The series of Classic Album shows continues with this fascinating documentary on Peter Gabriel’s career changing 1986 album So. Up until that time, the ex-lead singer from the prog rock group Genesis was carving a niche as a cult solo figure. This album, co produced by Daniel Lanois, put him over the top as far as popularity and accessibility without any artistic compromise. The 90+ minute show has in depth interviews with Gabriel and Lanois, as well as engineer Kevin Killen and musicians Jerry Marotta, Laurie Anderson, Tony Levin and Manu Katche’ (who has since become a major force on the jazz scene).
It seems impossible for a jazz artist to grasp this fact, but for a musician to get large audience appeal, he has to have a visual attraction or image attraction to go along with his music. Gabriel understands this, and he goes into detail how videos of hits like “Sledgehammer,” “Red Rain” and “Don’t Give Up” were all a part of the overall acceptance of Gabriel’s musical world view. The making of “Sledgehammer” as a bonus shows how genius truly is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Eagle Vision DVD
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