One - Gabriel, Peter > Reviews > Whats in a Name

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Superb Debut and a huge range of style
Disadvantages:	Nothing

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

In the mid seventies at the height of Genesis' popularity (they'd made a commercial breakthrough with "Selling England By The Pound" and hit the singles chart with "I Know What I Like <In Your Wardrobe>" and issued the monster double concept album "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"). So what happens, their lead singer quits, the band advertise in Melody Maker for a singer with a "Genesis type" band, ingnore the applicants , put Phil Collins at the front and hire Chester Thompson as a paid drum...the Peter Gabriel pulls in Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper's) producer and puts out this superb solo album.

Peter Gabrile always has an eye for the unusual , and although people give them names, the first four albums have no names. The reason for this is that Gabriel concieved as magazine type musical installments , hence they are are called "Peter Gabriel" distiguished only by their difeering catalog numbers, covers , and contents. What's in a name?

The album was a hit spawning the hit single "Solsbury Hill (sic)" documenting his reasons for leaving Genesis, and spanning a number of musical genres from the proto metal of "Modern Love" to the barber shop quartet of "Excuse Me" to the weirdness of "!Moribund the Burgermeister" to the very big ending of "Down in the Flood".

Gabriel proved he didn't need Genesis (and they proved they didn't need him by issuing the excellent "Trick of the Tail"), and this kick started the career of the most entertaining and funny intellectual person in music, laying the foundations for his Real World empire and the instigation of WOMAD.

Its available at mid price and is highly recommended.

This is where it started for PG.