What does Peter Gabriel say at the beginning of Sledgehammer?

[BrokenVisage]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqyc37aOqT0&t=0m45s

A pretty cool song that I like mostly for the music, but I could never figure out what he says in the beginning. It doesn't show up in any lyrics I've come across for the song but it's obvious he says something there, no one seems to know what. It's 8 syllables long and the closest guess I heard is something like "cocaine.. everybody's using" but even that's a stretch although later in the song he says "I kicked the habit", and because of the oddness of the music video you can't even really read his lips. Any thoughts?

 

[grohl]

great song.

I'll buy, "everybody's using" but doubtful on the "cocaine" part.

 

[natto fire]

Not sure but I have always liked this song, not his best though. I also forgot how awesome that video is, particularly the dancing chickens during the interlude, thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[CPA]

hated that song, absolutely hated it.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Not sure but I have always liked this song, not his best though. I also forgot how awesome that video is, particularly the dancing chickens during the interlude, thanks. :thumbsup:

Yeah the music video is pretty slick, almost ahead of its time. I also like his video for Steam with him stepping out of the stretch limo.

 

[TheSlamma]

hated that song, absolutely hated it.

Couldn't believe it beat out Land of Confusion for video that year.. song or video were not even close.

 

[MotionMan]

I liked that song the first 150 times I heard it.

Funny, I never thought of the first part as words - it always just sounded like vocalizations to me.

MotionMan

 

[lxskllr]

hated that song, absolutely hated it.

^^^This

The only thing worse than that song is Phil Collins :^D I generally like Peter Gabriel though, much better than Genesis.

 

[sixone]

Check out some of the live performances of that song. It's still very indistinct.

 

[SKORPI0]

Oh, use it
before you lose it

http://www.metrolyrics.com/sledgehammer-lyrics-peter-gabriel.html

 

[BrokenVisage]

#

http://www.metrolyrics.com/sledgehammer-lyrics-peter-gabriel.html

Guess I could buy that, might be someone's interpretation though.

 

[paperfist]

Couldn't believe it beat out Land of Confusion for video that year.. song or video were not even close.

How is that possible? Disturbed didn't come out with that video till 2011!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV4oYkIeGJc&ob=av3n

 

[MotionMan]

http://www.metrolyrics.com/sledgehammer-lyrics-peter-gabriel.html

That does not seem to be right.

MotionMan

 

[MotionMan]

How is that possible? Disturbed didn't come out with that video till 2011!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV4oYkIeGJc&ob=av3n

MotionMan

 

[BrokenVisage]

That does not seem to be right.

MotionMan

Lyrics.wikia makes even less sense lol

Hey, hey you do?
Hey you wanna do a job?

Makes it sound like he's at a Home Depot at 6am looking for migrant workers.

 

[CPA]

Another popular 80's song I still absolutely hate:

Addicted to Love

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Great track -

Too much hate in this thread so I bring you some Shock the Monkey -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo9riZYUpTw

And the absolute worst cover of it ever:

Don Ho - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5WOAxu28C0

 

[Pardus]

This song is about sex. And sex is fun.

First off:
Sledgehamemr = penis (obviously)

he's saying he'll use his sledgehammer (penis) to nail down her tracks (he wants to NAIL her)....that's a hilarious allusion by the way.

also...more sexual double-entendre in the song:

You could have a steam train
If you'd just lay down your tracks
(uh yeah)

You could have a big dipper
Going up and down, all around the bends
You could have a bumper car, bumping
This amusement never ends
(hahaha - this is great stuff)

Show me round your fruitcage
'Cause I will be your honey bee
Open up your fruitcage
Where the fruit is as sweet as can be
(blatantly ridiculous)

You've been coming through
Going to build that powerr
Build, build up that power, hey
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
Going to feel that power, build in you
Come on, come on, help me do
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
It's what we're doing, doing
All day and night
(ok i think i've made my point)

About sex. That's it. The music video illustrates this quite clearly, as well.

 

[BrokenVisage]

I wonder if playing the song backwards at that point would produce something more intelligible sounding lol

 

[schurfer]

I know this is an old post, but then the answer is as old as the question.
Back in the day, my friends and I broke down the studio version into two distinct sentences using a spectrum analyzer and played back many time at different speeds, We were sure of every word, except the last word of the first sentence, but we had enough to fill in the blank. Here you go: "How have you been? Tell me what the news is. You could have a steam train...".
Later during live performances, Mr. Garbriel changes the second sentence to other lyrics that sound slightly similar to the studio version but are different and even to other performances. One of these is : "How have you been? You come in like you new (Knew) there". And during another live perfomance: "How have you been? Just did it like a fool thing".
There's no denying the man is a musical genius and what ever lyrics he decides to
"Gabrielizse" during his performances, we enjoy him all the more.
So now , do you want to know what the witch's marching guards (winkies) chant during the Wizard of OZ? Answer is Backwards = > ".eno dlo eht evol ew hO"<

 

[lxskllr]

hated that song, absolutely hated it.

This. I'm not a big fan of Gabriel anyway, but that song is intolerable.

Edit:
FFS, I replied to this thread the first time and forgot about it :^S

 

[IronWing]

I like Sledgehammer. Land of Confusion had a better video but Sledgehammer is a better song.

 

[blankslate]

This song is about sex

wow... I had no idea...

 

[IronWing]

wow... I had no idea...

Well duh, you're an ATOTer.

 

[CPA]

This. I'm not a big fan of Gabriel anyway, but that song is intolerable.

Edit:
FFS, I replied to this thread the first time and forgot about it :^S

I was scrolling through this thread because I forgot what I wrote. Then I get to this post and was like "WTF, didn't lxskllr already reply to my post?" then I saw your edit. lol.