It wasn’t until Peter Gabriel abruptly canceled his scheduled Academy Awards performance (after they demanded he cut his song down to 65 seconds earlier this year) that I realized what an awesome artist he truly is. Late to the party, I know, but it looks like he’s going to start getting respect all over very shortly. The tracklist to his upcoming album of orchestral cover songs was leaked by the distributor in Japan and it’s a doozy.
All we knew before today was what collaborator John Metcalfe had teased on Gabriel’s official site: that Scratch My Back (due out early next year) consisted of “song swap[s] with some of the world’s most legendary artists.”
Does that mean that Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Bowie and more will be covering Gabriel’s songs in return? We can’t confirm that, but here’s the tracklist, which Metcalfe refused to confirm or deny to the Guardian. All he would say is that “there are some very, very famous singers and bands involved,” and “there should be something in there for everybody.”
Yes, indeed (via Barks via Guardian):
1) “Heroes” – David Bowie
3) “Street Spirit” – Radiohead
3) “The Book of Love” – Magnetic Fields
4) “Flume” – Bon Iver
5) “My Body Is a Cage” – Arcade Fire
6) “Listening Wind” – Talking Heads
7) “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” – Randy Newman
8) “Après Moi” – Regina Spektor or Eartha Kitt
9) “Waterloo Sunset” – The Kinks
10) “The Boy in the Bubble” – Paul Simon
11) “The Power of the Heart” – Lou Reed
12) “Philadelphia” – Neil Young
13) “Mirrorball” – Elbow