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(From the Secret World Live disc.) In the '80s and '90s I did a fair amount of music writing as a freelancer, and in that time I saw probably over a hundred concerts, including a lot of great grunge shows in the '90s. Still, seeing Peter Gabriel on the '93 Secret World Tour -- he played locally at the Tacoma Dome, but the show looked identical to the one captured here, in Italy -- remains probably my favorite. Gabriel's songs mean a lot to me personally ("In Your Eyes" was "our song" when my wife and I were dating), but the show was just riveting, and the talent (Youssou N'dor, Paula Cole, Tony Levin) was awesome. I also have a cool big-disc 45 of this song, which included an extended version that included the line poem at the end ("Accepting all I've done and said ..."), which does not appear on the album version, but is included here. Of course, on this song, even in the live performance, you can't help being reminded of Lloyd Dobler standing outside Diane Court's window with his music blaster.

James is one of my guilty pleasures. I think they were one of the real underrated bands of the '90s. This is from their best album, Seven. Unfortunately, they're better remembered for "Laid," which while fun, is a trifle of a little throwaway song, and wasn't even the best song on the album of the same title (that would be "One of Three," which doesn't seem to have a decent video available).

I'm always tempted to run the famous Sledgehammer video just because it still seems fresh after all these years, but this is one of Gabriel's best (and most unappreciated) songs. It has a delicate, glassine quality combined with a lovely melody and raw emotive power that's pretty rare in rock music.

I'm pretty sure this was either lip-synced or dubbed, because the soundtrack is pretty obviously the studio recording. But still a great song by the first great Glam star. This was apparently broadcast on French TV in 1971.