PETER GABRIEL 2 [AKA: SCRATCH]

I received this album as 'promo copy' via our college radio station--the manager of which was a suite-mate of mine. (He would get a box every couple weeks, listen to them, then let the rest of us play/listen to them. Then, if he deemed them unworthy of public exposure, he'd let us pick the ones we'd like--to 'keep'!) Then, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see Gabe on this tour while I was living in France. Needless to say, this album has great significance in my life. At the time, I had fallen in love with anything ROBERT FRIPP touched--KC, LEAGUE OF GENTLEMAN, FRIPP/ENO and ENO's solo stuff, even THE ROCHES "Keep on Doing" were constantly rotating across my turntable. So, to hear this album with so much influence from Fripp (producer!) was a treat. (In the concert, he sat on a stool in the shadows behind all of the speakers and other touring boxes and was 'introduced' as "Dusty Roads" I don't know where he was sitting--if he participated at all--during the warm-up group [little KATE BUSH]'s show. As all of Gabe's nearly-bald-headed band members were sitting indiscriminately dispersed throughout the crowd--sitting on the cement floor of the Nancy industrial park warehouse with the rest of us one-to-two thousand die hard fans.) (By the way: Peter was sitting directly behind me during Kate's entire set! I only found out as the band members all turned on the lamps of their miner hats in order to emerge in the dark from their various spots on the floor to climb up onto the stage. "Excuse me," he says as he carefully tried to find flooring to step upon among our splayed and bandied bodies, legs and feet. [I was sitting center stage, about six rows of people back from the steps that allowed Gabe et al access to and from the stage.])

My favorite songs from the album were, and are, "White Shadow" (Surprisingly, young Sid McGinnis [one of Paul Shaffer's 'Party Boys' in the 'CBS Orchestra'--DAVID LETTERMAN's house band--since 1982] played the amazing solo in concert!), "Mother of Violence" (performed with one of the most haunting and memorable finishes I've ever experienced in a concert or film setting.), and "Exposure" (I love all the versions of this song--expecially the one on Fripp's concurrently released solo album.) "Flotsam and Jetsum" and "Perspective" are okay. The rest are not very memorable and I remember even then liking less than all off the songs on Gabe's first solo effort.

This was, however, my first exposure to the amazing instrument, playing and performing of both The Stick (which I later owned and tried to learn to play) and prog's master bass man, TONY LEVIN.

2.5 stars: not-essential. Really more for collectors/fans.