Gravedigger (song)
"Gravedigger" is a song by Dave Matthews from his debut solo album, Some Devil. This was the first solo single released by Matthews away from the Dave Matthews Band, it won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 46th Grammy Awards held on February 8, 2004; the song has been performed live by Dave Matthews, by Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, at Dave Matthews & Friends concerts, as an acoustic solo by Matthews during Dave Matthews Band shows. During the Dave Matthews Band's tours in 2008 and 2009, it was played by the full band. Matthews said about the song: "It's kind of these different stories that are brought together by walking through a graveyard with their names and the dates of their births and their deaths, the stories that came out of their lives. It's sort of just telling those stories and some others as you wander through a graveyard and what you might think if you could walk into the graves and find out what people went through to get there." There was an acoustic version of the song on the album Some Devil.
The song began as an intro played twice solo by Matthews at full-band DMB shows in the spring of 2002, before debuting as a full solo song in the same tour. In the original "Gravedigger Intro" version, only two people are mentioned: Merrill Lee and Robert John Smith. A music video was produced for the song, directed by Mark Pellington. While filming the video in Montana, Matthews lost his wedding band in the grave, though it was recovered; the video, much like the song, was dark. Elements within the video, such as a hand wielding a key, symbolize death; the lyrics describe, among other things, a young boy. Willie Nelson did his own version of the song; the song was used in the second episode of the ABC series FlashForward. Timothy C. Takach of Cantus arranged the piece for men's voices, the group performs it on tours. "Gravedigger" — 3:50 "Gravedigger" — 3:53
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, is an English rock and blues guitarist and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time", he was named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009. In the mid-1960s Clapton left the Yardbirds to play with the Bluesbreakers. After leaving Mayall, Clapton formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop". After Cream broke up, he formed blues rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood, Ric Grech. Clapton's solo career began in the 1970s, where his work bore the influence of the mellow style of J. J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley.
His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded with the Dominos. Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Clapton's grief was expressed in the song "Tears in Heaven", which appeared on his Unplugged album. Clapton has been the recipient of 18 Grammy Awards, the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music, he has received four Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters and Authors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In his solo career, Clapton has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers. Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in Ripley, England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec.
Fryer shipped off to war prior to Clapton's birth and returned to Canada. Clapton grew up believing that his grandmother and her second husband, Jack Clapp, Patricia's stepfather, were his parents, that his mother was his older sister; the similarity in surnames gave rise to the erroneous belief. Years his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, leaving young Eric with his grandparents in Surrey. Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he lost interest. Two years Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently. Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, practised long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records, he preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder, listening to them over and over until he felt he'd got it right. In 1961, after leaving Hollyfield School in Surbiton, Clapton studied at the Kingston College of Art but was dismissed at the end of the academic year because his focus remained on music rather than art.
His guitar playing was so advanced. Around this time, Clapton began busking around Kingston and the West End. In 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in pubs around Surrey; when he was seventeen years old, Clapton joined his first band, an early British R&B group, the Roosters, whose other guitarist was Tom McGuinness. He stayed with this band from January until August 1963. In October of that year, Clapton did a seven-gig stint with the Engineers. In October 1963, Clapton joined the Yardbirds, a blues-influenced rock and roll band, stayed with them until March 1965. Synthesising influences from Chicago blues and leading blues guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Freddie King, B. B. King, Clapton forged a distinctive style and became one of the most talked-about guitarists in the British music scene; the band played Chess/Checker/Vee-Jay blues numbers and began to attract a large cult following when they took over the Rolling Stones' residency at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond.
They toured England with American bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson II. Yardbirds' rhythm guitarist, Chris Dreja, recalled that whenever Clapton broke a guitar string during a concert, he would stay on stage and replace it; the English audiences would wait out the delay by doing what is called a "slow handclap". Clapton's nickname of "Slowhand" came from Giorgio Gomelsky, a pun on the slow handclapping that ensued when Clapton stopped playing while he replaced a string. In December 1964, Clapton made his first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall, with the Yardbirds. Since Clapton has performed at the Hall over 200 times, has stated that performing at the venue is like "playing in my front room". In March 1965, Clapton and the Yardbirds had their first major hit, "For Your Love", written by songwriter Graham Gouldman, who wrote hit songs for Herman's Hermits and the Hollies. In part because of its success, the Yardbirds elected to move toward a pop-oriented sound, much
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist, a major figure in popular culture for six decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement, his lyrics during this period incorporated a wide range of political, social and literary influences, defied pop-music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which comprised traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the following year; the album featured "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". For many of these songs he adapted the tunes and sometimes phraseology of older folk songs, he went on to release the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964.
In 1965 and 1966, Dylan encountered controversy when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. The six-minute single. In July 1966, Dylan withdrew from touring after being injured in a motorcycle accident. During this period he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had backed him on tour; these recordings were released as the collaborative album The Basement Tapes, in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes in John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, New Morning. In 1975, he released Blood on the Tracks. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released a series of albums of contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom in the early 1980s; the major works of his career include Time Out of Mind, "Love and Theft", Tempest.
His most recent recordings have comprised versions of traditional American standards songs recorded by Frank Sinatra. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed "the Never Ending Tour". Since 1994, Dylan has published eight books of drawings and paintings, his work has been exhibited in major art galleries, he has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has received numerous awards including ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame; the Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power". In 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in St. Mary's Hospital on May 24, 1941, in Duluth and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Range west of Lake Superior, he has David. Dylan's paternal grandparents and Anna Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa, in the Russian Empire, to the United States following the anti-Semitic pogroms of 1905, his maternal grandparents and Florence Stone, were Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the United States in 1902. In his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan wrote that his paternal grandmother's maiden name was Kirghiz and her family originated from the Kağızman district of Kars Province in northeastern Turkey. Dylan's father, Abram Zimmerman – an electric-appliance shop owner – and mother, Beatrice "Beatty" Stone, were part of a small, close-knit Jewish community, they lived in Duluth until Dylan was six, when his father had polio and the family returned to his mother's hometown, where they lived for the rest of Dylan's childhood. In his early years he listened to the radio—first to blues and country stations from Shreveport and when he was a teenager, to rock and roll.
Dylan formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School. In the Golden Chords, he performed covers of songs by Elvis Presley, their performance of Danny & the Juniors' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone. On January 31, 1959, three days before his death, Buddy Holly performed at the Duluth Armory. Zimmerman, 17, was in the audience. Something I didn't know what, and it gave me the chills."In 1959, Dylan's high school yearbook carried the caption "Robert Zimmerman: to join'Little Richard'." That year, as Elston Gunnn, he performed two dates with Bobby Vee, clapping. In September 1959, Zimmerman enrolled at the University of Minnesota, his focus on rock and roll gave way to American folk music. In 1985, he said: The thing about rock'n'roll is that for me anyway it wasn't enough... There were great catch-phrases and driving pulse rhythms... but the songs weren't serious or didn't reflect li
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer. He gained worldwide fame as the bass guitarist and singer for the rock band the Beatles considered the most popular and influential group in the history of popular music, his songwriting partnership with John Lennon remains the most successful in history. After the group disbanded in 1970, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife and Denny Laine. McCartney is one of performers of all time. More than 2,200 artists have covered his Beatles song "Yesterday", making it one of the most covered songs in popular music history. Wings' 1977 release "Mull of Kintyre" is one of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK. A two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an 18-time Grammy Award winner, McCartney has written, or co-written, 32 songs that have reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, as of 2009 he had 25.5 million RIAA-certified units in the United States. McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all received appointment as Members of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 and, in 1997, McCartney was knighted for services to music.
McCartney is one of the wealthiest musicians in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$1.2 billion. McCartney has released an extensive catalogue of songs as a solo artist and has composed classical and electronic music, he has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to such subjects as animal rights, seal hunting, land mines, vegetarianism and music education. He is the father of five children. James Paul McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 in Walton Hospital, England, where his mother, Mary Patricia, had qualified to practise as a nurse, his father, James McCartney, was absent from his son's birth due to his work as a volunteer firefighter during World War II. McCartney has one younger brother named a stepsister, Ruth; the children were baptised in their mother's Catholic faith though their father was a former Protestant, who had turned agnostic. Religion was not emphasised in the household. McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton.
In 1953, with only three others out of ninety examinees, he passed the 11-Plus exam, meaning he could attend the Liverpool Institute, a grammar school rather than a secondary modern school. In 1954, he met schoolmate George Harrison on the bus from his suburban home in Speke; the two became friends. McCartney's mother, was a midwife and the family's primary wage earner, she rode a bicycle to her patients. On 31 October 1956, when McCartney was 14, his mother died of an embolism. McCartney's loss became a point of connection with John Lennon, whose mother, had died when he was 17. McCartney's father was a trumpet pianist, who had led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s, he kept an upright piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised McCartney to take piano lessons. However, McCartney preferred to learn by ear; when McCartney was 11, his father encouraged him to audition for the Liverpool Cathedral choir, but he was not accepted. McCartney joined the choir at St Barnabas' Church, Mossley Hill.
McCartney received a nickel-plated trumpet from his father for his fourteenth birthday, but when rock and roll became popular on Radio Luxembourg, McCartney traded it for a £15 Framus Zenith acoustic guitar, since he wanted to be able to sing while playing. He found it difficult to play guitar right-handed, but after noticing a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert and realising that Whitman played left-handed, he reversed the order of the strings. McCartney wrote his first song, "I Lost My Little Girl", on the Zenith, composed another early tune that would become "When I'm Sixty-Four" on the piano. American rhythm and blues influenced him, Little Richard was his schoolboy idol. At the age of fifteen on 6 July 1957, McCartney met John Lennon and his band, the Quarrymen, at the St Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton; the Quarrymen played a mix of rock and roll and skiffle, a type of popular music with jazz and folk influences. Soon afterwards, the members of the band invited McCartney to join as a rhythm guitarist, he formed a close working relationship with Lennon.
Harrison joined in 1958 as lead guitarist, followed by Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe on bass, in 1960. By May 1960 the band had tried several names, including Johnny and the Moondogs and the Silver Beetles, they adopted the name the Beatles in August 1960 and recruited drummer Pete Best shortly before a five-engagement residency in Hamburg. The Beatles were informally represented by Allan Williams. In 1961, Sutcliffe left McCartney reluctantly became their bass player. While in Hamburg, they recorded professionally for the first time and were credited as the Beat Brothers, who were the backing band for English singer Tony Sheridan on the single "My Bonnie"; this resulted in attention from Brian Epstein, w
Rod Stewart
Sir Roderick David Stewart, is a British rock singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of English ancestry. Stewart is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide, he has had six consecutive number one albums in the UK and his tally of 62 UK hit singles includes 31 that reached the top ten, six of which gained the #1 position. Stewart has had 16 top ten singles in the US, with four reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, he was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to charity. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart came to prominence in the late 1960s and the early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group, with Faces, though his music career had begun in 1962 when he took up busking with a harmonica. In October 1963, he joined The Dimensions as part-time vocalist. In 1964, Stewart joined Long John Baldry and the All Stars, in August, Stewart signed a solo contract, releasing his first single, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", in October.
He maintained a solo career alongside a group career, releasing his debut solo album, An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down in 1969. Stewart's early albums were a fusion of rock, folk music, soul music, R&B. From the late 1970s through the 1990s, Stewart's music took on a new wave or soft rock/middle-of-the-road quality, in the early 2000s, he released a series of successful albums interpreting the Great American Songbook. In 1994, Stewart staged the largest free rock concert in history when he performed in front of 3.5 million people in Rio de Janeiro. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him the 17th most successful artist on the "Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists". A Grammy and Brit Award recipient, he was voted at #33 in Q Magazine's list of the Top 100 Greatest Singers of all time, #59 on Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Singers of all time; as a solo artist, Stewart was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, was inducted a second time into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as a member of Faces.
Roderick David Stewart was born at 507 Archway Road, North London, on 10 January 1945, the youngest of five children of Robert Joseph Stewart and Elsie Rebecca Gilbart. His father was Scottish and had been a master builder in Leith, while Elsie was English and had grown up in Upper Holloway in North London. Married in 1928, the couple had two sons and two daughters while living in Scotland, they moved to Highgate. Stewart came after an eight-year gap following his youngest sibling; the family was neither poor. He failed the eleven plus exam, he attended the William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School, Muswell Hill. When his father retired from the building trade he bought a newsagent's shop on the Archway Road and the family lived over the shop. Stewart's main hobby was railway modelling; the family was focused on football. Stewart was the most talented footballer in the family and was a supporter of Arsenal F. C. at the time. Combining natural athleticism with near-reckless aggression, he became captain of the school football team and played for Middlesex Schoolboys as centre-half.
The family were great fans of the singer Al Jolson and would sing and play his hits. Stewart collected his records and saw his films, read books about him, was influenced by his performing style and attitude towards his audience, his introduction to rock and roll was hearing Little Richard's 1956 hit "The Girl Can't Help It", seeing Bill Haley & His Comets in concert. His father bought him a guitar in January 1959. In 1960, he joined a skiffle group with schoolfriends called the Kool Kats, playing Lonnie Donegan and Chas McDevitt hits. Stewart left school at age 15 and worked as a silk screen printer. Spurred on by his father, his ambition was to become a professional footballer. In summer 1960, he went for trials at Brentford F. C. a Third Division club at the time. Contrary to some longstanding accounts, Stewart states in his 2012 autobiography that he was never signed to the club and that the club never called him back after his trials. In any case, regarding possible career options, Stewart concluded, "Well, a musician's life is a lot easier and I can get drunk and make music, I can't do that and play football.
I plumped for music... They're the only two things I can do actually: play football and sing." Stewart worked as a newspaper delivery boy. He worked as a labourer for Highgate Cemetery, which became another part of his biographical lore, he worked as a fence erector and sign writer. In 1961 he went to Denmark Street with The Raiders and got a singing audition with well-known record producer Joe Meek, but Meek stopped the session with a rude sound. Stewart began listening to British and American topical folk artists such as Ewan MacColl, Alex Campbell, Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Derroll Adams and the debut album of Bob Dylan. Stewart became attracted to beatnik attitudes and left-wing politics, living for a
Rick Springfield
Richard Lewis Springthorpe is an Australian musician and actor, known by his stage name Rick Springfield. He was a member of the pop rock group Zoot from 1969 to 1971 started his solo career with his debut single "Speak to the Sky" reaching the top 10 in Australia in mid-1972, when he moved to the United States, he had a No. 1 hit with "Jessie's Girl" in 1981 in both Australia and the U. S. for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. He followed with four more top 10 U. S. hits, "I've Done Everything for You", "Don't Talk to Strangers", "Affair of the Heart" and "Love Somebody". Springfield's two U. S. top 10 albums are Working Class Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet. As an actor, he starred in the television series High Tide, from 1994 to 1997, has appeared in supporting roles in Ricki and the Flash and True Detective, he portrayed Dr. Noah Drake on the daytime drama General Hospital, from 1981 to 1983 and during 2005 to 2008 and 2012, returning in 2013 for the show's 50th anniversary with son and actor Liam Springthorpe.
He played a depraved version of himself in Californication. In 2010, Springfield published his autobiography, Late at Night: A Memoir. In 2016 he starred as Vince Vincente/Lucifer in season 12 of the The CW series Supernatural. In 2017, he starred as Pastor Charles in the American Horror Story episode entitled "Winter of Our Discontent". Rick Springfield was born Richard Lewis Springthorpe on 23 August 1949 in Balmain, an inner western suburb of Sydney, he is Norman James Springthorpe, an Australian Army career officer. His maternal grandparents were English; when he was young, he lived at the army camp with his family in Broadmeadows, Australia. At fourteen, he saw the Beatles perform at Melbourne. Springfield was 13, he joined various bands in England, where his father was stationed from 1958 to 1963, several more after returning to Australia. In 1968, he was approached by bass guitarist Pete Watson to join his group Rockhouse; that year, Watson changed the band's name to MPD Ltd and, in October when Springfield was 19 years old, they toured South Vietnam to entertain Australian troops.
Another member of MPD Ltd was Danny Finley. Upon returning to Australia, they formed Wickedy Wak, they were joined by Phil Blackmore on Dick Howard. Go-Set journalist Ian "Molly" Meldrum produced Wickedy Wak's single, "Billie's Bikie Boys", with Beeb Birtles of pop rock group Zoot as a backing vocalist. In September 1969, Springfield replaced Roger Hicks as lead guitarist and vocalist in Zoot, with Birtles on bass guitar and vocals, Darryl Cotton on lead vocals and guitar, Rick Brewer on drums. Upon joining Zoot, Springfield adopted the "Think Pink – Think Zoot" theme that had the band members dressed head to toe in pink satin; the publicity gimmick attracted numerous teenage girl fans. Zoot's fifth single, "Hey Pinky", was written by Springfield; the group attempted to shake off their teeny-bopper image. They followed with a hard rock cover version of The Beatles' hit "Eleanor Rigby", which peaked at No. 4 on Go-Set's Top 40 in March 1971. Despite another hit single with "Freak" in April, written by Springfield, the band broke up in May.
Springfield signed with Sparmac Records and issued his début solo single, "Speak to the Sky", in October, which peaked at No. 5 on the Go-Set singles chart. Sparmac label owner, Robie Porter, was producer and manager for Springfield. After recording his début album, Beginnings, in London, Springfield moved to the United States in mid-1972. Springfield provided all the songwriting, lead vocals, guitar and banjo for the album. In August 1972 "Speak to the Sky" was issued in the U. S. by Capitol Records and peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September. His début album, was the first of seven top 40 albums on the related Billboard 200. However, follow-up success was hampered by rumours that Capitol Records paid people to purchase Springfield's albums, which led to some radio stations boycotting his music. In 1973, Springfield signed to Columbia Records and recorded his second album, Comic Book Heroes, produced by Porter. In Australia, released on Porter's new label, Wizard Records, the album and its two singles failed to chart.
Springfield was promoted as a teeny pop idol similar to Donny Osmond. Springfield spoke of the teenybopper image in Circus Magazine in 1973, he said. "Someone saw my photo and, it." He went on to say that someone asked to take a photo of him in a white suit and thought that it was "a bit dull", so he took some crayons and "scrawled an R with a lightning bolt going through it... which became my emblem." From September 1972 to September 1973, Springfield starred as "himself" in the ABC-TV Saturday morning cartoon series Mission: Magic!, for which he wrote and performed an original song in each episode. In 1974, he issued an Australia-only album, Mission: Magic!, "full of infectious bubblegum pop songs". His single, "Take a Hand", reached the U. S. top 50 in 1976. The single was taken from the album Wait for Night, issued by his new label, Chelsea Records. Soon after its release, the record company folded. During the late 1970s, he concentrated more on his acting career, guest-starring in several primetime TV dramas.
Springfield, in 1981, released his next album, Working Class Dog. The album spawned the single "Jessie's Girl", a worldwide hit which peaked at No. 1 for two weeks in the U. S. on the Hot 100 and
Shock the Monkey
"Shock the Monkey" is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in September 1982 as the second single from his fourth self-titled album, issued in the US under the title Security; the song peaked at number 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was Gabriel's first Top 40 hit in the US. In the UK, the song charted at number 58. According to AllMusic, the song has a "relentlessly repeated hook" that "sounded nothing like anything else on the radio at the time"; the track is known for its popular, somewhat disturbing, music video and directed by Brian Grant, played in the early days of MTV featuring Gabriel and a frightened-looking capuchin monkey. The music video features Gabriel in two guises; the video occurs as a back-and-forth between each vaguely resembling an office. A movie projector plays zoo footage of a gibbon in both rooms; as the video proceeds, events in the'normal' office become irregular and disturbing, with Gabriel displaying increasing pressure and fear, with objects in the room in increasing disarray.
The office footage is interspersed with black-and-white footage of Gabriel fleeing from something unknown in a wilderness, a disoriented Gabriel in different settings including central London and what looks to be a hospital. At the end of the video, the dark-suited Gabriel appears to have merged with the face-painted Gabriel, to have accepted whatever he was fleeing or resisting previously. In the final shot, the two Gabriel's faces are superimposed over that of the gibbon. Due to its title and the content of the video, the song is assumed to be either an animal rights song or a reference to the famous experiments by Stanley Milgram described in his book Obedience to Authority, it is neither, although another Gabriel song, "We Do What We're Told", from his 1986 album So, does deal directly with Milgram. Gabriel himself has described "Shock the Monkey" as "a love song" that examines how jealousy can release one's basic instincts. "Shock the Monkey" was released as a 7-inch picture disc in addition to the 7-inch and 12-inch black vinyl singles.
Club DJ remix service Hot Tracks crafted an 8:12 version that intersperses verses and choruses sung by Gabriel in German with the more familiar English lyrics. A seven-minute-long concert version of the song appears on Gabriel's album Plays Live, it is included on the compilation albums Greenpeace, Shaking the Tree and Hit. The music video appears on the DVD compilation Play. An online contest was held in September 2006 by Realworld Remixed in which musicians and engineers were invited to submit a remix of the song; the original tracks were made available for download, offering a rare opportunity to work with the raw material from a hit song. The winner was Multiman's "Simian Surprise"; the nu metal band Coal Chamber covered. The cover featured guest vocals by Ozzy Osbourne. Maxi singlePromo single, it shows the band playing with Osbourne and it has shots of a monkey. Coal ChamberB. Dez Fafara – lead vocals Meegs Rascón – guitar Rayna Foss-Rose – bass Mike "Bug" Cox – drumsAdditionalOzzy Osbourne – guest vocals E.
Blue – keyboards, backing vocals Hawaiian recording artist Don Ho covered "Shock the Monkey" on the 2002 compilation album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear. Finnish metal band Suburban Tribe covered "Shock the Monkey" on their 2007 album Recollection; the Vitamin String Quartet featured the song on their Peter Gabriel tribute album. The Italian acid jazz pioneers Gazzara covered the song in a Motown style on their 2013 album The Bossa Lounge Experience. American grunge duo Local H performed a version of the song in June 2015 for The A. V. Club's A. V. Undercover series. "Shock the Monkey" is included in the opening sequence to the film Project X. The song is used in the South Park episode "Raisins". After Wendy breaks up with Stan, he asks Wendy's friend Bebe, she tells Stan to "stand outside her window, play Peter Gabriel", so he chooses this song to play on the boombox. However, Stan sees Token standing beside Wendy; the song and the artist, Peter Gabriel, are mentioned in The Key of Awesome's parody of Walk off the Earth's "Somebody That I Used to Know" cover.
"Shock the Monkey" is used in the Houston hosted morning radio show by Walton & Johnson in their "Taser Report" as an intro. List of number-one mainstream rock hits Martin C. Strong; the Great Rock Discography Dean Clark.....1977 Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
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