"Me and my B side" - TWR takes a look at the various B sides which Peter Gabriel has released.

This is the feature that escaped our recent PG special edition. Apologies for that but better late than never eh? Anyway, this is our affectionate look at those unloved and neglected tracks which in the days before CD and digital downloads used to be called B Sides. Peter has over the years generated a varied selection of these and, as we shall see, some genuinely deserve to be neglected (!) others are criminally so…

Peter played safe with his first album and only issued one track on the first two singles taken from his 1977 debut and it wasn't until 1978 that fans were given an unreleased track. Even then, demonstrating his perversity the track chosen was not by Peter but was instead a nursery rhyme (not Crime!) ; Me And My Teddy Bear which is a curiously catchy little ditty but not what you expect on a Peter Gabriel single …expect the unexpected indeed!

It was to be a further two years before Peter was back with a new album and once again we had to wait a while for any new B sides for our collections. Quite appropriately when it did appear, it was on the B Side to the highly controversial Biko single. The track was a rendering of the Bantu chant; Shosholosa (Go In Peace). On the 12” single there was also a nod to the recently released German language version of the new album in the form of Jetzt Kommt Die Flut (Here Comes The Flood) and it is amazing to think that Peter did not consider reissuing PG1 as a German edition as this version works incredibly well but neither of these tracks were really indicative of what Peter had been up to in the studio.

Two years on again and another new album. Fully embracing World Music this one was an aural adventure and the singles was released from it were to give us some prime examples of that exploration. Shock The Monkey another of Peter’s “sex songs “ had as its B side, the intriguingly titled Soft Dog, a totally underwhelming almost totally instrumental ramble. Who knows, maybe if it had been worked on a bit more it might have eventually amounted to something , but it remains, for this listener at least, one of his least impressive tracks.I Have The Touch however, was to have a lengthy existence in one form or another and it's B Side was definitely an improvement on its predecessor. Across The River proved to be a remarkable effort featuring a memorable rhythmic pattern accompanied by dramatic and haunting vocals. On record it was performed by Shankar and on occasions it was performed live when Shankar was a guest in either case the effect was equally remarkable.

Peter’s next single is something of a rarity, an unreleased A Side. OK, it was part of the soundtrack to the highly successful Taylor Hackford film, Against All Odds. The soundtrack remains the only one to feature contributions from three members of Genesis with Peter, Mike and Phil all on the same album. Peter's effort was Walk Through The Fire and is without doubt one song which deserved to be an album track. A marvellous slice of Eighties synth work with a dramatic vocal from Peter. There have been several different versions of this, even the album and single versions differ sonically from each other. I prefer the single version myself.

By the time Peter got round to releasing his next album, 1986’s So, the new fangled CD format had truly come into its own. This format should have, and in some cases, did give artists the freedom to expand the amount of music that they could put on albums. It also heralded the rather irritating era of the “Remix”. Why these aberrations are even necessary (you can tell I am not a fan, can't you?) mystifies me but they are here to stay. Peter was to increasingly indulge himself in the art of the Remix over the next few years but before he did so, he managed to give us what for me at least, is his finest non album track: Don't Break This Rhythm which was the B side to the debut single from the album : Sledgehammer. A truly remarkable effort which would not have been out of place on PG4. Peter tried the old trick of reissuing Sledgehammer as a supposed 12” special edition with a new mix. It failed to even dent the charts although why he would want to do so after the original’s success is a mystery to me. The remaining singles from the album, which generated more than any of its predecessors, were varied and altogether of an inferior stamp. The “Special Mix” of In Your Eyes, was to these ears at least nothing special, whilst the unreleased instrumentals which accompanied Big Time (Curtains), and Red Rain (Ga Ga) are decidedly mediocre, more like unfinished demos although they are not titled as such on their respective singles but the aural evidence would seem to indicate that this is the case. They are both items which I doubt if anyone will have listened to more than once out of curiosity.

1987 saw the release of the Cry Freedom film, the life story of Steve Biko and so naturally Peter reissued Biko, this time a live version from the recent tour. On CD this was accompanied by the ubiquitous I Have The Touch (‘85 Remix) but also by No More Apartheid, a track which had never appeared on a PG album previously gracing the Sun City album back in the early Eighties. A frantic and passionate track this one certainly deserved space on an album As usual, once the So tour finished, Peter was to be less visible for a while although he continued to tour into 1988 with the Human Rights Now! World tour and the release in 1989 of the Passion soundtrack from the controversial Last Temptation Of Christ film. The album was not graced with a single and so we had to wait until 1992 for Peter’s next proper studio album. When it arrived, US was to try and emulate the success of its predecessor and whilst there were several equally worthy cuts on it, overall it fell somewhat short. That didn't mean that it didn't generate any major successful singles as we shall see.

Digging In The Dirt was the lead single from the album and an incredible track it is too. Dark, dramatic and accompanied by another award winning video. On the now ubiquitous CD format the digi Pak edition featured two alternative versions; the instrumental and Quiet Steam but for collectors the most interesting track was Bashi-Bazouk. Intriguingly the Bashi Bazouks were elite troops in the Ottoman Empire. Opening with a drone effect and tuned percussion this one could well have fitted on to the Passion soundtrack but it really is out of place here.

Blood of Eden was the next single and like it's successor, Kiss That Frog, neither of them had anything other than a succession of alternative mixes and remixes none of which do anything for me I'm afraid. But you be the judges if you can find the singles. Another contribution to the world of film gave us another collectable track. Peter’s contribution to the Philadelphia film soundtrack was Lovetown. At last! A song worthy of comment. Given the subject matters of the film - the AIDS epidemic - the resulting song is a slow, bluesy effort with Peter giving an impassioned vocal performance making this one of the best single releases from him in ages.

Peter’s long awaited UP album appeared in 2002 and generated two singles - the deliciously acidic swipe at Reality TV; The Barry Williams Show and More Than This. Both excellent tracks but sadly as far as B sides, if you can still call.them that in the CD age, were nothing to write home about, being the now predictable selection of radio edits, remixes and such like. This is quite frustrating when one considers the sheer amount of material Peter must have accumulated during the intervening years.

The last release that was worthy of inclusion here is definitely one that should have had a place on the UP album. Burn You Up, Burn You Down is one of those wonderfully dramatic and yet catchy tracks that Peter is so adept at creating. It was also a live favourite in the tours and eventually found a place on the Hit album compilation.

Peter’s last album; I/O generated no singles as it was initially drip fed to us by digital downloads before being released on CD. Whether there will be any further singles from Peter remains to be seen but I hope that this feature has demonstrated he has given his fans some truly amazing material over the years.