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Digging in the Dirt
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Wikipedia article
"'Digging in the Dirt'" is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel. It was the first single taken from his sixth studio album, 'Us'. The song was a minor hit on the US 'Billboard' Hot 100, peaking at number 52, but it topped both the 'Billboard' Modern Rock Tracks and Album Rock Tracks charts. The song was moderately successful on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at number 24, and it reached the top 10 in Canada, Portugal, and Sweden.
Music video
The music video for the single was directed by John Downer and utilised stop motion animation, a technique used in the videos for Gabriel's earlier hits "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time". The work was painstaking, especially for Gabriel himself who was required to lie still for hours at a time over the course of several days. The video won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1993. The woman in the video is played by Francesca Gonshaw.
According to Gabriel himself, "the meadow of flowers from the final scenes of the "Digging in the Dirt" video were actually filmed at the edge of the carpark at Real World Studios."
The video is largely an exploration of the issues in his personal life at the time, the end of his relationship with Rosanna Arquette, his desire to reconnect with his daughter and the self-healing he was looking for in therapy.
In the video, Gabriel is displayed in a variety of disturbing imagery, including being buried alive, consumed by an overgrowth of foliage (thanks to a gruelling stop-motion process) and flying into a rage while trying to swat a wasp (after being stung). This time, Gabriel returned to stop motion and claymation that had served him so well in the 1980s, forgoing the computer graphics used in "Steam".
Initially, the word "DIG" forms in the grass while dark imagery plays. Gabriel morphs into a skeleton while at the same time trying to excavate himself. Ultimately, the viewers are left with a gleam of hope as mushrooms sprout to form the word "HELP," followed by "HEAL" in blooming flowers after Gabriel has emerged from underground, now clad in white.
The Secret World Live version of the song features a chaotic blend of high-pitched distorted guitar (by guitarist David Rhodes) as well as occasional jarring synth bass stabs and an expansive performance on the drums. Gabriel wore a special "helmet" with a video camera attached in an antenna-like way, showing in great detail his facial expressions, while moving in time with the music. This is used to create a particularly grotesque image of Gabriel, most prominent during the "freak-out" sequence in which the camera is pointed down Gabriel's throat.
Awards and nominations
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| rowspan="3" | 1992
| rowspan="3" | Grammy Award[https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/35th-annual-grammy-awards Winners - 35th Annual GRAMMY Awards (1992)] grammy.com Retrieved June 29, 2019
| Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
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| Best Rock Song
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| Best Music Video
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| rowspan="6" | 1993
| rowspan="3" | MTV Video Music Award
| Video of the Year
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| Viewer's Choice Award
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| International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Europe
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Track listings
All songs were written by Peter Gabriel.
'CD maxi'
# "Digging in the Dirt" 5:16
# "Digging in the Dirt" (instrumental) 5:10
# "Quiet Steam" 6:25
# "Bashi-Bazouk" 4:47
'7-inch single'
# "Digging in the Dirt" 5:16
# "Quiet Steam" 6:23
Personnel
* Peter Gabriel lead vocals, programming, synth bass, keyboards
* Tony Levin bass guitar
* David Rhodes electric guitar
* Manu Katch drums
* David Bottrill additional programming
'Additional musicians'
* Richard Blair additional programming
* Leo Nocentelli additional guitar
* Hossam Ramzy surdo
* Babacar Faye djembe
* Assane Thiam tama
* Ayub Ogada backing vocals
* Peter Hammill backing vocals
* Richard Macphail backing vocals
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
See also
* List of number-one mainstream rock hits (United States)
* Number one modern rock hits of 1992
References
Category:1992 singles
Category:1992 songs
Category:Animated music videos
Category:Geffen Records singles
Category:Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video
Category:Peter Gabriel songs
Category:Song recordings produced by Daniel Lanois
Category:Songs written by Peter Gabriel
Category:Stop-motion animated music videos
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