No stranger to blurring the lines of genre or geography, Peter Gabriel first used the sound of bagpipes—albeit created on a synthesizer—on his anti-apartheid classic “Biko,” marrying them to a polyrhythmic African beat to create something that was anthemic and slightly militaristic in keeping with the song’s tale of murdered activist Steve Biko. He would revisit the effect more than a decade later, this time with actual bagpipes, on “Come Talk To Me”—a song that was decidedly more personal than political, but no less stirring. Placed once again atop African rhythms (in this case, a loop of Senegalese drummer Doudou N’Diaye Rose), the blare of bagpipes is the first sound to cut through the speakers on Gabriel’s 1992 album Us, lending a sense of urgency and melancholy to his titular plea to a loved one. [Sean O’Neal]
