Peter Gabriel's self-titled fourth album POLL

Albert, that mix is on Shaking the Tree, I'm sure.

― You like queer? I like queer. Still like queer. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, October 25, 2018 3:32 PM (four hours ago)

Negative, the shaking the tree version is 3m45s and the version I posted is 5m05s.

It's just shorter. Both versions have Gabriel adding ONLY...ONLY before "Wanting contact..." and those roller coaster synths.

one has Simon Phillips playing drums, I know that much.

xxxxpost

Yes! I remember describing the staging of "San Jacinto" to my dad the next day.

I Have The Touch slightly ahead The Family And The Fishing Net for me. This album to me is split between sound and production experiments and standard tunes and I think I Have The Touch is a good enough tune to warrant the vote. I wonder how feted Gabriel would be if he hadn't been in Genesis before making albums 1-4? He's one of those artists who is genuinely interested in sound - something you'd like to think is true of everyone who makes music for a living. Alas...

went for san jacinto

the album mix of I Have the Touch is def inferior to the Shaking the Tree one imo, loses some of the propulsion and eeriness

I have never heard the Birdy soundtrack and this thread is making me think I need to

Anyone read this? http://www.amazon.com/Without-Frontiers-Music-Peter-Gabriel-ebook/dp/B00FSV7JG4/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540569670&sr=1-3&keywords=peter+gabriel

The Birdy soundtrack was for years my pre-bed album.

"Shock the Monkey" now and forever.

certainly in my list of top five favorite albums of all time. Voted FAmily and the Fishing Net which to me is basically the pinnacle of Gabriel's solo years along with Mercy Street. Dark, involving, mysterious, fucking weird.

"Dark, involving, mysterious and fucking weird" is pretty much OTM regarding that track. 'Lay Your Hands On Me' fits the bill, too.

Hi tried to revisit this territory on Up but it just didn't click.

I've just finished watching that South Bank Show documentary which I hadn't seen before, so it was great to watch Gabriel working on portions of this record. Somehow, I'd forgotten that David Lord was the producer on this one - the same guy who'd work on XTC's The Big Express in '84 and (if I remember correctly) was recently found running a brothel.

San Jacinto, especially the thrilling start to the climax

I HOLD THE LIGHT [ker-chungggg]

haha didn't know that about david lord. he did great work. was he a good brothel owner too?

it's "hold the line" xp

This record may be a bit cliched in its exoticism (“African drum sections!” “Headless chickens!”) but it sounds fabulous and is sequenced quite well. Even tho the whole thing feels very much of a piece, the pop songs (“I Have the Touch,” “Shock the Monkey”) and piano ballad (”Wallflower”) provide sharp relief to the more textural experiments here.

The individual tracks hold up a little less well. Tho Marotta‘s performance on “I Have the Touch” remains inspired, “The Rhythm of the Heat” that captivated my sixteen year-old mind feels a little facile today. And the great drama of “San Jacinto,” a close cousin of TH’s “The Listening Wind,” almost makes up for a narrative that is more or less the Crying Indian commercial from the 1970s. Not sure if it’s my favorite or not but “Shock the Monkey” may be the only thing here that works as well on the record as it does as a single.

First digitally recorded and mastered pop album IIRC.

The record cover is so great, wish I knew what it actually was.

As a kid I had the birdy soundtrack years before I had this album so that has a lot of influence over my favorite tracks here.

Lord how I wish I could have seen this tour

I saw him play the Brendan Byrne arena (meadowlands, NJ) on the So tour and he played a bunch of these. Opened with San Jacinto. Also played Shock The Monkey and I have vivid memories of Lay Your Hands On Me, which had some super cool hand movements.

I was at this same concert. My memories are vague but very positive. Bought the tour book which had all kinds of weird shit in it (an interview with Koko the sign language gorilla, some mildly disconcerting manipulated photos of Gabriel, etc.).

The arrangements on the So tour were super-neat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3oub27yzpo&list=PLeE7IE2UYXF8dyglwIWt-zWtN378rr31a

This whole show is cool. Don't know why it wouldn't let me link to the complete one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lhxencRCCU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRCFKoCs9nk

The record cover is so great, wish I knew what it actually was.

From http://realworldgalleries.com/security/

“The artwork on album 4 was something that I’d been working on with a sculptor called Malcolm Poynter, who’s work I thought was really strong. There was a book I’d seen on distortions, a little like fairground mirrors, and we started using Flexi Mirrors”. Peter Gabriel

The final sleeve art is from an experimental video directed by Malcolm Poynter, with professional help from his editor friend David Gardner. The cover features the distorted image of Peter.

“My memory of this project, which was crucially pre Photoshop, was us dragging around Flexi Mirrors and Fresnel Lenses, and some sculptures, and then having a very creative (if chaotic) time. It was good!” Malcolm Poynter.

oh, that's nice to hear. I wondered about that for years. It looks like he's wearing a ski mask but maybe not. The images in the internal liners are great too.

Just did an image search for Malcolm Poynter--lots of distorted face sculptures. He also did a cover for Test Dept.:

https://img.discogs.com/tKaSJwgQs04AhMtgQqqi4K6BjOo=/fit-in/555x557/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-359226-1405021199-4577.jpeg.jpg

Wow, I’d always thought the photo was a still from a security camera, per the album title.

Also, as Listening Wind is mentioned upthread, PG’s cover is the only one of his orchestral songs that does anything for me. Could be a Security B-side:

https://youtu.be/RZ2omdkdk2k

Time for an 'album covers sourced from video stills' thread, a la Cabaret Voltaire

well, I’ve got it narrowed down to not The Family and the Fishing Net and probably not Wallflower

that’s enough work for today I think

Wow, I’d always thought the photo was a still from a security camera, per the album title.

― dinnerboat, Saturday, October 27, 2018 8:27 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nah, I don't think Gabriel would have designed the artwork around a title that the album wasn't really meant to have!

Nah, I don't think Gabriel would have designed the artwork around a title that the album wasn't really meant to have!

No, but if the artwork was in place and the label said, "Sorry, dude, we're gonna need a title for this one," Security might have seemed like an obvious choice.

I dunno about obvious, but I quite like the way the title Security is at odds with the image - there's really nothing about that image that seems designed to make one feel secure.

It's not just the distortion effects, I think the way that the photo on the front cover has been lit as well as the colour scheme that the final product has both add to the sinister edge. The fact that people tend to not have any idea what's going on makes the sleeve creepier.

yesterday I found PG1, PG4, So, (2002 remasters) and UP on cd for 50p each.
sometimes I love charity shops.
PG1 will require a few listens I suspect, but as soon as it started I immediately knew PG4 was going to be the one for me.

you haven't heard them before? 4 is certainly the winner of that batch, followed by So. Up would be improved by being shorter but at least he took 'burn you up, burn you down' off before releasing it (it was on the promos), it's a terrible song.

It took a long time (and middle age) for me to appreciate Us but now I love it. Up is still a work in progress for me. Certainly starts out wonderfully. Need more time with it.

mark e, buy any of the film scores with confidence if you see them, they rule

you haven't heard them before? 4 is certainly the winner of that batch, followed by So. Up would be improved by being shorter but at least he took 'burn you up, burn you down' off before releasing it (it was on the promos), it's a terrible song.

yup. all new to me.
may have had So on cassette at some point, but I am not 100% certain.
and yeah, listened to Us earlier today, and its a definite moody sunday listen.
really enjoyed it.
and of course if I see any of the soundtracks I will grab them, his stuff has always been on my 'see it, buy it' list when I dig around my charity shops.
I have just had to wait a little longer, hence why yesterdays score was a lovely surprise.
just a shame they didn't have PG2 and PG3.

Until I looked it up, I always thought that the album cover reminded me of Colonel Stapp's rocket sled experiments.

http://supercurioso.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1738_1279s-Copy.jpg

I was at this same concert. My memories are vague but very positive. Bought the tour book which had all kinds of weird shit in it (an interview with Koko the sign language gorilla, some mildly disconcerting manipulated photos of Gabriel, etc.).

I saw the So tour in Glasgow, sat in probably the farthest away seats at the SECC which is/was a big useless metal barn, still enjoyed the show but yeah, I recall it being quiet.

One thing I love about that South Bank Show episode is Gabriel sketching out 'I Have the Touch' and proper getting into it...

I saw Gabriel at the Human Rights Now tour a few years after So and it was so thrilling and amazing. He did the stage dive and everything. I saw him multiple times on the US tour and I think he'd dropped that by then (great though those shows were)

Weird that this didnt get auto-bumped when the results came in. Every track got a vote, though!

this is the best album ever made

I unfortunately heard and loved Plays Live first - the studio versions are weirdly awkward sounding to me, rhythmically :-(

it's my favorite. also the first album i ever got on cd, and for a kid who was used to just taping stuff off the radio with cheap cassettes, i was NOT prepared for the sound of PG's opening wail jumping out of the speakers and into, you know, my soulllllllllllllll

my favorite discovery on this release (aside from me and my teddy bear which i'd totally forgotten about) is the elbow remix of More Than This which is better than the album version. I know some on ILX hate Elbow and find the dull but I wouldn't mind Garvey producing a Gabriel album at this point.

I didn't care for it at the time but listening back, Curtains is a lovely song, but it's still called 'Curtains'

yeah I love curtains. I had it on the big time CD single.