Biography
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian who rose to fame as the original lead singer and flautist of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, Gabriel launched a successful solo career with “Solsbury Hill” as his first single. His 1986 album, So, is his best-selling release and is certified triple platinum in the UK and five times platinum in the U.S. The album’s most successful single, “Sledgehammer”, won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gabriel
Album & Cover
Initially released as the first volume of Peter Gabriel’s eponymous body of work, in 1977, this release was later retitled “1” on certain editions. Also noted on Peter Gabriel’s web site as “Peter Gabriel 1 (Car)”. Gabriel and Ezrin assembled a team of musicians, including King Crimson frontman and guitarist Robert Fripp, to record the album. Upon the album’s release, Gabriel began touring with a seven-piece band under his own name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gabriel_(1977_album)
Storm Thorgerson got the idea for this cover from sitting in a traffic jam in central London on a wet day. He was fascinated by the droplets of water on the bonnet of the car, so he used his car, a Lancia Flavia parked outside his house in Wandsworth and sprayed it with a water hose to get the effect he had imagined with Peter Gabriel sitting in the passenger seat for the photograph. Richard Manning explains the cover process: I’m only showing the front cover but there were 4 images that had the same treatment. The fourth image was straight side on and only a narrow strip of colour at the bottom. All black and white images, no sepia toning. The appropriate areas were masked off with transpaseal then airbrushed with photo dye, gradually. This entailed spraying a couple of whiffs and letting dry. Doing it this way allowed the dye to stay on the surface of the print,whereas if I was to spray the colour in one blast, or alternatively wash the dye in, then I would be unable to knife the highlights to white of the most prominent raindrops. It was a delicate operation and I blunted a number of 10a scalpel blades in the process. http://www.richardmanning.co.uk/hipgnosis-album-cover-art/peter-gabriel–1977/17
Cover Location: In a Lancia Flavia car in Wandsworth, London.
Who Did What: Photography – S Thorgerson/ A. Powell
Label: Charisma CDS 4006(UK), Atco SD36-147(US)
Source: Vinyl. Album. Cover. Art, The Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue: Aubrey Powell
| Side One Moribund The Burgermeister Solsbury Hill Modern Love Excuse Me Humdrum |
Side Two Slowburn Waiting For The Big One Down The Dolce Vita Here Comes The Flood |
Credits
Arranged By [London Symphony Orchestra], Conductor – Michael Gibbs
Bass, Tuba, Leader [Barbershop Quartet] – Tony Levin
Drums, Other [Directories] – Allan Schwartzberg
Electric Guitar [Rhythm], Guitar [Full Frontal Guitar], Acoustic Guitar [Rhythm], Steel Guitar [Pedal] – Steve Hunter
Electric Guitar, Guitar [Classical], Banjo – Robert Fripp
Keyboards [Frontal Keyboard], Vocals [Barbershop] – Jozef Chirowski
Orchestra – The London Symphony Orchestra
Percussion, Effects [Synthibam], Percussion [Bones], Vocals [Barbershop] – Jim Maelen
Producer – Bob Ezrin
Recorded By – Brian Christian
Recorded By [With] – Dave Harris , Jim Frank, Keith Grant, Robert Hrycyna, Robert Stasiak, Rod O’Brien
Synthesizer, Programmed By [Synthesizer] – Larry (Wires) Fast
Written-By, Vocals, Keyboards, Flute, Recorder – Peter Gabriel
