Day After Day #55: Intruder

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Intruder (1980)

Peter Gabriel has had many incarnations in his career. He was that weirdo in the giant flower costume during Genesis' way-out prog phase. As a solo artist, he reinvented himself as a cutting-edge alternative pioneer, incorporating new production techniques, interesting collaborations and world music. He became a strong voice for social justice and human rights throughout the world. In the mid-'80s, Gabriel became one of the biggest pop stars around and made innovative videos. He started one of the music download stores in the late '90s.

As a kid, I was familiar with Gabriel through his Genesis ties and from his song "Solsbury Hill" from his first self-titled solo album in 1977. But I became a big fan with his third album, also called Peter Gabriel but nicknamed Melt, in 1980. The first single "Games Without Frontiers" got a lot of play in Canada, where it went to #7 on the singles chart; it only got as high as #48 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Indeed, the entire album is masterful. For the purposes of this feature, I'm discussing the leadoff track, "Intruder." A creepy tale of a thief detailing how he breaks into houses, it's unsettling and a little disturbing. The first thing you notice are the drums, played by Gabriel's old bandmate Phil Collins (who was having a busy year). It's the first song to use the gated reverb drum sound that became so popular in the '80s (think songs like "Modern Love" and the Power Station's "Some Like It Hot"); Collins and producer Hugh Padgham stumbled onto it accidentally when the reverse talkback feature of the console was left on and the drum sound was heavily compressed. Gabriel decided to build the song around the drum pattern and asked Collins to take the cymbals off his kit and just play that pattern through the entire song. Add to that the creaking noises made by guitarist David Rhodes and it's enough to set you a little on edge.

"I know something about opening windows and doors/I know how to move quietly, to creep across creaky wooden floors/I know where to find precious things in all your cupboards and drawers. Slipping the clippers, slipping the clippers through the telephone wires/A sense of isolation, a sense of isolation/Inspires me."

The song builds as Gabriel screeches, "Intruder's happy in the dark/Intruder come/Intruder come and leave his mark...I am the intruder."

The minimalist atmospherics seem like a forebear for what acts like Nine Inch Nails were doing in the early '90s.

Gabriel has always been a great live performer and in concert, he transforms the songs into something different. I saw him on the tour for his 1986 album So, which was a monster hit thanks to dance songs like "Sledgehammer." I'm sure his newfound fans on that tour who thought he was just the guy dancing with chickens in the "Sledgehammer" video were probably a little shocked by the utter creepiness of "Intruder." I thought it was amazing.

And on his 2011 album New Blood, Gabriel re-recorded "Intruder" as an orchestral piece that he said was inspired by legendary director Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann. As seen in the video below from a Live on Letterman, the drums are gone and replaced by foreboding strings and even as a cuddly looking guy in his early 60s, Gabriel is still menacing as the intruder.  

Gabriel has been more active behind the scenes for the past 20 years, but he finally released an album of new material last year and it was really good. Crazy to think that he's in his mid-70s now, but time marches on for all of us, I suppose.