Peter Gabriel -- Sledgehammer

 

I started the Peter Gabriel file in the weekly Reminiscings of Youth series on KKP with the New Wave "Shock the Monkey" because it was the first time that I had heard of the English musician (and happy 75th birthday to him...happened a week ago). I learned that he had been the leader of the progressive rock band Genesis back in the 1970s and that back then it was quite the theatrically daring group during concerts. So, on seeing Gabriel providing his distinctive voice and a terrifying music video, I just had to go "Ahh, naruhodo".😕

Move ahead a few more years to April 1986. I hadn't heard all that much from Gabriel in the intervening years aside from a couple of other songs by him that I'd heard about in retrospect. But then, he released this rather interesting single titled "Sledgehammer" and once again, I was struck by the song and the music video for different reasons. For one thing, the nudge-nudge-wink-wink "Sledgehammer" didn't sound anything like New Wave or techno at all; it was more of a catchy epic pop tune with a battery of 1970s R&B horns...and a shakuhachi starting it all off. Of course, the amazing Gabriel vocals were still front and centre.

And then of course, there was the music video which earned a number of awards and probably had viewers' jaws dropping like yo-yos at the pure ambition, hard work and effects put into it. Yes, I did hear about Gabriel's back issues from his participation in the video along with the olfactory suffering inflicted upon the crew due to the two turkeys or chickens under the hot lights. That's definitely suffering for one's art. Almost forty years later, "Sledgehammer" still amazes.

It hit like a sledgehammer at No. 1 in both Canada and the United States. The song and the video will remain one of my biggest memories of the 1980s. So, what were some of the releases coming out in Japan in April 1986?

KUWATA BAND -- BAN BAN BAN

TUBE -- Season In The Sun

Akina Nakamori -- BEST

Peter Gabriel -- Shock the Monkey

 

Welcome to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth article, and today I have a song whose music video has been seen as one of the more incredible productions ever. It also terrified the heck out of me when I first saw it as a teenager.

"Shock the Monkey" by Peter Gabriel did indeed alarm me initially because of the title and the unsettling video because I had wondered whether it was one of those creations which showed some poor monkey undergoing tortuous experiments. Instead, as I gradually discovered, Gabriel had actually wanted to address the issue of jealousy as represented by the gibbon in the video (not technically a monkey as noted in Wikipedia). It was the first time for me to see Gabriel as the premise seemed like something out of a psychological spy thriller with an intelligence agent eventually succumbing to those mysterious external forces.

I'd heard about Peter Gabriel all throughout 1982, the year that "Shock the Monkey" was released as a single in September. I had known about his time with the band Genesis although I never listened to them when they were an artsy progressive rock band in the 1970s. My knowledge of the band grew when they decided to go into a more pop and chart-friendly direction while Gabriel who had left Genesis went into other pastures of music. 

"Shock the Monkey" is a synthpop sensation with a great and immediately recognizable hook and I will always love Gabriel's exhortation of "SHOCK!" in the middle of the song. For that matter, I'd never heard vocals like his before; somewhere between a mix of rock star and siren. In Canada, the song hit No. 10 on RPM while in America, it did somewhat more modestly by peaking at No. 29 on Billboard.

Now, what was making the Oricon chart in September 1982? I have No. 1, No. 2 and... No. 10.

1. Aming -- Matsu wa (待つわ）

2. Hiromi Go -- Aishuu no Casablanca （哀愁のカサブランカ）

10. Naoko Kawai -- Kenka wo Yamete (けんかをやめて）