Weakest Link: Peter Gabriel "Security" - Final Round!

"I Have the Touch" finally lost contact, so we're down to our final pair.

Pick the ONE weakest link!

Discussion: what would your preferred final pair - and winner - have been?

Bonus: where do you rank "Security" in the Pete discography?

DEPOSED SONGS:

-I Have the Touch
-Shock the Monkey
-Lay Your Hands on Me
-Wallflower
-Kiss of Life
-Family and the Fishing Net

 

#1

 

My final pair woud have been San Jacinto and The Family And The Fishing Net.
Peter Gabriel sometimes tried to recreate that type of "mini-suite song" that describes both of them in his following albums but never so successfully (e.g. Signal To Noise).

I hope San Jacinto wins. I think it's the best song on this album.

This album ranks as no.2 in PG's discography for me, after PG3 (Melt for the Americans).

 

Preferred final pair: "The Rhythm of the Heat" and "Lay Your Hands on Me" (with "San Jacinto" a very close third) with "Rhythm" winning. I gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised that "San Jacinto" turns out to be such a popular song.

My ranking in Gabriel's catalogue: #1.

 

Rhythm

My final pair would have been Wallflower over San Jacinto.

I would probably rank this second, behind the first one (Car).

 

Really difficult choice. Gun to my head I kicked out San Jacinto and kept Rhythm.

I rate this record #2 after Melt.

 

I would have had Family and The Fishing Net over Monkey as the final.

Really no weak links here - his finest work along with its predecessor - which is my personal favorite but I can't say it is "better"

 

San Jacinto

I rank this on par with Melt and Us, all three only surpassed by So.

 

San Jacinto

DQ1: Fishing Net / Rhythm Heat. Heat – and its dance-of-the-skeletons atmosphere – wins.

DQ2: At the top is Security. In 2nd place – by a sliver – is a tie among Up, Melt, Passion.

 

As I indicated in an earlier thread, “San Jacinto” was a lock for my final winner. Lyrically, it's superb, telling (in the strict sense of the term) an epic story in which the life or death of an individual mirrors the fate of an entire civilisation. While “Rhythm” itself has an interesting basis (the working title was “Jung In Africa”) it essentially boils down to “the rhythm's gonna get you”.

In terms of music the call is closer. “Rhythm” has that great impact from the start (PG’s primal yell, followed by that sustained low chord, were just mind-blowing compared to virtually everything that was around at the time) while “San Jacinto” has a slow build: it gives us essentially one crescendo and a release while “Rhythm” gives us multiple (musical!) climaxes culminating in that drum ending which was so striking that Grace Slick ripped it off directly on “Bikini Atoll”. (Itself a pretty decent song for those of you who don't know it.)

So you could argue that “Rhythm” hits harder. Nevertheless, the gamelan-influenced patterns of Fairlight samples have a magic that, to me at least, has not dimmed in the close-to-forty years that have elapsed. They sound incredibly innovative ... until you hear Steve Reich's “Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards” (1979) which is surely the root for the entire song!

Ultimately “San Jacinto” is my winner not because it's a better “song” than “Rhythm” (they're both 10/10 stone cold classics) but because it's more humane: it just wouldn't be worth doing a cover version of “Rhythm” because everything's in the instrumentation & production, but if you strip everything about the instrumentation & production that makes “San Jacinto” great I still think that you have a song worth performing. It has a spine of greatness.

This would have been my final pair although “Family” would have run “Rhythm” close. I don't really mind which of the two wins though ... either is a worthy winner.

 

Although I went with keeping Rhythm - I can't disagree with anything here. Nice and thoughtful reply. Cheers.

 

My two favorite songs on the album. Tough to choose, but I'm voting Rhythm off since we are discussing studio versions.

Note that in live setting or on Plays Live album, my vote swings other direction!

 

I have the Touch over San Jacinto. But I can't argue this pairing either.

Plays Live is just great. Security is a strong #2.

 

Discussion: "Hands" and "Heat" for the final, with a "Hands" win.

Discussion 2: "Security" is the toppermost of the poppermost in the Pete catalog.

"3" would be 2nd, and then "So"...

 

Found this 1983 performance of "Hands":



Not great quality, but beggars/choosers.

Kinda hilarious how the audience tosses Pete back on stage almost as soon as he falls back!

 

My head hurts : Too hard a choice.

 

Flip a coin!

 

I say tie
I love both for very different reasons.

III or melt is my favourite, but IV or Security is right up there.

 

About 45 minutes to go!

 

Close vote, but "San Jacinto" winds up as the strongest link!

Thanks to all who played.

Up next: @LandHorses with Dylan's "Planet Waves"!

 

Too late to vote. I would have voted against San Jacinto. I don't get the love for that track. I voted against it in round 1.

My final would have been I Have The Touch over Shock The Monkey.

 

I have asked before and not got a satisfactory answer: How do you know that Planet Waves is next on the list? Where is this list, and how does one get on it? Is this just a thing between LandHorses and yourself?