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Peter Gabriel (III)
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Peter Gabriel (1980) is Peter Gabriel's third eponymous album. The album contains two of Gabriel's most famous songs, the U.K. Top 10 hit "Games Without Frontiers" and the political song "Biko", about the late anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. The album was remastered, along with most of Gabriel's catalog, in 2002.
This album is often referred to as Melt due to its cover photograph by Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis. The photo was taken with a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, and subsequently modified by Thorgerson or Gabriel.
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Encyclopedia
Peter Gabriel (1980) is Peter Gabriel's third eponymous album. The album contains two of Gabriel's most famous songs, the U.K. Top 10 hit "Games Without Frontiers" and the political song "Biko", about the late anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. The album was remastered, along with most of Gabriel's catalog, in 2002.
This album is often referred to as Melt due to its cover photograph by Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis. The photo was taken with a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, and subsequently modified by Thorgerson or Gabriel. (Thorgerson does not recall whether he or Gabriel manipulated the image.)
The album was Gabriel's first and only release for Mercury Records in the U.S., 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 the album's session tapes, Atlantic A&R executive John Kalodner deemed the album not commerical enough for release, and recommended that Atlantic drop Gabriel from their artist roster. By the time the album was released by Mercury, Kalodner, now working for the newly-formed Geffen Records label and having realized his mistake, arranged for Geffen to pursue Gabriel as one of their first artist signings. Geffen re-issued the album in 1983, and has distributed it in the U.S. since.
Gabriel's ex-Genesis bandmate Phil Collins, who succeeded Gabriel as Genesis' lead vocalist, plays drums and provides backing vocals on several of the album's tracks. In particular, Collins played drums on "Intruder", which has been cited as the first use of Collins' "gated drum" sound. This effect, as created by Collins and Hugh Padgham, was featured on Collins' recordings throughout the 1980s. The distinctive sound was identified via experiments by Collins and Padgham, in reponse to Gabriel's request that Collins and Jerry Marotta not use cymbals on the album's sessions. The drum sound on this album has been noted by Public Image Ltd as influencing the sound on their album Flowers of Romance, whose engineer, Nick Launay, was in turn employed by Collins to assist him with his first solo album, Face Value.
Track listing
All songs written by Peter Gabriel.
- "Intruder" – 4:54
- "No Self-Control" – 3:55
- "Start" – 1:21
- "I Don't Remember" – 4:41
- "Family Snapshot" – 4:28
- "And Through the Wire" – 5:00
- "Games Without Frontiers" – 4:06
- "Not One of Us" – 5:22
- "Lead a Normal Life" – 4:14
- "Biko" – 7:32
Personnel
Critical praise
In 1989, the album was ranked #45 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.
In 2000; Q magazine placed the album at number 53 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
Charts
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|
| 1980 | Billboard Pop Albums | 22 | | 1980 | UK Album Chart | 1
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Single
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|
| 1980 | "Games Without Frontiers" | Billboard Pop Singles | 48 | |
Certifications
| Organization | Level | Date |
|---|
| BPI – UK | Gold | June 2 1980 | |
External links
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