The Peter Gabriel album he said had “the best drummers in the world”
Nothing that Peter Gabriel ever made could be considered the “safe route” for musicians.
As much as he likes the idea of making strange music, the most difficult part of any one of his records is making the kind of song that the average listener could appreciate just as much as the more eclectic music fan. And while there are a lot of moments where the melody could go in a strange direction, Gabriel knew that rhythm was often the best way to get the right energy for a tune.
You have to remember that Gabriel was no stranger to having great drummers behind him half the time. Phil Collins may have become known for something far different when he became a solo star, but looking at the amount of music that he ended up putting out behind the kit, he was already well on his way to becoming a drumming legend before he even stepped in front of the microphone.
And it’s not like Gabriel ever took that for granted, either. There were always bound to be moments when it didn’t work, but after he left following The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, he knew that Collins could still work his magic for the right song in his solo career. I mean, the whole reason why the 1980s drum sound sounds the way it does is because of what they did on Gabriel’s records, but when working on So, he wanted to have things feel a little bit different.
He had been embracing world rhythms for a while, but by bringing in Manu Katche behind the drumkit for tunes like ‘Sledgehammer’, he had a much greater sense of the music that he was playing. There was a healthy blend of everything from world music to soul to pure pop in his delivery, so by the time that Gabriel was working on the record Up, he wanted to have the best in the business come to him.
Sure, Katche was on hand to deliver the best takes that he could, but there were also the biggest names in the session scene as well. Steve Gadd was accounted for to make the tracks come to life and even bringing in drummers from the Dhol Foundation to round out tracks like ‘My Head Sounds Like That’ helped bring fans some new surprises along the way as well.
Although So was a hint of what he could do with different percussionists, Gabriel felt he had truly hit the jackpot working with the artists he assembled here, saying, “I think throughout this record I’ve been lucky to work with some of the best drummers in the world, extraordinary percussionists and that is definitely one of the things that’s given me pleasure.” Then again, that also comes with its fair share of challenges.
No matter how much programmed drums are put into any tune, it also comes down to a drummer’s sense of feel as well. Katche, for example, knew that there was no point in playing a song straight through more than once if he nailed it on the first take, but having that balanced with a drummer like Gadd that could play on one track for hours was what gives the record its eclecticism.
Because even if Gabriel’s songs were beautiful on their own, it took a lot of the drummers to give the record its beating heart. Each of them would have sounded great on their own, but hearing all of them playing off each other gives the whole record a sense of urgency it wouldn’t have had before.
