Peter Gabriel covers Magnetic Fields?

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I just saw the trailer for the crummy-looking remake of "Shall We Dance?" and playing over the titles was what sounded to me very much like Peter Gabriel in full "in your eyes I see the doorways of a thousand churches" mode covering "The Book of Love" from 69 Love Songs. WTF? Is this a good idea, for mainstream pop stars to start performing Stephin Merritt's songs? (I think maybe it is)

― antexit (antexit), Saturday, 26 June 2004 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Is he still a "mainstream pop star"?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 26 June 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Mannfred Mann once covered one of my songs, 'A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17-24)'. It was odd. They were certainly no longer mainstream -- this was early 90s. The result sounds like The Divine Comedy meeting Yes.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 26 June 2004 04:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Momus. I've been hoping to catch up with you. I have to ask this. (Though I know what the answer will be) I have to ask: Is it really you singing on March In Turin? I love that song and hadn't particularly thought about it much in years when for some reason it just came back to me.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 04:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd rather hear him cover the Fields of the Nephilim.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 04:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Almost anyone would be better singing Fields of The Nephilim than the singer himself.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 04:54 (twenty-one years ago)

But getting back to this thread topic, Peter Gabriel has enough of my respect to cover anything he damn well pleases.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 04:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Mock Not Carl McCoy, or he'll club you with his mic stand!

http://www.sb-photographies.com/musique/mera/Fields/Fields1.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Please Mistah, don't let the ssssssscary goth hurt me.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:03 (twenty-one years ago)

can one be a credibly scary goth whilst sproting a fisherman's utility vest like that?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:04 (twenty-one years ago)

No telling what he gets up to at night fishing out there in his little boat...

Jeez, you're gonna give me nightmares.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:07 (twenty-one years ago)

hahahahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Y'know, the Nephs were lucky to get away without any finger-pointing for that whole Columbine thing...

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:11 (twenty-one years ago)

The Nephs? Why, they were long gone by the time of Columbine? Was Dylan Klebold a big fan of theirs?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Boy has this thread gone off topic. I blame myself.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I was thinking of them as the originators of that whole long black trenchcoat thing.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The Bunnymen wore long black coats too, and they well predate the Nephs.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

..and they wore lots of camo.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

The Bunnymen were hardly dead-eyed goths with misanthropy etched into their hearts, were they? And the Nephs' coats was leather, wasn't they?

What was this thread about again?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, the Sisters invariably beat the Nephs at that game first.

i don't think, for that matter, that the Nephs were misanthropes though.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

When I think of dark trenchcoats, I think Bunnymen, too, sorry.

Eldritch had a much better voice.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:21 (twenty-one years ago)

x post

I might be exaggerating for comic effect. The Nephs have that effect on me.

Great. Now you've given me a Wayne Hussey flashback.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Why you brazen hussey you!

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:22 (twenty-one years ago)

http://darkwaves.co.uk/photos2/huss83.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:25 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.gepr.net/fotn.jpg

We have come for your children.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:25 (twenty-one years ago)

x post

OMG ROTFL WTF IS THAT?!?!?!?!?

Wayne Hussey, the Wham! Years?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:26 (twenty-one years ago)

ha ha ha ha dated photo alert!

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I want everyone right now to imagine the goth version of Wham!

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm just imagining Hussey singing "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go".

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:28 (twenty-one years ago)

That's Wayne in pre-Sisters days when he was in Dead or ALive.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Or in his case....Dead or in Serious Need of Tonsorial/Sartorial Assistance

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Was he really in Dead or Alive?

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:32 (twenty-one years ago)

http://darkwaves.co.uk/press/plo.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, he was in Dead or Alive pre-Sophisiticated Boom Boom (though he appears on that album).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"Ay Seenorita, you wan' go for a ride on my feeshing boat?"

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Well I did like the first Mission 12" but that was it.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Scarily....Wayne recently:

http://www.dynamite.com.br/revista/images/destaque2/51.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Did that Talk Talk Talk come from Melody Maker? Wow, what a trip down memory lane!

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I love how this thread was boarded and overtaken by hirsute 80's goth shenaniganauts!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The thread was hijacked.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 26 June 2004 06:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it really you singing on March In Turin?

Yes.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 26 June 2004 09:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Is Peter Gabriel's cover more or less moving that "That'll Do, Pig"?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 26 June 2004 10:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Merritt and Gabriel have been chummy since '99 or so, AFAIK. PG did "The Book Of Love" as an encore at the 69LS shows in Hammersmith at the beginning of 2001.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Saturday, 26 June 2004 10:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember wondering how long it would be until Merritt became the mainstream flavor-of-the-month songwriter after 69 Love Songs. I just didn't think Peter Gabriel would be the guy to kick it off.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 26 June 2004 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Funny thing is how many hipster male singers are sounding like Peter Gabriel these days: TV on the Radio, some of the vocals on the new Modest Mouse version, Secret Machines. Peter Gabriel-hater Rob Sheffield pointed out on Slate the similarities between "The Way You Move" and "Shock The Monkey" (whatta mash-up that would be).

So maybe he and Merritt have traded places. Which is so funny to me because Gabriel was the Artist Du Jour amongst my nerdy guy friends in the '80s in Northeast Philadelphia. The classic rock station here, WMMR, called him the Patron Saint of The Morning Zoo.

I wonder when Stephen Merritt will be adopted by a morning classic rock DJ. "We got a workforce block of Magnetic Fields for the mailroom guys at Shitheads Incorporated!"

― Sara Sherr, Saturday, 26 June 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

He should've covered "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 26 June 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I meant new Modest Mouse "album." I'm not implying that they are dub reggae now.

― Sara Sherr, Saturday, 26 June 2004 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

nine years pass...

Lots more covers on the way:

http://www.npr.org/2013/12/26/257385135/first-listen-peter-gabriel-scratch-my-back-and-i-ll-scratch-yours

― tbd (Eazy), Monday, 30 December 2013 17:37 (twelve years ago)

The only one of these I was interested in was Lou Reed's "Solsbury Hill." It doesn't disappoint.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 30 December 2013 18:17 (twelve years ago)

have been out for a little while I think, or at least I've had it for a while. I like Eno's "Mother of Violence" a lot.

― akm, Monday, 30 December 2013 22:28 (twelve years ago)

I like hearing these artists who almost never play covers (Paul Simon, Randy Newman) doing these songs. Also liking the arrangements on PG's versions--so simple and mostly piano-driven: "The Boy in the Bubble" and "Listening Wind."

― tbd (Eazy), Tuesday, 31 December 2013 15:33 (twelve years ago)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/arts/music/on-and-ill-scratch-yours-singers-cover-peter-gabriel.html?ref=arts&_r=0

― tbd (Eazy), Sunday, 5 January 2014 06:27 (twelve years ago)

Randy Newman Q&A:

Did you contemplate doing any song other than “Big Time” for this record?
No, I liked “Big Time” for me, it’s a really fun song to do. It’s got a guy dreaming about what the big time is, a fairly childish and simplistic view of it, a guy who is pretty ignorant.
Your vocal is really deadpan, mordant even, in contrast to Peter’s rather bubbly take on the character.
I didn’t have the goods to go the other way. The guy is not laughing at himself. We’re making fun of him.

― tbd (Eazy), Sunday, 5 January 2014 06:30 (twelve years ago)

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