Rated PG, the album of film songs, was an unexpected treat. Peter Gabriel now springs another surprise on us with a collection of B-sides and alternate versions of his songs. Flotsam And Jetsam comes out on September 13, 2019, online only. Collections like these always raise the question by what principles they were compiled. In this case it is tracks that have been released somewhere but no unknown songs. The Gabriel camp also wanted to avoid having too many versions of the same song. This means that the collection will not offer all known versions of a song. The countless edits in particular will be left out, as they are mainly only shorter versions of the original. There are still a couple of surprises. Flotsam And Jetsam compiles many songs that were scattered across many other releases. For some of them it is the first time they become available in a digital format.
The cover art of the collection looks a lot like science fiction, which would be quite unusual for Gabriel. What we really see is a natural phenomenon few people will recognize at first sight: Every couple of years there is a gigantic boom of microscopic algae that bioluminesce in the dark. What we see in the cover art is, in fact, a glowing wave! (You can read up on this in this external article).
The compilation (of no less than 62 tracks!) can be ordered from iTunes. It is going to cost around 30 pounds (some 34 euros or 38 dollars).
Strawberry Fields Forever
Slowburn (Extended Version) *
Perspective (Single Version) *
D.I.Y. (Re-recorded Single Version) *
Teddy Bear *
Mother of Violence (Single Mix) *
Solsbury Hill (Live at the Bottom Line) *
I Don't Remember (Alternate Version) *
Biko (Remixed Version) *
Shosholoza *
Jetzt Kommt Die Flut
Soft Dog *
Shock The Monkey (Instrumental) *
Across The River
Kiss Of Life (Live) *
I Don't Remember (Live Single Version) *
I Have The Touch (85 Remix) *
[05:05] Despite its name, this remix was created in 1983. A five minute version of it came out on the Walk Through The Fire 12" on June 01, 1984. The new drum track was recorded by Simon Phillips. The more familiar shorter version, oddly enough, got the suffix “85 remix” on the B-side of the Sledgehammer 12”. It was corrected again into “1983 remix” on Shaking The Tree. Either way, this track actually belongs in the first part of Flotsam and Jetsam.Sledgehammer (Dance Mix)
Sledgehammer (Extended)
Don't Break This Rhythm (Full Version) - previously unreleased
In Your Eyes (Single Mix) *
In Your Eyes (Special Remix) *
Big Time (Extended Version)
Curtains
GA GA (I Go Swimming) (Instrumental)*
Walk Through The Fire (Single Mix) *
Biko (Live)
Digging In The Dirt (Raw Stylus Mix)
Digging In The Dirt (Instrumental)
Quiet Steam
Bashi-Bazouk
Games Without Frontiers (Massive/DB Mix)
Steam (Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam Mix)
Steam (Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam Mix Dub)
Mercy Street (William Orbit Mix)
Blood Of Eden (Special Mix for Wim Wenders Until the End of the World)
Digging In The Dirt (Rich E Mix)
[07:20] Gabriel’s wingman Richard Evans also tried his hand at remixing this song. His work was used as the bonus track of the Kiss That Frog CD single.
Kiss That Frog (Mindblender Mix)
[06:45] William Orbit created a new version of Kiss That Frog that can hold its own with the album version. His mix for the single release even became the basis for Peter’s live performance of the song. The long version could be found on the CD single.Shaking The Tree (Bottrill Remix)
Summertime
[03:50] This version of the classic song was originally released on the tribute album The Glory Of Gershwin in September 1994. It was produced by George Martin and his son Giles and featured not only Gabriel’s vocals but also Larry Adler’s harmonica.Suzanne
[05:13] The tribute album Tower Of Song – The Songs Of Leonard Cohen came out in September 1995. It included Peter Gabriel’s version of Suzanne produced by Steve Lindsey.I Have The Touch (Robbie Robertson Mix)
In The Sun
[06:42] Peter Gabriel recorded this Joseph Arthur cover with Richard Chappell and Chris Hughes. It appeared on the compilation Diana (Princess Of Wales) Tribute in December 1997.Shaking The Tree 97 (Jungle Version)
[05:35] Another reworking of Gabriel and N’Dour’s classic song. This was done by Jeremy Wheatley and David Reitzas with new vocals by Shaggy. It was released in February 1997 on the Jungle 2 Jungle soundtrack.I Grieve (City of Angels Version)
The Tower That Ate People (Red Planet Remix)
Animal Nation
Signal to Noise (Gangs of New York Version)
More Than This (The Polyphonic Spree Mix)
More Than This (Elbow Mix)
My Head Sounds Like That (Röyksopp Remix)
Sky Blue (Martyn Bennett Remix)
Growing Up (Trent Reznor Remix)
Growing Up (Stabilizer Remix)
Growing Up (Tricky Instrumental Mix)
Darkness (Engelspost Remix)
Curtains (Broad Mix)
Father, Son (Daniel Lanois & Richard Chappell Mix)
Courage (Remix) - previously unreleased version
Courage (The Hexidecimal Mix)
I'm Amazing
The Veil
It’s almost complete, you could say, particularly if you consider the job definition. Don’t Break This Rhythm is the big surprise because nobody knew a long version existed. Some other tracks are missing, though, e.g. Signal To Noise in the version that appeared on the Music For Tibet sampler. We will be lenient about the remixes, though. Nobody needs the tenth version of Steam or Shaking The Tree; they are all quite similar anyway.
According to people close to Gabriel's management, all the special and bonus tracks from Scratch My Back were disregarded because they are available as streams and they did not want to repeat themselves.
All in all, it's a good choice of tracks.
Like Other Sides and Remixed Sides by Phil Collins, this collection will not come out in any tangible form. We do not know, however, whether there may perhaps one day be a limited edition on CD. This format has many advantages for the record companies – they can offer a decent set without much ado, they save on distribution, production and graphics. Of course they also devalue the product in a way, which is regrettable.
On the other hand this compilation could become so extensive precisely because there is no physical media that could limit the capacity. Yes, there are pros and cons to everything…
This is definitely an interesting compilation with an apt title. It assembles almost all rare tracks and contains some real surprises among the well-known recordings. Except for two versions all of this has been released before. There are 62 tracks. 18 of them have only been available on vinyl so far, two of those have been unreleased (in this form). Two others were released on promo media only. There are nine soundtrack contributions that were not used on Rated PG, three tribute songs and 21 non-album songs.
That’s very good. We would be even happier if there were to be a CD release. And it whets our appetite for further collections of unknown songs, demos and alternate versions. Who knows? We may certainly hope for such a set.
Flotsam and Jetsam can be purchased digitally on iTunes and elsewhere.
We heartily recommend checking out our Peter Gabriel Recording Compendium if you want to find out more about the version or would like to dive deeper into the world of Peter Gabriel’s releases. Admittedly, we will be updating it in the wake of this release.
Discuss this release in our forum here.
by Christian Gerhardts, Steffen Gerlach, Thomas Schrage
English by Martin Klinkhardt
Peter Gabriel created a mixture of the World Music in Passion with the Mainstream of So.
Review Available
Double-CD with both, Scratch My Back and ... And I'll Scratch Yours in digipak format