Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer

“Sledgehammer”– Single by Peter Gabriel from the album So.
Released 14 April 1986.

This was influenced by the ’60s soul music Gabriel listened to as a teenager, in particular Otis Redding, who Peter saw perform at the Ram Jam club in London in 1967. The horn section was typical of this sound.

“Sledgehammer” broke barriers, for sure. Its use of shakuhachi flutes and synth organs was unlike anything riding the airwaves at the time. The song’s innovative music video is still emulated today. And the walloping number of sexual innuendos packed into one song is unmatched.

Yes, the tune abounds with phallic symbols of sledgehammers, steam trains, and big dippers. And yes, Gabriel uses the term “fruit cage” two too many times. But the song’s meaning goes deeper than just referencing sex.

Gabriel said regarding the theme of this song: “Sometimes sex can break through barriers when other forms of communication are not working too well.”

Some of the lyrics were inspired by a quote from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who said a good book breaks through like “an ax in a frozen sea.”

The “Sledgehammer” music video was commissioned by Tessa Watts at Virgin Records, directed by Stephen R. Johnson and produced by Adam Whittaker. Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. Many of these techniques had been employed in earlier music videos, such as Talking Heads’s 1985 hit “Road to Nowhere”, also directed by Johnson. The style was later used in the video for “Big Time”, another single from So.

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Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (HD version)05:46

A major hit on music television, “Sledgehammer” won nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, the most awards a single video has won. It ranked at number four on MTV’s 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). “Sledgehammer” has also been declared MTV’s number one animated video of all time. The video was voted number seven on TMF’s Ultimate 50 Videos You Must See, which first aired 24 June 2006. It ranked at number 2 on VH1’s “Top 20 Videos of the ’80s” and number one on “Amazing Moment in Music” on the Australian TV show 20 to 1 in 2007. It won Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards and was nominated for the Best Music Video category for the first annual Soul Train Music Awards in that same year.

According to Time magazine, “Sledgehammer”‘s music video is the all-time most played music video on MTV.

The music video was remastered into 4K resolution, and was released in 2018 through Apple Music.

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