Peter Gabriel Debuts Unheard ‘So’ Outtake, ‘Courage’
For Peter Gabriel, it was worth it to revisit his 1986 album So last year. While he was combing through his archives, he rediscovered the previously unheard tracks “Sagrada” and “Courage.” The latter was a frenetic-sounding song from that era that was never finished.
At the time, he decided to release it as a rough mix. Then, in a bout of inspiration over the last year, he finally finished it and put it up on his website. The new mix of “Courage,” which has lyrics that describe a “sink or swim” attitude of dealing with life changes, features fresh with overdubs by Gabriel and original So guitarist David Rhodes.
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“When So drew to a close, I didn’t feel the song was delivering in the way I had hoped, so decided not to include it,” Gabriel explained on his website. “When we were reviewing all the material from that time, we wanted to take a fresh look at it and get it finished. I always liked the track and very much enjoyed the playing on it, especially the energy of the drums.”
Although Gabriel has been releasing vintage recordings and a track for the film Words With Gods, he still hasn’t released a new full-length album of original music since 2002’s Up. When Rolling Stone asked him what he was up to last year, other than playing So in its entirety in concert, he said, “Well, I’m definitely going to have this sabbatical.” After discussing a track he did for another film, he returned to the subject of new music. “There’s been quite a few ideas in the can,” he said at the time, “but probably, it will take me another year when I do get back in September [2013].”