PoV

Being a long time fan of Peter Gabriel (my favourite album in 4th grade was Lamb Lies Down on Broadway when he was in Genesis), I found this a wonderful perspective of Gabriels current works. As anyone who knows Gabriel's past, his music is not always just for aural enjoyment, but for emotional qualities. This movie captures Gabriel in one of his quintessential performances. Right before apartheid was abolished and the world was still in an uncertain turmoil. His musical journey through his older music before commercial success to his "breakthrough" album Security and his mid 80's success with "So" passes the energy through the screen to the viewer. My only complaint is the lack of footage of his drummer Manu Katche. (It's always been one of my favourite things to see with Gabriel in concert is how Katche, with his Off-Beat African themes, compares with Gabriel's previous drummer Phil Collins). During "Lay Your Hands on me" his pre-grunge stage-diving still brings goosebumps to my arms everytime I see this. I highly recommend this video to anyone who is interested in "World-Beat" music, well actually to ANYONE who is interested in music in general. You may not enjoy him as much as I do, but if you are not moved in anyway by "In Your Eyes" with the addition of Youssou N'Dour, you must be too young to remember a quintessential John Cusack scene in "Say Anything".

Like Secret World Live, this shows Gabriel at his best. At the height of his musical skills, he was also, for seemingly a very brief period, also content during these two albums, and perhaps even happy. What sets PoV aside, and makes it such a waste that it has vanished into the pre-DVD era is the performance of "In Your Eyes." This is one of the finest songs of one of the finest songwriters of the last forty years, and this is, far and away, the finest performance you'll find of it.

As this performance demonstrates, Peter Gabriel is merely an adequate vocalist. That's not his strength. Here, he turns much of the singing over to Youssou N'Dour, and it soars. Papa Wemba filling in on the same role on Secret World is great; N'Dour is transcendent.

I'm carefully hoarding the plays of my VHS copy, hoping to find someone who will transfer it to digital, both video and just the audio, so that I can listen to it without eroding the future quality.