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Buildings systematically collapse, cracks in the walls tear the plaster from the surface, small men throw themselves into the void, behind the flames incinerating things and thoughts. The city rots in a dark light, it is night everywhere, I am different from myself. Help, I do not recognize these gestures, these inhumane habits like a prison. A television channel broadcasts people dressed as tourists, discussing how polite the Chinese are on the metro. The slow dripping of the faucet gradually fills the silence at home and inspires my solitude.
“..Intruders happy in the dark. Intruder come, intruder come and leave his mark, leave his mark..”
After the first two solo works produced by the imposing Bob Ezrin and Robert Fripp, which still concealed an artist in embryo, Peter Gabriel decided to record his third self-titled work at a mobile studio in Bath, where he lives. In late summer '79, the sessions for “Peter Gabriel III” begin, six months that include a long and complex autumnal mixing phase. The record is ready and cooked as early as January 1980, but creative turbulence with the Atlantic label obtusely delays its release. Clever executives of the historic major, in fact, consider the former Genesis member's new work a certain “commercial suicide.” God bless them, and Syd Nathan.
In February, the 45 rpm “Games Without Frontiers” (Kate Bush on backing vocals) is released, and the charts of the time will thank him immediately; while in June of eighty, the eagerly awaited and unseen Gabrielian chapter #3 is ready to be displayed in store windows (sending the folks at Atlantic kindly to cultivate cucumbers and zucchinis, the record label in the States is now Geffen). The disturbing cover of “Peter Gabriel III” (“Melt” in some markets) literally dissolves the author's past and builds an identity closer to his true artistic face: the result is a remarkable work for instinct, creative urgency, and exploration of virgin musical languages. A mutant sound, that drips and nullifies the image we know into something unknown. The symbolic melted rubber mask of the brave Gabriel on the cover (designed by American designer Les Crims with the special graphic technique Charismagraph), daring and innovating in the decade to come. Emancipating to ride a creature hungry for new wave and electronic stings, of Steve Reich's minimal music and brief glimpses of what will be the world music to come (which the Real World of Archangel Peter will contribute to generously spreading at the end of the eighties).
“..A foreign body, and a foreign mind. Never welcome, in the land of the blind. You may look like we do. Talk like we do. But you know how it is..You're not one of us..”
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Intruder (04:53)
I know something about opening windows and doors
I know how to move quietly to creep across creaky wooden floors
I know where to find precious things in all your cupboards and drawers
Slipping the clippers
Slipping the clippers through the telephone wires
The sense of isolation inspires
Inspires me
I like to feel the suspense when I'm certain you know I am there
I like you lying awake, your baited breath charging the air
I like the touch and the smell of all the pretty dresses you wear
Intruders happy in the dark
Intruder come
Intruder come and leave his mark, leave his mark
02 Biko (07:29)
September '77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
- The man is dead
When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
- The man is dead
You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
- The man is dead
And the eyes of the world are
Watching now
Watching now
03 No Self Control (03:55)
Got to get some food
I'm so hungry all the time
I don't know how to stop
I don't know how to stop
Got to get some sleep
I'm so nervous in the night
I don't know how to stop
No, I don't know how to stop
I don't know how to stop
I don't know how to stop
Got to pick up the phone
I will call any number
I will talk to anyone
I know I'm gone too far
Much too far I gone this time
And I don't want to think what I've done
I don't know how to stop
No, I don't know how to stop
There are always hidden silences
Waiting behind the chair
They come out when the coast is clear
They eat anything that moves
I go shaky at the knees
Lights go out, stars come down
Like a swarm of bees
No self-control
You know I hate to hurt you
I hate to see your pain
But I don't know how to stop
No, I don't know how to stop
Street after street
Night after night
I walk on through the rain
I walk on through the rain
I don't know how to stop
05 I Don't Remember (04:41)
I got no means to show identification
I got no papers show you what I am
You'll have to take me just the way that you find me
What's gone is gone and I do not give a damn
Empty stomach, empty head
I got empty heart and empty bed
I don't remember
I don't remember
I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything at all
I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything
-anything at all
Strange is your language and I have no decoder
Why don't you make your intentions clear
With eyes to the sun and your mouth to the soda
Saying, "Tell me the truth, you got nothing to fear"
Stop staring at me like a bird of prey
I'm all mixed up, I got nothing to say
I don't remember
I don't remember
I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything at all
I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything
Anything at all
I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything at all
I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything
absolutely anything at all
I don't remember
06 Family Snapshot (04:28)
The streets are lined with camera crews
Everywhere he goes is news
Today is different
Today is not the same
Today I make the action
Take snapshot into the light, snapshot into the light
I'm shooting into the light
Four miles down the cavalcade moves on
Driving into the sun
If I worked it out right
They won't see me or the gun
Two miles to go, they're clearing the road
The cheering has really begun
I've got my radio
I can hear what's going on
I've been waiting for this
I have been waiting for this
All you people in TV land
I will wake up your empty shells
Peak-time viewing blown in a flash
As I burn into your memory cells
'Cos I'm alive
They're coming 'round the corner with the bikers at the front
I'm wiping the sweat from my eyes
-It's a matter of time
-It's a matter of will
And the governor's car is not far behind
He's not the one I've got in mind
'Cos there he is-the man of the hour, standing in the limousine
"I don't really hate you
-I don't care what you do
We were made for each other
-Me and you
I want to be somebody
-You were like that too
If you don't get given you learn to take
And I will take you."
Holding my breath
Release the catch
And I let the bullet fly
All turned quiet-I have been here before
Lonely boy hiding behind the front door
Friends have all gone home
There's my toy gun on the floor
Come back Mum and Dad
You're growing apart
You know that I'm growing up sad
I need some attention
I shoot into the light
07 And Through The Wire (05:00)
And through the wire I hear your voice
And through the wire I touch the power
And through the wire I see your face
It's through the wire
Friday night, you're staying at home I want you
I'm tickling and clicking a metronome I want you
Prowling the waterhole-I wait for the kill I want you
Pressure's building-overspill I want you
And through the wire You are secure
And through the wire We can talk
And through the wire We can walk
It's through the wire
Watchmaker steadies his delicate hand I want you
For barbeque parties on blood red sands I want you
Caught in the struggle tight on the rod I want you
Bring out the devil to bring out the god I want you
And through the wire I hear your voice
And through the wire I touch the power
And through the wire I see your face
It's through the wire
Driving 'round the city rings
Staring at the shape of things
I talk in pictures not in words
Overloaded with everything we said
be careful where you tread
Watch the wire
And through the wire You are secure
And through the wire We can talk
And through the wire We can walk
And through the wire We're clinging like leeches
And through the wire We push out tailormade speeches
And through the wire We get so strange across the border
We get so strange across the border
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