Radiohead included in Peter Gabriel cover project
Peter Gabriel is set to release a new album early Spring next year. The album, the first in seven years, of the former Genesis frontman will be an all-star collaborative ’song swap’. Radiohead is included in the project.
John Metcalfe, who worked on some orchestral reinterpretations for the record, revealed to 6 Music that the record is currently being mixed. He said the ‘Scratch My Back project has some “extremely legendary artists” cover each others’ songs. The project had its first outing at WOMAD festival when Gabriel and a string section performed Paul Simon’s The Boy In The Bubble.
Metcalfe said: “I’m not allowed to say who, just yet, but there are some very, very famous singers and bands involved. It sounds amazing, even though I say it myself. It is literally Peter with an orchestra, sometimes the orchestra is quite large, then there are some more chamber music-style, sparse songs But the songs are not simply covers, they are quite major reinterpretations of some famous stuff. It’s quite radical and we’re hoping that people really get it and enjoy it,” he explained.
The album, recorded with producer Bob Ezrin at London’s Air Studios in July, is acoustic, with no guitars, drums or world instruments. Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit’ is included, but it’s not clear who performed on the track. Other tracks on the record include Heroes (Bowie), The Book of Live (Magnetic Fields), Flume (Bon Iver), My Body Is A Cage (Arcade Fire), Listening Wind (Talking Heads), Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks) and Philadelphia (Neil Young).
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23 Responses to “Radiohead included in Peter Gabriel cover project”
Isolation
October 29th, 2009
It’s from the Philadelphia-soundtrack. The movie with Tom Hanks. Kick ass-song. Go check it out.
Lasse Aagaard
October 29th, 2009
I thought Bruce Springsteen sang ‘Philadelphia’……
Radioheadcase
October 29th, 2009
No, Bruce sang “Streets of Philadelphia,” the song over the opening credits. Neil Young’s “Philadelphia” is played at the end of the film.
Adam
October 29th, 2009
This is misleading. I thought that this meant Radiohead was performing a Peter Gabriel track on a tribute album.
Suomynona
October 29th, 2009
The book of love
is long and boring
no-one can lift the damn thing
it’s full of charts
and facts and figures
and instructions for dancing
i love the magnetic fields 
Me
October 29th, 2009
I’m a big peter gabriel fan and i’m quite excited for this!
youdefineme
October 29th, 2009
um… what!!??
???
October 29th, 2009
There’s a good chance RH, or at least Thom, will actually appear on the record (not doing Street Spirit, obviously). The idea of the record was supposed to be that two artists swap songs, so that would mean RH covering a song by whoever covers Street Spirit. Neil Young and David Bowie could be on here too, considering their songs are being done.
performingmonkey
October 30th, 2009
Philadelphia is a song from the movie soundtrack (with tom Hanks) called Philadelphia. Peter Gabriel also appears with a song called Lovetown…
calmam
October 30th, 2009
Peter Gabriel covering Radiohead and The Magnetic Fields with a backing orchestra sounds amazing! This fan is eagerly waiting.
wreck
October 30th, 2009
Four more years!
Queens College
October 30th, 2009
WOW!
Flume, Street Spirit, Philadelphia!! It’s like this mofo took a peek at my Recently Played list!
PS: Philadelphia by Neil Young is the saddest song I’ve heard in my entire life. Neil should’ve won the Oscar for Best Song, not Bruce.
PPS: ‘My Body is a Cage’ is overrated, dawgz. Should’ve gone with Crown of Love or something…
h_e_n_r_y
October 30th, 2009
It will be a set of two records, if the plan does not change. “Scratch My Back” will have Gabriel cover his favourite songs, “I’ll Scratch Yours” will then include each covered artist performing a Gabriel song.
So essentially Radiohead have already recorded a Gabriel cover song which will be released if the project doesn’t change too much.
grey
October 30th, 2009
Me, too. I got engaged to a Magnetic Fields song live (It’s Only Time) in Seattle, and, well, I guess I kind of dig Radiohead if I’m here, right?
See you on the proper forum!
tourist504
October 31st, 2009
LAME!!!!
Are you F’ing kidding me? Bon Iver? Let’s see… what other flash-in-the-pan, here yesterday-already gone today, over-hyped musicians could we involve with these legends??? Why not Vampire Weekend or Scarlett Johansson? I mean, they’re all masters too? Was this project put together by Zach Braff?
Gag me, Peter. For F’s sake!
Andy Morgan
November 4th, 2009
gigabytes of music [ what do we really like ? ]
so we carry so much music on our i-tunes [ just to show off perhaps ? ] . . . so much memory . . . so many songs . . .
this morning i woke up and i went over my i-tunes and i said . . . what is the music that I TRULY never get tired to listen to again and again throughout the years . . . it can t be everything on my library . . . so i show you my results and i am being very realistic since i left behind lot of music . . .
so this is what i NEVER get tired of . . . i would love to read the same from other people because we can learn a lot from each other –
Aarktica
Björk
Bonobo
Boom Bip
The Cinematic Orchestra
The Cure
Daniel Melingo
Explosions in the Sky
Faith No More
Four Tet
Fridge
Jaga Jazzist
Jatun
Lali Puna
Lismore
Little People
Lymbyc Systym
M83
Malcolm Middleton
Manitoba
Marconi Union
The Mercury Program
Mice Parade
Mogwai
Ms. John Soda
Mum
Nick Drake
The Octopus Project
Pink Floyd
Plan B
Radiohead
Red Sparowes
Saxon Shore
The Six Parts Seven
Smashing Pumpkins
This Will Destroy You
Thom Yorke
Tristeza
U2 [ yes -believe it or not ]
this is real . . . no bullshit
lepantrü
November 7th, 2009
Good list. Bonobo. The Cinematic Orchestra, Four Tet, Jagga Jazzist. Nice.
Paul
November 13th, 2009
Tracklist just confirmed:
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)
When Peter asked for suggestions of songs to cover a year or so ago, I actually put a vote in for Street Spirit. Very glad to see it here.
A future release will, one imagines, include songs of these artists covering peter gabriel tunes.
Looks great to me.
Lee Beavington
November 13th, 2009
Sounds like a cool project. Can’t wait to hear the songs. Some other indie artists you might like are on Brite Revolution- http://www.briterevolution.com. You can get exclusive downloads from artists and give back to non-profits. Enjoy!
alyssa
November 16th, 2009
“The Clock” by Thom Yorke gets debuted at M.Zi Productions. hope you enjoy it!
M.Zi
November 17th, 2009
“The Clock” by Thom Yorke is used in the debut video of M.Zi Productions. Hope you enjoy!
M.Zi
November 17th, 2009
They could do Punchup being as it sounds a bit like Genesis anyway…
Oi you
November 22nd, 2009
That would be “The Book of Love” by the Magnetic Fields and did Neil Young really record a song called “Philadelphia” what album is that from?