I first listened to Peter Gabriel my senior year in high school, thanks to my neighbor and fellow West Albanian, Pat Hawke, who was always giving me the heads up on new music. He lent me Peter Gabriel, and I gave it a listen, but except for "Solsbury Hill" and "Here Comes the Flood," the album didn't really grab me. Gabriel's music wasn't very accessible to ears used to Supertramp, Kansas, and Fleetwood Mac. So I kind of forgot about Gabriel. I ended up missing a lot of music coming out in the late seventies and throughout the eighties, partly because of my Christian fundy stage (1978-1981), and partly because I was off in Guatemala for Peace Corps (1984-88). In between, I think I wasn't listening to much besides Bruce Cockburn. Anyway, it must have been 1989, we were living in the Lower East side then, and Margo and I went to see Say Anything, and there's that great scene with Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) holding up a boom box blaring Gabriel's "In Your Eyes," trying woo back Diane Court (Ione Skye). That song did immediately grab me, and I remember later asking some friends if they knew who did that song. They looked at me like I was an idiot and said it was Peter Gabriel.
So that got me into a Peter Gabriel kick, and though I haven't become an aficionado, I've gotten a lot of intellectual and aesthetic pleasure from his music over the past twenty years. Recently, Gabriel released New Blood, a collection of covers of his 80s hits reinterpreted with classic orchestration. I think the results are pretty uneven. The orchestral intro to "In Your Eyes" sounded to me like a soundtrack to some bad Merchant Ivory knockoff, and the orchestration on "Red Rain," "Mercy Street," and "Solsbury Hill" seems just too delicate to fully deliver those powerful songs.
But I liked what Gabriel did with "San Jacinto," which is somewhere in my top 100 songs of all time. According to an interview Gabriel did for the New Blood production, the lyrics recall a conversation he had with an Apache man about the rite-of-passage he underwent to become a warrior. This rite is juxtaposed with a commentary on the commodification and consumption of the Native North American culture that Gabriel witnessed in San Jacinto (in California, near Palm Springs). Reminds me of my one visit to Kaneeta way back in 1979, which now lures people with this catchy slogan: "Escape to where the fun shines!"
So that got me into a Peter Gabriel kick, and though I haven't become an aficionado, I've gotten a lot of intellectual and aesthetic pleasure from his music over the past twenty years. Recently, Gabriel released New Blood, a collection of covers of his 80s hits reinterpreted with classic orchestration. I think the results are pretty uneven. The orchestral intro to "In Your Eyes" sounded to me like a soundtrack to some bad Merchant Ivory knockoff, and the orchestration on "Red Rain," "Mercy Street," and "Solsbury Hill" seems just too delicate to fully deliver those powerful songs.
But I liked what Gabriel did with "San Jacinto," which is somewhere in my top 100 songs of all time. According to an interview Gabriel did for the New Blood production, the lyrics recall a conversation he had with an Apache man about the rite-of-passage he underwent to become a warrior. This rite is juxtaposed with a commentary on the commodification and consumption of the Native North American culture that Gabriel witnessed in San Jacinto (in California, near Palm Springs). Reminds me of my one visit to Kaneeta way back in 1979, which now lures people with this catchy slogan: "Escape to where the fun shines!"
Peter Gabriel, San Jacinto, IV (1982)
Listen to the original version and you will hear the four stanzas unfold in distinct ways, though a repeated melody of synthesized chimes connects the first three (lyrics below). Gabriel starts off soft, his usually gravely voice smoothed. Then there is the transition with female vocals saying something that I've never been able to figure out, but, anyway, the song continues to build, adding instrumentation and volume, until Gabriel shouts, as if from a mountaintop, "I hold the line!" Heavy bass and dark horns make it all sound so dire, and he falters for a bit--"think I'm losing it"--before sweeping on to his declaration. But holding the line is not about resistance, it's about survival. And the last stanza is sung in a tone that suggests weariness more than confidence.
And I suppose that is what initially drew me to the song. I didn't (and don't, or can't, really) identify with Gabriel's narrative posture as a Native North American, but musically the song seemed so close to how I've felt at times, of near losing it, of persevering without a great deal of confidence.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
San Jacinto lyrics
Thick cloud - steam rising - hissing stone on sweat lodge fire
Around me - buffalo robe - sage in bundle - rub 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 through 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
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The new version keeps the compositional design of the original, but the orchestral instruments make the tone lighter, replacing somberness with a meditative spirit. Gabriel has thirty more years on him, and perhaps he's too old, too wise, to wallow in direness. The musical transition from the third to the fourth stanza is almost upbeat, but it soon returns to melancholy. In the last passage, as the flutes die out and the strings move into a minor key, we hear in the background labored breaths, and it feels to me as if now the issue is not just weariness, but loneliness.
However one interprets these musical texts, they are both beautifully rendered, and if you're a Peter Gabriel fan, New Blood deserves a listen, though it may not get your admiration.
And I suppose that is what initially drew me to the song. I didn't (and don't, or can't, really) identify with Gabriel's narrative posture as a Native North American, but musically the song seemed so close to how I've felt at times, of near losing it, of persevering without a great deal of confidence.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
San Jacinto lyrics
Thick cloud - steam rising - hissing stone on sweat lodge fire
Around me - buffalo robe - sage in bundle - rub 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 through 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
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The new version keeps the compositional design of the original, but the orchestral instruments make the tone lighter, replacing somberness with a meditative spirit. Gabriel has thirty more years on him, and perhaps he's too old, too wise, to wallow in direness. The musical transition from the third to the fourth stanza is almost upbeat, but it soon returns to melancholy. In the last passage, as the flutes die out and the strings move into a minor key, we hear in the background labored breaths, and it feels to me as if now the issue is not just weariness, but loneliness.
However one interprets these musical texts, they are both beautifully rendered, and if you're a Peter Gabriel fan, New Blood deserves a listen, though it may not get your admiration.
Peter Gabriel, San Jacinto, New Blood (2011)
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