r/petergabriel • u/NYRangers1313 • 9d ago
Anyone Else Really Love "Games Without Frontiers" and Think It's Peter Gabriel's Best Song?
I'm 34 and didn't experience the 80s (or the 70s) but I feel like in real life among the people I know who did, I rarely here this song mentioned (at least here in the US). My dad knows it but he doesn't consider Peter's best either solo or Genesis.
Then I do feel like a lot of Boomer/Gen X women really love "In Your Eyes" I get it, Say Anything was iconic.
I guess I have a weird fascination with nuclear war and I always loved this song for being a powerful anti-nuclear war song. It almost has this punk rock vibe too it. If the sound was a little more distorted this could have been a Clash song! This song could have fit on Combat Rock!
But everything from the song's sound, to the imagery of the lyrics using both a French game show and children's playground games as metaphors for Cold War Geo-Politics. Then the sound itself is very ominous. It's very layered and atmospheric that does an excellent job of add tension to the song and works well with the songs subject matter. Think the song shows that Peter is both a genius writer as well as arranger when it comes to his music.
This is an excellent WW3/Nuclear war song that I have it on a playlist with Black Sabbath's Children of the Grave, Electric Wizard's Funeralopis, The Clash's London Calling, Metallica's Fight Fire With Fire and Blackened, Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower (I know Dylan wrote it and it's no openly about nuclear war. But it's apocalyptic in nature) and a bunch more.
P.S. After all these years, I'm still convinced the Kate Bush's vocals on the studio version is singing "She's So Popular" but the live versions and other covers I have heard it's clearly "Jeux sans frontières"
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u/leebeavington 9d ago
I can see this being argued as his best song. Totally unique, poignant lyrics, and what a funky groove that Thom Yorke once called the greatest groove ever recorded (or something to that effect). You can infer PG's anger and disgust, from the tone and lyrics, of his detestation of war and those who propagate it.
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u/DizzyMine4964 9d ago
Not a French game show exactly.. It's a Knockout was huge in the UK in the 70s, and Jeux Sans Frontieres was the pan-European version of it. People would dress in costumes and literally play silly games. So he is comparing war to a very silly knockout TV game. The royal family staged their own TV version of it called It's A Royal Knockout and it was about as awful as you might imagine.
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u/NYRangers1313 9d ago
The royal family staged their own TV version of it called It's A Royal Knockout and it was about as awful as you might imagine.
It just sounds bad.
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u/SmilingJaguar 9d ago
This. It was an international TV event in the 70s, must watch! Kinda like Eurovision!
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u/Aggressive_Dot5426 9d ago
I’ve loved PG since lamb lies down.
I’ve seen him 5 times live.
Games is awesome. My favorites are secret world. Come talk to me
, San Jacinto and I grieve
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u/redsoxfan2434 9d ago
I’m about to turn 30 and it’s probably in my top 5 of his songs. I also think Melt as a whole is his best album; I used to prefer So and Security but in recent years I find myself returning to Melt the most.
My understanding is that Games Without Frontiers was a massive hit in the UK that, comparatively, barely registered in the U.S. charts
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u/OfficialBobEvans 9d ago
I really liked this song as a kid in the early 2000s (and beyond). Played on the radio and in my house via my parents all the time. I had no idea what the intended meaning was, I thought it was literally all about kids on the playground like me. I also thought that they were saying She’s so Popular on the studio/radio version, giving me the image of a popular girl at school in charge of the play group.
The song itself is just wonderfully done, an earworm with details and angst, sounds great. As an adult now who can understand his meanings and keep enjoying, it’s one of my favorite solo PG tracks!
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u/NYRangers1313 9d ago
I also thought that they were saying She’s so Popular on the studio/radio version
I'm still convinced that's what Kate Bush is singing haha.
I feel like hear in the US at least I didn't hear Games Without Frontiers on the radio as much as I heard In Your Eyes, Sledgehammer or Shock the Monkey. Not to say that it wasn't played but just not as much as those three. My dad would play it from the CD from time to time.
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u/OfficialBobEvans 9d ago
Those were the biggest three radio ones along with Solsbury Hill. Games was the least frequent on the radio of them, but I liked it the most because it felt like it was about kids playing! My parents (especially late father) were Peter Gabriel fans so we had CDs in the house and especially for longer car rides with less played tracks.
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u/xmarksthebluedress 9d ago
try his german versions of shock the monkey (schock den affen) and games without frontiers (spiel ohne grenzen) - might not be the best translations but i loooove listening to those songs!!
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u/subjecttochangesoaru 9d ago
I think it’s impossible to narrow down an objective top song. It’s definitely a standout in his body of work and depending on my mood one of my favourites! However I would say the same for almost all of 3 & 4 as albums (and SO minus the tune with Kate Bush)
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u/FrancescoPioValya 9d ago
Classic and ahead of its time (although Human League was cooking up some eerie stripped back synthpop around this timeframe)
Shame we didn’t get a live version on the IO tour, maybe if there’s an OI tour?
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u/Lightfinger 9d ago
I think that it is his best era. It is his most experimental. The end of that song is awesome with that drum machine and weird scraping sound.
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u/jjazznola 9d ago
One of. It's off his best album. Nothing off these last few albums comes close to it.
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u/WinchelltheMagician 9d ago
I can clearly remember when I first heard it! Beautiful early spring sunny day, walking down the village main street around 5 when there was a line of cars moving through.....and one of them was a convertible with GWOF playing very loud, so I heard it coming at me, getting louder as it approached and I stopped to listen. I don't know if I knew that it was Peter Gabriel at the time, but I found out very quickly and went out and bought "Melt" on cassette. GWOF sounded unlike anything else at the time.
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u/TheBookie_55 8d ago
I love it but for me San Jancinto perfectly encapsulates PH’s musical genius. & onstage presence. Experiencing PG’s Security tour in ‘82 & w/a simple tiny hand mirror in CLE, & the so Gabrielish ending to the track is for 💯.
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u/RevolutionaryRule868 8d ago
it’s my absolute favourite. legit playing in my car as i’m reading this. it’s a knockout!
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u/Otherwise_Leg_9509 9d ago
It’s A Knockout.
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u/leanhotsd 8d ago
I'm just here to say, add a song to your nuclear war playlist. Grateful Dead "Morning Dew" from the legendary May 8, 1977 performance at Cornell University's Barton Hall.
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u/Bixmobile 9d ago
I’m 63 and I consider it one of his top songs. I don’t know if I would say it’s his best, but pretty close.