Standard Edition

Product Description
Peter Gabriel's "Scratch My Back" album project is the first part of a series of song exchanges in which Gabriel and other leading artists reinterpret each other's songs. To help craft his recording of the album's eclectic array of cult favorites and classic tracks, Gabriel enlisted former Durutti Column member John Metcalfe (composer, arranger), the expertise of producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd's "The Wall", Lou Reed's "Berlin") and engineer, mixer and producer Tchad Blake (Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, Tom Waits).

Gabriel describes this as a very personal record with twelve songs performed only with orchestral instruments and voice. He made the choice not to include guitar or drums. The album's richly diverse sounds include the sparse romance of Lou Reed's 'The Power of the Heart', the powerful musical journey of David Bowie's 'Heroes' and an epic arrangement of Arcade Fire's 'My Body Is A Cage'. Gabriel and his collaborators recorded the album at George Martin's Air Lyndhurst Studios and the Real World Temple with further editing and mixing at his own Real World Studio in Wiltshire. The "Scratch My Back" release is one of the most creative and engaging records from an iconic artist in a long time. The marketing focus is to penetrate Peter Gabriel's core fan base as well as fans of all genres and in all demographics given the scope of artists being covered as well as its depth of composition.

1. Heroes [David Bowie]
2. The Boy In The Bubble [Paul Simon]
3. Mirror Ball [Elbow]
4. Flume [Bon Iver]
5. Listening Wind [David Byrne/Talking Heads]
6. The Power Of The Heart [Lou Reed]
7. My Body Is A Cage [Arcade Fire]
8. The Book Of Love [The Magnetic Fields]
9. I Think It's Going To Rain Today [Randy Newman]
10. Apres Moi [Regina Spektor]
11. Philadelphia [Neil Young]
12. Street Spirit (Fade Out) [Radiohead]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035J6TA8/?tag=imwan-20

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Deluxe Edition

Product Description
Peter Gabriel's "Scratch My Back" album project is the first part of a series of song exchanges in which Gabriel and other leading artists reinterpret each other's songs. To help craft his recording of the album's eclectic array of cult favorites and classic tracks, Gabriel enlisted former Durutti Column member John Metcalfe (composer, arranger), the expertise of producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd's "The Wall", Lou Reed's "Berlin") and engineer, mixer and producer Tchad Blake (Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, Tom Waits).

Gabriel describes this as a very personal record with twelve songs performed only with orchestral instruments and voice. He made the choice not to include guitar or drums. The album's richly diverse sounds include the sparse romance of Lou Reed's 'The Power of the Heart', the powerful musical journey of David Bowie's 'Heroes' and an epic arrangement of Arcade Fire's 'My Body Is A Cage'. Gabriel and his collaborators recorded the album at George Martin's Air Lyndhurst Studios and the Real World Temple with further editing and mixing at his own Real World Studio in Wiltshire. The "Scratch My Back" release is one of the most creative and engaging records from an iconic artist in a long time. The marketing focus is to penetrate Peter Gabriel's core fan base as well as fans of all genres and in all demographics given the scope of artists being covered as well as its depth of composition.

CD 1
1. Heroes [David Bowie]
2. The Boy In The Bubble [Paul Simon]
3. Mirror Ball [Elbow]
4. Flume [Bon Iver]
5. Listening Wind [David Byrne/Talking Heads]
6. The Power Of The Heart [Lou Reed]
7. My Body Is A Cage [Arcade Fire]
8. The Book Of Love [The Magnetic Fields]
9. I Think It's Going To Rain Today [Randy Newman]
10. Apres Moi [Regina Spektor]
11. Philadelphia [Neil Young]
12. Street Spirit (Fade Out) [Radiohead]

CD 2
1. The Book Of Love [Remix)
2. My Body Is A Cage [Oxford London Temple Version]
3. Waterloo Sunset [The Kinks] [Oxford London Temple Version]
4. Heroes [Wildebeest Mix]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035J6TAI/?tag=imwan-20

Peter Gabriel covers Radiohead, Arcade Fire and Elbow on new album
'Scratch My Back' is expected in early 2010

October 29, 2009
http://www.nme.com/news/peter-gabriel/48107



Peter Gabriel is set to release an orchestral covers album featuring songs by the likes of Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Elbow and Bon Iver.

Entitled 'Scratch My Back', the album is reported to be a "song swap" with a host of "extremely legendary artists" set to cover each other's material.

"The songs are not simply covers," Gabriel collaborator John Metcalfe told BBC 6 Music. "They are major reinterpretations of some famous stuff. It's quite radical."

Other artists covered include the likes of The Kinks, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Neil Young and Talking Heads.

Although the album isn't expected until spring 2010, a supposed tracklisting for the album has been released by a Japanese distributor.

The alleged tracklisting for 'Scratch My Back' is as follows:

'"Heroes"' (David Bowie)
'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' (Radiohead)
'The Book Of Love' (Magnetic Fields)
'Flume' (Bon Iver)
'My Body Is A Cage' (Arcade Fire)
'Listening Wind' (Talking Heads)
'I Think It's Going to Rain Today' (Randy Newman)
'Après Moi' (Regina Spektor or Eartha Kitt)
'Waterloo Sunset' (The Kinks)
'The Boy In The Bubble' (Paul Simon)
'The Power Of The Heart' (Lou Reed)
'Philadelphia' (Neil Young)
'Mirrorball' (Elbow)

Gabriel's such a slow worker that it even takes him seven years to do a (yawn) covers album.

Peter Gabriel confirms tracklisting of Radiohead, Elbow, Arcade Fire covers album
David Bowie, Neil Young, Bon Iver songs also feature on the album

November 12, 2009
http://www.nme.com/news/peter-gabriel/48344



Peter Gabriel has confirmed the tracklisting for his forthcoming covers album, 'Scratch My Back'.

The 12-track album is released on January 25, and is the first in a number of planned releases that will see Gabriel and other artists reinterpret each others' songs.

Among the songs covered on 'Scratch My Back' are Radiohead's 'Street Spirit', Elbow's 'Mirrorball' and Regina Spektor's 'Apres Moi'. Gabriel enlisted former Durutti Column member John Metcalfe to compose scores for the album.

The tracklisting for 'Scratch My Back' is:

'Heroes' (David Bowie)
'The Boy In The Bubble' (Paul Simon)
'Mirrorball' (Elbow)
'Flume' (Bon Iver)
'Listening Wind' (Talking Heads)
'The Power Of The Heart' (Lou Reed)
'My Body Is A Cage' (Arcade Fire)
'The Book Of Love' (The Magnetic Fields)
'I Think It’s Going To Rain Today' (Randy Newman)
'Apres Moi' (Regina Spektor)
'Philadelphia' (Neil Young)
'Street Spirit' (Radiohead)

Is this a Gabriel album? Or is he on some of it and other artists are as well? The article is confusing. Unless it is part of a series and other artists will also be putting out covers albums.

That's how I read it. This would be the Peter Gabriel album, then there'll be other albums in the series by the artists he's covered, and each of them will include their interpretations of Gabriel compositions.

I think this could be very cool indeed.

Not expected until 2010? For Gabriel that would be absolutely speedy!

Not surprisingly, this has been pushed back to Feb. 15, and it will be issued by Virgin Records. Still not sure if I'm going for this or not, the orchestra part is a turn-off for me, it seems so played out, but maybe Gabriel will do something original with the arrangements.

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Peter Gabriel eschews traditional rock'n'roll instrumentation on his upcoming album, "Scratch My Back," which sports orchestral covers of material originally recorded by David Bowie, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Radiohead and Arcade Fire, among others.

All of the artists whose songs Gabriel covers on "Scratch My Back" will return the favor by reworking his songs on a future album, dubbed "I'll Scratch Yours."

"Scratch My Back," due February 15 on Virgin Records, is Gabriel's first studio album since 2002's "Up," which peaked at No. 9 on The Billboard 200.

Gabriel will perform selections from "Scratch My Back" with an orchestra at four March shows: March 22 in Paris (Palais Omnisports), March 25 in Berlin (O2 World) and March 27-28 in London (The O2).

Here is the track list: "Heroes" (David Bowie) "The Boy in the Bubble" (Paul Simon) "Mirrorball" (Elbow) "Flume" (Bon Iver) "Listening Wind" (Talking Heads) "The Power of the Heart" (Lou Reed) "My Body Is a Cage" (The Arcade Fire) "The Book of Love" (The Magnetic Fields) "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" (Randy Newman) "Apres Moi" (Regina Spektor), "Philadelphia" (Neil Young) "Street Spirit" (Radiohead).

There is a three-part Scratch My Back podcast available via Gabriel's website and iTunes which features excerpts from several album tracks.


http://www.petergabriel.com/news/archiv ... _to_listen


http://www.petergabriel.com/news/archiv ... oon_Update


http://www.petergabriel.com/news/archiv ... -episode_3

Interesting idea it's a pity that the other albums by other artists aren't being released at roughly the same time. The cover is interesting as well with two red blood cells. I'd rather have PG's work back in print with bonus tracks or a rarities release.

Me too! Of all the marginal albums we've seen get the deluxe edition treatment in recent years, it's a shame this hasn't been done with Gabriel. He has many alternate mixes, b-sides, etc. that are hard to find, some of which to my knowledge have never been on CD.

Considering the catalog was remastered just a few years ago, I doubt that we'd see a bunch of deluxe editions anytime soon... but he could certainly do with at least a solid 2-disc set of b-sides, soundtrack cuts, and other rarities. And yes, there are a number of such tracks that have never been released on CD.

I don't think there's a lot of OOP Gabriel albums, though, save the original catalog CDs (including the complete Plays Live) and -- I think -- Secret World Live. I know they weren't part of the remaster program, but does anyone know if the various German-language CDs are still available?

A rarities album would be great; I still have some vinyl (import single of "Shock the Monkey" w/ a B-side that's never appeared on CD: "Soft Dog"), and of course all of those soundtrack songs and appearances on others' albums. The good news for me is I found a couple of what appear to be unofficial CD's at a record convention years ago ("Post Script" and "Sound Fruit") that have lots of those songs, mostly without glitches or dropouts.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSmd9716k8U[/youtube]

Wow-I'll give it another try, but man was that dull. If this is what the arrangements are like, I can't imagine listening to this album much, if ever.

I heard his version of "Heroes" this morning and it's just as dull Im afraid...

I adore the Arcade Fire original and, while I was willing to give this version a shot (looking forward to it actually), you are correct. Not bad. Just dull. Nothing interesting about it at all really.

There will also be a 2-disc special edition with 4 bonus tracks:

The Book Of Love [Remix]
My Body Is A Cage [Oxford London Temple version]
Waterloo Sunset [Oxford London Temple version]
Heroes [Wildebeest Mix]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035J6TAI/?tag=imwan-20

I listened to the two podcasts yesterday and this is everything I feared it would be. Why do so many artists these days think that the only way to do covers is either fast and sloppy (most indie bands) or (in Gabriel's case) slow and excruciating? I almost laughed out loud when he was talking about doing "Listening Wind" by Talking Heads and patting himself on the back for removing the groove, when in my opinion that is one of Remain In Light's least groove-oriented tracks anyway.

I can see doing one or two tracks in this "no drums, no guitars" style but a whole album? Hard to believe this is the same guy who made Peter Gabriel III and Security, two albums that are virtually bursting with percussion and life.

I heard the 30-second samples on Amazon.co.uk. The album sounds exactly how I thought it would, and that's not a good thing.

I like the cover art.

Btw, why is this on Virgin and not Realworld via Geffen/Universal/Island Def Jam/whatever their name is now?

Gabirel's cover of "Flume" by Bon Iver is available as a free mp3 download via Stereogum:

http://stereogum.com/archives/mp3/peter ... 12161.html