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Eighties’ best 100 redux: #75 Peter Gabriel “In your eyes” (1986)

<< #76    |    #74 >>

I didn’t mean to take a break. Honest. It just happened.

Save for a quick post sharing pics from the Matt Berninger show I caught, the last piece published to these pages was another Eighties best 100 post, just under a month ago. So I figured I’d return to our regular schedule (albeit a bit slower to start) after that brief pause with another from that series. Song #75 is perhaps Peter Gabriel’s most mainstream of tracks, “In your eyes”.

The track in question comes from Gabriel’s fifth proper studio album, the first not named “Peter Gabriel” (not including the soundtrack for “Birdy”, recorded the previous year), and likely, his best loved album, 1986’s “So”. This album is multiple-times platinum in a number of countries and has spawned his biggest hits on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This is probably the result of Gabriel purposefully dispensing with some of his experimental tendencies and consciously making a pop record, albeit not without his usual world music influences.

“In your eyes” made my list not so much for the song itself, not that I don’t enjoy it, but instead for its place in pop culture and my own personal musical memory. Much like The Proclaimers’ “(I’m gonna be) 500 miles”, which was song #82 on this list, “In your eyes” had something of a resurgence when it was used on the soundtrack for a film and is perhaps more popular now because of it. It was used in two scenes in Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut film, 1989’s “Say anything”, but most famously, in the scene below:

If you’ve never seen the film, Lloyd Dobler (played by everyone’s favourite cool/not-cool kid, John Cusack) just had his heart stomped on by the well-meaning but misguided Diane Court (played by Ione Skye) and is trying to woo her back by serenading her with Peter Gabriel’s song. The film “Say anything” is perhaps the best teen 80s film not made by John Hughes and is consistently on lists of the best films of all time. The character Lloyd Dobler is now a cultural icon and there is an ongoing debate on the Internet over who was the better man between him and “Sixteen candle”‘s Jake Ryan.

My own money will always be on John Cusack.

Incidentally, when Peter Gabriel toured in 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “So”, performing the album in its entirety at each show, John Cusack appeared onstage at a handful of concerts in California, specifically during the intro to “In your eyes” to hand Peter Gabriel a boom box.

Original Eighties best 100 position: 77

Favourite lyric: “Without a noise, without my pride / I reach out from the inside” I don’t know if it’s so much about these lyrics as the way Peter Gabriel sings them. What a voice.

Where are they now?: Peter Gabriel has been active, off and on, throughout the years His last album of new, original material was 2023’s “I/O” and apparently, another album is due out later this year, this one called “O/I”.

For the rest of the Eighties’ best 100 redux list, click here.

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Eighties’ best 100 redux: #76 The Mission “Tower of strength” (1988)

<< #77    |    #75 >>

At track #76 is The Mission’s eight-minute epic single, “Tower of strength”.

The Mission (known as The Mission UK in North America) was formed by Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams after they left Sisters of Mercy due to a disagreement with frontman Andrew Eldritch before the recording of that band’s second album. In fact, a handful of songs that appeared on The Mission’s debut album, “God’s own medicine”, were written by Hussey and were meant to be recorded as Sisters of Mercy songs.

I was introduced to The Mission by my friend Tim (who incidentally also introduced me to Sisters of Mercy and a bunch of other Goth and Industrial bands) back in high school. It all started when he included their track, “Deliverance”, as part of a mix on the back side of a cassette tape on which he had recorded The Wonder Stuff’s second album “Hup” for me. Speaking of the Stuffies, they have a Mission connection, too. If my memory serves, the story behind their “Mission drive” track is that Wayne Hussey (a friend of Miles Hunt) invited The Wonder Stuff out to tour with them, which, in effect, saved them from breaking up before their time. Anyway, “Deliverance” only served to pique my interest in The Mission and was immediately usurped as my favourite track by them when I heard “Tower of strength”.

This single, which comes from the band’s second album “Children”, encapsulates the dark and epic beauty of The mission’s music at that point in their career. Wayne Hussey’s soul crunching vocals just soar over the strumming guitars that underpin the entire eight minutes. The video below is for the radio edited version, which is only half as good (because it is half as long) as the album version, but you’ll get the picture.

Original Eighties best 100 position: 79

Favourite lyric: “You are all passion and heart / When I lay in your embrace / And heaven is in your kiss / Salvation lies just a touch away” …oh so dark and romantic.

Where are they now?: The Mission are now currently on their second reunion, this time with three of the four original members. The have released two albums and toured a number of times since reforming in 2013.

For the rest of the Eighties’ best 100 redux list, click here.

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Best tunes of 2003: #4 Elbow “Fugitive motel”

<< #5    |    #3 >>

I wrote about how I fell in love with Elbow and their first album, 2001’s “Asleep in the back”, in a couple posts about tracks that were amongst my favourites of that year*. Indeed, I became quite obsessed with the Manchester-based quintet, name checking them with all my friends, recommending their music at every chance I got, describing their sound as epic and bombastic. I’m sure my friends got sick of hearing about them and being who they were, took every advantage to rib me and poke fun. I didn’t care. I just pressed repeat.

When I heard a sophomore album was being released, I went out to the local HMV and purchased “Cast of thousands” on CD as soon as it was possible. I didn’t even consider there would be a letdown given my lofty expectations and thankfully, the album didn’t disappoint in the least. Titled for the idea that they enlisted and recorded the Glastonbury crowd singing the refrain of one of the album’s tracks but really evoking how the band doubled down on the followup to their successful debut. Listening to the album over and over again that first week, I came up with a new descriptor for them: beauty, personified.

I distinctly remember taking the CD with me on a trip down to Toronto to visit my friends, Discman company for the long Greyhound bus ride, there and back. I stayed with my friend Tim that weekend, whose birthday it was, if I correctly recall, sleeping on the pullout couch in his basement apartment. On one of the afternoons, a couple of other friends came over and we span tunes, drank beers, ate Pizza Pizza pizza, and played Axis and Allies** for hours. When it was my turn to select the tunes, I slipped on “Cast of thousands” much to the eye rolling of my friends and though I think they got more of an appreciation, I don’t think any of them were entirely sold or as enthusiastic about the album as I was. Maybe it was my fault for talking it up so much. Their loss.

“I blow you a kiss
It should reach you tomorrow
As it flies from the other side of the world”

The second single and track three on the album is “Fugitive motel”. It begins with the barking of dogs off in the distance, followed by sinister guitars, a brushing away at the drums, strings awash, and a lonely piano. Over it all is Guy Garvey’s plaintive vocals, a depth of tone, and a layer of guilt and hurt. His is a protagonist, disheveled and unshaven but unwavering in hope in the face of eternity. It is less a narrative than a feeling – lovelorn and lost and far away. Strong imagery, cinematic in scope, the cheap and seedy hotel room as a prison, a captive in a dream, the whole world desolate and forgotten. But still Guy waits.

*”Red” came in at number twelve and “Any day now” was the top song on the list.

**A strategy game, not unlike Risk but more involved, in which you redo WWII.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.