Peter Gabriel completed a 27-year-old demo from the sessions for his classic album So
Peter Gabriel’s 1986 album So was the most popular of his career, spawning multiple charting singles—including “In Your Eyes,” made iconic by the scene of John Cusack holding up the boom box in Cameron Crowe’s 1989 directorial debut Say Anything. During recording sessions for the album, “Courage” was heavily in the mix for the track list, but got left by the wayside somewhere during the process and was never finished. The demo was released on the So 25th anniversary box set last year, but now the track is complete with new overdubs from Gabriel and guitarist David Rhodes. From the official Peter Gabriel website:
“When So drew to a close I didn't feel the song was delivering in the way I had hoped, so decided not to include it. When we were reviewing all the material from that time, we wanted to take a fresh look at it and get it finished. I always liked the track and very much enjoyed the playing on it, especially the energy of the drums.”
Gabriel released a “Radio Edit” of “Courage” on iTunes, along with a version remixed by producer Scott Reeder, better known as Hexidecimal. It certainly reaches back to the style Gabriel worked in over two decades ago, the point in his career when his songwriting was at its most commercial.