Peter Gabriel "Sledgehammer" issue

I'll try to recap as best as I can. Some of this info is based on 1) the post made by David where he talks about the remasters on CD swapping out the mix, including the 2002 copy of Shaking The Tree, and 2) the audio currently available on Spotify/streaming platforms.

For this post, any reference to the "remix" is referring to the remix used in the original music video from 1986. This mix was not on CD until 2002 when the remastered albums were released.

Original mix
- LP length appears on original pressings of So
- 45 length is N/A on CD but is an early fade
- promo 45 version also N/A on CD; uses the original mix but with unique audio leading into the first verse, has three edits (intro, second chorus, fade out), and an early fade
- 1990 Shaking The Tree CD edit; cuts the flute intro and segues into the ending of the Extended Dance Remix to loosely mimic the music video; ending percussion ends cold with reverb

Remix (has extra synthesizers during the flute solo as well as other subtle mix differences compared with the original LP mix)
- music video version N/A on CD; uses an edited version of the full-length remix and segues into the Extended Dance Remix at the end where percussion fades out
- full-length unedited remix; appears on 2002 remastered CD of So and digitally on Spotify as of 2026
- 2002 Shaking The Tree CD edit; mimics the 1990 edit but swaps the LP mix for the remix; this new edit retains the 1990 reverbed cold ending; currently found on the Spotify version of Shaking The Tree

mjb50 wrote: The Shaking The Tree version I have runs 4:54 ... The ending has the dance percussion edited in, and it fades out.

If you mean "fades out" like in the music video, this is news to me. Please let me know which CD pressing you have, as all previously reported editions of this disc have a reverbed cold ending and not a fade out.

Edited by aaronk - 19 April 2026 at 3:02pm

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/peter-gabriel-previously-unheard-sledgehammer-remix-on-cd/

And apparently yet another version soon to surface on CD.

When comparing all these versions, it's very easy to get mixed up. Aaron is right, of course, about the edited Dance Mix ending being on both Shaking the Tree releases. Hopefully the rest of this post is correct.

Something that became clear after listening to the 2012 So remaster (which is on a non-US CD/DVD box set release containing the original album version) is that the master tape has acquired some bleed-through at the end of the flute intro. This explains why the end of the intro varies from release to release. On the 2000s remasters they tried to either redo the last bit of reverb or just go to silence so that you won't hear the faint horn spoiler.

The 2002 So version is still just the album version for the first 46 seconds. The edit where it switches to the remix is right at the snare/tambourine hit after 0:46. In fact that beat hits about 11ms too early. So while I agree that there's a remix and an original mix, I don't agree that this version is "full-length unedited" rather than just another pastiche. I think we have yet to hear the first part of the remix.

I am trusting davidlg1971 from the SH forum that the version on Spotify currently is a 2016 remaster, mislabeled 2012, so that's what I'm calling it. This 2016 version's flute intro ends with a unique reverb reconstruction which is still not quite right. Aside from that botched 1.5-second snippet, though, it is identical to the 2002 So version.

As for the video versions:

The 2004 Play has a new stereo mix (in Dolby Digital 2.0), and a new surround mix (in Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS). The stereo version is quite different from any of the ones we are discussing.

The surround mix, though, if downmixed to stereo, is nearly indistinguishable from the 2002 So version, minus two sections that were cut out to match the original video edit. (And ~10ms was cut out of a few other spots presumably to maintain sync.)

Now as for the original video mix, I can't say with 100% certainty that what I have is it, because both copies are from later sources. One copy I just ripped the official Peter Gabriel channel on YouTube, where it is the soundtrack to the 'HD Version' of the video. The other is from the circa 2008 UK DVD MixMash Party Classics Volume 15. This has PCM audio. These both match each other.

But what I can say is this video mix is based on the original album version—except, of course for the ending, which is from the end of the Dance Mix. It does not have any features of the remix. So Aaron, when you imply there is only one video version and that it's based on the remix, I have to question if that's what you meant. In any case, I wouldn't mind finding a pre-1990 VHS rip from MTV or something, just to be sure.

Edited by mjb50 - 1 hour 56 minutes ago at 12:05pm

One other possibility is that the music video that has been on YouTube since 2006 replaces most of the original audio track with the 2002 remastered "remix" and then cuts to the unique segue toward the end. I would also love to find an '80s-era source of the music video to see what's really on it.