Album: So (1986)

Charted: 4 1

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• You could have a steam train
  If you'd just lay down your tracks
  You could have an aeroplane flying
  If you bring your blue sky back
  
  All you do is call me
  I'll be anything you need
  
  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
  
  I want to be your sledgehammer
  Why don't you call my name
  Oh let me be your sledgehammer
  This will be my testimony
  Show me round your fruit cakes
  'Cause I will be your honey bee
  Open up your fruit cakes
  Where the fruit is as sweet as can be
  
  I want to be your sledgehammer
  Why don't you call my name
  You'd better call the sledgehammer
  Put your mind at rest
  I'm going to be-the sledgehammer
  This can be my testimony
  I'm your sledgehammer
  Let there be no doubt about it
  
  Sledge sledge sledgehammer
  
  I kicked the habit (I kicked the habit)
  Shed my skin (Shed my skin)
  This is the new stuff (This is the new stuff)
  I go dancing in, (We could go dancing in)
  Oh won't you show for me (Show for me)
  I will show for you (Show for you)
  Show for me (Show for me), I will show for you
  
  Yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do mean you
  Only you, you've been coming through
  Going to build that power
  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, come on and help me do, come on and help me do Writer/s: PETER GABRIEL
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 43

• Gregory Sweeney from HobokenThis is actually incorrect it’s about a spiritual awakening that happens to the body often through yoga or sometimes you have to be shocked to life. Gabriel is talking about a way of moving that feels like dancing, like flying but it is difficult to achieve. Yogi’s do. The Beatles did. To say it’s about sex is trite. He is calling on God that fills him with power and says he is coming through. Watch the walk and dance is upper torso is free of his lower torso. Bring your blue sky’s back is accessing the innocence you had as a child.the tracks are those giant steps you take when you feel that power.
• Anonymous from QuebecThe first line is just lay down your tracks and a user understands
• Pierre Cardine from UkActually its about calling the evil one, offering the fruits of the world and tempt you into darkness, give you anything you want, sledgehammer through your mediocre Life, have anything you want, shed skin, this is now the new temptation, come on will you now?
• Alex from AzIf you know about Genesis and Peter Gabriel you would delete your comments. It's about his persona as a singer. Up until this album he was always in make up. His first solo LP with a tittle (SO) Very funny if you ask me. and his first without MAKE-UP. & Yes there is a double entendra built in there for sexual innuendos' connotations etc. . FYI for the person from Japan. Power of Love by Huey (A guy that hit on my sister) VERY underated song, but it came out AFTER Mr. Gabriel's SO.
• Leon from Cape TownNot sure if Peter himself knows this but the quote "a book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us" is not from Nietzche. Its from Franz Kafka.
• Mark from New MexicoMany songs resonate with masses because they have AT LEAST TWO MEANINGS. This song is certainly about transformation, but you see the people that come around him once he is clothed in a white garment. HE IS LETTING HIS LIGHT SHINE. That becomes his work. That's what you are seeing and hearing. Then all the trappings of his life revolve around him and he is alone with only his solitary life and then he finds rest. This is when he travels the stars. Sex is a shop worn window dressing that is still very good at adding a FUN-HOOK.
• Ctg from TexasI remember dancing to this song in the 80s at the Limelight in NYC - it always brings me back, hearing it. Great, great track, incredible video. Watch the YouTubes of him doing it live, in various incarnations. Man is an incredible talent who surrounded himself with equally great musicians. Such fun too!
• Nicodemus Jordan from GermanyI *HATE* this song!!!!
  I did 6 years in the Army, and the Brigade played this song THREE TIMES A DAY, IN A ROW, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY, right after PT!
  (Third Brigade, Third Infantry Division, The 'Sledgehammer' Brigade, Kelley Hill, Ft. Benning, GA)
• Cathy Smith from Fredericktown, MoC'mon. even as naive as I was back then, I kinda knew that it's mostly about sex. Read his lips at the beginning. -Something- Everybody do this.
• Brett Jennings from Tennessee Cmon....kick the habit...its pretty obvious to any hard core druggie. This song....sledgehammer is a needle with a dull point thats been used over and over. Gabriel delighted in telling stories that everyone around him knew the meaning but everybody else guessed away...(shock the monkey was another one they delighted in....
• Kawa from Tokyo, JapanHi Music lovers,
  
  I think that the idea of the lyrics of the song came from the song called 'Power Of Love' written and plated by Huey Lewis And The News in 1985.
  This song was also very famous as written for and featured in the 1985 blockbuster file 'Back To The Future'. This song 'Power Of Love' became a big hit and the file was also became a big hit, too. That means I don't think that the singer-songwriter of the song 'Sledgehammer', Peter Gabriel, didn't know the facts above. I also think that Peter thought that 'It was a good song and I have to write a song like this'. So he seemed to write a song 'Sledgehamer.' Because there were some common key words on both songs. They were like 'ride this train', 'I'm gonna build that power', or 'feel that power'. I think that both songs' summary almost the same. There was more, there was a TV drama called 'Sledgehammer' in 1986 in the US. The traces remain.
• Markantney from BiloxeI don't care if the song is about Hot Garbage; it's slammin.
• Chris from Munich, GermanyGerman rapper Sido's song "Bilder im Kopf" seems to use some sledgehammer horn samples in the beginning of the track. Does anyone know any facts about this?
• Susan from Airdrie, AbOMG, I'm so naive. I just figured he was being very "eighties"; I had no idea it was about sex!! And I'm in my forties now!
• Lou from Hartford, CtThe main theme of this song is Peter Gabriel changing his style of music and breaking out of old style shell.
• Megan from Stevenson, AlThis song is AMAZING!!! So catchy! DANG! I love it so much:)
• Camille from Toronto, OhI don't care what the lyrics of the song mean; it's just a terrifically fun song to sing along to. This video was incredibly popular when it came out, and deservedly so.
• Brian from Chicago Area, IlRe: 'cocaine...everybody's using.' I'm sorry, but that has to be the greatest example of selective hearing and revisionist history I've ever encountered since the FBI hearing dirty lyrics in "Louie, Louie"!!
• Roberta Trevisan from S?o Paulo, BrazilAwesome song, love it very much!!
• Budoshi from SandnessjAnnabelle: That's a panflute added with some echo..
• Budoshi from SandnessjWhatever this song about, noone can deny the fact that this is a great song..:D
• Ken from Louisville, KyI thought the second half of the song ("I kicked the habit...") was Peter Gabriel announcing he was now a R&B/Soul singer, rather than the rocker he was in Genesis.
• Electric926 from Unknown, NjThis video is so much better than Smells Like Team Spirit. It deserves #2 or #3.
• Chris from Seattle, Wathis is for sure about sex. Watch the video if you disagree. But i understand the drug connections especially towards the end of the song
• Tony from Los Angeles, Cai'm sorry to inform you that you're all idiots. (well, not YOU) the song is not about sex. listen again and you'll notice at the very top he says, in very slurred fashion, 'cocaine...everybody's using.' then he goes on to say, 'you could have a steam train, if you just lay down your tracks. you could have an airplane flying, if you bring your blue sky back.'
  
  he's talking about what you can gain if you get off drugs, as the next verses also echo.
  
  why do i believe this? because later in the song he says, 'i kicked the habit. shed my skin. this is the new stuff. i come dancing in.'
  
  draw your own conclusions.
  
• Mel from Riverbank, CaThis song came out when I was about 8, I had NO IDEA it was about sex. Heard it again when I was about 18 and laughed me wee little arse off. Ok, not so wee...
• Angie from Jacksonville, Fl@ Jim from Dayton: Actually, he played drums on "Big Time" and hi-hat on "Red Rain". Nothing on this song, though.
• Ed from York, Pa2nd best song on the So album, 1st best is In Your Eyes
• Hunta from St. Louis, Mogreat song, neverthelesss
• Jonathan from Thame, EnglandOops, someones already answered that, and done a better job...
• Jonathan from Thame, Englandthe strange flute is a shakuhachi, it's a flute from japan
• Rich from Birmingham Uk, England"Fruit cage is evidently a British slang term for a woman's reproductive organs". You maybe right, Im from England and I have never heard of "Fruit Cage".
• Jim from Dayton, OhStewart Copeland of The Police played drums on this track.
• Mike from Brooklyn, NyDon't you love how - in the "fruit" part of the video - the last fruit Gabriel eats is a cherry? Sexual innuendo, indeed.
• Sean from Chesapeake, VaAccording to petergabriel.com, the video was directed by Stephen R. Johnson, not Steve Jordan. He also directed the videos for Big Time, and Steam
• Chris from Charleston, ScThe flute sound that is heard in this song is from a Japanese bamboo woodwind instrument called the Shakuhachi. The shakuhachi sound being played in the song was sampled and manipulated on an E-Mu Emulator II synthesizer.
• Mirza from Jakarta, IndonesiaActually, this song knocked out Genesis first no.1 "Invisible Touch" from the top of Billboard
• Pete from Sydney, AustraliaIt's not really a flute, it's a synthesizer (A Prophet or a Fairlight not sure)
• Brad from Chicago, Il"Show me 'round your fruitcake" is one of the most mis-heard lyrics of all time. The line is actually:
  
  "Show me 'round your fruit cage"
  
  Fruit cage is evidently a British slang term for a woman's reproductive organs.
  Knowing this fact, and then seeing Peter perform these lines with his daughter must've made things a tad uncomfortable if they stopped to think about what they were saying.
• Annabelle from Eugene, OrIn some parts of the song, there's a strange flute part. What kind of flute is that?
• Travis from Somwhere, United Statesthe footage of swimming sperm was included in the video partly because Gabriel wanted to get pictures of sperm shown on Top of the Pops
• Jordan from Aberdeen, SdThis song was played so often by MTV when it was popular that Peter Gabriel himself called MTV and asked them to quit playing it, but they refused.
• Brad Wind from Miami, FlThe part of the video with the dancing chickens was animated by three-time Oscar winner Nick Park (co-director of "Chicken Run").

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