Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
ATCO Records
SD 36-147
(1977)
Rock/Pop
LP, 9
Tracks, 41:36
Length
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01 |
Moribund The Burgermeister |
Peter Gabriel |
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04:19 |
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Recording Date
1977
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02 |
Solsbury Hill |
Peter Gabriel |
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04:20 |
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Recording Date
1977
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03 |
Modern Love |
Peter Gabriel |
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03:37 |
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Recording Date
1977
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04 |
Excuse Me |
Peter Gabriel; Martin Hall |
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03:20 |
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Recording Date
1977
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05 |
Humdrum |
Peter Gabriel |
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03:23 |
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Recording Date
1977
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06 |
Slowburn |
Peter Gabriel |
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04:34 |
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Recording Date
1977
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07 |
Waiting For The Big One |
Peter Gabriel |
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07:26 |
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Recording Date
1977
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08 |
Down The Dolce Vita |
Peter Gabriel |
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04:43 |
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Recording Date
1977
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09 |
Here Comes The Flood |
Peter Gabriel |
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05:54 |
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Recording Date
1977
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Packaging |
Standard LP sleeve |
Sound |
Stereo |
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Vocals |
Peter Gabriel |
Drums |
Phil Collins |
Synthesizer |
Larry Fast |
Drums |
Jerry Marotta |
Bass |
Tony Levin |
Guitar |
Robert Fripp |
Guitar |
David Rhodes |
Guitar |
Steve Hunter |
Drums |
Allan Schwartzenberg |
Producer |
Bob Ezrin |
Cover by |
Hipgnosis |
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Index |
#
1231 |
Owner |
Dave |
Tags |
Alternative Rock, Art Rock, Prog Rock |
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Peter Gabriel tells why he left Genesis in "Solsbury Hill," the key track on his 1977 solo debut. Majestically opening with an acoustic guitar, the song finds Gabriel's talents gelling, as the words and music feed off each other, turning into true poetry. It stands out dramatically on this record, not because the music doesn't work, but because it brilliantly illustrates why Gabriel had to fly on his own. Though this is undeniably the work of the same man behind The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, he's turned his artiness inward, making his music coiled, dense, vibrant. There is still some excess, naturally, yet it's the sound of a musician unleashed, finally able to bend the rules as he wishes. That means there are less atmospheric instrumental sections, as there were on his last few records with Genesis, but unhinged bizarreness in the arrangements, compositions, and productions, as the opener "Morbund the Burgermeister" vividly illustrates. He also has turned sleeker, sexier, capable of turning out a surging rocker of "Modern Love." If there is any problem with Peter Gabriel, it's that Gabriel is trying too hard to show the range of his talents, thereby stumbling occasionally with the doo wop-to-cabaret "Excuse Me" or the cocktail jazz of "Waiting for the Big One" (or, the lyric "you've got me cookin'/I'm a hard-boiled egg" on "Humdrum"). Still, much of the record teems with invigorating energy (as on "Slowburn," or the orchestral-disco pulse of "Down the Dolce Vita"), and the closer "Here Comes the Flood" burns with an anthemic intensity that would later become his signature in the '80s. Yes, it's an imperfect album, but that's a byproduct of Gabriel's welcome risk-taking -- the very thing that makes the album work, overall. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
Even when he was Genesis, Gabriel seemed smarter than your average art-rocker. Though the music was mannered, there was substance beneath its intricacy; however received the lyrical ideas, they were easier to test empirically than evocations of spaceships on Atlantis. This solo album seems a lot smarter than that. But every time I delve beneath its challenging textures to decipher a line or two I come up a little short. B+ Robert Christgau