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You could have a steam train
If you'd just lay down your tracks
You could have an aeroplane flying
If you bring your blue sky back
All you do is call me
I'll be anything you need
You could have a big dipper
Going up and down, all around the bends
You could have a bumper car, bumping
This amusement never ends
I want to be your sledgehammer
Why don't you call my name
Oh let me be your sledgehammer
This will be my testimony
Show me round your fruit cakes
'Cause I will be your honey bee
Open up your fruit cakes
Where the fruit is as sweet as can be
I want to be your sledgehammer
Why don't you call my name
You'd better call the sledgehammer
Put your mind at rest
I'm going to be-the sledgehammer
This can be my testimony
I'm your sledgehammer
Let there be no doubt about it
Sledge sledge sledgehammer
I kicked the habit (I kicked the habit)
Shed my skin (Shed my skin)
This is the new stuff (This is the new stuff)
I go dancing in, (We could go dancing in)
Oh won't you show for me (Show for me)
I will show for you (Show for you)
Show for me (Show for me), I will show for you
Yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do mean you
Only you, you've been coming through
Going to build that power
Build, build up that power, hey
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
Going to feel that power, build in you
Come on, come on, help me do
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
It's what we're doing, doing
All day and night, come on and help me do, come on and help me do
If you'd just lay down your tracks
You could have an aeroplane flying
If you bring your blue sky back
All you do is call me
I'll be anything you need
You could have a big dipper
Going up and down, all around the bends
You could have a bumper car, bumping
This amusement never ends
I want to be your sledgehammer
Why don't you call my name
Oh let me be your sledgehammer
This will be my testimony
Show me round your fruit cakes
'Cause I will be your honey bee
Open up your fruit cakes
Where the fruit is as sweet as can be
I want to be your sledgehammer
Why don't you call my name
You'd better call the sledgehammer
Put your mind at rest
I'm going to be-the sledgehammer
This can be my testimony
I'm your sledgehammer
Let there be no doubt about it
Sledge sledge sledgehammer
I kicked the habit (I kicked the habit)
Shed my skin (Shed my skin)
This is the new stuff (This is the new stuff)
I go dancing in, (We could go dancing in)
Oh won't you show for me (Show for me)
I will show for you (Show for you)
Show for me (Show for me), I will show for you
Yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do mean you
Only you, you've been coming through
Going to build that power
Build, build up that power, hey
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
Going to feel that power, build in you
Come on, come on, help me do
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
It's what we're doing, doing
All day and night, come on and help me do, come on and help me do
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He describes a little of how he's trying to change the music industry. "This is the new stuff, I go dancing in." Always, pop is an engineered thing. I know this from the business. You have one person, made up of many people. One face, one vocal, one songwriter, and lots of studio engineers. He's not like that. He makes his own music. He goes dancing in, alone.
But really, he's trying to say who people need to be in the 80's world. In the 80's world, kind of like now, people are commercial. People spray up their hair, and go disco, and lose their minds, lose their ideas. He wants to be the sledgehammer and break away the plastic, so to speak. He wants you to be who you really are under all these things you've covered yourself with.
If you show who you really are for him, he will show who he really is for you. Be yourself.
First, listen to the overall tone of the song--it's upbeat, playful--almost silly. If PG wanted a brooding song, then by gosh he would have brooding music.
Second--What's all this, if not sexual innuendo?
"You could have a steam train, If you'd just lay down your tracks."
Well darling, if you lay down your "tracks" (legs?), you'll get the "steam train." (ahem). I just peripherally mention the notion of a train entering a tunnel....
"You could have an aeroplane flying, If you bring your blue sky back."
I think this is maybe a "don't be a grouch" admonition (blue skies vs. being under a cloud). Maybe if she cheers up, he'll give her an airplane. :D
"You could have a big dipper, Going up and down, all around the bends."
Think of the bends, and ups and downs as the curves on a female body. The Big Dipper...well, you get it.
"You could have a bumper car, bumping. This amusement never ends."
Bumping. Bumping! Do I have to list the relevant euphemisms for sex that use the word "bump"?
"Show me round your fruit cakes, 'Cause I will be your honey bee.
Open up your fruit cakes, Where the fruit is as sweet as can be."
Imagery of a flower "opening" for a bee (pollination/fertilization), or a butterfly searching for nectar.
Third, the wind-up and the pitch...
"I kicked the habit"
I agree with other commentators here that this is probably a nun's habit, symbolic of chastity (or being a "monk"). It could also mean getting out of a rut for the "new stuff" of adventure.
"Shed my skin"
Literally, getting buck naked, but also shedding skin like a snake, which sheds skin when it is growing. You can even take that a couple of ways--emotionally and...you know...a snake. (Am I just dirty minded, or is Pete really hitting this sex theme hard--like a sledgehammer?)
"This is the new stuff I go dancing in."
The song breaks this sentence up and makes it sound like two different thoughts, but it isn't. The new stuff he goes dancing in (he just shed his skin) is Ye Olde Birthday Suit. He's nekked, and he's looking for trouble!
"Oh won't you show for me? I will show for you."
He's prancing around naked now, asking for a little reciprocation here. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."
Even way back when I was a stupid teenager I thought this song might be about sex, but I thought everything was about sex then. It seems that I might have been right. But as much crap that gets put into song about sex, this song doesn't have a "dirty" feel to it--it's almost a one-on-one party. Very clever and oddly wholesome musical expression of sexual intimacy.
The one line the "drug" proponents point to as the start of their explanation is "I've kicked the habit." A habit is also a religious garb, typically worn by nuns, monks, and other religious orders. Kicking the habit is followed by shedding his skin. The combination of those two suggests throwing away his inhibitions and/or peeling off his clothes. It is a great play on words. Enjoy!
At any rate, it's a good song, gave Peter a lot of Exposure and a solid financial boost to allow him to get one step closer to building his Real World studio.
My take on it, for what it's worth.
Mike
A little research, and industry knowledge, of So's producer (Daniel Lanois) also lends some insight into the metamorphosis that he was experiencing at this time in his career, an evolution that he sublimely describes in this song. Peter references this freedom and "rythm" with his newfound clarity, but doesn't dismiss his previous experiences, rather he paints them as catalysts to his new sense of self. Steamtrains, aeroplanes, big dippers...all phantasmagorical and dreamy references, some intentional, some not to the "amusements" that are all part of the experience. To the musician "rythm" and "power" are synonmous with the athlete in "the zone" and Peter's excitement of his progression is plainly obvious in this song...to construe these as sexual connotations is obtuse. Daniel did much (musically) do help pull Peter in this new direction, a more positive direction. This departure from a darker period, as Peter's illustrates in Sledgehammer, has given him freedom of mind and body, and as with nearly everyone that evolves from this type of situation, clarity in their purpose which for Peter is his amazing musical talent.
Peter isn't exactly a fly by night...from Car, Melt and Birdy to So, Passion and Us to his most contemporary works, his studies in tribal dance to electronica, his entire career embodies the spectrum of depth and vision that only the most inclined can pursue. Peter was (is) among the brightest and most talented of musicians, but his turmoils with society always weighed heavily in his life and his work. A contemporary study of a very similar situation is Dave Matthews, and not at all ironic that he chose to cover this song in recent years, although Dave's demons are a bit more personal. While I am not his biggest fan, Peter has my utmost respect for the integrity and passion with which he approaches his work and pursuit of social reform. An visionary in his art, Peter is largely responsible for pushing the innovation of music and the industry.
The remark by needle too "It's a song about Gabriel reaching a more....reflective stage in his life" is as astute as it is sublime...judging by the avatar, I would assume a similar frame of reference. Defining this song as about sex is simply pedestrian; however, Peter would probably remark that that's why they call it the autonomy of art.
from the book "Peter Gabriel In His Own Words"
This is an attempt to recreate some of the spirit and style of the music that most excited me as a teenager - Sixties soul. The lyrics of many of these songs were full of playful, sexual innuendo and this is my contribution to that songwriting tradition. Part of what I was trying to say was that sometimes sex can break through barriers when other forms of communication are not working too well.
So can you please do the world a favor and get over yourself. Gabriel is intelligent, and soulful sure, but this song is about him wanting to bang a chick and that is all.
Rarely will you read an interpretation as concise, intelligent, pointed and thoughtful as the one posted by ectnvb.
We may disagree on the muse, but we agree on the masterpiece.
Isn't this what music is about?
Listen to the lyrics.
'I've shed my skin' - so what is he now?
'This is the new stuff' - the new what?
'I go dancing in' - who goes dancing in?
What does he say after 'Why don't you call my name?' - What name does he call out?
I mean ffs its fkn obvious what he's singing about -
'Why don't you call my name'
'Put your mind at rest'
'This will be my testimony'
'Let there be no doubt about it'
Its a song about Gabriel reaching a more...... reflective stage in his life.
Shed my skin = peeling off clothes/inhibitions
Dancin' in = I don't know how to explain this without getting graphic...
Why don't you call my name = "Say my name! Say my name, b!tch!"
Put your mind at rest = Given that the rest of the song can be construed as him trying to convince a woman why she should give it up, it should be obvious "she" could be nervous about doing so.
Testimony / No Doubt about it = Laying it out there for her to decide.
'If you show for me, I will show for you'
Yeah, right, its about sex. Its obvious. And obvious is what you are all comfortable with. Nice and obvious.
C'mon people!
Seriously?
A late 30s rock star, with a private education is singing about sex? Really? You believe this?
Look at his age, look at his education look at his background.
Thats [i]not[/i] what this song is about.