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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
Penny Valentine

“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.”

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