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This Review and 209 more are in my E-Book
Available on AMAZON
LET'S GO CRAZY - 80ts Music On CD
Your All-Genres Guide To Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
Classic Albums, Compilations, 45s
All In-Depth Reviews from the Discs Themselves
Over 1,650 e-Pages of Info
(No Cut and Paste Crap)
"...It Is Accomplished..."
How do you describe this Soundtrack masterpiece? Art Rock, Eastern Mysticism, Tribal Rhythms, Sand and Synths, World Music with some Folk and Finger Cymbals?
I've loved Peter Gabriel's output since I was a geeky kid in the early Seventies and like most of my adolescent crew, we worshiped at the needs a wipe down feet of all things GENESIS. Albums like "Foxtrot", "Selling England By The Pound" and the glory of the double concept album "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" in 1974 wre literally magical to my dandy danglers and I. After a shaky start in 1977 and 1979, his solo career veered into brilliance with 1980's "Peter Gabriel" (III) and 1982's "Peter Gabriel" (IV). And then came the wildly commercial "So" in 1986 that blew everybody away. His "Birdy" Soundtrack was good too (if not all great, truth be told) - but little prepared me for the epic sweep of "Passion". A few years back (2018), I bought the 3LP Remastered 45RPM Reissue just to have it and pet it and stroke it like a man needing medication in a hurry.
Which brings me to this rather cool if not entirely satisfying CD Remaster from 2002 where PG reissued his catalogue as stand-alone Remasters in cool Mini LP die-cut card sleeves - minus any bonuses (mores the bloody pity), but still looking like a must own to yours truly. There is much to get Surdo, Duduk and Kemenche about (if you know what I'm saying Eastern Instrument hip types). So indeed let's get acquainted and accomplished...
UK released June 2002 - "Passion: Music From The Last Temptation Of Christ - A Film by Martin Scorsese" by PETER GABRIEL on Real World Records RWCDX1 - Virgin 7243 8 11787 2 0 (Barcode 724381178720) is a straightforward transfer of the 1989 2LP/1CD release onto a Series of 'REMASTERED: Limited Edition Mini Vinyl Compact Disc' Artwork that plays out as follows (67:04 minutes):
1. The Feeling Begins [Side 1 of 2LP set]
2. Gethsemane
3. Of These, Hope
4. Lazarus Raised
5. Of These, Hope (Reprise)
6. In Doubt
7. A Different Drum
8. Zaar [Side 2]
9. Troubled
10. Open
11. Before Night Falls
12. With This Love
13. Sandstorm [Side 3]
14. Stigmata
15. Passion
16. With This Love - Choir
17. Wall Of Breath [Side 4]
18. The Promise Of Shadows
19. Disturbed
20. It Is Accomplished
21. Bread And Wine
Tracks 1 to 21 are the Soundtrack 2LP set (1CD) to "Passion: Music From The Last Temptation Of Christ (A Film by Martin Scorsese)" - released June 1989 in the UK on Real World Records RWLP 1 (Vinyl) and Real World Records RWCD 1 and Geffen GHS 24206 (2LPs) and Geffen 9 24206-2 on 1CD. Produced, Composed and Mixed by PETER GABRIEL (additional mixing by David Bottrill) - it peaked at No. 29 in the UK and No. 60 in the USA. Track 14 composed by Mahmoud Tribrizi Zadeh and Track 12 composed by Shankar.
PETER GABRIEL - Vocals, Synths, Bass, Whistle, Shakers, Surdo, Percussion Instruments
Some of the Guest Musicians include:
ANTHRANIK ASKARIAN and VACHE HOUSEPIAN - Duduk
MUSTAPHA ABDEL AZIZ - Woodwind (Argul)
DAVID BOTTRILL - Tambourine, Distorted Slide and Mixing
BILLY COBHAM - Drums and Percussion (Tracks 9, 18 and 20)
COR ANGLAIS (Robin Canter) - Choir (Track 16), Oboe (Track 12)
NATHAN EAST - Bass
MANNY ELIAS - Surdo and Percussion Instruments (Octabans, Skins)
RICHARD EVANS - Tin Whistle (Track 21)
FATALA - Percussion
JON HASSELL - Trumpet (Track 15)
NUSRAT FATAH ALI KHAN - Vocals (Track 15)
MANU KATCHE - Percussion (Track 13)
BAABA MAAL - Vocals (Tracks 5)
YOUSSOU N'DOUR - Lead Vocals (Tracks 7 and 15)
HOSSAM RAMSY - Finger Cymbals, Tabla and Daf
DAVID RHODES - Guitar
DAVID SANCIOUS - Backing Vocals (Track 9), Sampler Keyboards (Track 12), Organ (Track 20)
SHANKAR - Violin
The artwork for each of these 'Limited Edition Mini Vinyl Compact Disc' sleeves all looked the same, gatefold card sleeves with a CD and inner on one side and the booklet stuck into the other. Each right flap however has a die-cut look that is unique, reflecting the LP in question - a '4' for Peter Gabriel 4, '3' for Peter Gabriel 3 and so on. Here you get two curved semi-circles. The inner sleeve holding the CD shows rows of tape boxes with tempting outtakes and differing variants - none of which are available to us even now in March 2023 as I write this - and the inner sleeve is exactly the same for all issues in this series - frankly a bit of a waste of space and an annoyance (see photos). Of all his albums, I would love to hear outtakes from "Passion" - a surefire cry out for 2CD Deluxe Edition if ever there was one (including the Scorsese film itself on a DVD). The 12-page booklet has pictures from the movie - Willem Defoe as Christ - some words from Gabriel about the album and its sources and musician credits - nothing that wasn't in the June 1989 CD. The gorgeous and innovative artwork isn't expanded upon which is a damn shame. In fact it's more cluttered than it should be when you're trying to work out who played on what and where.
But the great news is a new Remaster by TONY COUSINS who did those fantastic GENESIS Remasters for the now expensive and deleted Box Sets - the best I've ever heard any of those dense LPs of the Seventies sound. Here the effect is revelatory. By the time you get to three minutes into the drums assault that is "The Feeling Begins" - the sheer power of it may have you reaching for the volume control. But it's the punching Eastern Rhythm of "Of These, Hope" and its treated whispering instruments reprise in "Lazarus Raised" where you feel the music's power and majesty. There is real menace in the throbbing soundscape that is "In Doubt" - the whale like wails wafting across your speakers as it segues into a huge Drum and Percussion moment - "A Different Drum". It's here that you hear his arrangement genius - building - building - until the synths and vocals from Youssou N'Dour and Gabriel bring it into a strange but utterly brilliant focus - Shankar's Violin too.
The mesmerizing, disturbing and ultimately uplifting "Zaar" was used as the Passion album's lone representative on the "Shaking The Tree: Sixteen Golden Great" hits set that came out on Real World in 1990 - and you can hear why. It's inventive, moving, thrilling - and so Peter Gabriel. The remaster is HUGE too. And stuff like "Open" where it's only Gabriel and Shankar providing all the swirling synth, violin and vocal treatments - it's just fabulous and moving too.
"With This Love - Choir" - Richard Canter plays Oboe and has a Choir (Cor Anglais) give it some echoed requiem - you hear them taking breaths and noises around them. And on it goes to piano and church-bell rapture of "It Is Accomplished" - both David Sancious (once part of Bruce Springsteen's Seventies band for "Born To Run") and "Spectrum" Fusion Drummer Billy Cobham playing a big part in its magnificent enrapt closure. Love triumphant.
I love it. I love it. Few artists could have even come close to this brilliance and our PG is one of them. He issues his first new work in 20 years in 2023 and I for one am there with the "Bread And Wine". The kind of album you return to as a friend - a thing of beauty that makes you smile - get this greatness into your living room...
