As a standalone documentary about Peter Garbriel's historic album "So", this is definitely worth an hour of your time. But compared to the other episodes of the Classic Albums series which are packed with surprising stories, technical dissections of the mixes & the original musicians showing how they played their parts, "Classic Albums: So" is a bit weak. Real quickly, I'll go over what you DO get and what you DON'T get...
You DO get: interviews with Peter Gabriel, producer Dan Lanois, drummer Manu Katché, bassist Tony Levin, bassist Larry Klein, vocalist Laurie Anderson ("Excellent Birds"), and several other musicians & engineers. There are also some words from the editor of Rolling Stone magazine who provides some great context in terms of the 80s scene.
You DON'T get: the technical breakdown of each song like they do in other episodes. Whereas other episodes spend time dissecting each song instrument-by-instrument, such as in the excellent Phil Collins Face Value documentary, or the even more technically indepth Black Sabbath episode (where Tony, Bill & Geezer each perform the parts for us almost like a tutorial), here the songs are approached in a broader, general way. Peter and the gang will talk about what cultural influences were at play, or they'll talk about how a certain feeling drove the performances, but for the most part this documentary is mostly talk. There are a few interesting tidbits and anecdotes, but overall this episode isn't as musically engaging as the others.
You should still watch it. But if you're new to the Classic Albums series, you should check out some of the other episodes that get more intimate. For example, in Classic Albums Phil Collins, Phil actually sits down at the drum kit and plays his part while describing the intent. He sits at the piano and plays one of the emotional, moving songs (nearly choking up in the process) and talks about the hardships that went into the music. Welp there I go comparing Peter Gabriel & Phil Collins which is a hanging offence amongst Genesis fans so I'll shut up now. Watch them both and enjoy.
You DO get: interviews with Peter Gabriel, producer Dan Lanois, drummer Manu Katché, bassist Tony Levin, bassist Larry Klein, vocalist Laurie Anderson ("Excellent Birds"), and several other musicians & engineers. There are also some words from the editor of Rolling Stone magazine who provides some great context in terms of the 80s scene.
You DON'T get: the technical breakdown of each song like they do in other episodes. Whereas other episodes spend time dissecting each song instrument-by-instrument, such as in the excellent Phil Collins Face Value documentary, or the even more technically indepth Black Sabbath episode (where Tony, Bill & Geezer each perform the parts for us almost like a tutorial), here the songs are approached in a broader, general way. Peter and the gang will talk about what cultural influences were at play, or they'll talk about how a certain feeling drove the performances, but for the most part this documentary is mostly talk. There are a few interesting tidbits and anecdotes, but overall this episode isn't as musically engaging as the others.
You should still watch it. But if you're new to the Classic Albums series, you should check out some of the other episodes that get more intimate. For example, in Classic Albums Phil Collins, Phil actually sits down at the drum kit and plays his part while describing the intent. He sits at the piano and plays one of the emotional, moving songs (nearly choking up in the process) and talks about the hardships that went into the music. Welp there I go comparing Peter Gabriel & Phil Collins which is a hanging offence amongst Genesis fans so I'll shut up now. Watch them both and enjoy.
