Peter Gabriel (1982 album)

Peter Gabriel is the fourth eponymous studio album released by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. In North America, the album was titled Security. A German-language version, entitled Deutsches Album (German Album), was also released.

Peter Gabriel
Studio album by
Released6 September 1982 (1982-09-06)[1]
RecordedSpring 1981 – summer 1982[1]
StudioAshcombe House, Bath, England
Genre
Length45:27
LabelCharisma (UK)
Geffen (US)
ProducerDavid Lord and Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel chronology
Peter Gabriel
(1980)
Peter Gabriel
(1982)
Plays Live
(1983)
Singles from Peter Gabriel
  1. "Shock the Monkey"
    Released: 20 September 1982 [5]
  2. "I Have the Touch"
    Released: 5 December 1982 [6]
  3. "Wallflower"
    Released: 1982 (NL) [7]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Chicago Sun-Times[9]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[10]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[11]
Q[12]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[13]
Uncut8/10[14]
The Village VoiceC+[15]

Songs

The songs on the album cover a wide variety of subject matter. "The Rhythm of the Heat" is based on Carl Jung's experience while observing a group of African drummers. "San Jacinto" reflects on the fear and pain experienced by a Native American man who sees his culture overwhelmed by modern white society, its lyrics based on a story told to Gabriel by an Apache member. "Shock the Monkey", a meditation on jealousy, uses imagery of a primate to describe personal anxieties.[16] "Lay Your Hands on Me" deals with a theme of healing, through trust, which is further explored on later albums. "The Family and the Fishing Net" is a song comparing a modern-day wedding with a voodoo sacrifice. "Wallflower" is about the treatment of political prisoners in Latin America during the 1980s.[17]

Larry Fast, who played synthesizer, mentioned during a presentation on Moog synthesizers that the working title for "The Rhythm of the Heat" was "Jung in Africa", the working title for "Shock the Monkey" was "Black Bush", and the working title for "Lay Your Hands on Me" was "93" – this was the number of the LinnDrum pattern used on the track.[18]

In The South Bank Show's documentary of the album's recording, the working title for "I Have the Touch" was shown to be "Hands".[19]

Gabriel discussed several of the songs in an interview with DJ Alan Freeman:

  • "The Family and the Fishing Net": "It's basically a wedding song, but it's more an approach from the undercurrents of the wedding ritual. There are quite a lot of situations that we accept as perfectly normal and regular, traditional, that have this element of ritual that makes deep impressions on the psyche. And this is a somewhat impressionistic account of a wedding. I'd also been reading quite a lot of Dylan Thomas at the time, so there is that influence in the lyric writing."
  • "Lay Your Hands on Me": "It is part [hymn] and part the sort of faith healing aspect, which I think occurs in that and in 'Kiss of Life' too… I'm convinced that we have abilities within ourselves that are not really acknowledged yet. There's also the fairly dry, urban images in the verses, and then there's the sense of cleansing through this laying-on of hands. There's the screaming for the hands to be laid on in the choruses."
  • "Wallflower": "'Wallflower' began almost as a love song. In fact, that's probably the oldest of the songs. I started doing a version of it on the third album, which was never finished. And then I rerecorded it for this one. The Amnesty programme that they were running on the television (possibly The Secret Policeman's Ball) made quite a big dent on me as a prisoner of conscience situation. And I thought that the emotion that's in the song could be usefully directed with that sort of lyric. So, after a certain amount of soul-searching, I decided to go for it on this album. And it feels real to me, so I'm quite pleased with it."[20]

Recording

The album is an early full digital recording. Its instrumentation is mostly electronic with extensive sampling (through use of the Fairlight CMI) and west-African percussion.[21] It was recorded at Gabriel's then-home, Ashcombe House in Somerset, England in 1981.[22]

The album was remastered with most of Gabriel's catalogue in 2002.

Title

As with his previous three albums, the album is titled Peter Gabriel. In the United States and Canada, his new label Geffen Records issued the album, with Gabriel's reluctant agreement, under the title Security to differentiate it from his previous releases. This new title was displayed in a sticker on top of the LP sleeve's shrink-wrap and on the disc labels. Whilst Gabriel provided the title himself, the album was officially known as Peter Gabriel in other territories. The Security title was maintained on American and Canadian releases of the album until 2010, when it reverted to the original Peter Gabriel title for reissues by Gabriel's own Real World Records label.

Alternative versions

Five songs from the album – "The Rhythm of the Heat", "San Jacinto", "The Family and the Fishing Net", "I Have the Touch", and "Shock the Monkey" – are included among the live performances on Gabriel's double album Plays Live (1983).[23]

Adaptations of "The Rhythm of the Heat", "San Jacinto", and "Wallflower" were included in Gabriel's soundtrack for the 1984 film Birdy.

Alternative metal band Primus covered "The Family and the Fishing Net" on their 1998 EP Rhinoplasty.

In other media

"The Rhythm of the Heat" appears in the opening scene of "Evan", an episode aired during the first season of Miami Vice. Gabriel, who had seven songs used, had the most songs featured by a solo artist in the series. He is also the only artist to have had a song used in four of the show's five seasons. (None of his songs were used in the second season, though "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins, which features backing vocals by Gabriel, was used in the second-season premiere.) The song was also used in the feature film Natural Born Killers.

"Shock the Monkey" was featured on the 1987 film, Project X (starring Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt). The song was referenced in the 1988, Season 6, Episode 17 of the American sitcom Cheers. Lillith says she will never be able to hear "Shock the Monkey" again without crying. The song also appeared in the South Park episode "Raisins".

"I Have the Touch" featured in the 1988 film, The Chocolate War. An alternate version of the track was featured on the 1996 film, Phenomenon, starring John Travolta. A cover version by Heather Nova was featured in The Craft.

"Lay Your Hands on Me" appears in "Crossbreed" a fifth season episode of The Americans. It is the third appearance of a Gabriel song in the series, the first being "Games Without Frontiers" in the season one finale "The Colonel" and the second being "Here Comes The Flood" in the third episode of season three, "The Walk In."

Track listing

All tracks are written by Peter Gabriel.

Side One
No.TitleLength
1."The Rhythm of the Heat"5:15
2."San Jacinto"6:21
3."I Have the Touch"4:30
4."The Family and the Fishing Net"7:08
Side Two
No.TitleLength
5."Shock the Monkey"5:28
6."Lay Your Hands on Me"6:03
7."Wallflower"6:30
8."Kiss of Life"4:17

Personnel

Charts

Album

Year Chart Peak position
1982 Billboard Pop Albums 28
Music Week (UK) Albums 6

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1982 "I Have the Touch" Billboard Mainstream Rock 46
"Kiss of Life" Billboard Mainstream Rock 34
"Shock the Monkey" Billboard Black Singles 64
Billboard Club Play Singles 26
Billboard Mainstream Rock 1
Billboard Pop Singles 29
UK Singles 58

Certifications

Organization Level Date
BPI – UK Gold 30 November 1982
CRIA – Canada Gold 1 February 1983
CRIA – Canada Platinum 1 February 1983

Deutsches Album

Deutsches Album
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 1982
Recorded1981–1982
GenreWorldbeat
Length45:27
LabelCharisma Records
ProducerDavid Lord and Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel chronology
Peter Gabriel
(1980)
Deutsches Album
(1982)
Plays Live
(1983)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[24]

Deutsches Album (1982) is Gabriel's German-language adaptation of his fourth album. It was released simultaneously with the international edition in Germany.

Gabriel's previous German-language album, Ein deutsches Album (1980), is mostly an overdub of its corresponding English-language version, Peter Gabriel (1980). In contrast, Deutsches Album differs from its international release in several ways.

The album boasts a different running order: "San Jacinto" is transposed with "The Family and the Fishing Net" (here, "Das Fischernetz").

Some of the songs are substantially remixed and are, for instance, 15–30 seconds longer or shorter than their international versions. Track eight gains a final coda not found on the English version, while track seven has an earlier instrumental fade. The background vocals are redone in German. In the third track, a shouted nonsense refrain has been added. All songs written by Peter Gabriel. "Texte" (lyrics) by Peter Gabriel and Horst Königstein.

Side One

  1. "Der Rhythmus der Hitze" – 5:36
  2. "Das Fischernetz" – 6:45
  3. "Kon Takt!" – 4:31
  4. "San Jacinto" – 6:13

Side two

  1. "Schock den Affen" – 5:43
  2. "Handauflegen" – 6:02
  3. "Nicht die Erde hat dich verschluckt" – 5:59
  4. "Mundzumundbeatmung" – 4:54

References

  1. Mic, Smith (2002). Peter Gabriel (booklet). Peter Gabriel. Box, Wiltshire: Real World. p. 1.
  2. Schneider, Martin (5 January 2018). "Peter Gabriel's German Albums". Dangerous Minds. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  3. McKeough, Kevin (15 July 1993). "Peter Gabriel's performance art rock". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  4. Hombach, Jean-Pierre (2008). Phil Collins. Dallas Museum of Art. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-4716-2948-8.
  5. https://petergabriel.com/release/shock-the-monkey/
  6. https://petergabriel.com/release/i-have-the-touch/
  7. https://www.discogs.com/Peter-Gabriel-Wallflower/release/2001813
  8. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Security – Peter Gabriel". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  9. DeRogatis, Jim (4 July 1993). "A Solo Discography". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  10. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  11. Brunner, Rob (12 July 2002). "Peter Gabriel: Security". Entertainment Weekly: 84–85.
  12. "Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel 1: 'Car' / Peter Gabriel 2: 'Scratch' / Peter Gabriel 3: 'Melt' / Peter Gabriel 3: 'Ein Deutsches Album' / Peter Gabriel 4: 'Security' / Peter Gabriel 4: 'Deutsches Album'". Q (352). November 2015.
  13. Considine, J. D. (2004). "Peter Gabriel". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 319–20. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  14. Thomson, Graeme (November 2015). "Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel 1 ('Car') / Peter Gabriel 2 ('Scratch') / Peter Gabriel 3 ('Melt') / Peter Gabriel 4 ('Security')". Uncut (222): 88–89.
  15. Christgau, Robert (30 November 1982). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  16. "Tracks explained". RollingStone.com. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  17. "Wallflower by Peter Gabriel Songfacts". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  18. "Conversations in the Key of MOOG". Synthtopia.com. 25 February 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  19. "The South Bank Show 31 October 1982". IMDB.com. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  20. Capital Radio interview with Alan Freeman, broadcast October 1982; transcribed in Gabriel fanzine White Shadow (#3, pp14) by editor Fred Tomsett
  21. "Fairlight – The Whole Story". Audio Media. January 1996.
  22. "Peter Gabriel at Ashcombe House". Synergy-emusic.com. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  23. Peter Gabriel Plays Live at AllMusic
  24. Valdivia, Victor W. (2011). "Security [Germany] – Peter Gabriel | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
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