Peter Gabriel-"Plays Live " (1983)

"Plays Live" is the final summary of the most interesting stage of Peter Gabriel's solo career; the one between volumes III and IV. If his lyrics are pure conscientious message, the same can be attributed to the live performance. From the select band that accompanied him to the arrangements. The "Plays Live" tour is the one between 1982 and 1983 that featured volume IV. The band consisted of Jerry Marotta (Drums), Tony Levin (Basses and Stick), David Rhodes (guitars) and Larry Fast (on keyboards). An example of the work behind the arrangements was on Marotta's drum set, where Gabriel did not allow crashes and rides; When Marotta asked what he should do after a roll if he couldn't play a crash Gabriel told him to play another drum, snares or whatever. Gabriel wanted a drum kit that sounded more tribal, more African.
"Plays Live" comes from the American tour and shows very fresh and compact versions; with the necessary tension in the slow and half time and the dynamism in the fast ones. The musicians are very correct and respectful of Gabriel's musical sense.
At the same time that his fame was growing, but always on a more underground level than what we knew at the end of the eighties, Gabriel was cultivating a certainly interesting repertoire that he defended live on successive tours. One of them, the one that collects this formidable double album, regained that personal theatrical aspect that Gabriel made his own on previous tours with his ex-group Genesis. Gabriel has always understood a concert as a form of expression that goes beyond the musical, endowing his shows with visual and interpretive nuances that differentiated it from most of the great shows of his time.
"Plays Live", with that wonderful cover is an absorbing double album, impeccable in its sound, the double album is structured in a very intelligent way. In the first, we find several of the most complex and fascinating songs of his early years. All of them in powerful versions, capturing all the nuances of his voice and live sound. In the second he collects the first classics of the musician.
The beginning with "The Rhythm Of The Heart" already warns us that we are facing a different proposal, far from the classical parameters. Then comes the riveting and flawless "No One Of Us" Gabriel's voice, portentous in those years, floods such powerful songs as “D.I.Y” or “Intruder”, the first little classics of his repertoire. He even dares to present a new song called "I Go Swimming" which is excellent. A bridge song between the Gabriel of that time and the one that would come a few years later with albums like "So".
The second disc is reserved to include the hymns of his early days. A set of songs essential to understand the music of the early eighties. Recognizable classics such as “San Jacinto”, which improves and by far the original, “Solsbury Hill” (the best song in his entire repertoire), the danceable “I Don´t Remember”, the highly personal “Shock the Monkey” or the monumental Biko, a song that is the perfect climax to this double live album.