PETER GABRIEL 3 PETER GABRIEL III PETER GABRIEL MELT

Didn't we poll this?

"I Don't Remember" for the opening shouts and that piledriving bass.

Melt is 3

oh shit i knew that

haha in fact i looked it up on wikipedia to make sure

Can only be "Biko".

i might vote family snapshot

And Through The Wire

i think i have to go "biko." the last songs on PG albums are often v. dope.

Can't believe anybody's voting anything other than "Family Snapshot", melodramatic as it is.

this is the best pg album fwiw

Can't decide between "Rhythm of The Heat" and "The Family And The Fishing Net", but since neither one's up there, it doesn't really matter...;)

i thought melt was the third one?

Melt is 3

― secret smdh-i (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 15:19 (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh shit i knew that

― max, Tuesday, 2 March 2010 15:19 (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"And through the wire," though "Biko" and "Games" will always get more attention for their lyrics. I find "Wire" more exhilarating musically, which for me trumps lyrics.

(oh, it's fixed already, never mind xxxpost.)

"family snapshot" no question

"and through the wire" such a sick guitar riff

"games without frontiers" sickest drum machine intro of any 80s jam including in da air tonight

love kate's vox on "no self control"

gwf

"Biko"

"And Through The Wire". Wonderful middle-eight.

And btw. the correct name for this album is "Peter Gabriel". Just like the first two (and the original UK edition of the 4th one/"Security")

this album is good, gonna listen before voting tho cuz it's too many that fits into the awesomes category here

Going "Intruder" myself. Perfect way to start off his best album.

lol geir

Gotta go with "And Through The Wire." Like "Modern Love," it's something of a Who pastiche, but this time he got a stone Who obsessive (Weller) to play on it.

no losers here though i agree it comes down to "and through the wire" v. "biko"

and geir is otm: that middle eight rules. BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU TREAD!

Paul Weller playing guitar on 'And Through The Wire', no less. Where does Dave Gregory appear?

can I vote for the german version of something

The correct name for this album is "The Lamb Lies Down On Broad Street" btw.

This album doesn't feature the definitive version of "Biko" therefore any votes for it should be struck from the record.

"games without frontiers" sickest drum machine intro of any 80s jam including in da air tonight

Not sure whether GWF has a drum machine but the drums on "In The Air Tonight" were all played by Collins.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

""games without frontiers" sickest drum machine intro of any 80s jam including in da air tonight

Not sure whether GWF has a drum machine but the drums on "In The Air Tonight" were all played by Collins.

― anagram, Thursday, March 4, 2010 7:33 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark"

yeah man i heard they like processed his real drums in a special so as to sound just like a cr-78. but it was all played by phil of course. real drums played by a real man

family snapshot

No Self Controwull

Every track on this is solid, though.

"games without frontiers" sickest drum machine intro of any 80s jam

^^^^^

Abbott otm re: every track, but still, Family Snapshot. What a song.

I wish I could love this album, but find it unlistenable in a harsh early-80s production nightmare kind of way

Haven't played this in a long long time, though I just pulled my copy out right this second. But I would've said "Games Without Frontiers" 30 years ago, and I doubt I'd change my mind now. Runners-up: "I Don't Remember," "And Through The Wire." Always thought "Biko" was more relevant (obviously) than great to listen to, but I like it fine. (Have never found early '80s production "harsh"; I don't get that at all.)

I found out the other day that "Games Without Fronteirs" (as performed by Peter Gabriel) is on Pure Moods 3. Which I could *kind of* understand, except for lyrics like "whistling tunes we piss on the goons in the jungle."

I mean, that song is dark & violent & sarcastic as hell.

I just listened to this again last week - it's still damn good, though I understand the comments about production. PG was starting to integrate some world influences and his stuff just sounded like nothing else at the time.

Dave Gregory / Paul Weller

I think I prefer the live versions on Plays Live to these album versions, actually. Not the case with the Security/4 tracks.
Some of the over-filtered guitar and plastic sax sounds on 3 may have been influential and new back then, but they haven't dated very well to my ears.

Dang... "Start" is the only one that I didn't give serious thought to voting for. What a collection.

I went with GWF, possibly a sentimental pick, since it's what first made me aware of the album back then. And Through the Wire was first runner-up. In ten minutes, my vote might change, but it's cast now. So be it.

Love how simultaneously old school ("before punk") and new (HI DERE WE LOVE PUNK SYNTHS) this sounds -- uncomfortably so. Which is why the intro and backing vocals on "I Don't Remember" work beautifully.

SHES SO FUNKULAR

http://www.kissthisguy.com/sub_vote.php?id=33411

Quite a few of those, btw. "she's got floppy ears" (also lol at "don't you know you've got a chocolate monkey")

"And Through The Wire". Believe I have voted for that one before.

SHES SO FUNKULAR

― cutty, Saturday, June 26, 2010 9:24 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark

hahaha is that what they're saying? never clocked that. so classic

Kissthisguy is a misunderstood lyrics repository, so no, that's not what they're saying :-)

family snapshot, tho the whole thing as mentioned is great

Until he mentioned it during a show I saw a couple of years ago I had no idea that Family Snapshot was based on a notebook found under a bridge in Washington DC containing mad writings by a guy who had tried to shoot governor Wallace from Alabama. Later published as The Diary Of An Assassin, it was also the inspiration for Taxi Driver.

Uh.. An Assassin's Diary, that is. And Milwaukee. (Dude who wrote it is Arthur Bremer and he was paroled in 2007)

hahaha is that what they're saying? never clocked that. so classic

no. she's saying "games without frontiers" in french

NO SHE IS SAYING SHE'S SO FUNKULARS

Cut Banny

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i think its "jeux so funkular"

Love albums like this that earns love for almost every track. I think "Security" would generate even more votes for every track.

"She's so funkular" would definitely be better than "jeux sans frontieres".

wait so "funkular" is french for frontiers?

Games without funkulars

Simon Reynolds says, in the Rip It Up discog:
" he banned the use of hi-hat and cymbals at the sessions
to achieve that stark Joy Div/Comsat Angels sound; sang songs of
tension, paranoia, and unease."

Is that right? Is that what he was after do you think?

how would we know better than SIMON REYNOLDS

x-post

What I heard is that he banned the cymbals because their sustained ringing blankets a range of frequencies and he wanted to use that range for other sounds. I also suspect that the general lack of cymbals in tribal drumming was an influence.

cymbals are also fuckin stupid

he didnt ban SYMBOLS tho thats for sure, in 'games without frontiers' GAMES symbolize WAR and DIPLOMACY for example

XD

I remember reading that a lot of the drum sounds in "GWF" are traditional drum tracks sped up, and that much of the racket at the end is the drummer and Lillywhite trashing the percussion, chucking it against the wall and whatnot, then speeding that up, too.

David Byrne does I Don't Remember http://stereogum.com/423262/david-byrne-i-dont-remember-peter-gabriel-cover/mp3s/

There was a ***GERMAN*** version of PG3???????????

AUF DEUTSCH???

I've seen it, but not heard it.

Definitely ought to be heard: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/peter-gabriel-peter-gabriel.html

You did it justice. The dollar book Freud of "Family Snapshot" is the only track I skip these days.

In fact it goes quite a distance beyond even the extremities of the McCartney record; was this, of all Peter Gabriel records, really a number one album? It has some of the least compromising music I’ve heard on any other number one album, before or since, and subverts most of what is “conventional” about the music, even though it goes some way towards inventing the standard eighties rock template.

and it got to #22 in the States!

Great piece, and interesting dot-connecting re: Rudd on the Haden record!

Great post! Incredible that an album this dominated by percussion manages to do it minus anything metal (ie cymbals), and one not necessarily big on melody turns out to be so hooky and memorable. It's Gabriel's sheer sense of will and invention that helped this album become some sort of new normal (see also: "So," which is also pretty weird, in its own way, but has become a pop template).

Fun fact: a lot of the sounds at the end of "Games" are Lillywhite and Marotta chucking things around the studio and then speeding up the recording.

Simon Reynolds says, in the Rip It Up discog:
" he banned the use of hi-hat and cymbals at the sessions
to achieve that stark Joy Div/Comsat Angels sound; sang songs of
tension, paranoia, and unease."

Is that right? Is that what he was after do you think?

― piscesx, Sunday, June 27, 2010 8:13 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I always heard it was because they wanted to record them separately so they could control the sound better and then either forgot to record them or just liked the way it sounds

Either way it would be a funny project to make a version of the album with cymbals.

why doesn't ILM get right to work on it

Either way it would be a funny project to make a version of the album with nothing but cymbals.

is the German version of this worth checking? the idea of a German-language "Intruder" is just so delightful

i remember the german version being quite successful. gabriel's german was pretty good, his accent not very pronounced. i'm not sure but in a way the german language seems to fit quite well with the oppressive and dark nature of the album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEpy2VL022Q

I much prefer the German version to the English – partly that the original version is a bit overplayed for me, partly that there's a hint of motorik beat throughout and a skronky off-kilter funk that suits his German phrasing. Plus the air of menace that hearing in a foreign language heightens for me.

When I was young and stoned, I swore I discovered the hidden meaning of this album: a concept piece on criminality that moves from the personal (Intruder) to the political (Games, Biko); and the album cover has him in prison stripes and his melting face = the dark impulse in all of us. Heavy shit, bro.

32 unused Polaroids from the PG3 cover session (from the new book "Hipgnosis Portraits")

"Too poetic"

A few of those were used as single/poster images. Lovely to see them all assembled, though, and for less than £750 for a signed print from Real World.

I like "Looks sorry for himself."

"nono can't handle this one"

I know zilch about photography - what process did they use to make those?

does my head in that he's still not on Spotify (in the Uk at least). he must be one of the last holdouts.

I know zilch about photography - what process did they use to make those?

I don't know about the Gabriel pictures in particular, but I do remember seeing Ralph Steadman producing similar effects on Polaroids simply by applying heat to the image - think there's something about the instability of polaroids that warps them in this way.
http://prints.ralphsteadmanshop.com/category/17600/paranoids

Why isn't there a Peter Gabriel box set of the three self-titled records? Seems like an obvious thing to do.

I think he looks like Peter Christopherson in 50/O.T.T.

The story with the PG picture is just that as Polaroids develop you can mess and smear them before they finalize.

The one that says "too derivative" is referring to Les Krims' Fictopictokrismographs, which are cited as "inspiring" the cover art in the liner notes; Krims and Lucas Samaras are among the artists who used the technique. Sadly you can't get Polaroid film that does this anymore (except expired packs that may or may not work).

No Original Album Classics of the pre-SO stuff?

these records seem to get reissued on a regular basis; it's been a few years since the last remasters (which were good), I'm sure there is another round coming soon.