A Planetary Pilgrim's Tunes for Walking II: "I/O" & "Road to Joy"

A couple of recent tunes by one of my favorite artists of all time - Peter Gabriel

A Planetary Pilgrim’s Tunes for Walking (My Pup)

This special newsletter for paid subscribers only is published three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)

Each edition features videos of two tunes which capture an aspect of what it means to be a Planetary Pilgrim. I share a brief reflection on each tune and what I hear in it. I also share a link or two for you to learn more about the artists of these tunes.

Paid subscribers also have access to a Spotify playlist (which continues to grow.) I’ve been enthusiastically curating it for a while - and I’ve been listening to this playlist most mornings when I walk my dog!

In my canon of favorite musicians, Peter Gabriel has been a favorite of mine since I was in high school forty years ago. Originally the lead singer of Genesis, Gabriel left that classic band in 1975 and released his first solo work - “Solsbury Hill” in 1977. This catchy tune with an uplifting theme has endured the decades and it’s surely the most commonly radio-played Peter Gabriel song today.

I have distinct memories of listening to Peter Gabriel songs like “San Jacinto” and “Family Snapshot” on my Sony Walkman cassette player as I hiked the hills behind my home as a high school student, circa 1987. The layered, passionate music combined with the mystical, yet relatable lyrics unlocked something within me. It was through Gabriel’s music then as a teen and now as a middle-aged adult, that I’ve been able to connect with the mystical way of seeing that’s been within me my entire life.

I felt great joy in post-pandemic 2022 when Gabriel announced his first album of new music in twenty years. Titled “I/O” - a computer term for Input/Output - he released the songs for the album in true Planetary Pilgrim fashion. Starting in January 2023, on the date of each subsequent full moon, he dropped a YouTube video with the song, stories about its meaning and artwork specially commissioned to accompany the song.

Here’s the release video for the titular track “I/O”