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Digging in the Dirt AI simulator
(@Digging in the Dirt_simulator)
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Digging in the Dirt AI simulator
(@Digging in the Dirt_simulator)
Digging in the Dirt
"Digging in the Dirt" is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel. It was released on 7 September 1992 by Real World and Virgin Records as the first single taken from his sixth studio album, Us (1992). The song, written and co-produced by Gabriel, was a minor hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 52, but it topped both the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks and Album Rock Tracks charts. The song was moderately successful on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at number 24, and it reached the top 10 in Canada, Portugal, and Sweden. The accompanying music video was directed by John Downer.
"Digging in the Dirt" began with some percussion tracks played by Hossam Ramzy that originated from "Zaar", a song on Gabriel's Passion album. Ramzy's surdo and duf tracks were then combined with a rhythm pattern from an Akai MPC60 and a synth bass played on a Roland D-50. Gabriel then ad-libbed some vocal parts, first coming up with the "shut your mouth" lyric, which was one of the song's working titles. At other points of its development, the song was also temporarily known as "Plod".
Gabriel stated that the lyrics to "Digging in the Dirt" were about examining his "darker side" and passive-aggressive behaviors. He took inspiration from Why We Kill: Understanding Violence Across Cultures and Disciplines, a book that analyzed characteristics shared amongst murderers. Some of the lyrics also reference the psychotherapy that Gabriel was receiving at the time.
Initially, Gabriel recorded a demo version of the song outlining its rough structure: it featured Gabriel on keyboards and a drum groove from the MPC-60, with David Rhodes and producer Daniel Lanois playing guitars alongside him. After developing this initial version, Gabriel traveled down to Lanois' Kingsway Studio in New Orleans for one week, where Epiphone guitar parts by Leo Nocentelli and a horn section were recorded, although the horns did not make the final mix.
Eventually, Gabriel held a set of sessions with his studio band at Work Room of Real World Studios, where they played their parts live to the pre-existing demo recording. The line-up consisted of Rhodes and Lanois on guitars, Tony Levin playing a Music Man bass guitar and Manu Katché on drums. Rather than a standard drum kit, Gabriel assembled a special African percussion kit for Katché to play, including a drum from Burundi that sonically resembled a snare drum with added snare wires. A muted small jazz kick drum from Gabriel's time with Genesis was also used as part of the kit.
However, most of these initial band parts were deemed unsuitable and were discarded. Thus, a second round of band sessions took place in the Big Room at Real World Studios. This time, Katché eschewed his percussion kit in favor of a Yamaha drum set with small splash cymbals replacing the usual hi-hat. Bottrill and his assistant Richard Blair looped sections of Katché's drumming and tightened up his parts for more precision. These parts were augmented with additional rhythms from an Akai S1000, sequenced Burundi drum hits, and break beats. Levin redid his parts on a Status bass after a solid rhythm was laid down.
Richard Macphail, who was a childhood friend of Gabriel, contributed backing vocals on the song. Gabriel had granted Macphail and his wife the opportunity to record three songs at Real World Studios and later invited Macphail to sing on "Digging in the Dirt". The backing vocalists, which also included Ayub Ogada and Peter Hammill alongside Gabriel and Macphail, recorded their parts using a Neumann U 47; the four of them dubbed themselves "the Everlys" due to the vocal harmonies they achieved through multitracking.
"Digging in the Dirt" was released as the lead single from Us. Several b-sides were issued with the single, including "Quiet Steam", a stripped back and mellower version of the album's next single, "Steam". The CD Maxi single included two additional tracks, including an abridged recording of "Digging in the Dirt" with most of its vocals stripped with the exception of the "this time you've gone too far" lyric. The other track on this release was an instrumental composition titled "Bashi-Bazouk", which was also included as a Japanese bonus track on Us.
Digging in the Dirt
"Digging in the Dirt" is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel. It was released on 7 September 1992 by Real World and Virgin Records as the first single taken from his sixth studio album, Us (1992). The song, written and co-produced by Gabriel, was a minor hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 52, but it topped both the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks and Album Rock Tracks charts. The song was moderately successful on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at number 24, and it reached the top 10 in Canada, Portugal, and Sweden. The accompanying music video was directed by John Downer.
"Digging in the Dirt" began with some percussion tracks played by Hossam Ramzy that originated from "Zaar", a song on Gabriel's Passion album. Ramzy's surdo and duf tracks were then combined with a rhythm pattern from an Akai MPC60 and a synth bass played on a Roland D-50. Gabriel then ad-libbed some vocal parts, first coming up with the "shut your mouth" lyric, which was one of the song's working titles. At other points of its development, the song was also temporarily known as "Plod".
Gabriel stated that the lyrics to "Digging in the Dirt" were about examining his "darker side" and passive-aggressive behaviors. He took inspiration from Why We Kill: Understanding Violence Across Cultures and Disciplines, a book that analyzed characteristics shared amongst murderers. Some of the lyrics also reference the psychotherapy that Gabriel was receiving at the time.
Initially, Gabriel recorded a demo version of the song outlining its rough structure: it featured Gabriel on keyboards and a drum groove from the MPC-60, with David Rhodes and producer Daniel Lanois playing guitars alongside him. After developing this initial version, Gabriel traveled down to Lanois' Kingsway Studio in New Orleans for one week, where Epiphone guitar parts by Leo Nocentelli and a horn section were recorded, although the horns did not make the final mix.
Eventually, Gabriel held a set of sessions with his studio band at Work Room of Real World Studios, where they played their parts live to the pre-existing demo recording. The line-up consisted of Rhodes and Lanois on guitars, Tony Levin playing a Music Man bass guitar and Manu Katché on drums. Rather than a standard drum kit, Gabriel assembled a special African percussion kit for Katché to play, including a drum from Burundi that sonically resembled a snare drum with added snare wires. A muted small jazz kick drum from Gabriel's time with Genesis was also used as part of the kit.
However, most of these initial band parts were deemed unsuitable and were discarded. Thus, a second round of band sessions took place in the Big Room at Real World Studios. This time, Katché eschewed his percussion kit in favor of a Yamaha drum set with small splash cymbals replacing the usual hi-hat. Bottrill and his assistant Richard Blair looped sections of Katché's drumming and tightened up his parts for more precision. These parts were augmented with additional rhythms from an Akai S1000, sequenced Burundi drum hits, and break beats. Levin redid his parts on a Status bass after a solid rhythm was laid down.
Richard Macphail, who was a childhood friend of Gabriel, contributed backing vocals on the song. Gabriel had granted Macphail and his wife the opportunity to record three songs at Real World Studios and later invited Macphail to sing on "Digging in the Dirt". The backing vocalists, which also included Ayub Ogada and Peter Hammill alongside Gabriel and Macphail, recorded their parts using a Neumann U 47; the four of them dubbed themselves "the Everlys" due to the vocal harmonies they achieved through multitracking.
"Digging in the Dirt" was released as the lead single from Us. Several b-sides were issued with the single, including "Quiet Steam", a stripped back and mellower version of the album's next single, "Steam". The CD Maxi single included two additional tracks, including an abridged recording of "Digging in the Dirt" with most of its vocals stripped with the exception of the "this time you've gone too far" lyric. The other track on this release was an instrumental composition titled "Bashi-Bazouk", which was also included as a Japanese bonus track on Us.