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"Don't Give Up" is a song written by English musician Peter Gabriel and recorded as a duet with Kate Bush for Gabriel's fifth solo studio album So (1986). The single version was released as the second single from the album in the UK in 1986 and as the fifth single in the United States in 1987. It spent eleven weeks in the UK Top 75 chart in 1986, peaking at #9.
Gabriel drew inspiration from Dorothea Lange's images such as her most famous: "Migrant Mother."
The song was inspired by the Depression-era photographs of Dorothea Lange, showing poverty-stricken Americans in dust bowl conditions. Gabriel saw Lange's images in a 1973 book titled In This Proud Land. He felt that a song based on this was wholly appropriate to difficult economic conditions in England under Margaret Thatcher. He composed lyrics within a situation about a man whose unemployment causes stress in his domestic relationship. The verses, sung by Gabriel, describe the man's feelings of isolation, loneliness and despair; the choruses, sung by Bush, offer words of hope and encouragement.
Gabriel originally wrote the song from a reference point of American roots music and he approached country singer Dolly Parton to sing it with him. However, Parton turned it down, so his friend Kate Bush took her place.

I recorded this version at the Silence of the Night Sessions in 2011 but never released it. I was inspired by the "Secret World" tour version, which featured Paula Cole singing the duet with Gabriel. Since I was singing with Catherine Miles a lot at this time, I was looking for duets, and this one fit the times, and was a song I really loved. It always seemed obvious that there was a dust bowl reference, and the conditions in the U.S.A. in the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse made me look for more songs like this one. Unfortunately things have not gotten better since then. The robber barons have been busy. Donald Trump makes Margaret Thatcher seem like a progressive.

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from Singles and Out​-​takes, track released February 6, 2019
Catherine Miles: vocals (duet)
Eric Puente: percussion
Fred Gillen Jr: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, producer

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Fred Gillen Jr Athens, New York

NYFA grant recipient Fred Gillen Jr has released 12 solo albums, and 6 ep’s, has toured all over the U.S. and Europe solo, and Nepal/ India with Greenheart. His songs have been on ABC's "All My Children," NPR's "Car Talk," CMJ, and his version of Woody Guthrie's "I Ain't Got No Home" was featured on Pete Seeger's "Pete Remembers Woody." He is also a founding member of THE TRIKE rock trio. ... more

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