The vocal performance Daniel Lanois thought was perfect: “I can’t imagine it better”
When artists have been around the industry long enough, it’s hard to get shocked by anyone anymore. Even if someone is making new music that goes against the grain, there’s always that lingering sense of cynicism once someone knows how the sausage gets made behind the scenes. Then there are artists that come along once in a lifetime, and while Peter Gabriel can be considered a legend in his own right, producer Daniel Lanois was blown away when working with Kate Bush.
By progressive standards, though, Gabriel had already seen what Bush was capable of. When first cutting his teeth on his self-titled albums, he had the prog-pop queen create the amazing backing vocals on ‘Games Without Frontiers’ and had even been involved with helping her make her first solo records.
If Bush was Gabriel’s old friend, Daniel Lanois would have been responsible for kicking him into high gear. Sure, his records before So had been perfectly conceived prog rock adventures, but they didn’t have that streamlined appeal that would get the mass public interested, especially with the more politically minded songs.
It was Lanois’s job to help him come out of his shell, and Gabriel’s fifth outing was the equivalent of if the art-rock weirdo tried to unlock his inner pinup star. Although ‘Sledgehammer’ and ‘In Your Eyes’ worked like a charm on the radio, there aren’t many other songs that seem to hold a candle to ‘Don’t Give Up’.
Despite having one of the best vocal performances that Gabriel ever did, Bush goes one step further, singing the chorus back to him and acting like the comforting other half that’s telling him everything will be okay. Gabriel may have had to be coached to get the best take of songs like ‘Mercy Street’, but Lanois knew that there was no getting in the way of Bush giving a fantastic performance.
From the moment that she walked into the studio, Lanois said that the entire studio was lit up, telling Classic Albums, “Of course, we were all delighted to be in her presence. I mean, she’s like royalty around here. I can’t imagine it being any better. She just sang it like an angel. Sang it fantastically.”
Then again, having Bush on the track was far from what Gabriel originally had in mind. Since the entire premise was based around people surviving the Great Depression in America, his initial vision was to have Dolly Parton sing the tune before he was quickly shot down by Parton’s people.
While it’s easy to squint your ears and hear that Southern drawl on the tune, there’s no one else who could have properly done the tune justice like Bush. Bush would reach for even more dramatic territory in her solo career, but hearing her sing the track goes far beyond traditional duet chemistry. Others may have tried to sing it in the exact same way, but anyone going through any desperate situation could practically use Bush’s vocal as musical medicine.
