Peter Gabriel’s disturbing rumination on humanity’s willingness to follow orders: “We do what we’re told”
When you look at the current musical landscape and attitudes towards some of its most defining historical moments, it’s probably safe to assume that few people know what prog rock actually is. However, that’s also why Peter Gabriel’s So is as good a place as any to start.
This is mainly because, all things considered, So isn’t your typical prog rock record. In fact, it’s not really all that prog rock at all, at least, not in the typical sense. It incorporates elements of the genre, of course, because it’s Gabriel at the helm – but it’s blended with these magical moments of synth-driven pop and art rock, culminating in one of the most interesting listening experiences you’ll ever have in your lifetime.
Everybody knows ‘Sledgehammer’, of course, the funky, energetic, soulful smash hit that placed him among some of the most innovative and influential rock legends you’ll ever come across. However, across nine tracks, Gabriel also proves the value in making something solely for yourself, with material that often veers off into its own thing entirely, sometimes charming, sometimes heart-thumping, and sometimes, rather unexpectedly, a little eerie and sinister.
This is the case with ‘We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)’. Without knowing the song’s backstory, it’s clear that Gabriel was after something a little more thought-provoking with this one. A casual listener might enjoy its electronic-leaning tempo, or the way it feels a little like putting on a retro horror movie midway through. But when you know what it’s actually about, the whole thing feels a lot more spine-chilling.
With no lyrics other than a repeated chorus of “we do what we’re told”, the song takes inspiration from the 1963 Milgram experiment, in which social psychologist Stanley Milgram permitted a series of subjects to administer electric shocks to people who answered certain questions incorrectly. 65% of all subjects administered shocks at the highest levels, alluding to the disturbing nature of humanity’s willingness to follow orders when given authority to do so.
The “37” in the song title refers to the number of subjects who administered the shocks, though Gabriel didn’t necessarily see this outcome as a band thing. Rather, he saw the small percentage of those who actually took a stand as a comforting development about those who can stand up to authority, even when everybody else seems to be following the same orders.
However, the song is far from cheery, with Gabriel processing his vocals through synths and adding drum and violin sounds to create its eerie atmosphere and enhance the tension. The repeated lyric also recreates the trance-like state Gabriel imagined the subjects to be in, as though the singular green light to inflict pain from a figure of authority was enough to push them to blindly comply, without question.
If you were to discover this song outside of So, or even outside of rock in general, it’s likely you would struggle to place it anywhere specific. It exists somewhere on its own, providing a strange temporary departure from the rest of the record while proving that Gabriel wasn’t ever really tied to one idea or another; he just allowed inspiration to take control of whichever direction he was heading.
Funnily enough, Gabriel also launched his own version of the experiment long before the song was even released. In concerts, he’d perform the track and get the crowd to join in, repeating the words, “We do what we’re told”. They didn’t know what the song was, nor did they know what it was even about at the time. But like the subjects in the original experiment, they just went along with it.
