So (album)
So | ||||
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Studio album by Peter Gabriel | ||||
Publication |
May 19, 1986 |
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Label (s) | Charisma Records | |||
Title (number) |
8 (CD: 9) |
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running time |
40:07 |
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occupation | see below | |||
Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois |
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So the fifth regular is solo - album by the British singer and musician Peter Gabriel , published in 1986th
General and content
Unlike its predecessors, the work is not simply called Peter Gabriel , but was given a title, albeit a minimalist one, for the first time. The album was recorded in Gabriel's then domicile and studio Ashcombe House and is still the most commercially successful of his career. Guest stars include Kate Bush , Laurie Anderson , Stewart Copeland , Youssou N'Dour and Jim Kerr .
The themes of the song lyrics, almost exclusively written by Peter Gabriel himself, are broad: the opener Red Rain is about people who lock up their feelings according to a text written by Wolfgang Tilgner . With Sledgehammer , Gabriel paid a memorable tribute to the soul music of his role model Otis Redding ; the piece became the biggest single hit of his career. The ballad sung in a duet with Kate Bush and the second single Don't Give Up thematize unemployment, desperation and courage. That Voice Again , about the mind's suppression of feelings, closes the A-side. The rousing In Your Eyes , often performed as an encore at concerts, was later contributed by Gabriel to the teenage romance film Teen Lover . The atmospheric Mercy Street is based on the poem of the same name by the poet Anne Sexton . Big Time pokes fun at small-minded megalomania and became another single hit. The original LP closes with the sound experiment We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37) , which was also used in the television series Miami Vice and was sung by Gabriel at concerts as early as 1980 . This piece deals with the Milgram experiment , which was developed in 1961 by psychologist Stanley Milgram to test whether average people obey authoritarian instructions even when they are in direct conflict with their conscience . The original CD and music cassette version contained a bonus track This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds) , a new version of an earlier collaboration between Gabriel and Laurie Anderson .
Re-releases
In 2002 a remastered version of the CD was released. This Is the Picture was retained, In Your Eyes slipped from fifth to last position on the album.
In 2012, a remixed 25th Anniversary version appeared in three different versions:
- just the album
- Special 3 CD Limited Edition : album and two additional CDs with a live recording of a concert in Athens ( 1987 )
- 25th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set : album, two live CDs, a further CD called dna with "unfinished" versions of the pieces, a DVD of the Athens concert, a DVD about the creation of the album, two vinyl LPs and a book (the included Documentary has already been released individually as Classic Albums: So on DVD and Blu-ray Disc ).
Track list
Original from 1986
- Red Rain - 5:40
- Sledgehammer - 5:12
- Don't Give Up - 6:33
- That Voice Again - 4:52
- In Your Eyes - 5:29
- Mercy Street - 6:22
- Big Time - 4:28
- We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37) - 3:22
- This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds) - 4:25 (not included on the original LP version)
Remastered in 2002 and 25th Anniversary 2012
- Red Rain - 5:40
- Sledgehammer - 5:12
- Don't Give Up - 6:33
- That Voice Again - 4:53
- Mercy Street - 6:22
- Big Time - 4:28
- We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37) - 3:22
- This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds) - 4:25
- In Your Eyes - 5:27
Musician
Main cast
- Peter Gabriel - vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, wind arrangements, producer, composition
- Tony Levin - bass, tuba
- David Rhodes - guitar, arrangements, co-writer That Voice Again
- Jerry Marotta - drums
- Manu Katché - drums, percussion
- Daniel Lanois - guitar, wind arrangements, producer
Guest musicians (selection)
- Richard Tee - piano
- Stewart Copeland - drums
- Larry Klein - bass
- Simon Clark - keyboards
- L. Shankar - violin
- Wayne Jackson - trumpet, brass arrangements
- Kate Bush - vocals for Don't Give Up
- Youssou N'Dour - vocals for In Your Eyes
- PP Arnold - backing vocals
- Jim Kerr - backing vocals
- Michael Been - backing vocals
- Laurie Anderson - vocals / co-writer for This Is the Picture
- Bill Laswell - bass on This Is the Picture
- Nile Rodgers - guitar on This Is the Picture
Awards for music sales
It has been awarded 5 gold and 19 platinum awards worldwide.
Country / Region | Award | Sales |
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Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
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Argentina (CAPIF) | gold | 30,000 |
Australia (ARIA) | 3 × platinum | 210,000 |
Belgium (BEA) | gold | 25,000 |
Germany (BVMI) | platinum | 500,000 |
France (SNEP) | gold | 241,800 |
Hong Kong (IFPI / HKRIA) | gold | 10,000 |
Japan (RIAJ) | - | 132,000 |
New Zealand (RMNZ) | 5 × platinum | 75,000 |
Netherlands (NVPI) | platinum | 100,000 |
Switzerland (IFPI) | platinum | 50,000 |
Spain (Promusicae) | gold | 50,000 |
United States (RIAA) | 5 × platinum | 5,000,000 |
United Kingdom (BPI) | 3 × platinum | 900,000 |
All in all |
5 × gold 19 × platinum |
7,323,800 |
Main article: Peter Gabriel / Music Sales Awards
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ release date
- ↑ Thomas Groß: Peter Gabriel - So (1988). May 29, 2017, accessed on September 22, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Sales figures for So in France ( Memento from March 16, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Oricon Entertainment (Ed.): Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 . Roppongi, Tokyo 2006, ISBN 4-87131-077-9 .