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The Barry Williams Show

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"The Barry Williams Show"
Single by Peter Gabriel
from the album Up
Released9 September 2002[1]
Length
  • 7:18 (album version)
  • 4:44 (single edit)
Label
Songwriter(s)Peter Gabriel
Producer(s)
  • Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel singles chronology
"When You're Falling"
(2001) 		"The Barry Williams Show"
(2002) 		"More Than This"
(2002)

"The Barry Williams Show" is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel from his 2002 album, Up.[2] The song was released as the album's lead single and charted in various European countries. In 2003, the song received a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, although it lost to Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising".[3]

Background

[edit]

Gabriel wrote "The Barry Williams Show" as a commentary on TV culture to explore "the difference between the media persona and the real persona...how dysfunctional behaviour can be turned into profitable entertainment."[4] He decided to name the song's titular talk show host "Barry Williams", but was unaware that several notable individuals also possessed the same name, including a rugby player and an actor, the latter of whom starred in The Brady Brunch. Upon learning of the song's existence, the Barry Williams from The Brady Bunch questioned why he was invoked in the song, although Gabriel explained to Williams that the song's lyrical content did not relate to him. Williams later commented that "I guess it's just an English name. Or maybe I'm becoming so well known that I'm invading the subconscious of different people."[5]

The drums on "The Barry Williams Show" were a composite of several tracks played by Manu Katché, which engineer Richard Chappell looped and treated through a sampler.[6] Ged Lynch also provided additional drums and percussion.[4]

Prior to its release as a single, Gabriel reviewed the lyrics to ensure that radio stations would not find the song too controversial, although Gabriel believed that none of the lyrics would have been out of place in a Sunday newspaper.[7] The lyrics detail the talk show host's desire for "dysfunctional excess" to maintain high viewership ratings.[8] When Virgin Records attached a fourth track to the single, "The Barry Williams Show" became ineligible for the UK singles chart and instead qualified for the budget albums chart, where it peaked at number four on the week dated 21 September 2002.[9]

During live performances of the song on his Growing Up Tour, Gabriel directed a camera into the audience and projected their faces onto a circular cloth suspended above the stage.[10]

Artwork

[edit]

The cover art uses an image taken by Paul Thorel titled Regardez Madame! L'Escargot Vola!. It was designed by Marc Bessant, who worked with Dilly Gent to find visual material that matched Gabriel's lyrics. Bessant noted that Gabriel was previously unaware of Thorel's work but found that ''Regardez Madame! L'Escargot Vola! effectively addressed the themes embedded in the song.[7] The image features a distorted image of a woman's face, with only her right eye in focus.[4] Thorel captured the image using digital photography and imposed scan lines on the woman's face.[7]

Music video

[edit]

The music video for "The Barry Williams Show", was directed by Sean Penn, and stars Christopher McDonald as the fictional television host. Barry Williams from The Brady Bunch makes a cameo in the video as one of the audience members. The video shows Williams walking to the studio where people recognize him and ask for his autograph. He enters the studio and gets ready for the show as the guests arrive, via limo, and are prepped in makeup chairs. Williams hosts the show in a Jerry Springer-esque fashion, with the guests getting agitated and making a spectacle of themselves. The audience and guests suddenly begin bleeding through their orifices (as sweat and tears) but are completely oblivious to it. A fan enters the backstage area and begins to rub some of the blood on herself. Eventually, the blood fills the entire studio as a raging storm with Williams and two show girls stuck on a raft. Williams falls off and sinks into the blood as the fan swims to him. Throughout the video Peter Gabriel, adorned in black, sings in front of the images displayed behind him. It is implied that he is Williams' ruthless producer.[11]

Critical reception

[edit]

"The Barry Williams Show" has been panned by reviewers. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic felt that "The Barry Williams Show" felt out of place on Up and characterized the song as "ham-fisted" and "wrong-headed".[2] Scott Schinder of Entertainment Weekly thought that the song was a "muddled stab at social criticism".[12] Chris Nickson of CMJ magazine dismissed "The Barry Williams Show' as a throwaway single.[13] Writing for PopMatters, Andy Kerman identified "The Barry Williams Show" as the only "embarrassment" on Up and believed that it reflected poor judgment to release the song as the album's lead single. He further commented that the song portrays a "yesterday's-news portrait of an unscrupulous daytime talk show host, with quaintly old-fashioned synth horns and a big goofy chorus that tries to be rousing but only succeeds in being vapid."[14] Chris Ott of Pitchfork said that the song "is both more egregious and revolting than his last album's uncomfortably obvious single, 'Kiss That Frog'."[15]

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian believed that the song's lyrics and music sounded outdated, saying that it was "hardly cutting-edge satire" to ridicule Jerry Springer. He also dismissed the "Nine Inch Nails-influenced squalls" as unoriginal.[16] Peter Menocal of Kludge lambasted the song as "nothing short of a joke with its failed attempt to fuse funk and satire. It's a travel back to a time in music we should never try to get stuck in or revive in any sense of the word."[17] Andy Greene of Rolling Stone called "The Barry Williams Show" the worst song on Up "and quite possibly the worst song he's ever released going all the way back to the earliest days of Genesis in 1967."[11]

Some publications were more positive on "The Barry Williams Show". In his album review of Up, David Lynch of The Austin Chronicle said that the song both "poppy" and "accessible".[18] Writing for Salon, Jonathan Kiefer thought that Gabriel portrayed the titular talkshow host as an "endearingly contemptible tabloid TV sleaze-monger" and found the song to be "bitterly funny and certainly on target."[19] Larry Flick of Billboard described the song as an "acerbic take on the current spate of reality TV programs and their eroding effect on humanity."[20]

Track listing

[edit]
7-inch single (2002)
  1. "The Barry Williams Show" (Unadulterated Radio Edit) – 4:44
  2. "Cloudless" (Radio Edit) – 4:08[7]
CD (2002)
  1. "The Barry Williams Show" (Unadulterated Radio Edit) – 4:44
  2. "The Barry Williams Show" (Album Version) – 7:18
  3. "My Head Sounds Like That" (Remix By Röyksopp) – 8:22
  4. "Cloudless" (Radio Edit) – 4:08[7]

Personnel

[edit]

Credits from the Up liner notes.[21]

Charts

[edit]
Chart performance for "The Barry Williams Show"
Chart (2002) Peak
position
France (SNEP)[22] 74
Germany (GfK)[23] 66
Hungary (Single Top 40)[24] 19
Italy (FIMI)[25] 10
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[26] 81
US Adult Alternative Songs (Billboard)[27] 9

Awards and nominations

[edit]
Year Nominee / work Award Result
2003 Grammy Award[3] Best Male Rock Vocal Performance Nominated

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "New Releases For Week Starting 9 September 2002" (PDF). Music Week. 7 September 2024. pp. 22–23.
  2. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Up - Peter Gabriel". Allmusic. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  3. ^ a b "45th Grammy Awards - 2003". Rock On The Net. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Bowman, Durrell (2 September 2016). Experiencing Peter Gabriel: A Listener's Companion. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 181, 189–190. ISBN 9781442252004.
  5. ^ Hochman, Steve (28 July 2002). "For Someone Who's No Fan of the Show, Peter Gabriel Has a Very 'Brady' Moment". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  6. ^ Tingen, Paul (May 2003). "Richard Chappell: Recording Peter Gabriel's Up". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e "The Barry Williams Show". PeterGabriel.com. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  8. ^ Scarfe, Graeme (2021). Peter Gabriel: Every Album, Every Song. United Kingdom: SonicBond. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-78952-138-2.
  9. ^ "Summer Slams Rules After The Shining's Single Snub" (PDF). Music Week. 21 September 2024. pp. 2, 18.
  10. ^ Drewett, Michael; Hill, Sarah; Kärki, Kimi (2016). Peter Gabriel, From Genesis to Growing Up (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. p. 238. ISBN 9781351554299.
  11. ^ a b Greene, Andy (16 February 2021). "Flashback: Peter Gabriel Mocks Trash TV With 'The Barry Williams Show'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  12. ^ Schinder, Scott (27 September 2002). "Music Review - Up (2002)". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  13. ^ Nickson, Chris (November 2002). "Peter Gabriel - Up". CMJ: New Music Monthly. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  14. ^ Herman, Andy (11 October 2002). "Peter Gabriel - Up". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 12 December 2003. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  15. ^ Ott, Chris (17 October 2002). "Pitchfork: Peter Gabriel - Up". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  16. ^ Petridis, Alexis (20 September 2002). "Peter Gabriel: Up". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  17. ^ Menocal, Peter (24 September 2002). "Kludge Review: Peter Gabriel - Up". Kludge Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 November 2004. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  18. ^ Lynch, David (18 October 2002). "Peter Gabriel: Up Album Review". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  19. ^ Kiefer, Jonathan (24 September 2002). "Old men take longer". Salon. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  20. ^ "Life is Looking 'Up' for Gabriel – Geffen Plans TV Assault To Push First Studio Set in Ten Years" (PDF). Billboard. 14 September 2002. p. 9. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  21. ^ Up Liner Notes (Liner Notes). Peter Gabriel. USA: Real World Records. 2002.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  22. ^ "Peter Gabriel – The Barry Williams Show" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  23. ^ "Peter Gabriel – The Barry Williams Show" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  24. ^ "Archívum – Slágerlisták – MAHASZ" (in Hungarian). Single (track) Top 40 lista. Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  25. ^ "Top Singoli – Classifica settimanale WK 37" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  26. ^ "Peter Gabriel – The Barry Williams Show". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  27. ^ "Peter Gabriel Chart History (Adult Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
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