Quiet! Genius At Work!

After owning them on vinyl for decades, I recently decided to buy CD versions of Peter Gabriel's first three albums (all untitled, but known among fans as 1, 2 and 3, or Car, Scratch and Melt for the images on each of the covers). Each of these is a great collection of music in its own right, but I've tended to listen to his newer stuff more over the last twenty years. (It still boggles my mind that his fifth and best-selling album, So, came out over two decades ago! I consider that to be one of his "newer" releases! That means he and I are both old!)

Although I know his early solo music very well, Vicki's only heard it in fits and starts, since by the time we got together I wasn't listening to it all that often. Unlike me, she listens to a lot of music in her car, so she'll now have the opportunity to re-acquaint herself with the artist she's seen in concert four times (I've seen him on six wonderful occasions!).

Some of this material shows up on the digital music channel I tune the TV to while blogging, like "Here Comes the Flood", "Modern Love" and "D.I.Y." And, to tell the truth, those songs brightening up my day on Ch 722 and jogging my memory, reminding me of just how awesome those early songs were, ended up being instrumental in me wanting to get versions I could play on more than my turntable. (I'll also be putting them on my iPod so that I can cycle to them once I start biking again.)

After twenty-five years of being into his music and considering him one of the best song-writers ever, it seemed like a good time to revisit the raw energy that came forth after he split from Genesis.

"We've tried a handful of bills and a handful of pills
We've tried making movies from a volume of stills
[But] the words fell like hailstones,
bouncing at our feet,
Covering our feelings with a frozen sheet."
- "Slowburn", 1 (or Car)


"Don't tell me what I will do, 'cos I won't.
Don't tell me to believe in you, 'cos I don't.
Be on your guard, better hostile and hard, don't risk affection;
Like flesh to the bone in the no-go zone,
You're still looking for the Resurrection.
Come up to me with your "What did you say?"
And I'll tell you, straight in the eye:

D.I.Y., D.I.Y., (etc.)

Everyone wants to be what he not, what he not.
Nobody happy with what he got, what he got.
You function like a dummy with a new ventriloquist,
Do you say nothing yourself?
Hanging like a thriller on the final twist,
Is it true you're getting stuck on the shelf?
Come up to me with your "What did you say?"
And I'll tell you, straight in the eye:

D.I.Y., D.I.Y., (etc.)

When things get so big, I don't trust them at all,
You want some control, you've got to keep it small.

D.I.Y., D.I.Y., (etc.)"
- "D.I.Y.", 2 (or Scratch)


"I've been waiting for this
I have been waiting for this
All you people in TV land
I will wake up your empty shells
Peak-time viewing blown in a flash
As I burn into your memory cells
'Cos I'm alive"
- "Family Snapshot", 3 (or Melt)