open letter to Peter Gabriel
open letter to Peter Gabriel
I just watched Secret World Live for about the zillionth time tonight, and I cried a bunch of times. I’m sure you get all kind of fan mail, i just feel like putting it here.
I got to see you perform that in Atlanta in 1993. It was an amazing night, I managed to get about 15 of my friends to get tickets for that show, because I told them you were doing ritual on stage and charging $30 a seat for it. We had a big party at our house (which was called the Mill House) before and after the concert. it was a very pivotal moment for me. Who’s to say whether I went the right way or not? I got here.
The first time I saw you it was in Michigan in 1983. It was just a week after I got married to my first wife, Diane. We were married for 9 years before I sorta went crazy. Or sane. Who’s to say now.
You were still wearing your face makeup then, and they hadn’t come up with headset mics yet. But you were one of the first ones I’d seen who had a wireless hand microphone. During the song “Lay your hands on me”, you jumped off the stage and surfed the crowd. I wished I’d gotten better seats.
When I was done watching the show, I realized that I’d seen something beyond just a concert.. ther was a feel to it that I didnt really have a name for. The closest I came up with at that time was a revival. It was many years later that I discoverd “ritual” was a much more accurate description.
I bought a patch there that said “Playtime 1988”. I didn’t get the joke. For almost 20 years. Finally, one day I posted a question to the realworld site asking what that was about, and you answered it, although I didn’t hear that for a long time later, when someone recognized my name (I have a rather unusual last name, very easy to search on the web. Ommadawn is much more common) and told me that he’d seen my question and the answer. I think you had to be a subscriber to read it, so my frield copied it out to me in an email.
I saw you again in 1987 for the “So” tour. As I remember it, you started this one out with Biko. Very powerful way to begin.
Then was Us in 1992 and tour in 1993. This album about your breakup with your ex-wife came at a very turbulent time in my own love life. Without going into details, there were a great many times I was sure you were singing to me (yeah, no fan’s ever said that, either)
I bought my copy of OVO online from England before it was readily available here. Got sick of it before anyone else had even heard of it.
It was a long time coming for “Up”. I am sure it took a great deal to get the record company to publish something that didn’t even have one really mass-marketable song. Once again, very impactful. And the first song makes a really disconcerting cd to put in your alarmclock cd player. a little nicer than Twine “Recorder”.
I saw you in Detroit for the Up concert, almost 20 years to the day since I had seen you the first time for “Security”, and within a week of 10 years since the “Us” concert that had been so impactful for me in Atlanta. Your opening acts have always been interesting, but none has grabbed my attention as much as the Blind Boys of Alabama did. Seems they’ve been have a good time of it since.
That’s another thing that I’ve really respected about you. You have made your coattails amply available to other worthy talents who otherwise wouldn’t receive any attention or acclaim without things like WOMAD. I have never been to a WOMAD concert, but I remember following it in news at the time. “Music and Rhythm” is one of my favorite cd’s. I regret that I don’t have my original vinyl version of it.
Oh yeah. “Soft Dog”. Love that track.
So yeah, this is a kinda mushy letter, but it’s been over 20 years, and your music is still very impactful to me. The new stuff because it illuminates what has been happening in the world. The old stuff because it illuminates what has been happening inside me over the years.
And yet you claim you’ve never done drugs. Amazing.
your fan,
Evilbob