Blood of Eden

Gabriel expressed his desire to have "two emotional, needy voices" on "Blood of Eden" and selected Sinead O'Connor to provide the female counterpart. O'Connor also served a similar role on "Come Talk to Me", a song that opened Gabriel's Us album. An earlier mix of "Blood of Eden", titled "Kiss the Bliss", was recorded in May 1991 and predated the addition of O'Connor's vocals. Gabriel recalled that he encountered difficulties in achieving a suitable backing track and that Lanois, who assisted with the song's production, was dubious about the song's merits. The two believed that "the rhythmic content verged on sounding trite", so they attempted four or five grooves before settling on a less is more approach to the instrumentation. Gabriel said that he took some lyrical inspiration from Martin Scorsese, who "at one point had a dagger in the shape of a crucifix". When commenting on the matter in a 1992 interview, Gabriel expressed his belief that Scorcese's imagery was both "powerful" and "quite theatrical". He felt that these lyrics bordered on being too melodramatic but nonetheless opted to keep them. Gabriel said that he "wanted to use a biblical image in 'Blood of Eden' because it was the time when man and woman were in one body, and in a sense maybe in a relationship." ==Critical reception==

Reviewing the song for The Independent, Andy Gill praised the vocals of O'Connor as "particularly effective", saying that she demonstrated "all the qualities of emotional depth mysteriously absent from her own album of torch-song covers." Music Week characterised the song as a "haunting soundscape" and "a vaguely Celtic offering, rendered more so by Sinead O'Connor's vocal support." Dave Morrison of Select magazine described Gabriel's vocals as "break[ing] out passionately on 'Blood of Eden' over a finely wrought instrumental web". ==Artwork and music video==

Zadok Ben-David was commissioned to design a piece of artwork for the song within the liner notes of Us. He chose to depict a series of individuals inside of a "cosmic egg", which he described as a "mythological symbol of nothingness and wholeness, the very beginning of the universal creation." His original idea was to depict "a man and woman inside a man" to align with the theme of the song, but he thought that this interpretation was too literal and ultimately decided against it. Ben-David also created the sculptures in the song's music video, which was directed by Nichola Bruce and Mike Coulson. The single artwork was illustrated by Malcolm Garrett, who incorporated aspects of Ben-David's work within the design. ==Live performances==

"Blood of Eden" was first performed live on the 1993–1994 Secret World Tour. The female vocal part of the song was performed first by British musician Joy Askew, then by Sinéad O'Connor for a few months, and finally by American singer-songwriter Paula Cole. Cole's duet with Gabriel was released on the Secret World Live album, as well as on the Secret World Live concert film. In 2011, Gabriel re-released the song with orchestral background as a bonus track on the album New Blood. A recording from Gabriel's New Blood concert tour was also included on Gabriel's Live Blood album in 2012, which was recorded over the course of two nights at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. ==Track listing==

All songs were written by Peter Gabriel. • CD single • "Blood of Eden" (album version) – 6:33 • "Mercy Street" (William Orbit mix) – 8:00 • "Blood of Eden" (Special mix for Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World) – 6:15 ==Personnel==

• Peter Gabriel – lead vocals, keyboards, keyboard bass • Tony Levin – bass guitars • David Rhodes – 12-string guitars • David Bottrill – programming • Daniel Lanois – hi-hat, backing vocals • Richard Blair – additional programming • Levon Minassian – duduk • Sinéad O'Connor – backing vocals • Shankar – violin • Gus Isidore – bridge guitars • Richard Chappell – bridge section mix ==Charts==

Regina Spektor recorded a cover of "Blood of Eden" for the 2013 ''And I'll Scratch Yours compilation album, which featured renditions of Gabriel compositions from artists he had covered on his 2010 Scratch My Back'' album. Spektor had originally considered "Family Snapshot", but after listening to Gabriel's cover of "Après Moi", she decided to go with a song that was both "mysterious" and "mystical" and felt that "Blood of Eden" fulfilled those points of criteria. She attempted a "world music-type sound", but felt that the arrangement did not work without the same musicians who played on the original recording. She then reworked the production until "it started to feel like a song". ==References==