A music podcast where we discuss our favorite albums, song by song. New episodes every other Tuesday.

138: Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (III) (1980)

“I thought I’d really found myself on that record, and then someone just squashes it. I went through some primordial rejection issues.”

—Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel is a favorite artist of many of us here at Discord & Rhyme, but we’ve saved him for our own 138th Episode Spectacular. Peter Gabriel III (aka Melt, so called because half of Gabriel’s face on the album cover looks like a melting candle) isn’t just John’s favorite Peter Gabriel album; it’s an album that made him reconsider (in a favorable light) the entirety of popular music in the 1980s and the concept of using the production studio to create entirely new sounds, and John leads a very enthusiastic discussion on an album that we love very much. Join John, Amanda, Rich, and Mike as we gush over an album that transformed solo Peter Gabriel into something greater than “the guy who used to sing for Genesis”; a dark noisy hellscape frontier of an album full of burglars, assassins, and not one cymbal anywhere.

Miscellany

• The clip in the teaser comes from Kate Bush (along with Paddy Bush and Glenys Groves) introducing Peter Gabriel before a performance of “Here Comes the Flood” in the 1979 Kate Bush Christmas Special. We are including a link to this performance below, including the introduction.

• The covers of “Not One of Us” and “Biko” from Stephin Merritt and Paul Simon came from a multi-stage project (alluded to in the episode but not described in detail) that Peter Gabriel pursued in the late 2000s and early 2010s. In 2009, Gabriel released an orchestral covers album called Scratch My Back, where he covered various songs from different artists in the hope that they would each reciprocate with a cover of one of his songs on a companion tribute album, And I’ll Scratch Yours. The tribute album came out in 2013, but the process to get there was somewhat embarrassing, especially when it came out that Gabriel didn’t receive an ironclad promise from all of the relevant artists to cover his songs before he released covers of their songs. This project came up and was explained in further detail during the first episode we did on 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields back in 2021 (and the cover of “Not One of Us” was clipped there as well).

• Mike reminded us after the recording that Gabriel did “Biko” during his 2010/2011 shows with an orchestra, but did it as the first set closer rather than as a show closer. He also pointed out that the track had the desired effect of making him and his friends look up Stephen Biko on Wikipedia during intermission

• If you don’t know the reason we refer to Peter Gabriel’s first two self-titled albums as Car and Scratch, just look up the album cover images and it will become instantly clear.

• When John was 21 and first wrote about this album for his website, he referred to side one of this album as “The greatest psychological thrill ride in the history of mass art.” Early 20s John sure wrote some things.

• John didn’t mention this in his personal history section, but “Red Rain” from So has been the calibration song he has used to verify proper stereo setup (after moves or getting new equipment) since college. 

Other links 

• Peter Gabriel: "Why I Quit Genesis" (genesis-band.com)

• "Birdy's Flight" in the movie "Birdy" (Youtube)

• Music video for "Biko" (Youtube)

• "Here Comes the Flood" on the Kate Bush Christmas Special (Youtube)

• John's reviews of Peter Gabriel (johnmcferrinmusicreviews.org)

• Discord & Rhyme’s Peter Gabriel playlist (Spotify)

• Discord & Rhyme’s merch store (TeePublic)

• Discord & Rhyme’s Patreon

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call 

• John McFerrin (host)

• Amanda Rodgers (moderator)

• Rich Bunnell

• Mike DeFabio 

Peter Gabriel III tracklist 

1. Intruder

2. No Self Control

3. Start

4. I Don’t Remember

5. Family Snapshot

6. And Through the Wire

7. Games Without Frontiers

8. Not One of Us

9. Lead a Normal Life

10. Biko 

Other clips used 

Peter Gabriel:

• Growing Up

• Red Rain

• Steam

• In Your Eyes

• Mercy Street

• Solsbury Hill

• Moribund the Burgermeister

• Exposure

• The Barry Williams Show

• Sledgehammer

• Birdy’s Flight

• Perspective

• Biko (Live in Athens 1987)

• Come Talk to Me

• A Different Drum

• Rhythm of the Heat

• That Voice Again

• Road to Joy (Dark-Side Mix) 

Others:

• Genesis - Dancing WIth the Moonlit Knight

• “Weird Al” Yankovic - Polka Party!

• Genesis - The Conqueror

• Genesis - The Colony of Slippermen (Live from the Shrine Auditorium)

• Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Desafinado

• Bernard Herrmann - Twisted Nerve

• Paula Abdul - Straight Up

• Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians

• Oingo Boingo - Just Another Day

• Def Leppard - Animal

• Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

• Heart - If Looks Could Kill

• Genesis - Mama

• Wendy Carlos - Brandenburg Concerto No.3: I. Allegro

• King Crimson - Level Five

• Stephin Merritt - Not One of Us

• Genesis - Duchess

• Genesis - That’s All

• Supertramp - Asylum

• Joni Mitchell - Trouble Child

• Harold Budd and Brian Eno - First Light

• XTC - Sacrificial Bonfire

• Paul Simon - Biko

• Genesis - In the Cage

• Phil Collins - Hand in Hand

• The Psychedelic Furs - Into You Like a Train

• Genesis - Supper’s Ready

Band/album personnel 

• 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", "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", "No Self Control" and "And Through the Wire"; 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 - whistles on "Games Without Frontiers"

• Hugh Padgham - whistles on "Games Without Frontiers"

• Dave Ferguson - screeches on "Biko"

Credits 

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of: 

• Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

• Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

• The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

• Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

• Herbie Hancock - Hornets

• Kraftwerk - Autobahn

• Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

• Peter Gabriel - No Self Control (this episode only) 

You can buy or stream Peter Gabriel and other albums by Peter Gabriel at your local record store or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Instagram @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.

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