History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff

In Episode 346 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin traces the parallel career arcs of Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, comparing their conservative early albums, synchronized creative peaks, shared technologies and collaborators, commercial high points, and eventual semi-retirement marked by long gaps, home studios, and artistic mystique.

·37 min·3 clips

Martin Popoff argues Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel launched as distinctive art-pop auteurs with surprisingly conservative debut albums.

Martin Popoff hosts episode 346 of 'History in Five Songs,' titled 'Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel as Doppelgangers.' He introduces the concept of doppelganger episodes, inspired by Jason Leonard, focusing on comparing these two iconic British solo artists. Popoff structures the analysis into five eras: conservative early albums, creative peak, commercial peak, semi-retirement, and odd projects. He notes Kate Bush's 'The Kick Inside' (1978) and Peter Gabriel's self-titled debut (1977) as conservative starts, despite their distinctive art-pop styles. The creative peak era aligns around 1980-82, with Bush's 'Never Forever' and 'The Dreaming' and Gabriel's 'Melt' and 'Security,' highlighting their use of the Fairlight CM1 synthesizer and collaboration on Gabriel's 'Games Without Frontiers.' Both artists then moved to home studio compounds—Bush at Wickham Farm and Gabriel at Ashcombe House—during their commercial peaks in the mid-80s. Popoff points out their sparse touring habits, with Bush largely stopping after 1979 and Gabriel touring sporadically, contributing to a mystique of scarcity. The semi-retirement phase involves long gaps between albums, such as Bush's releases in 1993, 2005, and 2011, and Gabriel's in 1992, 2002, and 2023. Popoff critiques later albums like Bush's 'The Sensual World' and 'The Red Shoes' and Gabriel's 'Us' and 'Up' as 'retrenchment' efforts. He emphasizes their meticulous, perfectionist studio processes, employing large ensembles of respected underground musicians. The episode also covers odd projects like Gabriel's orchestral 'New Blood' and Bush's 'Director's Cut' re-recordings, which Popoff finds unnecessary. Throughout, Popoff discusses their English pastoral themes, theatrical early performances, and withdrawal from public life. He concludes by reaffirming their status as pinnacles of creativity and doppelgangers in rock history.

As heard by us

A crisp, engaged comparison of Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel as parallel British solo artists shaped by scarcity.

Martin Popov treats Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel as kindred outliers, tracing the points where their paths begin to rhyme: rare touring, long silences, semi-retirement, and the sense of two careers shaped as much by absence as by arrival.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play when Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel start to look like doppelgangers: iconic British solo artists with career arcs that keep echoing each other.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff