No, this is not about Jakob Dylan.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about a solo, well, with piano accompaniment, in the studio take of one of the most precious, ingratiating, infectious songs off Peter Gabriel’s fourth solo album, his first on Geffen, entitled against his wishes "Security".<\/p>\n
Gabriel fans are a cult.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not wishy-washy regarding their hero, they’re positively passionate.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Peter himself.\u00c2\u00a0 And I know all of them would love to see this video.\u00c2\u00a0 But I bet you very few have.\u00c2\u00a0 Because Peter Gabriel, for all his vaunted tech wizardry, is about half a decade behind the curve, and the person it’s hurting most is himself.<\/p>\n
1. You must have constant contact with your fans.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 It must be a dialog.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not that they forget you if you’re absent, it’s that they’re overwhelmed with the detritus of life.\u00c2\u00a0 We live in the opposite of the seventies rock star paradigm world.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about coming down from the mountaintop every two or three years with tablets, otherwise known as a ten to twelve track LP\/CD\/album.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you’re the village minstrel.\u00c2\u00a0 You may not live in the center of town, but you’ve got to walk through every day.\u00c2\u00a0 At least every other day.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you can take a vacation, assuming you come back, assuming your audience knows you’ll walk amongst them soon.\u00c2\u00a0 The era of just putting up a Website and believing people will find you are done.\u00c2\u00a0 If for no other reason that most artist Websites have been updated so sporadically that most people rarely go there anymore.<\/p>\n 2. You must cross-post.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 This incredible performance is not available on YouTube, at least I couldn’t easily find it.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s where people go for video clips.\u00c2\u00a0 To only host your clips on your site is to try to make it by only exhibiting your videos on your home television set in the 80s. They needed to be on MTV!\u00c2\u00a0 YouTube is the new MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 And since everything is available, the key is to make your fans stick.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t do that by infrequency of interaction.<\/p>\n 3. It must be you.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 Do you have someone else type on your BlackBerry\/iPhone?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you print out your e-mails?\u00c2\u00a0 Then why in hell can’t you do your own Tweeting, your own posting.<\/p>\n Peter Gabriel does have a Twitter account.\u00c2\u00a0 Entitled "itspetergabriel".\u00c2\u00a0 Only it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 IT’s some twit named Dickie in the studio.\u00c2\u00a0 Who posts like an engineer.\u00c2\u00a0 Just information.\u00c2\u00a0 The kind that makes your eyes roll into the back of your head.\u00c2\u00a0 Can you at least utilize a bit of creativity? Not that it requires much.\u00c2\u00a0 Compare Steve Lukather’s Twitter feed to Peter Gabriel’s:<\/p>\n Gabriel<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Luke feels no pressure to be clever.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s totally honest and it’s him.\u00c2\u00a0 I read all his tweets, it makes me feel connected.\u00c2\u00a0 Why isn’t Peter Gabriel following in Luke’s footsteps?<\/p>\n 4. Facebook.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 Gabriel does have a presence there: <\/p>\n But once again, it’s that same chap from Twitter posting, Dickie.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t care about him, I want Peter!\u00c2\u00a0 And I want the video from the Website cross-posted.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s not.<\/p>\n 5. Editing.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 I’m interested in Peter’s rap, marginally.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, this tends to be done better in print than video, you can scan if you’re not interested, now you have to wait interminably for the music to begin, and this inhibits not only playability, but repeatability, and didn’t we learn eons ago that the way to make fans is endless repetition?\u00c2\u00a0 Why would you work against this?\u00c2\u00a0 There should be a video, easily accessible\/findable everywhere, that starts with the music.\u00c2\u00a0 In this case, the video doesn’t even use an elapsed time counter, but time left…huh?<\/p>\n 6. Too many old acts are the same.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 They think it’s the same way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 Just check SoundScan.\u00c2\u00a0 Or iTunes.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, people are stealing, but with so many diversions, it’s hard to get mindshare.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got your catalog, your good will, but if you’re sitting on your stardom, thinking the old way is still gonna work, you’re wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to get down in the pit, to mix metaphors, in bed with the people.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to make it easy for them to be fans.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no longer about mystery, unavailability, leaving people wanting more.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s exactly the opposite, it’s about a plethora of material, too much for everybody, only your biggest fans will consume everything.<\/p>\n But the bottom line is to see Peter Gabriel alone in the studio singing "Wallfower" is just about as magical as watching Steve Winwood play "Can’t Find My Way Home" in front of his hearth<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 At least Winwood put his clip on YouTube, but both have gotten anemic views and for this I blame the artists themselves, not even their handlers.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t rely on others to tell you what to do, you’ve all got computers, delve into them. Stars have been removed for too long.\u00c2\u00a0 That paradigm is dead.\u00c2\u00a0 Now we’re all equal.\u00c2\u00a0 But we still love you.\u00c2\u00a0 And your music.<\/p>\n And that’s why I’m writing this.\u00c2\u00a0 To alert all you Gabriel fans to this clip.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you’ll love it.\u00c2\u00a0 And I bet almost none of you have seen it. And for that, I blame Peter.<\/p>\n\n
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