There's some terrific stuff here, which charts Gabriel's continuing mastery of the rock video, and ability to pick talented and sympathetic directors to work with. The videos can be viewed in isolation, or accompanied with introductions by Gabriel, some shot recently, and others dating from the 1980s. (There's a great scene showing Gabriel in a junkyard with an engineer holding a microphone and recording Gabriel while he slammed car doors and smashed windows with sledgehammers. Gabriel is next scene loading the sounds into his Fairlight, one of the very first sampling keyboards.
Are there disappointments? Sure. Considering that the songs were remixed for 5.1 sound, I would have liked to have seen a video created that featured the extended version of "In Your Eyes", featuring a transcendent improvisation between Gabriel and the Senegal singer that he helped discover, Youssou N'Dour. And the video of the duet that Gabriel did with Joni Mitchell, "My Secret Place", would have been a nice inclusion--it was a late 1980s video that I recall quite fondly for its atmosphere.
There are two bonus clips not part of the proper assemblage of videos, which combined, how chart the progress of Gabriel's career: there's a fairly ridiculous video from the late 1970s (one of the few actually shot on video) of "Modern Love", featuring Gabriel dressed in what looks NFL shoulder pads and other protective gear, being chased by long-legged girls who would endure a long period of unemployment before finding work in numerous videos by ZZ Top, Robert Palmer, and other mid-80s artists.
There's also recent live footage of Gabriel's early-80s hit, "Games Without Frontiers", featuring Gabriel and a female backup singer touring the stage and singing on top of on his and hers Segways. I'm not sure if "get" Gabriel's latest look: the shaved head is de rigueur these days, but what's up with the white triangular beard? It looks more suited to being worn by Ian McKellen in The Lord of the Rings movies--on Gabriel it just looks strange, to say the least.
But looking odd is nothing new for Gabriel, ever since his Genesis days of outlandish costumes. And since leaving that seminal art rock group, he's racked up an extremely successful and influential career. And there's a wealth of footage on Play documenting it that any Gabriel fan would enjoy.
Article comments
1 - Mac Diva
I would also credit Gabriel with one of the first and best interactive CD-ROMs, Peter Gabriel's Secret World. Though I no longer I have mine, I think it was some of the finest works ever done in that format.
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks Ed, lots of great stuff lately from you, very much appreciated!