1. Details

2. Track listing

3. Personnel

4. Artwork

5. Critical reception

6. Charts
    Album  Single 

7. Certifications
    Certifications and sales 

8. Ein deutsches Album

9. References

10. External links

Peter Gabriel is the third eponymous studio album by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, released on 23 May 1980 by Charisma Records. The album has been acclaimed as Gabriel's artistic breakthrough as a solo artist and for establishing him as one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians.^[16] Gabriel also explored more overtly political material with two of his most famous singles, the anti-war song "Games Without Frontiers" (which became a No. 4 hit and remains his joint highest charting single in the UK) and the anti-apartheid protest song "Biko", which remembered the murdered activist Steve Biko. The album was remastered, along with most of Gabriel's catalogue, in 2002.

This album is often referred to as Melt owing to its cover photograph by Hipgnosis.

Details

Gabriel's ex-bandmate Phil Collins, who succeeded him as Genesis' lead vocalist, played drums on several of the album's tracks. "Intruder" has been cited as the first use of Collins' "gated drum" sound. This effect, as created by Steve Lillywhite, Collins and Hugh Padgham,^[17] was featured on Collins' and Genesis's recordings throughout the 1980s. The distinctive sound was identified via experiments by Lillywhite, Collins and Padgham, in response to Gabriel's request that Collins and Jerry Marotta not use cymbals on the album's sessions.

"Artists given complete freedom die a horrible death," Gabriel explained to Mark Blake. "So, when you tell them what they can't do, they get creative and say, 'Oh yes I can,' which is why I banned cymbals. Phil was cool about it. [Marotta] did object and it took him a while to settle in. It's like being right-handed and having to learn to write with your left."^[18]

So significant and influential was the sound that it has been claimed by Gabriel, Padgham, Collins, and Lillywhite. It was cited by Public Image Ltd as an influence on the sound of their album The Flowers of Romance,^[19] whose engineer, Nick Launay, was in turn employed by Collins to assist with his solo debut, Face Value.^[19] Paul Weller, who was recording with his band the Jam in a nearby studio, contributed guitar to "And Through the Wire". Gabriel believed Weller's intense guitar style was ideal for the track.

The album, produced by Gabriel and Lillywhite, was Gabriel's first and only release for Mercury Records in the United States, after being rejected by Atlantic Records, who handled U.S. distribution for Gabriel's first two solo albums and his last two albums with Genesis. Upon hearing mixes of session tapes in early 1980, Atlantic A&R executive John Kalodner deemed the album not commercial enough for release, and recommended Atlantic drop Gabriel from their roster.

"Atlantic Records didn't want to put it out at all," Gabriel told Mark Blake. "Ahmet Ertegun said, 'What do people in America care about this guy in South Africa?' and 'Has Peter been in a mental hospital?' because there was this very weird track called 'Lead a Normal Life'. They thought I'd had a breakdown and recorded a piece of crap ... I thought I'd really found myself on that record, and then someone just squashes it. I went through some primordial rejection issues."^[20]

By the time the album was released by Mercury several months later, Kalodner – now working for the newly formed Geffen Records label and having realised his mistake – arranged for Geffen to pursue Gabriel as one of their first artist signings.^[21] Geffen (at the time distributed by Atlantic sister label Warner Bros. Records) reissued the album in 1983, after Mercury's rights to it lapsed, and marketed it in the United States until 2010, when Gabriel's back catalogue was reissued independently by Real World Records. (Coincidentally, Mercury is now a sister label to Geffen after Mercury's parent PolyGram merged with Geffen's parent Universal Music Group in 1999.)

"I Don't Remember" was performed on Gabriel's 1978 tour for his second album.^[22] An earlier studio version was to be the A-side of the first 7" single released in advance of the album by Charisma in Europe and Japan, but a Charisma executive thought Robert Fripp's guitar solos were not radio-friendly. This earlier version wound up as the B-side of the advance "Games Without Frontiers" single instead in those territories. To date, it has not officially been released on CD. The album version of this song appeared as the A-side of a 12" single in the United States and Canada.

Track listing

Personnel

• Peter Gabriel – lead vocals (all except 3); backing vocals (1, 5, 8); piano (1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10); synthesizer (3, 4, 7, 8); drum pattern (10); whistle (7)
• Kate Bush – backing vocals (2, 7)
• Dave Gregory – guitar (4, 5)
• Robert Fripp – guitar (2, 4, 8)
• David Rhodes – guitar (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10), backing vocals (1, 4, 8)
• Paul Weller – guitar (6)
• Larry Fast – synthesizer (1, 2, 3, 7, 10), processing (2, 4, 8), bagpipes (10)
• John Giblin – bass guitar (2, 5, 6, 7, 8)
• Tony Levin – Chapman Stick (4)
• Jerry Marotta – drums (4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10), percussion (7, 8)
• Phil Collins – drums (1, 2, 6); drum pattern (1); snare (5); surdo (10)
• Dick Morrissey – saxophone (3, 5, 9)
• Morris Pert – percussion (1, 2, 9)
• Dave Ferguson – screeches (10)
• Steve Lillywhite – producer; whistle (7)
• Hugh Padgham - engineer; whistle (7)

Artwork

The photo was taken with a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera. The sleeve's designer Storm Thorgerson said: "Peter himself joined with us at Hipgnosis in disfiguring himself by manipulating Polaroids as they 'developed' ... Peter impressed us greatly with his ability to appear in an unflattering way, preferring the theatrical or artistic to the cosmetic."^[23]

Critical reception

In 1989, the album was ranked No. 45 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Albums of the 80's".

In 2000, Q magazine placed the album at No. 53 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

In 2006, Q placed the album at No. 29 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s", the only Gabriel album to make the top 40.^[24]

Charts

Album

Single

Certifications

Certifications and sales

Ein deutsches Album

All songs written by Peter Gabriel. "Texte" (that is, lyrics) by Peter Gabriel and {{ill|Horst Königstein|de}}.

Side one^[

//#29'>29]

1. "Eindringling" – 5:00
2. "Keine Selbstkontrolle" – 4:00
3. "Frag mich nicht immer" – 6:04
   • Combines the instrumental "Start" with the German version of "I Don't Remember".
4. "Schnappschuß (Ein Familienfoto)" – 4:26
5. "Und durch den Draht" – 4:28

Side two^[

//#29'>29]

1. "Spiel ohne Grenzen" – 4:07
2. "Du bist nicht wie wir" – 5:32
3. "Ein normales Leben" – 4:21
4. "Biko" – 8:55

References

External links

• {{MusicBrainz release|mbid=cada5444-485b-4c79-bf1d-9ae805420c61|name=Peter Gabriel (Melt)}}

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