PETER GABRIEL: SO (side two) | Reaction & Analysis | feat. Mercy Street, Big Time, & In Your Eyes

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]It's the Daily Doug. [music] >> Hey y'all, welcome back to the Daily Doug. Thanks for being with me today as we finish out another week on the channel. You have arrived on a day where we are finishing up a full album reaction that we started a week ago. I am very excited to finish up. So from Peter Gabriel, his fifth solo album. It uh it celebrated earlier this week. It celebrated its 40th anniversary. So last Friday we heard the first four songs from side one. Today we're going to hear the last five songs from side two. And this is a musician that just keeps me coming back time and time again. There's just something about his intelligence, the color of his voice, the the ups and downs of the melodies, the arrangements, the humanity, all of it just really make me feel comfortable while I am in his company and enjoying his music. So, I'm going to start right in, y'all. Peter Gabriel is bringing us side two of So, and I have heard a few of these songs, but not all of them. As I said last week, I've, you know, this is a classic album, this fifth solo album from him with that just catapulted him into the stratosphere as a commercially successful solo artist. and I've heard, of course, some of the songs. They're just iconic, but I have never listened to the entire album. And there's still a few of these that I've never heard. And um as we get started, like last week, I'd be here for a long time if I listed every single musician that assisted on this album. I will say that the the core group is Peter Gabriel on lead and backing vocals and keyboards. Tony Leven is on all things bass. David Rhodess is on all things guitars. Jerry Maroda and Manu Kachce are all things drums and percussion. And then they have an absolute army, a small army of of excellent musicians that have come in to lend their talents to this album. So as we start side two friends, the first choice and the biggest choice that I have is do I start with In Your Eyes or do I end with In Your Eyes? When this album first came out, In Your Eyes was listed as the first song on Side Two, but in subsequent pressings and and later releases, it has moved to become the final song on the album. And I think that especially since I know that Peter often will save in your eyes that very special song for the ending of his concerts. I'm going to save it till the end. Okay. So that's the choice that I have made. And just like last week, I know that there are great videos to go along with some of these songs. I am not interested in the videos today. I'm just going to be concentrating on the songs themselves. So, let's get into it, friends. Side two, we're going to start with Mercy Street. And Peter gained inspiration for this particular lyric from a poem called 45 Mercy Street by Anne Stexton. And uh while he was uh thinking about this song and and coming up with this song, he was in Rio and he was musically into Brazilian sounds and uh Brazilian music and so he went ahead and recorded it while he was in Rio from what I read. So, I don't know if it will have a Brazilian flare or not, but this is one of those songs that I really do not know, friends. So, let's start out side two of So, from Peter Gabriel with Mercy Street. Here we go.

[00:05:01]See, shark miners is what I hear.

[00:05:03][music] Looking down [singing and music] on empty streets, all she can see are the dreams all made sight. Of the dreams made real.

[00:05:39]All of the buildings, all of the cars were once [music and singing] just a dream in somebody's head.

[00:05:49]That'sen South American feel to it, right?

[00:05:53][music] [singing] Take the boat out. Wait until darkness.

[00:06:04][music] Let's take the boat out. Wait until [singing and music] darkness comes.

[00:06:15]Nowhere in the corridors are [music and singing] pale green and gray.

[00:06:20]Nowhere in the >> Is that low >> voice also Peter?

[00:06:30]>> That's as low as I've ever heard him sing. [music] support [singing] dreaming of mercy [music] street where you're inside out dreaming [music] of mercy in [music and singing] your daddy's arms again [music] >> beautiful that percussion engine that's going on. [music and singing] >> It's got such [music] >> flare. The pitched percussion aspect of it. It's like a prism that's >> luckily in the right key.

[00:07:19]That's cool.

[00:07:31]>> [music] [music] >> Pulling out the papers, drawers that slide smooth, looking at the darkness.

[00:07:56]>> [music] >> Word unwanted confessing all those secret things in a warm velvet [music] box to the priest. He's the doctor. He can handle the shocks. [music] Dreaming of the tenderness tremble in the hips of kissing [singing] Mary lips. [music] Dreaming of mercy stream where [music and singing] you're inside out. Dreaming home [music] in your daddy's arms again. [music] Dreaming of mercy street. [music] where [singing] they move that [music] side looking for mercy.

[00:08:52][music] >> Aren't we all just looking for a little mercy sometimes?

[00:09:17]And that could be the end of the song, but there's another like minute and a half on this.

[00:09:43]>> [music] >> Looking for [music] [singing] some back [music] to me.

[00:10:15]>> [music] >> It's really evocative sound [music] [singing] [music] riding the riding the wave.

[00:10:35]on the sea.

[00:10:41]>> Yeah, that's the first time I've ever heard that.

[00:10:45]Beautiful song, isn't it? Mercy Street.

[00:10:51]Dreaming of Mercy Streak where you're inside out. Dreaming of mercy in your daddy's arms again.

[00:11:01]Hm. I'm not familiar with the poem that this is based on, but it makes me want to read it for sure and uh and look more into the poet and sex ston because that was that was really lovely. Wonderful.

[00:11:18]Okay, friends, we move on to a big song.

[00:11:21]It's called Big Time. This was the third single released from the album and it's one that I have heard over the years, but it's not one that I have yet analyzed or listened to critically on the channel or on Patreon. So, I'm happy that it's coming up here as part of the album. This is the song, friends, as I have been told and as I did read, as I uh prepared today, this is where the funk fingers were born, y'all. This is the origin story. basist Tony Leaven created this technique uh along with drummer Jerry Marada that uh allows him to strike the bass strings with these kind of wooden finger extensions and it creates this very unique and deep percussive just awesome sounding bass.

[00:12:26]and we get to hear it. So, uh, I haven't heard this song for a long time. I've definitely never listened to it going, I wonder what key that's in and what the chords are doing and what I've never done that before. So, I'm eager to do it now. It is big time and it's from Peter Gabriel. Here we go.

[00:12:47]>> Hi there.

[00:12:49][music] >> Well, hello I've got to make it show. Yeah.

[00:13:02]Down.

[00:13:15]>> Gar minor.

[00:13:22]>> [music] >> The place where [music] I come from is a small town.

[00:13:47]They think so small. They use small.

[00:13:55]>> Almost sounds like a Prince track, doesn't it?

[00:14:01][music] >> I'll be stretching my mouth [music] to let those big words come right out. I'm getting out.

[00:14:14]>> I've had enough. I'm getting out.

[00:14:16][music] I'm going to the city, the big big city. I've got ambition. I'm going to make it. I'm on my way.

[00:14:26]>> I'm going to own a whole lot of good stuff.

[00:14:31][music] >> My way. I'm making it big time.

[00:14:46]>> I got to make it show. [music] Yeah.

[00:14:55]>> So much larger than life.

[00:15:02]>> I'm going to watch you grow.

[00:15:05][music] Oh.

[00:15:17]My bies have all the feelings and I greet them with the widest smile. Tell them how my life is one [music] big adventure.

[00:15:30]Always there [music] with a show around the house to a higher place like a mountain. [music] >> The way they produced this is just so [music] full of great sound, isn't it?

[00:15:51]in that chord.

[00:15:53][music] What are they doing?

[00:15:59]>> To get back to Gsharp.

[00:16:08][music and singing] >> And that's coming up from the regular six instead of flat 6 for G# sharp minor.

[00:16:18]>> That should be what it is, but it's like Dorian mode.

[00:16:25][music] >> My car is getting bigger.

[00:16:37]>> My house is getting bigger.

[00:16:41]>> My eyes are getting bigger.

[00:16:44]>> My mouth is already big enough.

[00:16:50]He's living the American dream.

[00:16:54]>> His belly is big. His bank account's big.

[00:17:02]>> And the bulge in my big big [music] Are you sure about that bulge?

[00:17:16]Yeah. You you you can get all you can get the car, you can get the house, you can get the [clears throat] big belly, you can get the big bank account, but that bulge, I don't know. Well, maybe you can buy that, too. Who knows? I That's one thing I have not looked into.

[00:17:33]But big time, he sure has um spunk. He's sure ready to go, right? He is. He is [laughter] he's ready to make it happen. I don't know if I respect him.

[00:17:50]I don't know if I agree with what he's trying to achieve, but I admire his determination. [laughter] [gasps] He's going to make the big time whether we like it or not. What a fun song.

[00:18:10]Great sound.

[00:18:13]Cool. So, up next is a song called We Do What We're Told and in parentheses, it's called Mgrims 37.

[00:18:23]None of this sounded familiar as I started reading in y'all. So, this refers to an experiment that was carried out by Stanley Mgram in the years following World War II.

[00:18:40]The goal was to study if it was possible to rationally conclude that Nazi soldiers during World War II were just following orders as asserted by Ikeman at trial. Right?

[00:19:04]One of their defense strategies was, "Hey, we're we're not evil. We're not responsible for what we did. We were that's we were just being told that and we were coerced. I didn't even realize what I was doing.

[00:19:24]But Mgrim summarized his findings all the way in 1974.

[00:19:33]And here's what he said in part.

[00:19:36]He said, "Ordinary people simply doing their jobs and without any particular hostility on their part can can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist that kind of authority.

[00:20:21]Meaning that in his studies where we would hopefully expect people to go, "Hey, no, I can't do that. That's that's going to harm this other person or that's going to that's cruelty. I can't no I can't do that. I don't care what your authority is over me. I just can't do that." But he said, "Relatively few people have the resources to resist and they fall victim to the authority and they end up becoming an agent of terrible destructive processes.

[00:21:03]That makes me sad. And I don't even know if I I mean, I think I'd read about this, but I really hadn't understood it or thought about it or dwelled on it at all. But in the end, Peter then takes the results of this study and he's dwelling on it and he comes up with a song called We Do What We Are Told.

[00:21:36]I got to hear it. I don't think I ever have, friends. So, let's see what Peter has in store for us. It is We Do What We're Told, Mgrims 37, and it's from Peter Gabriel. Here we go.

[00:21:52][music] H man, his percussion choices are so unique.

[00:22:15]I feel like you >> [music] >> Okay.

[00:22:56][music] Down by a [music] house. Stab.

[00:23:04]Pretty.

[00:23:14]>> [music] >> That's a major.

[00:23:38]3 2 1 Now let's see G 2 D major [music] [music] >> C sharp suspended to C# minor >> to A major. It's a major sound.

[00:24:06]>> We [music] do what we're told.

[00:24:13]Reminds [music] me of something David Bowie might do as well.

[00:24:21]One, [music] one voice, [music] one wall.

[00:24:40]One truth, [music] one [singing] dream and it's going to fade out.

[00:25:04]one dream and the melody went up and it lifted my spirits like it was a dream and then it fades out.

[00:25:15][sighs] I wouldn't have reacted so palpably to that if I hadn't taken the time to read in and understand what the source material what the inspiration really was. And in that context, it's painful almost.

[00:25:40]It's an elegy for [snorts] shared humanity. The chorus or just the words that he says, we're do what we're we do what we're told. We do what we're told. We do what we're told. And then at the very end, one doubt, one voice, one war, one truth, one dream.

[00:26:01]Those are the lyrics. And then when he says dream, it it popped up and it opened me up and it just kind of fades away. Is it saying all we really need is you one?

[00:26:23]If you doubt, if you have critical thinking, if you use your voice, your dream is enough to overcome this construct where out of fear, out of whatever in our own psyche, we end up doing what we're told for self-preservation. I don't know. But if there's a leader, if there's someone with courage that can help break those cycles, it becomes much more attainable to practice radical empathy instead of just cowering and going along with what you're told to do even though you know it's wrong.

[00:27:20]Thank you for that, Peter. What a powerful piece. So, next up is a song called This Is the Picture and in parentheses, uh, Excellent Birds. So, I heard Excellent Birds in March of 2023. That was part of our fan favorites number 13. That was by Lori Anderson. And Peter wrote this with Lori Anderson. And Lorie's version, which is called Excellent Birds, appears on her album that came out in 1984, a couple years earlier. Peter's version, which has a different arrangement and uh a different baseline, uh appears on this album as this is the picture and then excellent birds in parenthesis. The reason why it was left off of early vinyl copies of the album is because they procrastinated in finishing it until right before the production deadline.

[00:28:29]And the huge first run of albums ended up going out without it. And so they weren't able to rectify that until the next big run of vinyl for the album. But it is included uh now as an official and uh proper uh song on the album and I want to hear this version which I have not yet heard previously. It is this is the picture excellent birds from Peter Gabriel. Here we go.

[00:29:07]>> [clears throat] >> Okay.

[00:29:32]More fascinating. percussion sounds.

[00:29:37]>> Excellent birds.

[00:29:39]>> Watch them fly.

[00:29:48]>> Falling snow.

[00:29:52]Excellent snow.

[00:29:55]Here it comes. Watch it fall.

[00:29:59]Long words.

[00:30:03]Excellent words.

[00:30:05]I can hear them now.

[00:30:08]This is the picture. This is the picture. This is the picture. This is the picture. This is the picture. This is the picture. This is the picture.

[00:30:22]This is the picture.

[00:30:28]It's hard to really tell where they are. That's an F.

[00:30:37][music] [music] >> It's kind of static over that F. I'm looking out and I'm moving turning in time. Catching a moving jungle and I can land on my feet.

[00:30:59]Look out.

[00:31:15]two and three. [music] This is the picture.

[00:31:21]>> It's kind of a minimalist >> composition.

[00:31:29]It's like a mantra.

[00:31:41]1 2 3 4.

[00:31:43]>> So he was in three, now he's in four again.

[00:31:49]>> When I see the future, I close my eyes.

[00:31:52]>> When I see the future, I close my eyes, too. Lorie, [music] >> falling down. [music] >> Standing on their heads. They're ready.

[00:32:07]>> They're ready. I see pictures of people rising up. I see pictures of people falling down. I see pictures of people standing on their heads. [music] They're ready.

[00:32:19]>> They're looking out.

[00:32:23]>> This reminds me of some of the stuff on Peter's earlier albums, the more experimental, >> artistic, artsy [music] >> songs.

[00:32:43]They're just as [music] fascinating and >> bits of ear candy is the radio hits, aren't they? Even more so.

[00:33:01]And the two and three and one and two and three and I think it's just an allegory on being wary of where humanity is going, where the future is going.

[00:33:30]You know, there's the birds. Watch them fly. There they go. There's the snow.

[00:33:33]It's excellent. Watch it fall.

[00:33:36]You know, we have a picture of what's going on.

[00:33:43]And when we look at the picture of people, the mirror that we hold up to society and we see the picture of humanity, it's one that we don't like. They're looking out. They're watching out.

[00:34:01]They're standing on their heads.

[00:34:05]They're ready. They're ready to level up. You know, it feels like we are ready as a society to really make the next step and we're struggling to take that step because there's so many that are going, "No, we don't want to leave where we are. Isn't this nice? Yeah, it's corrupt and there's all of this bad stuff, but isn't it nice for me here? I don't want to move." And everybody's like, "No, we all need to take that step."

[00:34:40]That's what it feels like to me.

[00:34:43]And this is 40 years ago, right? So, we're really aching to take that step.

[00:34:52]Some of us have taken a few steps and we look back, it's like, what are all you people still doing back there? Come on.

[00:34:59]Come on. We're stepping forward. you know, it feels strange these days and it's fascinating to go back, you know, I was just a kid when this came out and um to get into the political minds of very intelligent people who had an artistic out, you know, outlet during that time and see what they were really thinking about. Yeah, this is that's how I interpret it at least. And it's wonderful. And speaking of wonderful, friends, we've come to the ending song and it's one of the better songs in the history of popular music as far as I'm concerned. It's In Your Eyes, and uh I'm ready to hear it again with all of you.

[00:35:50]It, like I said at the beginning, it originally was the first song on Site 2.

[00:35:54]Now it's listed as the last song on the album. And of course, I've heard this one through the years, especially thanks to the movie Say Anything. I especially loved hearing the live version of this with Paula Cole on the Secret World live recording. That's available on Patreon if y'all want to take a look at that video. This particular version of course features uh the singer Yuso uh Nor who is from Sagal and for many of us it's one of our favorite songs of all time. So let's enjoy ourselves and finish out this wonderful album with Peter Gabriel and In Your Eyes. Here we go.

[00:37:02]love.

[00:37:05][music] I get so lost sometimes.

[00:37:12]Days pass and this emptiness [singing and music] fills my heart.

[00:37:24]When I want to run away, I drive off in my [singing] car. [music] whichever way I command to the place you are.

[00:37:45][music] All my instincts they return the grand facade so soon will burn.

[00:37:56]Without a noise, without my [singing] pride, I reach [music] out from the inside.

[00:38:08]>> Hands on the four chord [music] of where we've been.

[00:38:13]>> In your eyes, the light >> and we go to a new key. [music] I'm complete your see the door. [music] The thousand churches your eyes resolution your eyes >> upon the [music] moonless.

[00:38:33]>> Oh, I see the light and the [music] heat.

[00:38:38]Oh, I want to be [singing] that.

[00:38:42][music] >> I want to touch the light, the heat I see in your eyes.

[00:38:53]>> [music] >> And again, he's using relatively common metrical structures in these songs, but I don't know if we get a traditional high hat, >> kick drum, and snare [music] >> groove. The entire album The undergirling percussion and rhythm keeps slipping away >> keeps it fresh. It keeps it new.

[00:39:36][music and singing] >> I get so tired working so hard for our survival.

[00:39:43][music] >> I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive. Yeah. work life balance >> and all my incense they return [music] and the grand facade so soon we'll burn without a noise without my pride I reach out from the inside [music] >> yeah that's >> [music] >> In your arms goes there.

[00:40:23]>> Your eyes.

[00:40:25][music] Your eyes.

[00:40:27]In your eyes.

[00:40:30]In your [music] eyes. The light of he [music] see the doorway thousand church. Your eyes to resolution. your eyes upon the fruitless searches.

[00:40:50]Oh, I see the [music] light after your eyes.

[00:40:55]Oh, I want to be that [music] your eyes.

[00:40:59]I want to touch the light. The heat I see in your [music] eyes.

[00:41:05]In your eyes.

[00:41:08]In your [music] eyes.

[00:41:11]In your eyes.

[00:41:13]It's just finding that connection >> whether it's romantic or not [music] >> just to feel that complete [music] you know and it fades out >> when when I need an emotional pickme up. This is one of the songs that I come to because you can't you can't make it through that song without smiling. At least I can't.

[00:42:25]You know, [clears throat] it's the middle of May and there's lots of graduations that are happening. It's that time of year again. And um I'm thinking back to a lot of the graduations that I've been to. I have three collegiate degrees.

[00:42:43]I've also as a professor been to many many uh graduation ceremonies and I've heard many many you know charges to the graduates you know big speeches and all of that. But one of the ones that I remember the most and it actually came from a former teacher of mine and he was speaking directly to the graduating class of musicians and he said the line when medicine cannot uh cure when medicine cannot cure music heals.

[00:43:33]When medicine or what medicine cannot cure, music heals.

[00:43:40]And it's talking about the emotional strands that keep our consciousness in check. You know, that holds us that gives meaning to all of the events of our lives.

[00:44:07]And for those of us that really love music and respond to the sound of it, I don't know where we would be or what we would be or who we would be without that presence in our lives.

[00:44:19]And that's a piece that very much helps me time and again in your eyes. It doesn't matter who it is or what the circumstance is.

[00:44:35]In your eyes, the light, the heat, I am complete. I see the doorway to a thousand churches, the resolution of all the fruitless searches.

[00:44:45]I see it. I feel it. And I want to be that complete. I want to feel that way.

[00:44:52]And I do it and I can feel that way when I'm with you. And it's in that personal connection, eyeball to eyeball that all of that can be communicated and understood. It's so powerful, isn't it?

[00:45:09]>> [sighs] [gasps] >> I'm glad I saved that for the end because I don't know what I would have done after that [laughter] quite frankly friends. So there you have it. So sides one and two. Side two today. What an album celebrating its 40th anniversary this week. So where do I go next friends? Where do I go next with Peter Gabriel? I have heard all of his recordings with Genesis. So don't worry about that. I've heard all of Melt, his third album. Now I've heard this, all of his fifth album. I've heard Secret World Live. Do we go back to the beginning? Do we do Peter Gabriel 1?

[00:45:51]Um, the next album after So is Us, one that I actually do have on vinyl. And that was released in September of 1992.

[00:46:02]And well, maybe September, it's May now.

[00:46:06]by the time we get to September, it may be about the right time to come back to St. Peter Gabriel on the channel.

[00:46:12]So, maybe that would be a good reason for us to do uh us.

[00:46:17]But I'm up for whatever y'all want to do. And wherever you think I should go next, that is where I will go. But you can bet and bank on me uh continuing to come back to Peter Gabriel. I love his music. I love his artistry. I love his um his gifts that he offers us and I'm happy to experience them and share my reactions with all of you. I thank you very much for your participation, for your support, and for hanging out with me while we've been listening to this classic Peter Gabriel album. That is going to be all for me today and this week, my friends. I thank you very much for joining me and we will see you next time on another edition of the Daily Dog.

[00:47:05]It's the [singing] Daily.

[00:47:07]>> Welcome to the Daily Dog. The Daily Dog. [music]