Peter Gabriel: And I’ll Scratch Yours
Peter Gabriel
And I’ll Scratch Yours
(Real World Productions)
On the past few releases from the enigmatic Peter Gabriel, his fans have had to wade through the “concept” project of a song exchange where a musical artist would cover a Gabriel tune after he covered one of theirs. And though Gabriel did release his Scratch My Back back in 2010, quite a few of the artists were late in getting their songs in, while still others simply failed to return the favor. Nevertheless And I’ll Scratch Yours still features a grouping of high-powered musical guests covering twelve Gabriel tunes.
The CD opens with David Byrne warbling over a funky machine-firing drum beat on “I Don’t Remember,†while Bon Iver mumbles with solid backing vocals on a banjo-led cover of “Come Talk To Me†and Arcade Fire adds a great marching beat and noise background to “Games Without Frontiersâ€â€¦though after a while I’m not sure if the song goes anywhere.
Old timers like Randy Newman, covering “Big Time†with a big splashy piano-led jazz band, Brian Eno’s robotic noisy big drum take on “Mother Of Violence,” the loud feedback on “Solsbury Hill†roiling under a wonderfully rye Lou Reed talking vocal and Paul Simon’s acoustic send-up of “Biko†(with his voice never sounding better) proves the over 50 crowd (well over in some cases) courts the ability to truly make covers their own while still retaining a songs original essence.
While And I’ll Scratch Yours is fun and there are some neat takes on Mr. G’s tunes, I think I’d rather have a CD of new Peter Gabriel music. Hint hint!