Artist: PETER GABRIEL
Title: PASSION (Music for The Last Temptation of Christ)
Label: GEFFEN RECORDS, 1989
Format: 2-LP SET
Catalog #: GHS 24206
Condition: NEAR MINT
Price: SOLD!!
"In 1989 Peter Gabriel held the status of household name. Two years earlier his album "So" dominated pop music with a hegemony rarely seen. Brazen pop songs such as "Sledgehammer", "In Your Eyes", and "Big Time" were still in fairly strong rotation when "Passion" appeared on the shelves. Needless to say, fans of "So" likely furrowed their brows at the sounds that emerged from their stereos. "The Feeling Begins" gently opens the album with an Armenian melody played on a doudouk. As the album continues, rhythms and instrumentation from Asia, Africa, and The Middle East blend with electronic instruments in pure Gabriel-esque fashion. Add to this amazing open-throated wailing by the likes of Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Gabriel himself, and a musical experience unlike any other available in 1989 emerges. Without doubt, "Passion" helped energize and define the genre of "World Music". Gabriel somehow managed to combine multifarious and diverse musical styles with his own without coming across as an exploitative appropriator of those styles. Ultimately, Gabriel's global fusion comes across as a tribute to the cultures and styles he meshed together. The result was one of the best albums of Gabriel's career. Songs such as "A Different Drum", "Passion", "With This Love", and "It Is Accomplished" will remain unforgettable to even those who reluctantly open up to all the album has to offer.
To top it off, "Passion" was the official first release of Gabriel's "Real World" label. The motivation behind the label was to showcase non-western or non-mainstream music from anywhere in the world. Many well-known global artists recorded for Real World, including: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Shelia Chandra, Papa Wemba, Afro Celt Sound System, Geoffrey Oryema, Tabu Ley, and countless others. "Passion" initiated this ambitious and much needed project.
In addition, the film for which "Passion" served as soundtrack, Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ", wreaked fervent controversy upon its release in 1988. Did this help or hurt the soundtrack? Looking back, the music seems untouched by the controversy of the film. Regardless, Gabriel's music provided the perfect backdrop to Scorsese's version of the Passion story. Gabriel actually reworked most of the music included in the film (the music in the film differs in many ways from the Gabriel album). This explains why the soundtrack didn't appear for a good year after the film. Not only that, Gabriel's "Passion" doesn't include the entire soundtrack of the film. Gabriel also released (appropriately, on Real World) "Passion Sources" which includes the remaining music featured in the film. It provides the perfect accompaniment to "Passion".
