Background
| "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Peter Gabriel | |
| from the album So | |
| Released | 1986 |
| Length | 4:25 |
| Label | |
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) |
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Gabriel had first encountered Anderson at her United States performance piece in spring 1983. After the performance, he discussed an idea with her of creating a thirty minute piece that included their work. [4] In an October 1983 interview with Philip Bell of Sounds magazine, Gabriel reiterated his interest in working with Anderson on a multimedia project utilising her music, visuals, and a "comical comedian to make it a humorous piece." Bell reported that a collaboration with Gabriel, Anderson and Nile Rodgers was "imminent". [5] A Korean video artist named Nam June Paik initiated the collaboration by asking Gabriel and Anderson to contribute a song and music video for a 1984 New Year's Day broadcast of the Good Morning, Mr. Orwell television program, which referenced George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four novel and aired on PBS in the United States. [3]
Anderson and Gabriel were given a strict timeline to complete the song and film the music video, so the two convened at Anderson's studio where they spent "a couple of nights just working around the clock." [1] Gabriel presented Anderson with a basic riff, which they both thought was a decent starting point. [6] The two of them decided to write a song about birds since Anderson was working on a project related to natural history. Anderson and Gabriel wrote the lyrics in a collaborative manner where they traded lines back and forth. [7] Rodgers also visited the recording studio to contribute some rhythm guitar. [8]
Gabriel recalled that he and Anderson felt like "burnt out zombies" by the end of the recording session. [1] On the second night of the recording session, Gabriel was recording his vocals while seated on a stool and fell asleep in the middle of one of his takes. When Gabriel played back the recording, he could hear some of his snores from his failed vocal attempt. The next day, Anderson and Gabriel worked on the music video. [9] Gabriel found the filming of the music video to be a more enjoyable experience and noted that it was conducted in a far more expeditious manner than what he was accustomed to. [10] The music video capitalised on green screen visuals to provide backdrops for Anderson and Gabriel, who spent the duration of the video gazing at these backdrops, which projected animated storm clouds, birds and snow. At the end of the music video, Anderson and Gabriel levitate in the air as they perform various dances. [4] [11]
By late 1985, Gabriel only had eight finished songs for So and wanted to add another to the track list. Gabriel contacted Anderson for permission to use "Excellent Birds" on the album, which she agreed to. He then reworked the song so that it would fit in with the rest of the album. [12] Anderson and Gabriel had previously decided to create separate versions of the song as they had different conceptions of what constituted the song's bassline; Gabriel preferred a bassline that encompassed the lower registers. [13] Daniel Lanois and Manu Katché overdubbed a twelve-string guitar and talking drum respectively to augment the existing tracks. [3] However, Gabriel did not include "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" on the original vinyl version of the album due to space limitations. [14] He instead placed it as the final track on the cassette and CD versions, which were able to accommodate the song. [1] Later releases of the album, including the 2002 edition, feature "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" as the eighth track on the album, placed just before "In Your Eyes". [15]
The song is built around sparse percussive elements with minimal variation in the instrumentation. [16] Rodgers and Bill Laswell played guitar and bass respectively on both recordings. Gabriel provided further instrumentation on the LinnDrum and Synclavier; he also overdubbed a Fairlight CMI for his reworked version on So. [3] [17] The chorus features call and response vocals that repeat the phrase "this is the picture", with Gabriel singing in a higher register and Anderson whispering her part in response. [3] Gabriel described Anderson's version as "more fragmented" than his recording, which he reworked to center around the groove. He also thought that Anderson's recording more closely resembled the mix found in the music video. [18]
When Gabriel was preparing his 25th anniversary edition of So, he decided to assemble snippets of demos from the original recording sessions and compile them into full songs to demonstrate the progression of their development. Since the original recording sessions for "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" were completed in 48 hours, Gabriel had a limited amount of material available, but he nonetheless included a DNA version of the song on the 25th anniversary box set. [6]
