Scratch My Back / And I’ll Scratch Yours

Both sides of Peter’s song-swap project now available in one place, as was originally conceived.

Scratch My Back was originally released in 2010 and now makes its second coming, this time accompanied by And I’ll Scratch Yours, the concluding part of a series of song exchanges in which Peter and other leading artists reinterpret each other’s songs.

Photo by Nadav Kander

Peter is delighted with how many artists signed up for the project and bearing in mind the calibre and careers of those artists whose songs he selected, it’s rather incredible that all but two songwriters were able to reciprocate. (For those uncompleted swaps, Joseph Arthur and Feist willingly entered the fray with their respective versions of Shock The Monkey and Don’t Give Up).

The reciprocating artists opted for differing approaches to Peter’s songs. A few chose to radically reinterpret the original material, in the process leaving it barely recognisable – Lou Reed’s snarling Solsbury Hill or the frighteningly futuristic version of Mother Of Violence by Brian Eno, co-writer of David Bowie’s Heroes covered by Gabriel on Scratch My Back. Other contributors include Arcade Fire (Games Without Frontiers), Elbow (Mercy Street) and Regina Spektor (Blood Of Eden).

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