Peter Gabriel | Noisy Cats

The Great Beyond

From before Twitler took office, I have felt that he would get us all killed. Today we dropped a massive bomb on Afghanistan, apparently, and are making threats to North Korea. So it seemed like maybe I should not keep holding on to my memorial service playlist but that the time is right to share it. After all, if we’re going to have World War III, I may as well make sure this is out there.

However, the caveat is not all of these songs are available online in the versions that I would actually like to use and it varies between Spotify and YouTube which ones had to be substituted. For that reason, I’m running down the list below. I also can’t help the visuals on some of these videos, which is why I prefer an audio only experience for this, but life could be short so I’m over it. YouTube above, Spotify below.

The Great Beyond
1. Angelika Suspended – Poi Dog Pondering (Spotify has the preferred version)
2. Just Breathe – Pearl Jam
3. If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out – Cat Stevens (here the YouTube is worth it for the Harold and Maude clips since that’s key to its selection)
4. Belong – R.E.M.
5. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi – Radiohead (Spotify for the studio version, though I like the Scotch Mist version fine, it’s not the “right” one)
6. Treefingers – Radiohead (optional – serves as a transition but could also be cut or used as music while people are milling about before things get started)
7. Blood of Eden – Peter Gabriel (YouTube is the correct version from Until the End of the World)
8. Calling All Angels – Jane Siberry with k.d.lang
9. Heaven – Talking Heads
10. Wendell Gee – R.E.M.
11. Untitled – R.E.M.
12. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) – Talking Heads

While there are a lot of songs that you might think I would have on a playlist for my memorial service, this is meant to be something you can actually play for assembled grieving friends and family and not bum people out too much. It shouldn’t make people feel worse. At the same time, sometimes it’s good to cry and let it out. The idea is that this should be in place of any hymns or prayers since I am not religious, though there are some songs that gesture toward that, after all I have a number of church-going family members, including my aunt the nun.

In the days to come I’ll take each one as a separate post with more details but for now I’ll let it speak for itself.

Peter Gabriel – Come Talk to Me

It was all over the internet earlier this week that John Cusack came out on stage at Peter Gabriel’s concert at the Hollywood Bowl (the Back to Front tour in honor of the So 25th anniversary tour) to give him a boombox for his performance of “In Your Eyes.”

I didn’t see Peter Gabriel on the So tour, but I saw the Secret World tour a couple of times. I have to say, those shows really fit the definition of spectacular. It was big, lots of musicians, lots of sets, lots of instruments – some of which you couldn’t identify – with things and people popping up out of the stage floor, moving down conveyor belts, I’d never seen anything like it.

I’d seen Peter Gabriel before as part of the Amnesty International tour but that was different. That had been one of those massive affairs that were big in the 80s, held at stadiums that could hold 100,000 people and featured several big name acts. Peter Gabriel was the highlight of that show for me but when Bruce Springsteen is on the bill and the venue is in Philadelphia, the vast majority of people have come for only one reason.

On the Secret World tour, he had the space and time to do whatever he wanted. This video comes from the DVD release of the tour’s stop in Italy and is pretty much the same as the shows I saw. I might just have to rewatch the whole thing.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)