Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel"

Today’s Cool album of the Day is Peter Gabriel’s album, “Peter Gabriel.” OK, now that we’ve established that, the next question is…..which one?

After Peter departed Genesis, his first four solo releases were all titles simply, Peter Gabriel. Why, he wanted them to be looked at as renewed releases of a magazine. Why did he stop this tradition with his fifth album, “So?” Well, you’ll have to ask David Geffen that question. He pulled rank. (Note: Even thou the fourth edition of the Peter Gabriel magazine collection was labeled as just ‘Peter Gabriel,’ it was widely known as ‘Security.’

So again you ask, Larry? Which one? Well here it’s going to be the third solo album. Sometimes even called, ‘Melt’ This was PG’s first solo album to go #1 in the UK. We in the States took it up to #22.

The opening track is ‘Intruder.’ Some guy named Phil Collins plays drums. This is were Phillip introduced his Big Boom drum sound that we, (and Mike Tyson) liked and mimicked so much on ‘In The Air Tonight.’ But yes, we heard it here first. (Collins was able to produce that sound by placing his drums at the bottom of a long tubular tower with mics at the top.)

Many more highlights on this piece of plastic. ‘No Self Contol, I Don’t Remember, Family Snapshot’,and’ Not One of Us.’ But two other tracks really stand out. ‘Games Without Frontiers’ and the chilling, ‘Biko.’ ‘Biko,’ long a concert ender, was a narrative about the brutal slaying of jailed apartheid leader, Stephen Biko.

Musicians here included Tony Levin on bass and stick bass. Jerry Marotta also on drums, David Rhodes on guitar. Kate Bush on vocal and the great, ‘Mr. Synergy,’ Larry Fast on synthesizer and bass synthesizer.

Peter Gabriel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2009.

Track listing

All songs written by Peter Gabriel.

Side One

1. “Intruder” – 4:54
2. “No Self Control” – 3:55
3. “Start” – 1:21
4. “I Don’t Remember” – 4:41
5. “Family Snapshot” – 4:28
6. “And Through the Wire” – 5:00

Side Two

1. “Games Without Frontiers” – 4:06
2. “Not One of Us” – 5:22
3. “Lead a Normal Life” – 4:14
4. “Biko” – 7:32

Personnel

• Peter Gabriel – vocals, piano, synthesizer, bass synthesizer, percussion
• Kate Bush – backing vocals on “No Self Control” & “Games Without Frontiers”, uncredited on “I Don’t Remember”
• Jerry Marotta – drums, percussion
• Larry Fast – synthesizer, bass synthesizer
• Robert Fripp – guitar on “I Don’t Remember” & “Not One of Us”
• John Giblin – bass
• Dave Gregory – guitar
• Tony Levin – Chapman stick on “I Don’t Remember”
• Phil Collins – drums on “Intruder” & “No Self Control”; snare drum on “Family Snapshot”; surdo on “Biko”
• Dick Morrissey – saxophone
• Morris Pert – percussion
• David Rhodes – guitar, backing vocals
• Paul Weller – guitar on “And Through the Wire”
• Dave Ferguson – screeches on “Biko”
• Steve Lillywhite – Producer

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