Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel tabs Peter Gabriel discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Peter Gabriel guitar tabs

CD reviews

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel Audio CD

A fair review of the Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Peter Gabriel reviews here, or go back to the Peter Gabriel tabs.

Band: Peter Gabriel
Title: Peter Gabriel
Rating:

Release Date: 2002-05-07
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Moribund the Burgermeister 2: Solsbury Hill 3: Modern Love 4: Excuse Me 5: Humdrum 6: Slowburn 7: Waiting for the Big One 8: Down the Dolce Vita 9: Here Comes the Flood

Peter Gabriel is as good as ever
The music on the CD was first rate, bringing back wonderful memories of when I first heard this album on vinyl. The quality of the compact disc was very good and provided excellent sound quality. Solisbury Hill remains a timeless classic that is worth listening to over and over again. Modern Love and Slowburn Sunset also fall within the same league. This album is a classic that deserves to be in anyone's music collection from the 1970s. .

A good way to start off a promising career
It also proved to the world that Gabriel no longer needed Genesis to support him. A huge Genesis and Peter Gabriel fan, I am compelled to comment on his first album, one that, while not his best, was nonetheless good and showed how much potential he had.

That being said, it is interesting how much he returns to Genesis in his lyrics. Several of the songs on this album relate to his leaving the band and building up a new identity. The first is "Solsbury Hill", an softer acoustic rock song that directly related to his estrangement from his bandmates, and his longing to spread his wings and explore other music. The most popular song from the record, it is one that has never left his live repetoire, showing that it must have been very personal and dear to him. Then you have "Excuse Me", which is undoubtedly the poorest song he ever wrote. Styled as a barbershop quartet-esque song, it deals with his desire to escape the life of a rock star yet stay in the game, albeit independently. Coming from a man who lent lyrics and vocals to progressive rock masterpieces like "Supper's Ready" and "The Carpet Crawlers", this turn-of-the-century pop song will come as a shock to listeners, and will most likely be the one you skip over.

Musically the album is Gabriel's most diverse, with styles poles apart coming together well. The album kicks off with "Moribund the Burgermeister", a song that shows that Gabriel had kept and always would keep his influence from Genesis with him. The song, laden with synthesizers, percussion, and an orchestral backing, is light-hearted in music, masking it's dark lyrics that deal with a deadly plague and the Burgermeister's struggle to maintain order. After the successive song, "Solsbury Hill", comes "Modern Love", a rocker that demonstrated Gabriel's lyrical diversity - he could write about sex like the best of them. "Humdrum" is another moody progressive rock song, only to be followed by another hard rock number, "Slowburn". Afterwards Gabriel will surprise listeners again by singin' the blues on "Waiting for the Big One", a track that, like "Excuse Me", has no companion in the rest of Gabriel's career. However this song is far less cringe-worthy than "Excuse Me", featuring good guitar work by Steve Hunter.

The final two tracks create a seameless piece that is arguably the finest moment on the record other than the anthemic "Solsbury Hill". "Down the Dolce Vita", musically a possible response to the burgeoning Disco trend, is another one of Gabriel's fine lyrical moments, with lyrics concerning the wandering Mozo, a man who changes other's lives along his journey. He would appear in several other songs throughout Gabriel's career, but the full-fledged stage production and movie he planned never came to anything. Backed by The London Symphony Orchestra, the song showcased the merging of styles: Gabriel's dark, Genesis-esque prog rock with funk and disco. Without a pause, ". . . Dolce Vita" flows into "Here Comes the Flood", another symphonic rock song that appealed to fans of Gabriel's earlier work. However, Gabriel did not share their enthusiasm with the song, feeling it was overproduced. On Robert Fripp's "Exposure" and on Gabriel's compilation album "Shaking the Tree", a simpler, softer version of the song was present, featuring only vocals, piano, and acoustic guitar. In my honest opinion the original version was better.

Though nothing like his masterpieces, "Peter Gabriel III" and "Peter Gabriel IV", this album does give the listener a chance to see the new, untethered Gabriel, proving to his audience that he has moved on from Genesis.

Peter Gabriel 1: Car
The single that was released on this "Solsbury Hill" which is a great track and has become a signature melody for Gabriel. Peter Gabriel 1: Car being Gabriel's debut solo album since leaving Genesis was release 1977 and peaked at #38 in the Billboard Pop Albums. The booklet has some very avantgarde photos. The booklet also has all the lyrics and a list of whom plays what on the album. 4/5.

Una joya
Lo que antes solo era carisma, virtuosismo o novedad en los conciertos de Rock, con Peter Gabriel tuvo otro alcance y motivo para los espectadores y fans. Peter Gabriel ha sido uno de los musicos mas innovadores de la historia del Rock junto con David Bowie y Alice Cooper en cuanto a teatralizacion del Rock. Este CD, el primero despues de su separacion de "Genesis", es una joya entre joyas. Escuchar "Solsbury Hill", "Slowburn", "Here come the flood" entre otras canciones con sonido remastered es un placer.

Peter Gabriel's first solo album is still a great album over 30 years after its release

After Gabriel finally left Genesis in 1975, he took the rest of 1975 off be with his wife Jill and their first born daughter (whom miraculously survived a traumatic birth in 1974). Former Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel released his first self-titled solo album (since nicknamed Car) in February of 1977 originally on Charisma Records in most territories apart from the US and Canada where it was released on Atlantic Records' subsidary label Atco. Then in 1976, Peter went back to work teaming up with Alice Cooper and KISS producer Bob Ezrin to record his first solo album.
Helping Peter (who wrote, sang on all tracks and played keyboards and flute) on the album were noted Bob Ezrin session musicians at the time whom were drummer Allan Schwartzberg and guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner (who played on Alice Cooper's albums at the time), bass player Tony Levin (whom would become Peter's long serving bass player after this album) plus keyboard player Larry Fast on synthesizers and King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp.
We open with the lyrically bizarre but excellent "Moribund the Burgermeister". This song sounds like Gabriel's old band Genesis in some parts but proved that he would be a force to be reckoned with on his own. Next is the album's biggest hit which was "Solsbury Hill". The track conjures Gabriel's feelings about leaving Genesis and moving on. Next is the rocker "Modern Love" which was the other single from the album and who can forget the video with Peter wearing a fencing helmet and acting out on one of those treadmills. Next is "Excuse Me" which starts out with a barbershop quartet before it turns into a classic and funny vaudeville song. The first half closes with "Humdrum" which is a nice atmospheric track.
The album's second half starts with the rocker "Slowburn" which is another great track with some great guitar work from Steve Hunter. The same can be said for the following track "Waiting For the Big One". The track is seen as a bluesy track but a great song. Next is the orchestral rocker "Down the Dolce Vita" which sounds like something musically that Alice Cooper was producing at the time (not surprisingly as Bob Ezrin was Alice's main producer and the musicians from Alice's albums in the mid-1970s are Peter's backing band here). The album closes with the beautiful ballad "Here Comes the Flood" which is one of Gabriel's best songs and Dick Hunter's guitar solo here is phenomenal.
Peter Gabriel's first solo album reached #38 on the US charts and proved that he could survive outside of Genesis.
In 2002, Geffen Records re-released the album in a digitally remastered CD version and has the original artwork plus lyrics, photos and full credits.
RECOMMENDED!.

You can see a complete list of all Peter Gabriel discography, or go back to the Peter Gabriel tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.