1986 studio album by Peter Gabriel
So
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Original UK vinyl cover
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Released
| 19 May 1986
(
1986-05-19
)
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Recorded
| February?December 1985
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Studio
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Genre
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Length
| - 41
:
56
(vinyl)
- 46
:
21
(CD)
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Label
| |
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Producer
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So
is the fifth
studio album
by English singer-songwriter
Peter Gabriel
, released on 19 May 1986 by
Charisma Records
and
Virgin Records
. After working on
the soundtrack
to the film
Birdy
(1984), producer
Daniel Lanois
was invited to remain at Gabriel's Somerset home during 1985 to work on his next solo project. Initial sessions for
So
consisted of Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist
David Rhodes
, although these grew to include a number of percussionists.
Although Gabriel continued to use the pioneering
Fairlight CMI
digital
sampling
synthesizer, songs from these sessions were less experimental than his previous material. Nevertheless, Gabriel drew on various musical influences, fusing pop, soul, and art rock with elements of traditional world music, particularly African and Brazilian styles. It is Gabriel's first non-eponymous album,
So
representing an "anti-title" that resulted from label pressure to "properly" market his music. Gabriel toured
So
on the This Way Up tour (1986?1987), with some songs performed at human rights and charity concerts during this period.
Often considered his best and most accessible album,
So
was an immediate commercial success and transformed Gabriel from a
cult artist
into a mainstream star, becoming his best-selling solo release. It has been certified fivefold platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America
and triple platinum by the
British Phonographic Industry
. The album's lead single, "
Sledgehammer
", was promoted with an innovative animated
music video
and achieved particular success, reaching number one on the
Billboard
Hot 100
and subsequently winning a record of nine
MTV Video Music Awards
. It was followed by four further singles, "
Don't Give Up
" (a duet with
Kate Bush
), "
Big Time
", "
In Your Eyes
", and "
Red Rain
".
The album received positive reviews from most critics, who praised its songwriting, melodies and fusion of genres, although some retrospective reviews have criticised its overt commercialism and 1980s production sounds.
So
was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
in 1987 but lost to
Paul Simon
's
Graceland
. It has appeared in lists of the best albums of the 1980s, and
Rolling Stone
included the album in their 2003 and 2020 editions of the
500 Greatest Albums of All Time
. In 2000 it was voted number 82 in
Colin Larkin
's
All Time Top 1000 Albums
.
[12]
So
was remastered in 2002, partially re-recorded for Gabriel's 2011 orchestral project
New Blood
and issued as a box set in 2012.
Recording
[
edit
]
Since 1978, Gabriel had composed his music at
Ashcombe House
, including his album
Security
(1982) and the
Birdy
soundtrack (1984). He had an inexpensive studio in the adjacent barn consisting of two rooms, one where Gabriel would produce his vocals and work on lyrics, and another where the music would be assembled.
Preparing for
So
, Gabriel considered
Bill Laswell
and
Chic
's
Nile Rodgers
as potential producers. He eventually asked his
Birdy
collaborator
Daniel Lanois
to stay at Ashcombe and work with him further.
Work on the album began in earnest in February 1985, with "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" as the first song.
[16]
Some of the initial sessions consisted of Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist
David Rhodes
playing together: Gabriel had begun work on some songs and provided Lanois and Rhodes with chord structures, around which they improvised compositions. Lanois recalled they had "a nice starting point [as] in that kind of scenario, it's not a good idea to have a lot of people around because you get nervous that you're wasting other people's time". Consequently, there was a relaxed atmosphere surrounding these sessions and the trio would jokingly refer to themselves as the "
Three Stooges
". This also involved the wearing of construction site
hard hats
as they had a "turning up for work humour".
As sessions grew,
engineer/mixer
Kevin Killen
,
bassist
Tony Levin
, and drummer
Jerry Marotta
became significant contributors, and were aided by percussionists
Manu Katche
and
Stewart Copeland
and violinist
L. Shankar
.
The studio's basic equipment consisted of "two analog 24-track machines, a
Studer A80
, and a Studer A80 shell that had been modified by a local electronics wizard, with its own audio cards and transport controls".
[nb 2]
To record vocals a
Neumann
U47 tube microphone and a Decca compressor were used without
equalization
.
[19]
All of
So
'
s songs were made in a similar format. Gabriel would record demo parts on a modified "B machine" - using mainly a
Yamaha piano
and
Prophet-5
over a
Linn 9000
drum beat - and play this to the band. During rehearsals, the band would listen to the B machine through headphones and record their output onto the "A machine"; parts of Gabriel's demo would also be transferred to the A machine at this stage. Subsequent takes of the song were then put onto the B machine in order for the band to hear what they had played with the demo, as well as the song's new and old takes.
[19]
[20]
Other equipment included the "groundbreaking"
Fairlight CMI synthesizer
, which Gabriel said in an interview for
Billboard
meant "more human imagination is involved". He added, "the creative decision-making process has become more important than technique. You have a wider range of tools, a wider range of decisions".
[21]
[22]
Although remaining continually inspired to produce new music, he often struggled to write lyrics and would procrastinate.
His proclivity to being dissatisfied with them required Killen to isolate certain vocal performances as the
master track
, in order to keep other tracks available so new lyrics could be edited in.
[19]
Lanois took adverse measures to encourage his writing, such as destroying his much-used telephone in the nearby woods and, on one occasion, nailed the studio door shut to lock him inside.
Towards the end of recording, Gabriel became "obsessed" with the track listing and created an audio cassette of all the song's beginnings and ends to hear how the sounds blended together.
He wanted to have "In Your Eyes" as the final track, but its prominent bassline meant it had to be placed earlier on the vinyl edition as there is more room for the
stylus
to vibrate. With later CD releases, this restriction was removed and the track was placed at the end of the album.
[25]
So
was completed in February 1986 and cost
£
200,000 to make. It was
over-dubbed
at
Power Station Studios
in
New York
(as well as all horn section parts having been recorded there), despite Gabriel considering sending it via a computer-telephone set up, reasoning, "that's a lot of information to send via phone. Isn't it amazing though? You can send a song idea around the world to musicians then beam parts back by satellite".
[22]
It was
mastered
by Ian Cooper in mid-February 1986 at London's
Townhouse Studios
.
[20]
[26]
Composition
[
edit
]
So
has been described as Gabriel's most commercially accessible and least experimental album,
[3]
[27]
one that features
pop
songs
[1]
and incorporates
art pop
[2]
[28]
and
progressive pop
[4]
throughout. Like his previous albums, its basis is in
art rock
, although on
So
, Gabriel develops an increased focus on
melody
and combines this with elements of
soul
and
African music
.
[3]
"With a song like
(the previous album's)
'The Rhythm of the Heat' or 'The Family and the Fishing Net', if I were to strum that along on a guitar or piano, the song might not work very well ... whereas more of the things on this album do work just as lyric, melody and chords in a more traditional sense."
[29]
The songs are highly influenced by
traditional world music
, particularly
African
and
Brazilian music
, with Gabriel incorporating rhythms and
drum beats
from these regions.
[30]
[31]
In a 2011 interview for
Uncut
, Gabriel said, "I'd had my fill of instrumental experimenting for a while, and I wanted to write proper pop songs, albeit on my own terms."
[32]
Jon Pareles
of
The New York Times
notes that Gabriel "doesn't just add on African drums or Indian violin to ordinary songs; they are part of the foundation."
[30]
Chris Roberts of
Classic Rock
also notes that the album "[takes] the Fairlight synth and [adds] a palatable dash of world music to art pop."
[33]
Daniel Lanois' production was noted as textured, replete with ambient details and "immaculate warmth giving each note room to breathe, its textures lavish (in the preferred style of the time) without being sterile".
[31]
[34]
Side one
[
edit
]
Gabriel wanted the album to "crash open at the front". Despite disliking "metal" percussion instruments, he was persuaded by Lanois to allow
the Police
's Stewart Copeland to play cymbals and hi-hat on its opener, "Red Rain".
Gabriel sings ? in his
upper register
, with a throaty, gravelly texture ? of a destructive world with
social problems
such as
torture
and
kidnapping
.
[30]
[31]
Its concept originated from a dream in which he envisaged the parting of a vast, red sea and human-like glass bottles filling up with blood. It was also intended to continue the story of Mozo, a recurring character on Gabriel's first and second albums.
"Sledgehammer" was the final track to be conceived. Most of Gabriel's band had packed away their equipment and were ready to leave the studio, but he asked them to reassemble to quickly run through a song he had an idea for.
"Sledgehammer" was partially inspired by the music of
Otis Redding
, and Gabriel sought out
Wayne Jackson
, whom Gabriel had seen on tour with Redding in the 1960s, to record horns for the track.
Opened by a
shakuhachi bamboo flute
, its beat is dominated by
brass instruments
, particularly Jackson's horn, and features lyrics abundant with sexual euphemisms.
[31]
[39]
[nb 3]
Manu Katche
's drums were recorded in one take as he believed any subsequent version would be inferior to his original interpretation of the music.
So
'
s most political statement, "Don't Give Up", was fuelled by Gabriel's discontent with rising unemployment during
Margaret Thatcher
's
premiership
and
Dorothea Lange
's photograph "
Migrant Mother
".
[31]
The track began as a
Linn
drum machine pattern
of slow, low-pitched
tom-tom drums
that Gabriel made, and Lanois believed could serve as the centrepiece of a song.
Tony Levin added bass to create a more
harmonious
sound,
and during the second half of the track, put a
nappy
behind his bass strings to dampen the sound.
Gabriel ensured the song, which follows a narrative of an unemployed man and his lover, was written as a conversational piece. He initially sought
Dolly Parton
to portray the woman; although Parton declined, his friend
Kate Bush
agreed to feature.
Bush serves as the song's respondent, she assumes a comforting role and with delicate vocals, sings lines such as "Rest your head/ you worry too much".
[27]
[34]
The album's first side culminates with "That Voice Again", in which Gabriel explores the concept of
conscience
, examining the "parental voice in our heads that either helps or defeats us".
[31]
[46]
Co-written with David Rhodes, who plays guitar over Katche and Levin's input, the song was written after Gabriel's initial discussions with
Martin Scorsese
about scoring
The Last Temptation of Christ
(1988).
[nb 4]
Side two
[
edit
]
"In Your Eyes" has been described as Gabriel's greatest
love song
.
[3]
Inspired by the
Sagrada Familia
and its architect
Antoni Gaudi
, Gabriel sings over a drumbeat of only feeling complete in the eyes of his lover.
[30]
The track's powerful atmosphere is created through the singing of Senegalese musician
Youssou N'Dour
, who sings in his native
Wolof
.
[46]
Gabriel became interested in the late American poet
Anne Sexton
after reading the anthology
To Bedlam and Part Way Back
. He dedicated
So
'
s sixth track to her, calling it "Mercy Street" after "45 Mercy Street", a poem released in another posthumous collection.
"Mercy Street" is set to one of several
Forro
-inspired percussion compositions that Gabriel recorded in
Rio de Janeiro
. When these compositions were unearthed in the studio, they were accidentally played back ten per cent slower than the original recording, giving them a grainy quality that Gabriel and Lanois thought highlighted the
cymbal
and guitars.
It features two harmonious Gabriel vocals; one a shadow vocal an octave below the main vocal. Intended to give a sensual, haunting effect, this was hard to capture except when Gabriel first woke up.
The
dance
song "Big Time" has
funk
influences and is built on a "percussive bass sound".
[3]
[31]
Its lyrics satirise the
yuppie
culture of the 1980s,
materialism
and
consumerism
and are the result of Gabriel's self-examination, after he considered whether he may have desired fame after all.
[30]
[31]
"We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" was recorded for
Peter Gabriel or "Melt"
[54]
and is described as an interlude. It references the
experiment on obedience
carried out by American social psychologist
Stanley Milgram
, intended as a reference to the obedience citizens show to dictators during times of war.
Marotta's drums on the song ? said to resemble "a heartbeat heard from the womb"
[27]
? were coupled with Shankar's violin and "two overdubbed guitar tracks by Rhodes".
While "We Do What We're Told" was the final song on initial LP versions of the album, the cassette and CD releases close with "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", which Gabriel decided to include only forty-eight hours before the album's submission.
"Excellent Birds" was composed with American musician
Laurie Anderson
. They recorded the song and the filmed music video over a period of three days - which was relatively quick by Gabriel's standards - for inclusion on the 1984 global satellite television broadcast
Good Morning, Mr. Orwell
.
[16]
This was interpolated into a recording called "This Is the Picture", on which
Nile Rodgers
plays rhythm guitar.
According to Anderson, she and Gabriel "could never agree on what a bassline was. (I think I probably don’t hear so well down there.) I wanted to learn from him, but it turned into a standoff and so we each put out our own version of the song."
[57]
However, Gabriel remembered it slightly differently: both of them quite liked the song such that they agreed to release it on their own albums.
[16]
Anderson's version, with Gabriel on additional vocals, appeared on her 1984 album
Mister Heartbreak
, which is closer to the version premiered on
Good Morning, Mr. Orwell
.
[16]
Gabriel's own version was based on the groove, while Anderson's version was "more fragmented".
[16]
Release
[
edit
]
So
is Gabriel's first non-eponymous album. Gabriel has noted his dislike for titling albums, mainly because it distracts from the sleeve design.
In an interview for
Rolling Stone
, he explained that his American label
Geffen Records
refused to release
Peter Gabriel IV
until it was retitled
Security
. He elaborated that for
So
"[he] decided to go for the anti-title ... It can be more a piece of graphic, if you like, as opposed to something with meaning and intention. And that's what I've done ever since".
[59]
When the album was profiled in the
Classic Albums
documentary series, Gabriel quipped that its short title meant it could be enlarged and useful when marketing it.
Before the album was eventually named
So
, it was meant to be entitled
Good
.
[60]
The album's cover is a portrait of Gabriel photographed by
Trevor Key
, who was then most famous for capturing the bell artwork for
Mike Oldfield
's
Tubular Bells
(1973). The sleeve was designed by
Peter Saville
and
Brett Wickens
; Saville was best known for designing several sleeves for
Factory Records
artists and was paid £20,000 for his work on
So
.
[62]
According to Saville, the cover was based on the one he designed for
New Order
's album
Low-Life
the previous year, utilizing a similar method of taking
Polaroid photos
to produce a "groovy" portrait of the artist; Saville described the results as "contemporary, young but grown up, mature."
[60]
Gabriel recalled: "The only compromise I made was to go with Peter Saville's idea for a retro-style portrait. I was told my usual obscure LP sleeves alienated women."
[32]
Saville, meanwhile, stated that the cover was influenced by the impassioned tone and unusually accessible nature of the music, following a nighttime drive where he witnessed a car crash, then reluctantly started playing a test cassette of the album and was moved to tears by Gabriel's performance.
[60]
The cover was partly influenced by photographer
David Bailey
's work.
[63]
So
was released on 19 May 1986. It topped the charts of seven countries worldwide, including the United Kingdom, where it became Gabriel's second number one album. In the United States,
So
became one of
Geffen Records
' most commercially successful releases, peaking at number two and remaining on the chart for ninety-three weeks.
In April 1986, "Sledgehammer" was released as the album's
lead single
and became Gabriel's first and only number one on the
Billboard
Hot 100
, displacing Genesis' first and only US number one "
Invisible Touch
".
[39]
The track reached number four in the United Kingdom, where it ties with "
Games Without Frontiers
" as his highest-charting single, and peaked at number one in Canada.
[66]
[67]
The success of "Sledgehammer" can be seen, in part, due to its hugely popular and innovative
stop motion
music video, designed by
Aardman Animations
. Gabriel would go on to say in an interview for
Rolling Stone
that he believed the video exposed
So
'
s songs to a wider audience, bolstering the album's success.
Two high-charting singles followed, "Don't Give Up", which rose to number nine on the
UK Singles Chart
and a less successful seventy-nine in America, while "Big Time" peaked at number thirteen in the UK and number eight in America. "In Your Eyes" saw moderate success in America, where it reached twenty-six on the Hot 100, while "Red Rain" peaked at forty-six in the United Kingdom.
[66]
[69]
Bono
contacted Gabriel to perform at
A Conspiracy of Hope
, a series of
Live Aid
-inspired concerts that intended to spread awareness of
human rights
issues in light of
Amnesty International
's twenty-fifth anniversary. Gabriel accepted and in June 1986, he performed alongside
Sting
,
the Police
,
Lou Reed
, and
Joan Baez
, with a set that opened with "Red Rain" and featured "Sledgehammer". Gabriel described it as "the best tour [he'd] ever been on".
In the same month, Gabriel performed at London's
Clapham Common
, along with
Boy George
and
Elvis Costello
, for Artists Against Apartheid.
Gabriel eventually embarked on the ninety-three date This Way Up tour to support
So
, beginning in
Rochester, New York
on 7 November 1986. One of the dates was a special two-night residency (20?21 December) at
Tokyo
's
Meiji Jingu Stadium
to fund a global computer system for the
University for Peace
, a
United Nations
project.
The tour suspended in early 1987 until June when it reached Europe, before going on to America and finishing at the
Lycabettus Amphitheatre
in
Athens
in October.
Gabriel partially performed
So
at
The Prince's Trust
Concert and at Human Rights Now! Tour in 1988.
Critical reception
[
edit
]
So
received mostly favourable reviews from music critics. Jon Pareles of
The New York Times
wrote "only a handful of Western rock musicians have managed to use exotic rhythms and instruments with so much ingenuity and conviction". Pareles also praised his vocals, describing them as "grainy but not bluesy, ageless and joyless, the voice of some ancient mariner recounting disasters".
[30]
Tim Holmes of
Rolling Stone
described the album as "a record of considerable emotional complexity and musical sophistication" and was pleased that it would assist exposing Gabriel to mainstream pop music.
[27]
Terry Atkinson of
Los Angeles Times
viewed the album as offering "an amazing variety of tones, moods and topics, and a consistently powerful level of expression". Although disliking "Big Time", Atkinson concluded
So
was "a great album, possibly Gabriel's best".
[46]
Steve Hochman, also of
Los Angeles Times
, praised Gabriel's reinvention too, describing it as "real progress" compared to the contemporaneous work of other progressive rock acts such as
Genesis
,
GTR
and
Marillion
.
[84]
Chicago Tribune
'
s Lynn Van Matre praised the album's "wave of funky rhythms" and called for more appreciation of Gabriel's talent, but noted a lack of "quirkiness" and said there were no tracks as impactful as his 1980 single "
Biko
".
[85]
Robert Christgau
was also lukewarm in
The Village Voice
, writing that "Gabriel's so smart he knows rhythm is what makes music go, which relieves him of humdrum melodic responsibilities but doesn't get him up
on the one
?smart guys do go for texture in a pinch."
[83]
So
has continued to perform well in most retrospective reviews.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
of
AllMusic
commended
So
as the "catchiest, happiest record he ever cut". Erlewine particularly praised Gabriel's fusion of
art rock
with
African music
and
soul
.
[3]
Jude Rogers
of the
BBC
wrote "once you look past the bombast of "Sledgehammer", ... you notice how easily its artful ideas slipped inside the 80s mainstream".
[39]
The Quietus
'
Wyndham Wallace praised
So
'
s sincerity and called it "a heartfelt journey through intense emotional territory, assembled and arranged with intricacy and commitment, laboured over with such care that it sounds effortless".
[31]
Ryan Bray, writer for
Consequence of Sound
, concluded
So
was an "all-too-rare record that manages to have it both ways, earning its richly deserved critical and commercial respect without giving so much as an artistic inch". He added that "it still stands on its own two feet as one of the consensus best records of the 80s".
[34]
Mark Blake of
Q
described the album as "carbon-dated to 1986 thanks to those blaring saxes and Fairlight CMI digital sampling synths". He added that "Gabriel crafted an album of user-friendly pop that was still reassuringly odd."
[79]
Terry Staunton of
Classic Rock
wrote "Red Rain was familiarly pensive and politically charged, but the radio waves completely surrendered to the record's muscular dance rock and slower tempo eloquence." Staunton concluded that Gabriel had displayed "a masterful confidence, delivering a satisfyingly unified whole".
[86]
In a less positive retrospective review,
Mojo
'
s David Buckley contrasted the album with Gabriel's earlier, more experimental work, stating "on 1986's
So
, he switched tack to write pop, and write big. The results are mixed. 'Sledgehammer', echoing both
Stevie Wonder
's '
Superstition
' and
David Bowie
's '
Fame
', retains its punch. Elsewhere, Gabriel sounds airbrushed on 'Mercy Street', 'Red Rain' and 'In Your Eyes', with only 'We Do What We're Told' a reminder of a daring past."
[87]
In a mostly positive 8/10 review for
Uncut
, John Lewis also directed criticism at the album. He praised its state-of-the-art production in parts, highlighting "Big Time" and "Sledgehammer" as standout tracks, but stated elsewhere it interfered, such as the
Fairlight CMI
synthesizer on "That Voice Again" and whistling ambient accompaniment on "Mercy Street".
[82]
Legacy
[
edit
]
Though the "Sledgehammer" video's ubiquity has bludgeoned the song, its parent album is a marvel ... awash in delicate percussion, tasteful keyboards, and bubbling bass, "Red Rain" and "Mercy Street" are stunning. Of the epics, the Kate Bush duet "Don't Give Up" is heartwrenching, while "In Your Eyes" achieved iconic status after its appearance in the John Cusack movie
Say Anything
. Excellent albums followed, but the breathtaking
So
is the best introduction to a dazzling discography.
?
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
At the
29th Annual Grammy Awards
,
So
was nominated for
Album of the Year
, losing to
Paul Simon
's
Graceland
(1986), while "Sledgehammer" received nominations for
Record of the Year
,
Song of the Year
and
Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
.
[89]
[90]
At the sixth
Brit Awards
, hosted by
Jonathan King
at the
Grosvenor House Hotel
, London, Gabriel won Best British Male Artist and "Sledgehammer" won Best British Music Video.
[91]
Gabriel was most successful at the
1987 MTV Video Music Awards
where he was honoured with the
Video Vanguard Award
and "Sledgehammer" won an additional nine awards including
Video of the Year
, a record that has not been challenged. Its video is the most played music video in the history of
MTV
.
[92]
So
is often regarded as Gabriel's best album, as well as one of the best albums of the 1980s. It enabled Gabriel to transform from a
cult artist
, acclaimed for his cerebral, experimental solo work, into a mainstream, internationally known star.
[93]
Rolling Stone
placed
So
at 187 (2003 edition) and 297 (2020 edition) on its
500 Greatest Albums of All Time
and at 14 on its 100 Best Albums of the 1980s, noting that "despite its mass appeal, however,
So
also presented compelling challenges."
[94]
[95]
[96]
Stereogum
placed it at number one on its list of Gabriel's best albums, writing, "Peter Gabriel's fifth studio album is a mesmerizing dichotomy: simultaneously hooky and experimental; timeless, yet completely crystallizing its moment in history ... It's a masterpiece.
[97]
So
has been profiled in the
Classic Albums
series and featured in
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
.
Slant Magazine
listed the album at 41 on its list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s, describing it as "Gabriel's most accessible yet ambitious work. A chronicle of political, emotional, and artistic exploration, the album [attempts] to balance standard pop orthodoxy with his still-rumbling desire for sonic experimentation".
[99]
Jim Allen wrote for
Ultimate Classic Rock
, "What makes
So
important is the way he seamlessly blended peerless pop savvy with an iconoclast’s adventurous artistic instincts. His slightly twisted pop songs packed enough emotional impact, sonic surprises and catchy melodies to make for one of the era’s most consistently rewarding records."
[1]
Conversely, in 2002
The Guardian
'
s lead critic
Alexis Petridis
stated that Gabriel had "suffered a musical mid-life crisis", lampooning it as "an album packed with ultra-commercial priapic cod-funk" and calling it "a ruthless bid for mainstream success, yet he emerged without a stain on his
avant-garde
credentials".
[100]
So
is Gabriel's best-selling album,
[101]
having been certified fivefold platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) and triple platinum by the
British Phonographic Industry
(BPI).
[1]
In 2002,
So
was re-issued and remastered.
[102]
In 2011, several of tracks from
So
were featured on Gabriel's ninth studio release
New Blood
, a project of
orchestral
re-recordings from Gabriel's discography.
[103]
In 2012, for the album's twenty-fifth anniversary, a limited edition box set was released. It includes the remastered
So
album, the
Live at Athens
(1987) album and a
So DNA
album which examines its production, as well as new liner notes, photographs, vinyl collectibles and the
So: Classic Albums
documentary.
[104]
In the same year, Gabriel embarked on the
Back to Front Tour
where Gabriel plays every song on the
So
album with several of the session musicians from its recording.
[25]
Michael Glabicki of the American band
Rusted Root
acknowledges this album as a key influence on his own career exploring
worldbeat
music, saying, "I just kind of got locked into that sound. Peter Gabriel's
So
kind of gave everyone the go-ahead that this could work in a popular fashion. For people like me who were exploring those sounds, the wonder of if it's going to work or not just went away at that point."
[105]
English musician
Steven Wilson
said, "People think the 80s were a shallow, superficial era", but he cited
So
as an album that was "really smart".
[4]
Track listing
[
edit
]
All songs written by
Peter Gabriel
, except "That Voice Again" written with
David Rhodes
and "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" written with
Laurie Anderson
.
Side two
Title
|
---|
1.
| "
In Your Eyes
"
| 5:27
|
---|
2.
| "
Mercy Street
"
| 6:22
|
---|
3.
| "
Big Time
"
| 4:28
|
---|
4.
| "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)"
| 3:22
|
---|
5.
| "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)"
| 4:25
|
---|
Notes:
- "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" did not appear on vinyl pressings until 2002.
- "In Your Eyes" appears as side 2, track 5 (track 9 on CD) on all pressings from 2002 and later.
Personnel
[
edit
]
Credits adapted from
So
'
s liner notes. The track numbers correspond to the original release.
[106]
- Peter Gabriel
? lead and backing vocals,
CMI
(all tracks),
Prophet synthesizer
(all except tracks 5 & 9), piano (all except tracks 7 & 9),
Linn 9000
(tracks 3 & 7), synthesizer (tracks 5 & 7), percussion (track 4),
Yamaha CS-80
(track 6),
LinnDrum
(track 9),
Synclavier
(track 9)
- Tony Levin
? bass guitar (tracks 1?5), drumstick bass (fretting only) (track 7)
- David Rhodes
? guitar (all except tracks 6 & 9), backing vocals (tracks 1 & 5)
- Jerry Marotta
? drums (tracks 1 & 8), additional drums (track 5), bass guitar (drumming only) (track 7)
- Manu Katche
? drums (tracks 2?5), percussion (tracks 3?5),
talking drum
(tracks 5 & 9)
- Chris Hughes
?
electronic drums
, programming (track 1)
- Stewart Copeland
?
hi-hat
(track 1), drums (track 7)
- Daniel Lanois
? guitar (tracks 1, 2 & 4), tambourine (track 2),
surf
guitar (track 7),
twelve-string guitar
(track 9)
- Wayne Jackson
? trumpet (tracks 2 & 7),
cornet
(track 7)
- Mark Rivera
?
tenor saxophone
(tracks 2 & 7), processed saxophone (track 6),
alto saxophone
,
baritone saxophone
(track 7)
- Don Mikkelsen ? trombone (tracks 2 & 7)
- P. P. Arnold
? backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7)
- Coral Gordon ? backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7)
- Dee Lewis ? backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7)
- Richard Tee
? piano (tracks 3, 5 & 6)
- Simon Clark
?
keyboards
, backing vocals (track 3),
Hammond organ
, programming, bass guitar (track 7)
- Kate Bush
? vocals (track 3)
- L. Shankar
? violin (tracks 4 & 8)
- Larry Klein
? bass guitar (tracks 5 & 6)
- Youssou N'Dour
? backing vocals (track 5)
- Michael Been
? backing vocals (track 5)
- Jim Kerr
? backing vocals (track 5)
- Ronnie Bright
?
bass vocals
(track 5)
- Djalma Correa
?
surdo
,
congas
, triangle (track 6)
- Jimmy Bralower ?
programming
kick
(track 7)
- Bill Laswell
? bass guitar (track 9)
- Nile Rodgers
? guitar (track 9)
- Laurie Anderson
? synthesizer and vocals (track 9)
- Greg Fulginiti
? mastering
Charts
[
edit
]
Weekly charts
[
edit
]
|
Year-end charts
[
edit
]
|
Certifications
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Notes
- ^
All of these release dates pertain to their release in the United Kingdom,
except "In Your Eyes" which was released in the US in August 1986.
[6]
- ^
Killen notes that by September 1985, all of the material was on a Mitsubishi 32-track
digital audio tape
.
[19]
- ^
When
So
was overdubbed at Power Station Studio, New York, the German electronic band
Kraftwerk
were finishing
Electric Cafe
(1986) and "Sledgehammer" was played to them.
David Buckley
, a Kraftwerk biographer, wrote, "they were knocked back by how fantastic it sounded. They felt their record was puny sonically by comparison, even though it's a completely different genre of music".
- ^
Gabriel eventually agreed to score the film and released
Passion
(1989) to acclaim, winning a
Grammy Award for Best New Age Album
at the 1990 ceremony.
[48]
Note that
Passion
is sometimes titled
Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ
. Gabriel has said this is due to "legal barriers".
[49]
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b
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British Phonographic Industry
. Retrieved
25 July
2020
.
- ^
"American album certifications ? Peter Gabriel ? So"
.
Recording Industry Association of America
. Retrieved
25 July
2020
.
Sources
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Studio albums
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Live albums
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Singles
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Songs
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Soundtracks
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Compilations
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Concert tours
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Films
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Video games
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Other
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