Specifically “Games Without Frontiers” and “Shock the Monkey.”
I heard that “Sledge Hammer” was written as a plea for his wife to reconsider their separation, “Big Time” seems more-or-less self-explanatory–but I just don’t get the other two.
“Shock the Monkey” could be a reference to his having been supplanted by Phil Collins in Genesis (“Someone knocked me out my tree. . .”), after which they achieved a commercial success that was much more than when Gabriel was the front man–but that’s just a WAG.
Anyone???
BTW, I think it would have been interesting to have seen a video put together by the minds of Peter Gabriel and David Byrne. One can only wonder. . .
‘Games Without Frontiers’ can be taken at face value. In the 1970s and 80s there was a TV game show called ‘Jeux Sans Frontieres’ (= Games without frontiers). Each country in Europe had its own ‘local’ version, the one shown here in the UK being called ‘It’s a Knockout’. Then, after the national series, the different European countries played against each other.
The games in the show were all rather silly physical stamina and race games, such as trying to deliver buckets of water across an obstacle course while the opposing team throws water balloons at you, that kind of thing. Intended to be a mixture of playful sport and slapstick humour. With Gabriel, anything’s possible, and he may just have been singing about this rather odd Euro-televisual phenomenon.
I recall an interview where he said that “Shock the Monkey” was about the need to occasionally shuck the veneer of civilization and ego and get in touch with man’s primal, animalistic side. And a bunch of other deep stuff.
My sense was that “Games Without Frontiers” was an ironic take on war. That is, Gabriel was suggesting that war between nations is just a continuance of silly childhood games, except that these games are now taken to horrible extremes, in which there are no rules.
When the lyrics speak of Adolf and Enrico, I suspect Gabriel is referring to Adolf Hitler and Enrico Fermi. Since Fermi was, indirectly, the father of the atomic bomb, he helped usher in a world in which the “game” of war is played for keeps… in which total destruction of everyone involved may be the result.
As for “Shock the Monkey,” I never understood the lyrics myself, but years ago, I heard Gabriel on radio’s “Rockline” saying that, for him, it was a straightforward song about jealousy. So, I guess “the monkey” is a cuckolded male pleading with his girl to stop tormenting him by playing around with other men.
Um, I thought “Sledge Hammer” was um, a metaphor for sexual intercourse…
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Peter Gabriel has the most kickass videos. They’re all entertaining-I love the one with the giant frog-I don’t remember the name of the song
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Guin, that was “Kiss That Frog.” Beavis & Butthead loved the video, too. I recall Butthead intoning, “THIS is the coolest of frogs… there is none higher.”
As to your comment about Gabriel being “supplanted” by Collins, that is incorrect. Gabriel left the band in 1975 to pursue his own interests. Genesis didn’t start to acheive major success with Collins as singer until 1978 (“Stay With Me” hits the top 40); by that time, Gabriel was well established as a solo artist. Gabriel’s relationship with his former bandmates has always been a positive one (Collins even played drums on Gabriel’s solo album)
I’d have to disagree with your estimate of when post-Gabriel Genesis achieved success. Wind and Wuthering may have been a bit of a flop, but A Trick Of The Tail was HUGE, BOTH predate And Then There Were Three with its big selling single (in the UK at least) Follow You, Follow Me (did you mangle the title “Stay with Me” which seems like a lyric fragment?)
You are certainly right that Gabriel left and was hardly “supplanted”.
to supersede (another) especially by force or treachery
a (1) *obs: *uproot; (2) to eradicate and supply a substitute for
*b to take the place of and serve as a substitute for especially by reason of superior excellence or power
From M-W 2003
um
an Internet Message Board particle signifying “You obviously don’t know what the he|| you’re talking about”
The song “Sledge Hammer” is a complete string of such metaphors. That doesn’t change the fact that my source (from a memory nearly two decades old, so I can’t vouch for its accuracy) said the song was written over Gabriel’s marital breakup
And my source for the “Shock the Monkey” WAG was that something I read around the same time it was popular was that Phil Collins himself had said that he thought it was a reference to him (Collins). Again, though, I won’t attest to the accuracy of a memory also nearly two decades old that I saw only once.
Great Unwashed–I didn’t mean to suggest that the albums between “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” and “…And Then There Were Three” were flops. I was saying that ATTWT was a bigger hit than the preceding two.
Yes, “Follow You Follow Me” was the song I was thinking of.
Not to be pedantic, but here’s the chart information for the albums of those period.
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway–#10 in UK, #41 in US. No singles charted.
Seconds Out (live album)–#4 in UK, #47 in US.
A Trick of the Tail–#3 in UK, #31 in US
Wind and Wuthering–#7 in UK, #26 in US. “Your Own Special Way” single is #43 in UK, #62 in US
…And Then There Were Three–#3 in UK, #14 in US. “Follow You Follow Me” single is #7 in UK, #23 in US
Duke–#1 in UK, #11 in US. “Misunderstanding” single is #14 in US.
I guess is anyone would be upset about Genesis’ success after they left would be Steve Hackett; he split just before ATTWT (hence the album’s name). Nothing against his ability as a guitarist, but he hasn’t quite achieved the success of his former bandmates.
Yah, Peter and the Genesis gang are on good terms. Indeed, at Mr. Gabriel’s recent re-marriage, Phil Collins served as best man.
Mjollnir, right album, wrong song. The song on So that Gabriel said was about his marital troubles and a plea to his wife to return (BTW, it worked, temporarily), was “Red Rain.”
As for any implication you are making that Collins was better than Gabriel, well, that’s just icky.
As I said earlier, I’ve heard Peter Gabriel say that “Shock the Monkey” was a “straightforward song about jealousy.”
(Straightforward for HIM maybe, but I didn’t really get it!)
So, it wasn’t a poke at Phil Collins at all. But Phil Collins may have THOUGHT it was a poke at him, and I had a feeling that when Phil sang “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” with Genesis, the line that goes “I’m going down, going down like a monkey” MAY have been a playful jab back at Gabriel.
But to the best of my knowledge, there was never any real bad blood between Peter Gabriel and his ex-mates in Genesis. Phil played drums on several of Peter’s solo projects, and I’m pretty sure Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford have gotten together and played with Gabriel on a few occasions.
After all, the split worked out well for almost everyone. Gabriel and Genesis each had more success apart than they ever had together, so there’s absolutely no reason for lingering bitterness.
