I haven’t had a difficult choice to make through the first few matchups in Round One of Montauk Madness, and that won’t change today.
Peter Gabriel faces off against Josh Rouse. An art rock pioneer against a prolific but low-profile indie singer-songwriter. While I love Gabriel’s So — a bona fide classic — and enjoy tracks from his other solo records, he hasn’t consistently impressed me the way Rouse has.
Through nearly a dozen albums, Rouse has dipped his toe in a handful of genres, from alt-country to 70s soul, world music to alternative rock. That’s enough to give him the nod against pretty stiff competition here.
[Verse 1]
Preparation for life in a small town
Now there’s a few things I know
Getting ready to downshift with my family
Say goodbye to rock and roll
[Chorus]
Show me all the traps I’ve taken
I’ve been drawing maps and making
Plans, to move out to the country
[Verse 2]
Northern California’s nice
Driven through there many times, playing shows
Thought about my ways and me
My father telling New Orleans, where you’ll go
[Chorus]
Show me all the traps I’ve taken
I’ve been drawing maps and making
Plans, to move out to the country
[Bridge]
Thinking about the paths I’ve taken
Shoot me straight, and I’ll get turned around
Let’s move out to the country
To the country
[Instrumental]
[Outro]
Dreamed about Neil Young last night
Rolled out of bed and rubbed my eyes
I’ll never be that good, you know
I’ll never be that good, you know
Meet Me In Montauk 
So, I just figured out that the artist you feature in these matchups is the one you favor. (Okay, I’m a little slow.😄) I think it might be fairer to the competition to provide a song from both artists, though I guess that would violate the song of the day format. Perhaps a link to an earlier post from the opposing artist?
Anyway, I am admittedly far less familiar with Rouse’s work than Gabriel’s, but, much like others said yesterday about Van Morrison, the singular accomplishment and greatness of So justifies a vote for Gabriel here.
After next week, I’m going to randomly choose which artist to feature in order to keep up the suspense about my own vote.
So far, the popular consensus has differed from my own choice 2 out of 4 times. I ran through the entire bracket myself to come up with my personal winner, so it will be interesting to see if and how the results differ with the crowd making the calls.
John Cusack. The boom box. That is all.
I mean it’s Peter Gabriel.
WAIT A SECOND! That means you didn’t vote for Sinatra OMG. What have I done wrong?