Revisit Bon Iver’s cover of ‘Come Talk To Me’ by Peter Gabriel
In 2009, Peter Gabriel decided to craft a new compilation album that would serve as a companion LP to his Scratch My Back album, a 2010 covers record featuring renditions of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’, ‘The Book Of Love’ by The Magnetic Fields’ and ‘Flume’ by Bon Iver.
At the start of the 2010s, Peter Gabriel was all about artistic exchange. The idea behind …And I’ll Scratch Yours was to give the artists covered on Scratch My Back a chance to reciprocate with their take on one of his recordings. Sadly, three artists – David Bowie, Neil Young and Radiohead – declined the offer to record covers of Gabriel’s material, leading to the inclusion of Brian Eno, Joseph Arthur and Feist.
One person more than happy to provide a reciprocal cover was Bon Iver’s Juston Vernon, whose track ‘Flume’ had been covered on Scratch My Back. On release, Bob Iver’s 2009 album For Emma Forever Ago took propelled Vernon – who had recorded the LP in his parent’s cabin in Wisconsin – to international fame. The album has since taken on near-mythical status, having near-singlehandedly catalysed the neo-folk boom of the 2010s.
Vernon, a long-time fan of Gabriel’s work, jumped at the chance to record something from the Genesis frontman’s solo catalogue. In the end, he chose ‘Come Talk To Me’ from Gabriel’s 1992 album Us: “It was kind of an easy decision because there were a lot of songs that had been important to me of Peters,” Vernon said. “But that one was principally the most important.”
“Through college, I was a Religious Studies major,” he continued. “I’m not a religious guy at all, but that song was this… If there was a religion, it was that song. It was a searching song for me. It was this kind of divine song for real, and it was just an easy decision to make. It was like: ‘I want to sing that song. I want to relive that song.’ So when it happened, it was instantaneous.”
Vernon hadn’t heard Gabriel’s brass-laden version of ‘Flume’ when he started work on ‘Come Talk To Me’. However, he soon found himself “rushing to make it half as cool as [ Peter’s cover] because it was just so stunning what he was able to do.” From the moment he sat down, Vernon knew what he wanted to do with the recording. “In a way, I felt very free,” he said. “In hindsight, I could have gone back and done something much more ‘Bon Iver’ or something – whatever that means – or done something much more ethereal or folky, but that’s sort of not where I’m at. It was a song I wanted to relive.”
Make sure you check out Bon Iver’s take on ‘Come Talk To Me’ below.
