Shaking The Tree by Peter Gabriel

Album: Shaking The Tree (1990)

Charted: 61

License This Song

lyrics

artistfacts

Songfacts®:

Gabriel's statement about taking action to do something about the problems in the world.
The title of Gabriel's 1990 Greatest Hits album.
Written with Youssou N'Dour, an African musician Gabriel admires.
Deals with the women's movement in Africa, where men traditionally allow them very few rights.

Comments: 5

Steve from VancouverHere's Peter Gabriel's quote about the song, which should provide more to what it means than most comments here :) “‘Shaking The Tree’ was initially a lyrical idea. Youssou [co-writer N’Dour – Ed] asked me to try and focus on women’s emancipation. And the tree, as well as being the national symbol of Senegal, is also seen in those old medieval alchemy sketches as masculine, the phallus. There’s a famous engraving that Jung used of his man lying down with an erect tree growing out of a strategic point. The idea of the song is for women to go out and take control of their own destiny, shake up the male establishment. We tried to work something out for an African and Western situation too.”
Peter Gabriel (690)
Tim from Springfield, MaIf I'm not mistaken this was in the movie Junlge 2 Jungle. Brilliant song, I wish it was played on the radio more.
Steve from Belmont, CaOne of the best inspirational songs for women there is.
Nicole from Apple Valley, MnA remix of this song was recorded for "The Wild Thornberrys" in 2002. It features Shaggy and Youssou N'Dour along with Peter Gabriel.
Justin from Felts Mills, NyThis is one of Peter Gabriel's most inspirational songs, right up there with "In Your Eyes" and "Biko." It truly rocks.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)Will Glahe

In 1939, a polka craze swept America thanks to "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)."

BloodstreamEd Sheeran

Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza; it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who is about a revolution, but it doesn't have a happy ending, since in the end the new regime becomes just like the old one. Pete Townshend thought that whoever was in power was destined to become corrupt.

Good TimesChic

The disco song "Good Tmes" by Chic was a huge influence on early rap, providing the bassline for "Rapper's Delight."

Dancing QueenABBA

ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson conceived "Dancing Queen" as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo," drawing inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby." Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen."

Uptown FunkMark Ronson

The actress Michelle Pfeiffer gets namechecked in the 2014 megahit "Uptown Funk" ("Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold"). When it was released, "Riptide" by Vance Joy was on the charts; that song also mentions her ("Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen").