Covering songs is a creative way for artists to pay homage to fellow musicians, and Peter Gabriel put together a project back in 2010 that is finally coming full circle. He released Scratch My Back a few years ago, in which he covered songs by Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Lou Reed, Randy Newman and others. Now, those artists' renditions of Gabriel's songs will be out in the cleverly titled And I'll Scratch Yours Jan. 7.
The collections of songs have been put together throughout the years since Scratch My Back, but now they will be released as a whole. Arcade Fire did "Games Without Frontiers" and Bon Iver provided a version of "Come Talk to Me."
In one of his final performances, Reed took on the classic Gabriel song "Solsbury Hill" and Newman covered "Big Time." Feist and Timber Timbre joined forces to turn out a unique and haunting version of "Don't Give Up."
Although many of the artists did in fact scratch Gabriel's back and return the favor, others decided not to. Those include David Bowie, Neil Young and Radiohead. It isn't really clear why Bowie and Young didn't take on the task of tackling Gabriel's tunes, but according to NPR the Radiohead miss makes some sense. "Radiohead's absence stings more than the others' - the band had agreed to cover 'Wallflower,' but backed out after hearing Gabriel's version of 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' - but even that's appropriate in its own way."
Listen to the new record or individual tracks at here, and take a look at the tracklist for both cover albums below.
Scratch My Back Tracklist:
01. David Bowie - "Heroes"
02. Radiohead - "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
03. Magnetic Fields - "The Book Of Love"
04. Bon Iver - "Flume"
05. Arcade Fire - "My Body Is A Cage"
06. Randy Newman - "I Think It's Going to Rain Today"
07. Regina Spektor - "Après Moi"
08. The Kinks - "Waterloo Sunset"
09. Paul Simon - "The Boy In The Bubble"
10. Lou Reed - "The Power Of The Heart"
11. Neil Young - "Philadelphia"
12. Elbow - "Mirrorball"
And I'll Scratch Yours Tracklist:
01. David Byrne - "I Don't Remember"
02. Bon Iver - "Come Talk to Me"
03. Regina Spektor - "Blood of Eden"
04. Stephin Merritt - "Not One of Us"
05. Joseph Arthur - "Shock the Monkey"
06. Randy Newman - "Big Time"
07. Arcade Fire - "Games Without Frontiers"
08. Elbow - "Mercy Street"
09. Brian Eno - "Mother of Violence"
10. Feist - "Don't Give Up" [feat. Timber Timbre]
11. Lou Reed - "Solsbury Hill"
12. Paul Simon - "Biko"
