Peter Gabriel covers are hitting fast and furious these days. In April we posted covers of every song off his classic So, featuring Fever Ray’s ominous “Mercy Street.” Now indie favorites Elbow give the track a brighter shine in the latest installment of Gabriel’s cover pairings. Gabriel covered Elbow’s “Mirrorball” on his fantastic covers disc Scratch My Back.
“We chose to cover Mercy Street because it’s such an amazing song,” says Elbow’s Guy Garvey. “It’s my favourite from So. There’s a real tenderness and understanding in the lyrics. Before I knew anything about Anne Sexton or her poetry – the song is about and dedicated to her – I just knew that there was a real comfort to the song.”
Gabriel was as blown away as we were. “You never know quite what people are going to do with your tracks,” he wrote on his website. “With this one they’ve been fantastic people to work with, very easy, open and straight forward, and the music is stunning.”
Check out Elbow’s ethereal “Mercy Street” below. We’ve also got Gabriel’s “Mirrorball” to complete the picture.
Elbow – Mercy Street (Peter Gabriel cover)
Peter Gabriel – Mirrorball (Elbow cover)
[Peter Gabriel via Stereogum]
This Elbow version has quality stamped all over it. The original Gabriel track is made do good by the slightly lazy sounding drawl in his voice … Elbow take that up a notch on top of a superbly lazy drifting-down-the-street kind of arrangement. Brilliant. You should have voting buttons on this site, so that we can vote for our favourite version when there is more than one! Off to dust off my copy of So now!
Cheers,
Jim
“do good” should have been “so good”. I must learn to proof read :)
Searched in vain for my copy of So. The I remembered – It is on VHS tape, somewhere in the attic!
Garvey’s voice is actually quite similar to Gabriel’s on this; if I didn’t have the description to tell me I was listening to Elbow covering it, I might actually have thought it was Gabriel!