"Digging in the Dirt" is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel. It was released as the first single taken from his sixth studio album, Us, on 7 September 1992. 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.
Quick Facts Single by Peter Gabriel, from the album Us ...
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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 helmetmwith 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 what Q magazine described as an "unappetising" image of Gabriel, most prominent during the "freak-out" sequence in which the camera is pointed down Gabriel's throat, nostrils, and earlobes.[3]
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.[4]
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."[5]
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.[4]
Gabriel returned to stop motion and claymation that were previously used on some of Gabriel's So era singles in the mid 1980s, forgoing the computer graphics used in "Steam". In the video, Gabriel is displayed in a variety of disturbing imagery, including being buried alive, consumed by an overgrowth of foliage (thanks to the stop-motion process) and flying into a rage while trying to swat a wasp.[4]
Initially, the word "DIG" forms in the grass while dark imagery plays. Gabriel morphs into a skeleton while trying to excavate himself. Ultimately, the mushrooms sprout to form the word "HELP," followed by "HEAL" in blooming flowers after Gabriel has emerged from underground, now clad in white.[4]
