PETER GABRIEL - So

It was Hammer time — “Sledgehammer,” that is — for former Genesis man Peter Gabriel in 1986. Guitarist David Rhodes takes us back to the So sessions

- BY ANDREW DALY

PETER GABRIEL’S TIME with Genesis in the Seventies — not to mention his early-Eighties musings as a solo artist — had granted him a reputation as a musical maverick who merged modern prog with all sorts of weird sounds, leading to such cult favorites as “Biko” and “Shock the Monkey.” The latter of those songs, which dropped in 1982, was the closest Gabriel had come to large-scale chart success as a solo artist. But that was about to change with 1986's So, the record that gave us decade-defining hits in “Sledgehammer,” “In Your Eyes” and “Big Time.”

But Gabriel didn’t do it alone. He had a versatile band that included guitarist David Rhodes, a fellow freethinker who had been with the frontman since 1980.

“When we're all together, I think we do a quite idiosyncratic thing, obviously, under Peter's guidance and leadership,” Rhodes says when looking back on the elements that had given So its magic. Gabriel's leadership, along with the playing of Rhodes and a host of session aces and other pros (including Kate Bush, Stewart Copeland and Nile Rodgers) helped send So to the top of the charts worldwide, and many of its tracks are concert — and Spotify playlist — staples.