LISTENING TO - Growing Up by Peter Gabriel

I've been listening to this track rather a lot lately. It has a fascinating rhythm and dynamic that I rather like. This is despite the fact that I continue to find Peter Gabriel a rather puzzling musical presence. Quite inventive and happy to follow up the widest of musical paths. He's only rarely been a compulsive purchase for me. And I wonder why that is? Some of it lies in is his very archly studied lyrical style that is quite frequently lumpen with imaginative and surreal significance. Even this track Growing Up opens with the line 'Folded in your fleshy purse I am floating once again' which is a particularly vulgar and yucky way to describe someone being in the womb. Delivered with that unique Gabriel vocal which often provokes me to thinking what world does this come from? It has no antecedents that I can fathom. But what is clear is its a characterful voice, but without any discernible soul.

This version of Growing Up was recorded live in the Real World Studios and it has a grinding energ, something I find invariably missing from his studio recorded output. His songs often utilise changing time signatures and mood and these are present here. On this occasion they do give the song added dynamism. Interludes have been a common device he's employed throughout his solo career and in Genesis. You can take the man out of Prog Rock, but never the Prog Rock out of the man.

Don't ask me why, but lately I have been putting myself through relistening to The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, I find I can only bear it in half hour chunks. I have yet to reach the end of it. This was really Gabriel's baby and has been the fated reason for the original lineup of Genesis breaking up. It is weighed down with portentous ideas of such magnitude your ears die that little bit more with every succeeding minute. All is clumsily strung together into a narrative that is impossible to relate to on an ordinary human emotional level. Its like a six form art project, on the theme of psychology, expanded beyond all credibility. Stuffed with so much 'meaning' it has no air left in it to breath naturally. So the appeal to me of Growing Up continues to perplex, as I have form in frequently finding Gabriel's output unbearable to listen to for long.