"The Barry Williams Show" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Peter Gabriel | ||||
from the album Up | ||||
Released | September 2002 | |||
Length |
| |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Peter Gabriel | |||
Producer(s) |
| |||
Peter Gabriel singles chronology | ||||
|
"The Barry Williams Show" is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel from his 2002 album, Up . [1] The song was released as the album's lead single and charted in various European countries. In 2003, the song received a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, although it lost to Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising". [2]
Gabriel wrote "The Barry Williams Show" as a commentary on TV culture to explore "the difference between the media persona and the real persona...how dysfunctional behaviour can be turned into profitable entertainment." [3] He decided to name the song's titular talk show host "Barry Williams" because he found it a fitting name for a television host. However, Gabriel was unaware that several notable individuals also possessed the same name, including a rugby player and an actor, the latter of whom starred in The Brady Brunch . The Barry Williams from The Brady Bunch originally expressed confusion over the matter, saying that he "didn't get it", although Gabriel explained to Williams that the song's lyrical content did not not relate to him. Williams later commented that "I guess it's just an English name. Or maybe I'm becoming so well known that I'm invading the subconscious of different people." [4]
The drums on "The Barry Williams Show" were a composite of several tracks played by Manu Katché, which engineer Richard Chappell looped and treated through a sampler. [5] Ged Lynch also provided additional drumming and percussion work. [3]
Prior to its release as a single, Gabriel reviewed the lyrics to ensure that radio stations would not find the song too controversial, although Gabriel believed that none of the lyrics would have been out of place in a Sunday newspaper. [6] The lyrics detail the talk show host's desire for "dysfunctional excess" to maintain high viewership ratings. [7]
The cover art uses an image taken by Paul Thorel titled Regardez Madame! L’Escargot Vola!. It was designed by Marc Bessant, who worked with Dilly Gent to find visual material that matched Gabriel's lyrics. [6] The image features a distorted image of a woman's face, with only her right eye in focus. [3] During live performances of the song on his Growing Up Tour, Gabriel directed a camera into the audience to project their faces onto a circular cloth suspended above the stage. [8]
The music video for "The Barry Williams Show", was directed by Sean Penn, and stars Christopher McDonald as the fictional television host. The Barry Williams from the The Brady Bunch makes a cameo in the video as one of the audience members. The video shows Williams walking to the studio where people recognize him and ask for his autograph. He enters the studio where her gets ready for the show as the guests also arrive, via limo, and are prepped in makeup chairs. Williams hosts the show, in a Jerry Springer-esque fashion, with the guests getting angry and making a spectacle of themselves. The audience and guests suddenly begin bleeding through their orifices (as sweat and tears), but are completely oblivious to it. A fan enters the backstage area and begins to rub some of the blood on herself. Eventually, the blood fills the entire studio as a raging storm with Williams and two show girls stuck on a raft. Williams falls off and sinks into the blood as the fan swims to him. Throughout the video Peter Gabriel, adorned in black, sings in front of the images displayed behind him. It is implied that he is Williams' ruthless producer. [9]
"The Barry Williams Show" has been panned by reviewers. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic felt that “The Barry Williams Show” felt out of place on Up and characterized the song as "ham-fisted" and "wrong-headed". [1] Scott Schinder of Entertainment Weekly thought that the song was a “muddled stab at social criticism”. [10] Chris Ott of Pitchfork said that the song "is both more egregious and revolting than his last album's uncomfortably obvious single, 'Kiss That Frog'." [11]
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian believed that the song's lyrics and music sounded outdated, saying that it was "hardly cutting-edge satire" to ridicule Jerry Springer and dismissed the "Nine Inch Nails-influenced squalls" as unoriginal. [12] Peter Menocal of Kludge lambasted the song as "nothing short of a joke with its failed attempt to fuse funk and satire. It's a travel back to a time in music we should never try to get stuck in or revive in any sense of the word." [13] Andy Greene of Rolling Stone called "The Barry Williams Show" the worst song on Up "and quite possibly the worst song he's ever released going all the way back to the earliest days of Genesis in 1967." [9]
Credits from the Up liner notes. [14]
Chart (2002) | Peak position |
---|---|
France (SNEP) [15] | 74 |
Germany (Official German Charts) [16] | 66 |
Hungary (Single Top 40) [17] | 19 |
Italy (FIMI) [18] | 10 |
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) [19] | 81 |
US Adult Alternative Songs ( Billboard ) [20] | 9 |
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2003 | Grammy Award [2] | Best Male Rock Vocal Performance | Nominated |
The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family of six children, with three boys and three girls. After its cancellation in 1974, the series debuted in syndication in September 1975. Though it was never a ratings hit or a critical success during its original run, the program has since become a popular syndicated staple, especially among children and teenage viewers.
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, songwriter, and human rights activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched a successful solo career with "Solsbury Hill" as his first single. His fifth studio album, So (1986), is his best-selling release and is certified triple platinum in the UK and five times platinum in the US. The album's most successful single, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards and, according to a report in 2011, it was MTV's most played music video of all time.
Arcade Fire is an extended play (EP) by the indie rock band Arcade Fire. The EP was recorded in Maine, United States, during the summer of 2002. Arcade Fire was remastered and repackaged for its 2005 re-release by Merge Records for fans after they had "grown obsessed" with the band's debut album, Funeral. It was initially released in 2003 by the band at their shows and website, and then re-released in 2005 by Merge. It received positive reviews from music critics, although some of them noted that it was inferior to their debut album Funeral. Lyrical themes of Arcade Fire consist of parents, suburbia, new love, dread, and drama. The EP's third track, "No Cars Go", was re-recorded for Arcade Fire's second full-length album, Neon Bible. No Cars Go has been played at the majority of live shows since the EP release. Arcade Fire have also played other songs from the EP, live on every tour since, however, it has become less frequent. On their recent tours, they notably played "Headlights Look Like Diamonds" and "Vampire/Forest Fire".
Donald Blackstone, known professionally as Don Black, is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie, television themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Matt Monro, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Hoyt Curtin, Lulu, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Meat Loaf, Michael Jackson, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra, A. R. Rahman, Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Wiseman.
Up is the seventh studio and thirteenth album overall by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel, released on 23 September 2002 through Geffen and Real World Records. The album rose to number 9 in the US, number 11 in the UK, and captured the number 1 position in Italy. Most critics reviewed it positively, though Rolling Stone said Gabriel was "out of touch". This would be Gabriel's last studio album of new original material for 21 years until the release of I/O (2023), although he did release several studio projects in the interim.
OVO is a soundtrack album by English singer-songwriter and musician Peter Gabriel and his eleventh album overall. It was released on 12 June 2000 by Real World Records as the commissioned work to the Millennium Dome Show, a multimedia performance show that ran 999 times at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, London between 1 January and 31 December 2000.
Manu Katché is a French drummer and songwriter of Ivorian descent. He has worked extensively as a session musician, notably with Sting and Peter Gabriel, and his solo albums as a bandleader are largely in the jazz fusion style.
Barking Pumpkin Records is an American record label founded by Frank Zappa in 1981. Zappa named the label after his wife's smoker's cough when she tried to quit the habit. Barking Pumpkin was initially distributed by CBS Records.
Barry William Blenkhorn, better known by his stage name Barry Williams, is an American actor. He is known for his role as the eldest of the Brady sons, Greg Brady, on the ABC television series The Brady Bunch (1969–1974), a role he reprised in several sequels and spin-offs including the animated series The Brady Kids (1972), the variety series The Brady Bunch Hour (1976-1977) and the television films The Brady Girls Get Married (1981) and A Very Brady Christmas (1988) and the reality television series A Very Brady Renovation (2019).
"Sledgehammer" is a song by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in April 1986 as the lead single from his fifth studio album, So (1986). It was produced by Gabriel and Daniel Lanois. It reached No. 1 in Canada on 21 July 1986, where it spent four weeks; No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on 26 July 1986; and No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart, thanks in part to its music video. It was his biggest hit in North America and ties with "Games Without Frontiers" as his biggest hit in the United Kingdom.
"Clocks" is a song by British rock band Coldplay. It was written and composed as a collaboration among all the members of the band for their second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head. The song is built around a piano riff, and features cryptic lyrics concerning themes of contrast and urgency. Several remixes of the track exist, and its riff has been widely sampled.
"In Your Eyes" is a song by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel from his fifth solo studio album So (1986). It features Youssou N'Dour singing a part at the end of the song translated into his native Wolof. Gabriel's lyrics were inspired by an African tradition of ambiguity in song between romantic love and love of God.
"Don't Give Up" is a song written by English rock musician Peter Gabriel and recorded as a duet with English singer Kate Bush for Gabriel's fifth solo studio album So (1986). The single version was released as the second single from the album in the UK in October 1986 and as the fourth single in the US in March 1987. It spent eleven weeks in the UK Top 75 chart in 1986, peaking at number nine.
Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence, released in June 2002, is the fourth soundtrack album and twelfth album overall by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. Devised as the soundtrack to the Australian film Rabbit-Proof Fence, it was the first release of new music by Peter Gabriel since OVO, a commissioned work for the Millennium Dome Show in 2000. The soundtrack contains elements from and references to songs which Peter would release on his album Up. The track "A Sense of Home" samples the drum loops used on "No Way Out". "Running to the Rain", "Crossing the Salt Pan", and "The Return" are reworked arrangements of "Signal to Noise", track nine of Up. "Ngankarrparni" and "Cloudless" are reworked arrangements of track three, "Sky Blue".
Victoria Beverley Walker, known professionally as PinkPantheress, is an English singer and record producer. Her songs, which are frequently short in length and include samples of music from the 1990s and 2000s, span a number of genres, including bedroom pop, drum and bass, alt-pop, and 2-step garage.
"Panopticom" is a song by English musician Peter Gabriel, released in January 2023 as the first single in promotion of his tenth studio album I/O, his first album of original material since 2002's Up. Two versions of the song have been released: the "Bright Side Mix" on 6 January 2023, and the "Dark Side Mix" on 21 January. The cover features David Spriggs' Red Gravity as the cover art. The single was released on the first full moon of the year.
I/O is the tenth studio album by English singer-songwriter and musician Peter Gabriel, released on 1 December 2023 through Real World Records. It is Gabriel's first album of new original material in over 21 years since Up (2002), marking the longest gap between two studio albums in his solo career. I/O features 12 tracks, each with two different mixes labeled the "Bright-Side Mix" and "Dark-Side Mix". It is also Gabriel's longest studio album of original material, with both mixes each clocking in at over 68 minutes and the total project lasting over two hours. An additional "In-Side Mix" of the album is available on versions which include the Blu-ray audio disc.
"Playing for Time" is a song by English musician Peter Gabriel, released in March 2023 as the third single in promotion of his tenth studio album I/O. This is his first album of original material since 2002's Up. Two versions of the song have been released: the "Bright Side Mix" and the "Dark Side Mix". The cover art for this track features Annette Messager's Mes voeux . Recorded at Gabriel's Real World Studios in Wiltshire and the Beehive and British Grove Studios in London, "Playing For Time" features regulars Tony Levin on bass and Manu Katché on drums. The single was released on March 7 and the full moon, called the Worm Moon.
"Road to Joy" is a song by English musician Peter Gabriel, released in June 2023 as the sixth single in promotion of his tenth studio album I/O. The track is one of the last tracks to emerge for the album, it had originally been conceived around 2000's OVO called "Pukka", albeit sounding very different to the final rendition of the track. The track was produced by Gabriel and English musician Brian Eno, and features Tony Levin on bass, Manu Katché on drums, John Metcalfe on string arrangements, and the Soweto Gospel Choir.
"Shakin' the Tree" is a 1989 song by Youssou N'Dour and Peter Gabriel from the Youssou N'Dour album The Lion. Released as a single, it reached number 61 on the UK official singles chart on 3 June 1989. The song follows a verse-chorus structure and its lyrics relate to the desire for female liberation in Senagal. Some of the vocals were sung in N'Dour's native Wolof language. An accompanying music video was filmed in Africa.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)