Letter From Britain
SONGS THAT AREN’T FUNNY
The casualness of the first line of Peter Gabriel’s “Biko” is deliberately shocking.
July 1, 1980
“It was business as usual in police room 619.....”
The casualness of the first line of Peter Gabriel’s “Biko” is deliberately shocking. Delivered as though it was the mundane for a rock song, the singer adopts a standard rock stanza form as familiar as “woke up this morning, blues on my mind.”