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Quando finì l'avventura coi Genesis, Peter Gabriel non aveva perso nè capacità nè stile. Era ancora un signor cantante, capace di svariare, in maniera perfetta, dai suoni pop a quelli rock, senza dimenticare la raffinata lezione strumentale che i Genesis portarono avanti per quasi un decennio. Come solista era bravissimo, capace di spiazzare tutti con un capolavoro come "Peter Gabriel" (1980) e stupire, sempre in maniera un po' folle, con un live intenso come "Play Live". Il grande colpo però, quello che fa fare il salto di qualità in maniera dirompente, è datato 1986, e s'intitola semplicemente "So". Gabriel è un fiume in piena, ha da dire e raccontare un sacco di cose, magari un po' inutili, ma pur sempre curiose. La voglia di fare però, fortunatamente, non si tramuta mai in voglia di strafare e, in barba ai vecchi compagni dei Genesis, realizza un disco completo, solenne, diviso fra pop e rock, e fusioni melodiche etnico-planetarie assai simili a quelle futuristiche dei primissimi Pink Floyd. Impegno e leggerezza, stile e furbizia, un mix perfetto che fece di "So" uno dei massimi successi discografici di tutti gli anni Ottanta. Melodioso e insieme complesso, Peter Gabriel spazia dal rock venato di melodramma di "Red Rain" alla delicatezza ritmica di "Mercy Street", per approdare a "In your eyes" (aiutato dall'amico Youssou N'Dour) in cui racconta la fragilità e la complessità del mal di vivere del continente Africa.
Sempre sospeso tra realtà, fantasia e leggenda, Peter Gabriel costruisce un disco perfetto in cui la musica (magnifica) sembra dover avvolgere morbidamente suoni e pensieri tipici del Gabriel-pensiero: universo, cosmo, popoli, religioni, futurismo. E non fa difetto sentire, quasi all'unisono, suoni tipicamente africani con melodie spudoratamente pop. Il rock c'è, ma è un rock leggero: a volte, si ha quasi l'impressione di essere stati catapultati su un pianeta lontano e sperduto. "So", che pure è un disco finalizzato alla pura vendita commerciale, non cade mai in nessun ricatto discografico: Gabriel scrive quello che gli viene dal cuore (ed è tanta roba) ma non cerca mai di strizzare l'occhiolino alle masse: potrebbe essere definito un disco d'elitè per la struttura musicale e i temi trattati, eppure, furbizia e abilità commerciali e promozionali, hanno fatto vendere a "So" milioni di copie in tutto il mondo (ma non fu record, con 50 milioni di copie vendute è "Thriller" l'album più fortunato degli anni Ottanta). L'abilità di Gabriel sta nell'avere composto una serie impressionanti di brani di altissima fattura, senza mai nè cedere qualcosa sotto il profilo musicale nè tantomeno sotto il profilo emozionale: ci sono le rimembranze Stax di "Sledgehammer" e "Big Time", l'algida "This Is The Picture" (con il contributo non trascurabile di Laurie Anderson), le emozioni purissime di "Don't give up", un duetto tesissimo tra Gabriel e Kate Bush (all'epoca all'apice del proprio splendore) in cui si racconta della drammatica realtà della disoccupazione negli anni yuppies della Gran Bretagna governata da Margaret Tatcher.
"So" potrebbe essere definito una sorta di karma musicale, un modo per avvicinarsi alle realtà stellari inseguendo la dolce poesia di note sublimi e fascinose, apice creativo di un Peter Gabriel che, dopo questo album, avrà modo (su commissione di Martin Scorsese) di registrare la magnifica colonna sonora dell'"Ultima tentazione di Cristo", e l'ottimo "Us" (1992), un filino inferiore rispetto a "So" ma comunque eccellente. E, checchè se ne dica, anche se un pò provato musicalmente, Peter Gabriel non è ancora definitivamente tramontato.
Elenco tracce e testi
01 Red Rain (06:17)
Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me
I am standing up at the water's edge in my dream
I cannot make a single sound as you scream
It can't be that cold, the ground is still warm to touch
Hey - we touch
This place is so quiet, sensing that storm
Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me
Well I've seen them, buried in a sheltered place in this town
They tell you that this rain can sting and look down
There is no blood around see no sign of pain
Hey - no pain
Seeing no red at all, see no rain
Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me
Red rain
Putting the pressure on much harder now
To return again and again (red rain)
Just let the red rain splash you
Let the rain fall on your skin (red rain)
I come to you defences down (oh)
With the trust of a child
Red rain coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me
And I can't watch anymore
No more denial
It's so hard to lay down in all of this
Red rain coming down
Red rain is pouring down
Red rain is coming down all over me
I see it
Red rain coming down
Red rain is pouring down
Red rain is coming down all over me
I'm bathing in
Red rain coming down
Red rain is coming down
Red rain is coming down all over me
I'm begging you
Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down
Over me in the red red sea
Over me
Over me
Red rain
02 Shock the Monkey (06:18)
Cover me when I run
Cover me through the fire
Something knocked me out' the trees
Now I'm on my knees
Cover me, darling please
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don't you know when you're going to shock the monkey
Fox the fox
Rat on the rat
You can ape the ape
I know about that
There is one thing you must be sure of
I can't take any more
Darling, don't you monkey with the monkey
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey
Wheels keep turning
Something's burning
Don't like it but I guess I'm learning
Shock! - watch the monkey get hurt, monkey
Cover me, when I sleep
Cover me, when I breathe
You throw your pearls before the swine
Make the monkey blind
Cover me, darling please
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey
Too much at stake
Ground beneath me shake
And the news is breaking
Shock! - watch the monkey get hurt, monkey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey to life
03 Family Snapshot (04:43)
The streets are lined with camera crews
Everywhere he goes is news
Today is different
Today is not the same
Today I make the action
Take snapshot into the light, snapshot into the light
I'm shooting into the light
Four miles down the cavalcade moves on
Driving into the sun
If I worked it out right
They won't see me or the gun
Two miles to go, they're clearing the road
The cheering has really begun
I've got my radio
I can hear what's going on
I've been waiting for this
I have been waiting for this
All you people in TV land
I will wake up your empty shells
Peak-time viewing blown in a flash
As I burn into your memory cells
'Cos I'm alive
They're coming 'round the corner with the bikers at the front
I'm wiping the sweat from my eyes
-It's a matter of time
-It's a matter of will
And the governor's car is not far behind
He's not the one I've got in mind
'Cos there he is-the man of the hour, standing in the limousine
"I don't really hate you
-I don't care what you do
We were made for each other
-Me and you
I want to be somebody
-You were like that too
If you don't get given you learn to take
And I will take you."
Holding my breath
Release the catch
And I let the bullet fly
All turned quiet-I have been here before
Lonely boy hiding behind the front door
Friends have all gone home
There's my toy gun on the floor
Come back Mum and Dad
You're growing apart
You know that I'm growing up sad
I need some attention
I shoot into the light
04 Sledgehammer (05:17)
You could have a steam train
If you'd just lay down your tracks
You could have an aeroplane flying
If you bring your blue sky back
All you do is call me
I'll be anything you need
You could have a big dipper
Going up and down, all around the bends
You could have a bumper car, bumping
This amusement never ends
I want to be your sledgehammer
Why don't you call my name
Oh, let me be your sledgehammer
This will be my testimony
Show me 'round your fruitcage
'Cause I will be your honey bee
Open up your fruitcage
Where the fruit is as sweet as can be
I want to be your sledgehammer
Why don't you call my name
You'd better call the sledgehammer
Put your mind at rest
I'm going to be the sledgehammer
This can be my testimony
I'm your sledgehammer
Let there be no doubt about it
Sledge, sledge, sledgehammer
I've kicked the habit
Shed my skin
This is the new stuff
I go dancing in
We go dancing in
Oh, won't you show for me
I will show for you
Show for me
I will show for you
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I do mean you
Only you
You've been coming through
Going to build that power
Build, build up that power
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
Going to feel that power build in you
Come on, come on, help me do
Come on, come on, help me do
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
It's what we're doing, doing
All day and night
05 San Jacinto (06:44)
Thick cloud - steam rising - hissing stone on sweat lodge fire
Around me - buffalo robe - sage in bundle - run on skin
Outside - cold air - stand, wait for rising sun
Red paint - eagle feathers - coyote calling - it has begun
Something moving in - I taste it in my mouth and in my heart
It feels like dying - slow - letting go of life
Medicine man lead me up though town - Indian ground -
so far down
Cut up land - each house - a pool - kids wearing water
wings - drink in cool
Follow dry river bed - watch Scout and Guides make
pow-wow signs
Past Geronimo's disco - Sit 'n' Bull steakhouse - white
men dream
A rattle in the old man's sack - look at mountain top -
keep climbing up
Way above us the desert snow - white wind blow
I hold the line - the line of strength that pulls me through
the fear
San Jacinto - I hold the line
San Jacinto - the poison bite and darkness take my sight -
I hold the line
And the tears roll down my swollen cheek - think I'm losing
it - getting weaker
I hold the line - I hold the line
San Jacinto - yellow eagle flies down from the sun -
from the sun
We will walk - on the land
We will breathe - of the air
We will drink - from the stream
We will live - hold the line
06 Biko (11:02)
September '77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
- The man is dead
When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
- The man is dead
You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
- The man is dead
And the eyes of the world are
Watching now
Watching now
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