Steam
Released 11th January, 1993Steam was the second single from Peter Gabriel’s sixth solo album US, and was released on 11 January 1993.
Recorded at Real World Studios Steam was written by Peter, produced by Daniel Lanois and Peter and engineered by David Bottrill.
“It was a sort of relationship where the woman is very bright, sophisticated, cultured, knows everything about everything. And the man knows nothing about everything. What he does know about is her, and she doesn’t know a lot about herself.”
The single cover, designed by Malcolm Garrett / Assorted images, features an image by Ian Hughes, one of a selection of artists commissioned to design a piece of art for a specific track on the album.
Steam. Ian Hughes, Scotland.
The single first charted in the UK on 16 January 1993, peaked at #10 and stayed in the UK Top75 for 7 weeks. In the USA Steam was the highest charting single from the album, reaching #32 on the Hot 100 on 30 January 1993 and eventually spending 15 weeks on the chart.
The accompanying video for Steam was directed Stephen R Johnson, who had previously directed both the videos for Sledgehammer and Big Time. It won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 1994 giving Peter two wins in a row in that category. It also won two MTV Video Awards in 1993 for Best Visual Effects and Best Editing.
The single itself was released on a number of formats in the UK:
7”
A Steam 6.01
B Games Without Frontiers [Massive/ DB mix]* 5.20
Written by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Daniel Lanois and Peter Gabriel. Recording and mix engineered by David Bottrill, assisted by Richard Blair.
* Written by Peter Gabriel. Originally produced by Steve Lillywhite
Remix and additional production by Massive Attack and David Bottrill
Engineered by Jeremy Allom and David Bottrill
12”
A1 Steam [Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam Mix 12″]*
A2 Steam [Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam 7″]*
B1 Steam [Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam Mix Dub]*
B2 Steam [Album Version]
* Remixed by The Bomb Squad. Contains a sample of ‘Slide’ performed by Slave courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp by arrangement with Warner Special Products. Also contains samples by Mark Adams, Carter Bradley, Timothy Dozier, Mark Hicks, Thomas Lockett, Floyd Miller, Steven Washington, Daniel Webster and O. Wilhoite
CD / CD Digipack
1 Steam [Album Version] 6.01
2 Games Without Frontiers [Massive/DB Mix] 5.20
3 Steam [Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam Mix 12″] 6.40
4 Steam [Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam Mix Dub] 5.42
CD Limited Edition
1 Steam [Album Version] 6.01
2 Games Without Frontiers [Massive/DB Mix] 5.20
3 Steam [Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam Mix 12″] 6.40
4 Games Without Frontiers [Live]* 5.27
* Written by Peter Gabriel. Recorded by Kevin Killen. Produced by Peter Gabriel, David Bottrill and Kevin Killen. Mixed by David Bottrill