"Red Rain" is the first track on English rock musician

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

's 1986 solo studio album '' So''. In the United States, it was the second single from the album and reached number three on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine's Mainstream Rock chart in 1986, where it stayed for three weeks between July and August. In the rest of the world it was not released until 1987 and received less airplay and fewer sales, peaking at 46 in the UK singles chart after entering the chart in July of that year.David Roberts '' British Hit Singles & Albums'', Guinness World Records Limited A live version also charted in the US and the UK in 1994.

Background and reception

The song is a combination of several inspirations. The lyrics directly reference a recurring dream Gabriel was having where he swam in his backyard pool drinking cold red wine. Another version of the dream had bottles in the shape of people falling from a cliff. In it, a stream of red liquid would seep out of the people-shaped bottles as they smashed with impact onto the ground, and was usually followed by a torrential downpour of the same red liquid. Earlier in his solo career, Gabriel had an idea for a movie he referred to as ''Mozo''. In it, villagers were punished for their sins with a blood-red rain. "Red Rain" was to be the theme song. This idea was eventually scrapped, although there was a mention of ''Mozo'' in the song "On the Air" in ''

Peter Gabriel (II) Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis (band), Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 19 ...

''. "Down The Dolce Vita", "Here Comes The Flood", and "Exposure" reference the Mozo story, as well. Strongly percussive in nature, the song features two notable American drummers: Stewart Copeland from the Police played the

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for the rain-like background sound and was requested by Gabriel due to his mastery of the instrument, while the rest of the drumming was provided by Gabriel's regular drummer Jerry Marotta. Gabriel's biographer Daryl Easlea wrote that the song was "a brooding opening to the album" which reflected "two very current Eighties obsessions:

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

and nuclear fallout".

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

has described it as "a stately anthem popular on album rock radio".

"Red Rain" album appearances

*'' So'' (1986) *'' Shaking the Tree'' (1990) *''

Secret World Live ''Secret World Live'' is the second live album and tenth album overall by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel, released on 30 August 1994 in the UK. The album documents the concert experience of the Secret World Tour. A concert film of the ...

'' (Live, 1994) *'' Hit'' (2003) *''

Live Blood ''Live Blood'' is the third live album by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. Recorded at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo, London on 23 and 24 March 2011, the concert featured Gabriel singing with the New Blood Orchestra and vocalists Ane Brun, ...

'' (2012)

Track listing

# "Red Rain" # "In Your Eyes" (special mix) nly on 12"# "Ga-Ga" "Ga-Ga" is an instrumental version of the song "I Go Swimming", which was only released on the ''

Plays Live ''Plays Live'' is the first live and fifth album overall by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. His first not titled simply ''Peter Gabriel'', it was originally issued as a double album and long-play cassette in 1983, with sixteen songs. It was ...

'' album.

Track listing (US 12" Single (20749-0))

# "Red Rain" – 5:35 # "Ga-Ga (I Go Swimming instrumental)" – 4:31 # "Walk Through the Fire" – 3:31

Personnel

* Jerry Marotta – drums * Chris Hughes – Linn programming * Stewart Copeland –

* Tony Levin – bass guitar * David Rhodes – guitar, backing vocals * Daniel Lanois – guitar *

– vocals, piano,

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Prophet-5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential (company), Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith (engineer), Dave Smith and John S. Bowen (sound designer), John Bowen in 1977, who used Microprocessor, m ...

* Kevin Killen – mixer

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Rain 1986 songs 1987 singles Geffen Records singles Peter Gabriel songs Song recordings produced by Chris Hughes (record producer) Song recordings produced by Daniel Lanois Songs written by Peter Gabriel Songs about HIV/AIDS Songs about nuclear war and weapons