"Blood of Eden" is the third single from English rock musician Peter Gabriel's sixth album, Us (1992), featuring backing vocals by Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor. It was written by Gabriel and produced by him with Daniel Lanois. The single was released in March 1993 by Geffen, Real World and Virgin, and narrowly failed to enter the UK top 40, peaking at number 43.
Gabriel expressed his desire to have "two emotional, needy voices" on "Blood of Eden" and selected Sinead O'Connor to provide the female counterpart.[3] O'Connor also served a similar role on "Come Talk to Me", a song on Us that served as the album opener.[2] Gabriel recalled that he encountered difficulties in achieving a suitable backing track and that Daniel 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.[3]
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.[4] Ben-David also created the sculptures in the song's music video, which was directed by Nichola Bruce and Mike Coulson.[5] The single artwork was created by Malcolm Garrett, who incorporated aspects of Ben-David's work within the design.[6]
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.[7][8] Cole's duet with Gabriel was released on the Secret World Live album, as well as on the Secret World Live concert film.[2]
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 2011, which was recorded over the course of two nights at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.[2]
