Passion (re-released as Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ) is an album released in 1989 by the English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel. It was the first Peter Gabriel album to be released on Real World Records, Gabriel's second soundtrack, and his eighth album overall.
Passion was originally composed as the soundtrack album for Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), but Gabriel spent several months after the film's release further developing the music, finally releasing it as a full-fledged album instead of a movie soundtrack. The album was released in June 1989 (almost a year after the theatrical release of The Last Temptation of Christ in August 1988) as a vinyldouble album and a 1-disc CD.
Later in the year, a companion album was released, Passion – Sources, featuring additional songs on which Gabriel does not perform. Gabriel described this album as "a selection of some of the traditional music, sources of inspiration, and location recordings."
Peter Gabriel's first film soundtrack, Birdy (1985), contained instrumental rearrangements of songs from Gabriel's earlier albums. Passion, on the other hand, contained music entirely original to Gabriel's catalogue.
To record the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ, Gabriel used the resources of WOMAD, an organization he founded, to bring together musicians from the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South Asia. He worked with them to create music meant to enhance the mood of the film, but he also added a modern ambient musical touch to the original pieces, producing a musical work that has influenced many musicians. Passion introduced many listeners to such artists as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Youssou N'Dour, L. Shankar, and Baaba Maal. N'Dour and Shankar had provided contributions to Gabriel's previous album, So (1986); Passion also features other musicians who had worked with Gabriel before, including David Rhodes, Manny Elias, David Bottrill, and Manu Katché.
The delay of the album's release was due to Gabriel’s schedule with the Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International in 1988 and to the truncated production time allotted by Universal Pictures for the soundtrack: Universal cut the recording time for Gabriel from 10 to three weeks, leaving Gabriel very little time to complete all the pieces he wanted. After the film's mix was finished, Gabriel had unfinished ideas he wanted to develop and took extra time to complete the album. Gabriel took a further four months to complete Passion, building the pieces and developing the musical textures as part of his stated desire for the album to stand as a piece of work in its own right.[12]
"With This Love" began with a vocal melody developed by Gabriel. He then worked with David Sancious, who built an arrangement around the song and suggested some harmonies to accompany it. "With This Love", which Gabriel described as "church-like", was originally intended for a scene where the devil, disguised as a little girl, removes Jesus from a cross and kisses his bleeding body. However, Scorsese decided against using the song for this scene. Gabriel attributed this decision to his belief that the scene would have been "perhaps too powerful" and "potentially too explosive", but still felt that it would have been a "very strong marriage of music and image."[13]
The cover art for the album, Drawing study for Self Image II (1987), is a mixed media composition by the artist Julian Grater.[14] When re-released, the album was titled Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ due to "legal barriers" according to Gabriel in its liner notes.[15]
Reception
Upon its release, Passion received generally positive reviews from critics. Reviewing Passion for Rolling Stone, Jimmy Guterman wrote that "Gabriel’s journey is just as deeply felt as Scorsese's... [Passion] stands as a testament to the breadth of Gabriel's interests, as well as his talents." Noting songs which "successfully accommodate third-world melodies and cross-rhythms in a Western pop context," Guterman claimed, "Passion is stirring, stunning stuff: You won’t hear it on the radio like you heard ‘’Sledgehammer’’ or ‘’Big Time’’, but if you do search it out, you'll find a piece of work by an artist who remains idiosyncratic without being obtuse."[16]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Peter Gabriel except where noted
This piece incorporates a traditional melody from Kurdistan telling of the unhappy love of a young girl for Bave Seyro, a legendary warrior. (Kurdish duduks are from UNESCO Collection – A Musical Anthology of the Orient, general editor Alain Danielou for Musicaphon Records.)
"Of These, Hope – Reprise"
Massamba Diop – talking drum
Peter Gabriel – bass, percussion, flute whistle, Prophet 5
^Brunner, Rob (12 July 2002). "Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel 1 / Peter Gabriel 2 / Peter Gabriel 3 / Security / Plays Live / Birdy / So / Passion / Us". Entertainment Weekly. No. 662. pp. 84–85.
^Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
