums, I was hoping for something similar from PG. Sadly, it's just not happened. I'm all for people doing things differently, provided it adds something. Unfortunately this only serves as an aid to induce a deep sleep.

Read the title of this thread and thought you meant her -

lol

She would have probably done a better job

I'm just listening to him slaughtering Radiohead's 'Street Spirit'. Words can not describe how disappointed I am with this record. His singing is painful at times. It sounds like he's trying to be cutting edge by forcing two musical styles together, but instead he has created a musical car crash. Never heard him so out of tune.

Mmm. Looks like I'm not going to be buying that one so.
Shame, was really looking forward to it...

I'm listening to this in utter bewilderment. What a pile of utter cr*p - a man who's trying too hard to make something of a song which is so completely beautiful in its simplicity.

I know by now only the snippet from the realworld podcast and was not sure if I like it or not.
But when I think, how different to the original Elbow's remix of "More than this" sounded I can't help thinking that he has the same right to change a song in a coverversion.
It would be really a pity if "Scratch my back" would have be so bad. I ordered a ticket for the live concert in Berlin for awful much money

Cripes. I was really looking forward to this album. (I've enjoyed the two podcasts thus far.)

This was posted on Gabriel's website about a week ago about the follow-up, the bands covering Gabriel:

Quote :

The project is still developing, with the covers of Peter's songs by other artists beginning arriving hot from the mixing desk and a plan emerging to release them as 'double a-sides' through iTunes on 2010's full moons.

I have no idea which Peter Gabriel song Elbow would cover. I'd rather have it on an album, but if it's an iTunes single, well, that's what it's going to have to be.

I thought the cover was going to be Red Rain.

"Red Rain"? Oooh, that's nice.

I thing the arrangement is stunning, I think some singing instead of so much spoken word would've have made the world of difference.

MagicalTrevor wrote:

I thought the cover was going to be Red Rain.

Guy revealed in his actual radioshow, that it will be Mercy Street!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/b0072q60/console
(ca. after 1 h 25mins)

Ooo...very very nice choice...best song on 'So' by far!

And to get back ontopic Guy seems to like Gabriels' cover of Mirroball very much...

Well if Guy manges to put all the emotion into Mercy Street that PG seems to have managed to ripped out of Mirrorball, it should be stunning.

And he's bound to say that. I would.

To be honest I like the orchestration in PG's Mirrorball very much, but the vocals sound like a man who doesn't really understand what he is singing about. PG is capable of singing with loads of emotion, just not in this song.

I've yet to hear his version of MIrrorball but I've just found his cover of Flume by Bon Iver. No. Just no.

Have to side with the folks who are disappointed in the PG version of Mirrorball. The cover is pretty but joyless, and I thought joy was kind of the whole emotional point of the original song. That gorgeous rush of happiness over having found some good lovin'...PG's version is completely devoid of that vibe, innit?

I haven't heard the Peter Gabriel version of Mirrorball yet, but I'm intrigued now!

I actually like it when cover versions are radically different to the original and seek to impose something of the personality of the artiste doing the cover version, rather than that of the artiste who wrote the song. I would certainly expect Peter Gabriel to be looking to take the song in a different direction - whether he has succeeded or not is clearly a matter of debate!

It's also very difficult when you love a song, to listen to it with a fresh pair of ears and remain impartial when someone has a go: I wonder, for example, what hardcore Nine Inch Nails fans reckon to the Johnny Cash version? I would imagine there are a fair few hardcore industrial rock fans who reckon he murdered it.

We shall see...

http://thequietus.com/articles/03628-peter-gabriel-on-new-album-scratch-my-back-review

track by track description putting it more in context.

I do love his cover of the Magnetic Fields track, which I had heard him cover before, and the Bowie cover on the preview clips podcast was one that stood out for me.
What happened to Waterloo Sunset wasn't that going to be on it?
As for Mirrorball cover.... still undecided; it seems too obviously him adding his vocal interpretation over the instrumentals.

Actually - I'd like to take back what I wrote before. I think it was particularly rude of me to describe his interpretation as I did - my apologies to Mr Gabriel. I'll just say that it's not my cup of tea and leave it at that.

lucky with disease wrote:

What happened to Waterloo Sunset wasn't that going to be on it?

There will be a deluxe-version of "Scratch my back" which contains it.

Well, reluctant as I am to post this in a thread with this title...

My copy of Scratch my Back arrived today (nice and early, thanks, Womad shop. Yes, Waterloo Sunset is on the deluxe version). Um, am I listening to the same track/album as everyone else?!

I think the orchestral arrangement is totally inspired (on Mirrorballl and the others), and Peter Gabriel's singing is emotional, intense, intimate, all the depth I'd expect from him... (I don't really understand the "talk-singing" comments at all).

No it's not like Elbow's but I think a cover should bring something new to a song and this one is beautiful.

I'm loving the rest of the album as well, both the songs I know and the ones I don't (about half and half). In fairness, Street Spirit (which I do know) is the one I like least - the only one I can begin to understand the negative comments on here (probably because it's so stripped down and different) but even then I don't go that far.

So those of you who haven't heard it yet and are put off by the rest of this thread, please at least give it a fair listen.

TamedLamia wrote:

lucky with disease wrote:

What happened to Waterloo Sunset wasn't that going to be on it?

There will be a deluxe-version of "Scratch my back" which contains it.

Thanks, am listening to the whole deluxe version at the Guardians exclusive album preview:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/feb/04/peter-gabriel-scratch-back

Some of the collaborations between Gabriel's voice and the instruments chosen for each songs, are more pleasing combinations to my ears than others are.
I'd like to hear John Metcalfe's orchestral arrangement for Mirrorball without PG singing, and then PG singing it solo.

I just ordered the special edition at the womadshop. I am quite curious by now and I will listen to the CD on my kitchen stereo because it has the best sound and maybe some "vertical stereo" will cheer me up if some tracks are not that my taste.
Some netfriends at the german Peter Gabriel Forum were saying that it is totally different from the leaked mp3s and that it is NOT the typical "Rockmusician(s) meets orchestra" and that makes me optimistical that I might like it at least more than Elbow's Abbey Road concert...

TamedLamia wrote:

And to get back ontopic Guy seems to like Gabriels' cover of Mirroball very much...

MagicalTrevor wrote:

And he's bound to say that. I would.

Well, he might say it if he would not like it when I think of Thom Yorke's (not-)reaction of the song swap...

I ordered the deluxe edition through WOMAD Shop, and the CD should show up in about two weeks on this side of the pond. It came with mp3 downloads of the entire album, and I listened to that last night twice.

And, honestly? I like it.

I'm not familiar with all the songs that Gabriel covered. That happens.

I like it because it's different. It just sounds different. I agree with someone upthread that just the orchestral pieces should be released on their own.

As some people know, "Mirrorball" has a wealth of personal meaning for me, and this weekend I found myself quoting the lyric (specifically, "We kissed like we invented it") in something very much akin to the situation that Garvey described with the song. Gabriel brings something different to the song; in Elbow's interpretation, it's a song of auspicious exuberance. In Gabriel's formulation, it's a song of cautious wonder. There's a great difference between them, and while Gabriel's take on the song may not be as Garvey intended, I think it's a valid, and even moving, interpretation. Elbow's version is about the destination. Gabriel's version is about the journey.

At least, that's how I interpreted the song.

I think my favorite songs off the album, however, are "My Body is a Cage" (which is incredibly dark in Gabriel's hands) and "The Power of the Heart."