Peter Gabriel (1980 album)

When writing the album, Gabriel developed a "rhythm first" approach when writing and demoing songs for the album on an 8-track system. Synthesizer player Larry Fast introduced him to the PAiA "Programmable Drum Set", which offered full programmability, allowing Gabriel to program his own drum rhythms to build songs around during the writing process. He later bought a Roland CR-78 drum machine as well for use on the album: he felt the CR-78 sounded better but was less programmable than the PAiA drum machine. bandmate Phil Collins helped create the gated reverb sound on "Intruder". Collins played on several of the album's tracks. "Intruder" has been cited as the first prominent use of a gated reverb sound. Lillywhite explained: Gabriel "didn't want to use cymbals and I had been really experimenting with this ambience thing which actually started with [drummer] Kenny Morris with the first Siouxsie and the Banshees|[Siouxsie and the] Banshees' album. When you listen, you can hear elements of this gated room sound, big compressed room sound that I did on the Banshees". "Padgham was my engineer when we did the Peter Gabriel album [...] but I had been pushing and experimenting before with, like the Psychedelic Furs", on "Sister Europe", [...] "all done before the Peter Gabriel album". 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 third studio album The Flowers of Romance (1981), whose engineer, Nick Launay, was in turn employed by Collins to assist with his debut studio album, Face Value (1981). 's guitar parts raised concerns that they were uncommercial. "I Don't Remember" had been performed on Gabriel's 1978 tour for his second studio album. 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. It was included on the B-sides-and-rarities compilation Flotsam And Jetsam, released in 2019. The album version of this song appeared as the A-side of a 12" single in the United States and Canada. Lillywhite contacted Dave Gregory to overdub some guitars on "I Don't Remember" and "Family Snapshot". Gregory retuned his guitar on "I Don't Remember" to play open chords on the downbeats during the verses. When Gabriel was demonstrating the chord progression for "Family Snapshot", he accidentally played Gregory an earlier version that had been recorded in a different key. Paul Weller, who was recording with his band the Jam in a nearby studio, contributed guitar to "And Through the Wire". Gabriel had previously said of the Jam, "I like them a lot. They're one of the new groups who have written the best songs. They're really very good." He believed Weller's intense guitar style was ideal for the track. Commenting on his lyrics, Gabriel jokingly summarised the album's themes as "the history of a decaying mind". He added: "State of mind was definitely an area of interest at the time of writing it, but I never really set out with a concept. It was merely different songs, which perhaps have fitted into one particular slant." Of "No Self Control", he said: "That's something which I've observed in myself and in other people… In a state of depression, you have to turn on the radio, or switch on the television, go to the fridge and eat, and sleeping is difficult." ==Artwork==

The album cover, inspired by the work of photographer Les Krims, shows an image of Gabriel in which the left side of his face appears to be melting. The effect was achieved by repeatedly taking his picture with a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, then using various objects to smear and distort the pictures as they developed. These photos were taken in colour, and the final distorted image was re-shot in black and white. 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." ==Release==

Upon hearing mixes of session tapes in early 1980, Atlantic Records A&R executive John Kalodner deemed the album not commercial enough for release, and recommended Atlantic drop Gabriel from its 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." The album was Gabriel's first and only release for Mercury Records in the United States, having been rejected by Atlantic Records, which had handled US distribution for Gabriel's first two solo studio albums and his last two studio albums with Genesis. It was a commercial success, becoming his first to top the UK charts as well as reach No. 22 on the US Billboard chart, his highest position there to date. In addition, the single "Games Without Frontiers" became his biggest hit to that point, charting at No. 4 UK. After all the trouble incurred when Atlantic dropped the album, Gabriel stated that he felt vindicated by the public's reaction. 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 its first artist signings. 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. The studio album was as a self-titled album in the UK on 30 May 1980 on Charisma Records. The album was preceded by the singles "Games Without Frontiers" and "No Self Control" in that country, the latter of which was still climbing the UK charts at the time of the album's release. It was promoted in the country through advertisements in various publications such as The Guardian, Evening Standard, and Time Out. 500 window displays were also displayed throughout the country, which included plastic stickers and bill posting. A German-language version of the album, titled Ein deutsches Album (A German Album), was released on 27 June 1980. The album was remastered, along with most of Gabriel's catalogue, in 2002. ==Critical reception==

In his review for Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh described Peter Gabriel as "a tremendous record" that "sticks in the mind like the haunted heroes of the best film noirs". Record World felt that the album marked a continuation of Gabriel "explor[ing] the limits of popular music". Cashbox called it an "artistic tour de force" that represented "a quantum leap for rock music as an art form". In 1989, Peter Gabriel was ranked at No. 46 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s. In 2000, Q placed the album at No. 53 on its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever"; six years later, the magazine placed it at No. 29 on its list of the 40 best albums of the 1980s. In 2018, Pitchfork ranked Peter Gabriel at No. 125 on its revised and expanded list of the 200 best albums of the 1980s. In 2020, Rolling Stone included this record in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising Gabriel "for a haunting LP that touches on political assassinations ("Family Snapshot"), the futility of war ("Games Without Frontiers"), and the brutal murder of South African activist Steve Biko ("Biko"). He made more popular albums after this one, but never better ones." ==Track listing==

Ein deutsches Album (English: A German Album), released in June 1980, is a German-language version of Peter Gabriel. Gabriel sang German vocals on top of the instrumental backing tracks. He explained his rationale behind the project in an interview published in Cashbox, saying that "rhythmically speaking, German is a fascinating language. The vocal harshness of the language gives the lyrics a phonetically mechanical flair." Two years later, Gabriel released Deutsches Album (1982), a significantly altered version of his fourth studio album Peter Gabriel (1982). • "Eindringling" – 5:00 • "Keine Selbstkontrolle" – 4:00 • "Frag mich nicht immer" – 6:04 • Combines the instrumental "Start" with the German version of "I Don't Remember". • "Schnappschuß (Ein Familienfoto)" – 4:26 • "Und durch den Draht" – 4:28 Side two • "Spiel ohne Grenzen" – 4:07 • "Du bist nicht wie wir" – 5:32 • "Ein normales Leben" – 4:21 • "Biko" – 8:55 ==Personnel==

Credits are adapted from Peter Gabriel liner notes. • Peter Gabriel – vocals, piano; synthesizer on "Start", "I Don't Remember", "Games Without Frontiers" and "Not One of Us"; drum pattern on "Biko"; backing vocals on "Intruder", "Family Snapshot" and "Not One of Us"; whistle on "Games Without Frontiers" • Larry Fast – synthesizer on "Intruder", "No Self Control", "Start", "Games Without Frontiers" and "Biko"; processing on "No Self Control", "I Don't Remember" and "Not One of Us"; bagpipes on "Biko" • David Rhodes – guitar on all tracks except "Start"; backing vocals on "Intruder", "I Don't Remember" and "Not One of Us" • Robert Fripp – electric guitar on "No Self Control", "I Don't Remember" and "Not One of Us" • Dave Gregory – electric guitar on "I Don't Remember" and "Family Snapshot" • Paul Weller – electric guitar on "And Through the Wire" • John Giblin – bass guitar on "No Self Control", "Family Snapshot", "And Through the Wire", "Games Without Frontiers" and "Not One of Us" • Tony Levin – Chapman Stick on "I Don't Remember" • Jerry Marotta – drums on "I Don't Remember", "Family Snapshot", "And Through the Wire", "Games Without Frontiers", "Not One of Us", "Lead a Normal Life" and "Biko"; percussion on "Games Without Frontiers" and "Not One of Us" • Phil Collins – drums on "Intruder" and "No Self Control"; drum pattern on "Intruder"; snare on "Family Snapshot"; surdo on "Biko" • Morris Pert – percussion on "Intruder", "No Self Control" and "Lead a Normal Life" • Dick Morrissey – saxophone on "Start", "Family Snapshot", "No Self Control" and "Lead a Normal Life" • Kate Bush – backing vocals on "No Self Control" and "Games Without Frontiers" • Steve Lillywhite, Hugh Padgham – whistles on "Games Without Frontiers" • Dave Ferguson – screeches on "Biko" Production personnel • Steve Lillywhite – producer • Hugh Padgham – engineer ==Charts==