Peter Gabriel (1982 album)

Peter Gabriel
Studio album by Peter Gabriel
Released	6 September 1982
Recorded	Spring 1981 – Summer 1982
Studio	Ashcombe House, Bath, England
Genre	Art rock, experimental rock, worldbeat, progressive rock, industrial rock
Length	45:27
Label	Charisma (UK) Geffen (US)
Producer	David Lord and Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel chronology
Peter Gabriel (1980)Peter Gabriel1980 Peter Gabriel (1982) Plays Live (1983)Plays Live1983
Singles from Peter Gabriel
"I Have the Touch" Released: 8 September 1982 "Shock the Monkey" Released: 14 September 1982 "Wallflower/Kiss of Life" Released: 1982

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Chicago Sun-Times	[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[4]
Q	[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[6]
Uncut	8/10[7]
The Village Voice	C+[8]

Peter Gabriel is the fourth album released by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. As with his previous three albums, it had no title other than Gabriel's name. In the United States and Canada, his new label Geffen Records issued the album, with Gabriel's reluctance, with a Security sticker on top of the shrink-wrap to differentiate it from his previous releases, and this title was also printed on the labels. Whilst Gabriel provided the title himself, the album was officially known as Peter Gabriel in other territories. As a result, it is known by fans as Security or Peter Gabriel 4. A German-language version of the album, entitled the Deutsches Album, was released later in 1982.

History

This album is an early full digital recording. Its instrumentation is mostly electronic with extensive sampling (through use of the then-new Fairlight CMI) and percussion.^[9] It was recorded at Gabriel's then-home, Ashcombe House in Somerset, England in 1981.^[10] It was remastered with most of Gabriel's catalogue in 2002.

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.^[11] "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 to a voodoo sacrifice. "Wallflower" is about the treatment of political prisoners in Latin America during the 1980s.^[12]

The recording of the album was profiled in detail in an episode of The South Bank Show, which was broadcast in 1982.^[13]

This was the last album by Gabriel to be titled Peter Gabriel until the 2008 compilation album released covermount into The Mail on Sunday.^[14]

Production

Larry Fast, synthesizer performer on the album, 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.^[15] 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".

In popular culture

• "Shock the Monkey" 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.
• "Shock the Monkey" was featured on the 1987 film, Project X (starring Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt) as well as in the South Park episode "Raisins".
• "Wallflower", along with adaptations of other songs from Gabriel's third and fourth albums, was featured on the 1984 film Birdy, directed by Alan Parker and starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage.
• "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, and a cover version by Heather Nova was featured in The Craft.
• "The Rhythm of the Heat" also appears prominently in the opening scene of the episode "Evan" from the first season of the television series Miami Vice. With seven songs used, Gabriel 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 film Natural Born Killers.
• A full 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).^[16]
• Alternative metal band Primus covered "The Family and the Fishing Net" on their 1998 EP Rhinoplasty.
• "Lay Your Hands on Me" appears in the fifth season of The Americans in the episode "Crossbreed." It is the third appearance of a Gabriel tune 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 written by Peter Gabriel.

Personnel

• Peter Gabriel – vocals, programming, Prophet 5, Polymoog, Fairlight CMI Series I, Yamaha electric grand piano, surdo, Linn LM-1 drum computer, additional drums on track 2
• Tony Levin – bass, stick
• David Rhodes – guitar
• Jerry Marotta – drums, percussion
• Larry Fast – synthesizers

Additional personnel

• John Ellis – backing vocals on tracks 1, 3, 8, guitar on tracks 2, 4
• Roberto Laneri – treated saxophone on track 4
• Morris Pert – timbales on track 6, percussion on track 8
• Stephen Paine – Fairlight CMI on track 4
• David Lord – synthesizers on tracks 6, 7, piano on tracks 7, 8
• Peter Hammill – backing vocals on tracks 4, 5, 6
• Jill Gabriel – backing vocals on track 2
• Ekome Dance Company – Ghanaian drums on track 1

Charts

Album

Singles

Certifications

Deutsches Album

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]

Deutsches Album (1982) is the second German language album by Peter Gabriel; a German language adaptation of Gabriel's fourth album. The Deutsches Album was released simultaneously with the international edition in Germany. In lyrics and mixing, the album is noticeably different from the international release.

The album boasted a different running order and some substantially remixed songs from the English-language version. Even the background vocals were redone in German. Gabriel's previous German language album, Ein deutsches Album (1980), had been mostly an overdub of its corresponding English-language version, Peter Gabriel (1980).

The running order of Deutsches Album is slightly different from its parent, as "San Jacinto" is transposed with "The Family and the Fishing Net" (here, "Das Fischernetz"). There are also some obvious differences in running times, with some songs being 15–30 seconds longer or shorter than the corresponding international versions. Track eight gained a final coda not on the English version, while track seven has an earlier instrumental fade. Other changes are only noticeable when listening to both versions back-to-back, such as the shouted nonsense refrain of "WAKAKA WAKAKA" in track three. There are also subtle differences in the instrumental mixes.

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

External links

• Security at MusicBrainz
• Peter Gabriel (Security) at MusicBrainz