Earlier this month, we were able to give away a handful of copies of Peter Gabriel’s new concert DVD, “New Blood: Live in London.” Now we’re topping that with a whopper of a Peter Gabriel prize pack: 12 CDs, including his latest album, the orchestral New Blood, which represents nearly his entirely discography, plus a lithograph of the New Blood cover signed by Gabriel himself — all courtesy of EMI Music.
One randomly selected winner — U.S. residents only, per EMI’s rules — will receive the following CDs, including studio albums, soundtracks and a live record, plus the autographed lithograph:
- Peter Gabriel 1: Car (1977)
- Peter Gabriel 2: Scratch (1978)
- Peter Gabriel 3: Melt (1980)
- Peter Gabriel 4: Security (1982)
- Plays Live (1983)
- Birdy (1985)
- So (1986)
- Passion (1989)
- Us (1992)
- Up (2002)
- Scratch My Back (2010)
- New Blood (2011)
To enter, simply drop a comment below naming your favorite Peter Gabriel album, and why it holds a special place for you. We’ll take entries until 12 p.m. EST Friday, Dec. 16. After that point, we’ll select one winner at random and contact them via e-mail — so please remember to use a legit address when you enter. And if the winner doesn’t respond after one full week, we’ll select a new winner. Believe it or not, that’s happened. So pay attention and check your e-mail.
UPDATE: Contest is now closed. Thank you for all your entries; they were great fun to read. The randomly selected winner is oshfr. Congrats.
It would have to be “So.” Because it dropped into my life right at the end of high school. It’s such a strong album, no filler. And it contains “Mercy Street” which is as gorgeous an art rock anthem as you’re going to get. Put that together with the high emotion of senior year in high-school and you’ve got something unforgettable.
I’ve listened to the 3rd album almost constantly since hearing “Games Without Frontiers” on the radio as young lad back in 1980.
Security because it’s where I started and it’s the standard by which I end up judging the others. It manages to be both weird and catchy at the same time.
I have to go with So. It’s just brilliant. One of the best albums of all time IMHO.
It would have to be “So.” Reasons? “Don’t Give Up” and “In Your Eyes.” How can anything with Kate Bush NOT be iconic? ;)
My choice is self titled number 4 “security”: still sounds haunted to me after 25 years of listening to it.
Security- I was music director at our college radio station when it came out-I’ll never forget it showing up in the mail (there was a high level of anticipation for it after his 3rd lp) and every DJ playing the hell out of it-in fact one DJ vandalized it and destroyed the record because he was so sick of it being played on our station. The record was quickly replaced-and so was he!
So. In 1986 i played it constantly. Just a brilliant record.
Peter Gabriel 3. “And Through the Wire” and “Biko” are two of my all-time favorite songs.
PG 3 – That album is a classic
“So” just because it has so many amazing songs. However, “New Blood” is running a close second.
I’d have to go with Secret World Live, always loved the raw energy of that album .. and frankly the most powerful version of Digging In The Dirt I have ever heard!
Tough choice between Car and Scratch, but Car would have to be my favorite because I listened to it a million times. The songs always conjure an emotional response, the arrangements are so beautiful. Really the start of such a fantastic solo career.
Favorite album is Us. Got me through some incredibly tough times as a young adult. Could not have triumphed emotionally without it!
IV – Security.
III – “Melting Face” – “Intruder”, “No Self Control”, “I Don’t Remember”, “Games” – Just a solid album.
I’d have to say Us. I remember buying it on cassette back when I was in high school. It was one of those few albums that really hit me as being something unique and different.
PG #3 Melt. No Self Control, Games and Biko did it for me.
I have always loved Up. Saw the Up tour at the Boston Garden right up close with blind boys of alabama. Amazing show.
Of course, ‘So’ is a perfect album, but I’ll go for ‘Us’, which was my first PG record. 20 years later, it’s still a strong album, with a brilliant song, ‘Love To Be Loved’, one of my all-time/all-bands favourite!
Peter Gabriel’s fourth album, Security, is my favorite. The music is so eerie, yet beautiful. Worth the price of admission just for “Wallflower”. The worst thing about being trapped underground for nine months after a mining tunnel explosion, being held captive in a Turkish prison for eight years, and being lost at sea on a flimsy rubber raft for 38 days was that I was not able to listen to my CD copy of Security during any of those ordeals.
‘Up’ soars!
With the Blind Boys of Alabama’s velvet tones coating ‘Sky Blue’, the satirical ‘Barry Williams Show’ and and the spaciously magnificent ‘Signal To Noise’ the album is experimental, moving, atmospheric and upbeat. Up, in fact!
So. One of my aunts gave it to another of my aunts for her birthday right when it came out. They popped it in immediately and I was hooked. My mom got a copy soon after and I wore it out listening to it over and over. It’s been a consistent top 5 favorite record since I was 10 years old.
It’s obviously “So,” an album that changed music videos forever. Plus, it was my first-ever CD purchase. And, it contains nearly the saddest song of the ’80s, Don’t Give Up.
I waffle back and forth between PG3 (Melt) and Security. They are both great albums but I will choose Security due to the presence of Rhythm of the Heat and San Jacinto. It’s still an album that I love listening to all these years later.
Passsion. I remember after the movie thinking the only thing i loved about it was the music and that I had to go get it. I had no idea at the time it was done by Peter Gabriel. It is transcendent.
My favorite album Is Secret World Live… Peter sounded amazing (and the accompanying DVD is even more amazing) :)
I’m torn between ‘So’ and ‘Us’…both contain such beautiful songs and Gabriel was no doubt at his creative peak during this time.
Must be Security. My Dad had this in his tape deck on repeat for a year…and I know all the words by osmosis. The songs have now gone beyond their original meaning and have now become attached to the nostalgia of a father and son singing songs together.
His third solo album, (Melt), is the one that really introduced me to Peter Gabriel. I was just getting into radio at the time (age 14/15) and ‘Games w/o Frontiers’ hooked me from the first time I heard it.
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Passion, without a doubt. Peter perfectly paired musicians that would be true to the music to a very challenging movie. Still my number one soundtrack!
Passion. An eclectic mix of some of the most talented musicians from around the globe – coming together to create a masterpiece that was inspirational to my outlook as a musician, and as a human being.
Plays Live – dressed as PG for Halloween at junior high school in ’83.
Have to say Security. That’s album was new when I first saw Peter live.
There are so many great ones, but i’d say that Us is my favorite because i couldn’t stop listening to it after i got married…my wife and i would play it constantly during our first few years and now when i think about it i remember how great it was, starting out with her in my life…plus, Come Talk to Me is one of his best songs ever – perfect way to open the album…
Plays Live – that’s the record that really turned me on to his music (bought after seeing him on TV at the Amnesty International concerts in the mid-80s). That version of “Biko” is just plain stunning.
PG 3 is his only bulletproof album, not a single wrong note on the entire thing so I say it’s his best, however, PG 2 is my dark horse favorite; it’s so weird and different from his other stuff and even tho’ it has its mistakes, it definitely has some really cool and interesting work.
“So” “So” “So” “So” “So”
Security – my dad played it almost daily on the record player when I was 4. Family and the Fishing Net still gives me nightmares.
3rd aka melt: interuder still to this day is my favorite song, brilliant strong hairs standing on end tune!
Although I had the forst 4 LPs, So was the first CD I bought to play on my new CD player back in the day and therefore has a specialness about it
Peter Gabriel 3- I listened to it every day for years when I was a kid. I still consider it the soundtrack for my life.
“So” for me. I was certainly aware of Peter Gabriel before its release, I liked some songs but ‘So” changed everything. I became a full-fledged fan.
PASSION!!!! Transcendent. Beautiful. Spiritual.
“Peter Gabriel” (the third). “So” was brilliant as well, but there’s nothing compared to that third PG record IMHO.
3, followed closely by So. Getting to finally see him live this past summer was a HUGE highlight. Singing Biko with several thousand people at once still gives me chills just thinking about it. I have a soft spot for “Scratch My Back” too, since he covers so many of my other favorite artists. Love PG!
“US” – Beautiful album and artwork!
Just to make sure I’ll be eligible I’ll say “SO” because it’s a great album – however, what sold me to PG were his shows at Werchter festival in 1983 (which I didn’t see but taped off the radio) and 1987 which was fabulous…
It’s hard to pick just one, but I’d have to go with “So” as it feels like the album where he really came into his own. Not to discount the previous albums, but this one felt like an “event” when it came out…and it was.
Just to be different, I’m going to name UP. Holy cow, what a forceful album.
Assume quite a few will pick SO. I will flip iit and say the fairly recent SCRATCH cover album. It was brilliant the way he reinterpreted those songs to make them his!
US. Amazing textures, great live shows. ‘secret world’ is a standout track. Great website , thanks!
I really love “Us” for the beautiful songwriting and arranging. Sinead’s voice complements PG’s so perfectly on “Blood of Eden.” I also saw him live of the first time on the Secret World tour.
Hands down, “Us” from 1992. My dad always said your favorite music is the music you grew up listening to. Us spoke in such an emotional voice at a time in my life when such a voice was needed. Us is not only the best PG record but one of the 10 greatest albums ever released in my opinion.
PG 3 – ‘I Don’t Remember’ was the first PG video I watched on MTV.
What else can be said after seeing/hearing that video? I’m hooked!
“Plays Live” – introduced me to so much more of PG’s earlier work, after the Security/So albums.
So. When it came out, the guys at my local record store encouraged me to check it out. (PG was quite different from my normal buying habits – primarily 2nd generation punk bands back then.) That album opened my mind, musically.
PASSION is such a great score to work to.
“Security” kept me company while stationed in Germany. Best of the best!
III is the only correct answer for me. Stunning album from front to back, more than just a collection of good songs.
“Passion.” An incredibly evocative set of compositions. Who could have thought that 80s digital technology and diverse global traditions could mesh so effectively? Peter Gabriel definitely did.
for me, without question – the first release (Car). From first note to last, sheer brilliance but it will always hold true as my favorite b/c it brought one of THE most perfect songs in the world into my life…Solsbury Hill. Still my fave Gabriel tune ever and still one of my favorite tunes in all of music history. Utterly beautiful and still touches my heart with every listen and brings me to tears when I hear it live even after all these years…
Peter Gabriel 4: Security: bonded over it with my first girlfriend.
So is a great Album. Saw him at the SF Amnesty International Show in ’86 and again on the So tour later that year in Oakland. In the Top 3 concerts I have ever seen. Amazing!!!!
Us – Was going through a bad break up and it really helped me out a lot.
For me is UP. That’s the first time I saw PG live. That tour, and the most recent orchestral tour, have been the best live shows I’ve ever seen.
Definitely a tie between the third album and So. Both of those have stayed in heavy rotation whether it was on vinyl, CD or now my iPod.
It’s a toss-up between Security and Us, but I think I have to go with Us. It’s brilliant from beginning to end. The addition of Sinead O’Connor only adds to how incredible it is. I worked at a record store when Us was released and I played it daily in the store for months.
So
Because of all the wonderful melodies contained in it.
:o)
Gotta go with Stretch. The one two punch of On The Air and D.I.Y. is tough to top
My favorite album would be US. It has great depth, and takes you on a journey.
Tough one, but if I had to choose, it would be Us. Every track on that record deals with complex issues (dissolution of relationships, family disengagement, etc.), and came out while I was going through a bad breakup, so it is very special to me.
I’d pick “So” because it’s classic and iconic, and it’s got “Red Rain,” which may be one of the greatest songs ever.
His 2nd album, PG2–brave, stark, weird. There was nothing like it in 1978.
I’d have to choose ‘No Self Control” over all others, mostly because that’s one of my “thrilling” traits. I’ve had Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of functional autism) for a good two decades now, and along with that, I haven’t ever possessed much of a sense of self-control, which could be both a good thing or a bad thing. I’ll tell you now, it certainly comes in handy in heated debates. But if someone ever criticized, let’s say, what music I listen to, I wouldn’t hesitate to give them a verbal ass-beating. No Self Control always struck a chord with me (heh, get it.) for a multitude of reasons, be it the excellent guitar playing courtesy of Robert Fripp, or the great basslines by Tony Levin, but I feel it mostly impacted me in how I personally interpreted the song’s lyrics. It’s a phenomenal song, and part of a phenomenal album as well.
it so totally has to be ‘so’. it came out when i was first discovering and becoming obsessive about music as a teenager. i had to buy multiple copies due to overplay.
For me, it also has to be ‘So’. I knew of Peter Gabriel before that (‘Shock the Monkey’, anyways, which fascinated me and I couldn’t figure out why) but being fourteen and confused and asking big questions about sexuality and religion and the mind and life and hopes and dreams… it was all in ‘So.’ It was all there in widescreen epically produced glory. ‘So’ sent me back to ‘Security’ and ‘Melt’ and ‘Scratch’ and ‘Car’ and so many great songs and moments abide therein. But always back to ‘So’, and if I had to pick an abiding moment from ‘So’… it would have to be ‘Don’t Give Up’. I might be tearing up just thinking about it now. Or it could be the line from ‘In Your Eyes’ about ‘the resolution to all my fruitless searches…’ Or it could be…
I should stop. I’ll stop.
I would have to say self titled 1 (car), which i always referred to as rainy window. I was missing him from Genesis and got rewarded with this album and tour! From that moment on, I knew he’d be alright.
Can I add self titled 2 (scratch) as well? Oh well, Im’a do it anyway!! lol
I’d have to go with “SO” since that was when I first discovered one of his solo albums in full (as opposed to just the single or video being played on mtv)… also it features the duet with kate bush!
Security is ace. Shock the Monkey is the ultimate killer PG tune.
“So”—having the powerhouse master vocals of Gabriel and Bush together on ‘Don’t Give Up’, my god!! Plus, every single track exhibits an artist at his greatest.
I’d go with Us. Solid album. A little deeper than So. Came out at a good time in my life.
“So” was the soundtrack to much of my adolescence. Other kids had metal or punk, I had “so”.
My favorite Peter Gabriel album has to be 1986’s So. So many great hits. Red Rain, Sledgehammer, Don’t Give Up, Big Time, and In Your Eyes. Great tunes that still stand up today!
So is my favority PG album. I wore out the tape in high school and still listen to the CD…
PG-4 The Drumming is fantastic
Scratch My Back…I know it’s crazy but this album his take on these songs are stunning and this album really moves me to tears!
Up – I think it captures him at his best. Every track is excellent.
I wonder why Ovo is not on the list. It’s my true favorite with guest musicians Paul Buchanan (The Blue Nile) and Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins).
I’d have to go with “So.” Too many great tracks and a sublime duet with the AMAZING Kate Bush.
Us. It’s a great album to do sex to.
3/Melt – my favorite PG songs on this one: Family Snapshot, Intruder (also awesomely covered by Primus), and And Through The Wire (with Paul Weller!) and the alternate German version of the album kicks also!
One con…. the album responsible for the gated-drum sound used all throughout the 80’s… it all started here!
“Plays Live” was the first thing available that was close to a greatest hits, so I’d have to pick that one.
Security, a life long friend…
Embarrassingly, I like So!
Yeah, it’s got to be So, the first album I got into PG with and still my favorite, though Security is a close 2nd. I listened to So over and over and over and it still holds up fantastically!
“So” is my favorite.
Peter Gabriel 3: Melt (or as I used to think of it, the melting face record), simply because, it was like nothing else I had heard before.
I would have to go with Security. (PG4) Maybe because it was also one of the best concerts I’ve seen. It started with Peter, Tony Levin and the whole band walking through the audience playing the drums.
I’m going with “So.” Saw the show in Milwaukee on that tour (Summer ’87) and it’s is still one of the top 5 concerts I’ve ever been to. Just brilliant start to finish.
SO. In Your Eyes…Say Anything.
US. From “Come Talk to Me” to “Secret World” every song is cathartic. Who else could take the breakup of his marriage, marry it with sounds from around the world and end up with a listenable album?
Melting Face, I remember listening to it in high school thinking it was the greatest album ever. I still think it’s one of the best.
“So” is probably the safest choice, but it is the one that made me start to really get into his music. Such a great album that’s edgy and hooky at the same time.
“So” would be my pick . It’s a great album with a great sound.
It would have to be “Us”. A truly amazing album from start to finish.
Definitely Peter Gabriel 4: Security. I had was just starting college and Shock the Monkey was playing everywhere I went. It reminds me of younger days.
My personal favorite would have to be 1980’s “Peter Gabriel 3”, a.k.a “Melt”. With tracks like “Games Without Frontiers” and “And Through The Wire”, it completely opened up for me a whole new way of listening to smartly written rock music. And with “Biko”, I first discovered how powerfully a songwriter could use his talent to introduce me to important political messages.
It’s hard to pick just one… But the album I always return to, time and time again, is “Passion.” From street recordings to choral arrangements, the album has always had so much to offer. As such, it still manages to surprise after 20+ years of repeated listenings. Peter has truly refined his ability to merge Western and “World” music on this album, and I would call it his masterpiece.
Although songs from “Melt” and “Security” have special places in my heart, “So” was the first one I heard all the way through and it changed how I thought about PG’s work.
Love all of his material, but the “Birdy” soundtrack resonates most with me.
“Security” because of the lush and expansive palette of of sounds and styles.
“Passion” because it was so different to anything I was listening to at the time. I love the middle eastern sounds.
Security, if for no other reason than “Wallflower” and “Family and the Fishing Net.” Perfect songs.
“Us” has to be my favorite. I was in college then and the artwork and videos were so fascinating. Really loved this timeframe in Peter’s career.
So – more words ain’t necessary
I got into Peter in the late 70s after hearing Solsbury Hill on the radio and I have seen him in concert four times including the Security tour in 1982 which is one of the top concerts I have ever seen. The 3rd (Melting Face) is special to me because I listened to it a lot the last two years of high school.
SO is my favorite standing the test of time even though mtv killed a lot of it. the music is what we have left and it is SO fine.
Melt. Until college, the only album I had ever heard was So–recorded on a cassette from vinyl. One of my college roommates introduced me to the rest of Peter Gabriel’s albums. All of his CDs were English imports, for some reason. I think he might have had the strangest CD collection ever, because he had a fondness of Gabriel, world music, Bauhaus and grunge. After class, especially on Friday with a beer or two, we used to listen to Peter Gabriel as loud as the crappy speakers would let us, while watching televangelists on TV (the sound of the TV, of course, turned completely down). Aside from that tape of So, I never owned any of Peter Gabriel’s stuff, but I find myself singing Biko every time someone asks if I have accepted Jesus as my Lord.
It may not be objectively his best album, but “Us” is my favorite, by a long-shot. It was released during the time of my parents’ divorce and helped me through that painful time. It resonates even stronger with me right now, as I’m unfortunately headed down a similar path relationship-wise. “Us” is totally essential, a “stranded on a deserted island”-type of album for me.
the birdy soundtrack. loved the way music was used in the film.
US always resonated the most with me.
Mine has to be between 3 and 4.
I always loved 3 and it will always be in my tops, but I do love the drums on his fourth album.
Either way, being a child of the 80’s….. Peter Gabriel always reminds me of those care free days.
Peter’s third album is the one I can relate to the most. Feeling like an outsider in 1980 and listening to “Not one of Us”…or enjoying the ambient simplicity of “Lead a normal life”,before they invented Prozac….Definitely my favorite Gabriel album!
Us for certain – lush sounds, perfect integration of PGs rock and world music sensibilities. Also right near that is the Soundtrack to his OVO project. “Downside Up” (with Liz Fraser singing) is one of my favorite PG tracks, and “Father/Son” always gets me.
I would have to say “So.” After seeing Peter on The Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986 I was sold. The crowd at the LA Forum was on fire, and I distinclty remember “Red Rain” and “Sledgehammer” as highlights. I bought the CD right after the show and have played it numerous times since.
“Us” is definitely Peter’s most enduring record – other albums def have songs that I love just as much, but “Us” has the grooves & textures that speak to me the most
So. It is just a classic that can not be compared to anything else!
Although I have many favorite PG albums, ‘Security’ is number one, for me. Quite simply, the songs on this album saved my life.
So for me it must be ‘So’. Why so? Or should I say, why ‘So’? Well, it was his most commercially successful album and therefore folks might give it less credence than other works. But to me it remains ageless and brilliant. Maybe it crossed over to mega-popularity for a reason?
Up is is tied with Security as my favorite, but it is slightly better because it reminds me of my wife and I’s early days. When we first starting dating that album came out and it was our first concert together. It’s such a powerful record.
SO is the album that’s most special and prized to me, because of its many truly memorable classic songs, especially the Kate Bush duet and “Sledgehammer.”
Car – That album came out at a time in my life where I just connected with every song.
Birdy always pumps me up, though.
“Scratch.” Fell in love with the cover, and then came the music.
For me, it’d be Up. So much emotion in that album. The Growing Up Live DVD is amazing too…
My favorite is So. I especially love the atmosphere of both Mercy Street and In Your Eyes.
Security, it brings back memories of when MTV played videos, I loved “Shock The Monkey”
Security. The sequencing of the songs is utterly perfect. The songs themselves transcend.
It would have to be So. Featuring two superhits – Sledgehammer and In Your Eyes – this album really marks the genius of Gabriel.
Peter Gabriel 2 just beautiful.
Gotta be Security for me. Even though I bought 3 first, Security is part of my high school soundtrack.
Peter Gabriel 3: Melt (1980) kicked off the 80s on a high note. So many classic PG tunes on one solid album, and “Biko” is such a memorable, iconic song to wrap it all up. Other albums had more popular tunes later on later on and “Passion” is still my favorite soundtrack I pull out all the time, but PG3: Melt’s my all time favorite.
Mine is PG 3 (Melt)- “Family Snapshot” and “Intruder” were so foreign to me when compared to the early 90’s dreck I was listening to in school. Everything about this album, right down to the cover was so innovative and powerful. (Shaking the Tree holds a special place in my heart too though- it was one of the first CDs I ever I bought. It was from Columbia House…I still own it even though it’s worn out!)
I love So. There are others I enjoy a lot, but the timing and quality of So will always make it stand out.
The third album for me… just an amazing collection in every way. It made a huge impression on my listening habits. :)
So….It was one of the very first CDs I bought when CDs were first coming out and it sounded so great. Plus every track is pretty much a classic.
PG 3 (Melt) Is my favorite still. I always used to play “I Don’t Remember” during finals weeks in college and “Intruder” and “Family Snapshot” are still two of the most haunting songs ever recorded.
no question it’d be #4-Security. “I have the Touch” still gives me chills and moves something inside of me every time i hear it.
I’d have to go with So. It was just a magical album for me.
My favorite album would have to be Security because of the paranoid desperation of songs such as The Rhythm of the Heat and Shock the Money combined with truly beautiful songs such as San Jacinto. I used that song to regain my sanity to after many a dark time in my life.
It would have to be “So” UNBELIEVABLE album..
Peter Gabriel 3 – solid album front to back. transitional point where his “weird” is giving way to his “pop”
So, and I don’t care who else says it. Perfect, from start to finish.
‘so’ was really my introduction. liking the new one an awful lot, though!
So because of Red Rain and Mercy Street. Brings back great college memories. I would love to win!
“Deutches Album” is my special favorite because its one of the few albums where the German language makes the album “Security” sound even more haunting.
“So” is my favorite because it reminds me of college.
_The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway_ cuz it freed up Phil.
For me, it all starts with Peter Gabriel 1 and Solsbury Hill. Although I heard it years after it came out in ’77, I liked it so much I started exploring his entire catalog, even going back into the Genesis days. Great stuff.
I like his work with Genesis the best, but my favorite Peter solo disc would be Car because of the dark,introspective lyrics and great music.
I will never forget the first time I heard Games Without Frontiers from the album Melt. I was 11 years old! In my opinion, Melt was the best album Peter Gabriel put out.
His fourth, aka Security, was the first CD I ever purchased, way back in 1985 and before I even had a player. Still have it; still plays.
I loved So because it reminds me of the formative high school years when my musical tastes were cemented.
Really the only one I’ve listen to is So, but I hope to hear the rest!
My favorite PG album is “Secret World Live”. I I found it quite by accident, but it spoke to me. I was going through a difficult time in my life when I discovered it, and I still listen to it often. Even now…
‘Passion’ holds very special memories for me… should always be listened to by candlelight.
Without a doubt “Passion.” I originally had a hard time with it, coming off of the pop sounds of So. It soon became its own little world within my music collection, serving as a jumping off point to explore sounds from other cultures. Over the years i’ve gone to sleep with it, slept with people to it, and today it remains one of the surest ways for me to be be swept away to some far-off place.
“Us” has always been a favorite of mine. Such an incredible melding of sound and technology – plus a Sinead O’Connor cameo doesn’t hurt.
US because of Kiss That Frog but in particular for the compassion of LOVE TO BE LOVED, what an honest song, something we all want and don’t always accept. Digging in the Dirt is a groovie tune as well. I love Peter Gabriel, he’s an amazing artist. And I can’t wait to be able to listen to your show on-demand via one of many mobile apps.
Would have to be 3. Takes me back each time I listen to it.
My favorite PG album is actually New Blood!
“Security” is the album about which I have the best memories. The Security tour show in Philly was my first concert on my own. I remember the show opening with “Rhythm of the Heat” and all 5 band members came in through the stands at the back of the Spectrum, walked through the crowd and across the floor to the stage, each playing a different drum.
fell in love with my wife first listening to “us” so it’s got a special place in my heart.
“So” is my favorite for mercy street and don’t give up. Probably in my top 5 albums of all time.
I remember distinctly my dad bringing home So and playing it the first time, in an effort to show me that there was more music out there than just Duran Duran, Howard Jones and INXS. Granted, I still listen to those bands, but ever since then I’ve clung to the fact that there is an upper echelon of music that challenges your mind and your spirit and doesn’t exist just to get you to gyrate your hips in one direction or another. It has that ability as well, but So taught me that you can be transported by music and elevated to something above the norm, and I haven’t looked back.
Has to be So. Takes me back to high school…
“Security” was an earth-shattering album for me, transporting me to amazing sonic landscapes created from the combination of traditonal instruments and synthesized sounds courtesy of the then groundbreaking Fairlight CMI synthesizer. It’s still as fresh and exciting today as it was when it was first released.
I love them all, but “So” holds a very special place in my heart. It came out the year of my and my wife’s engagement, and we must have listened to it about a million times that year and in the next few, following our marriage in January 1987. I’d been a fan of Peter’s since the 70’s, but Kate Bush’s presence on “So” hooked my wife, to the point she’s a bigger fan of Peter’s now than I am, even. Hard to believe it came out 25 years ago—or that, fittingly, we’re about to celebrate our 25th anniversary!
Security (4). We were going through a rough patch a few years ago and we would use the local library for internet and entertainment. Found that cd there, checked it out, and ended up listening to it over and over after burning a copy. It was like therapy in music form.
So
Wow. My wife and I lost our entire vinyl collection in Chicago’s great flood this year. That included all of our Gabriel vinyl. I don’t know that I have a fave record, but I sure as hell romanticize albums like Car, Melt, and So. Whether the reason is an incredible track like “Biko”, an incredible video like “Sledgehammer”, or just an awesome cover like “Car”, I have many reasons to love those records. *sniff* Wish I could have them back. Cheers.
It depends on the day, but overall I would say “So”. It was the album which made me love Peter Gabriel. When it came out our local college radio station played it in its entirety and I began taping it…then I had to leave for school, which just about killed me, and couldn’t wait to get home to hear the end of it. I listened to it over and over again (for the record, I did buy the tape and later the CD!) and even now it is just a brilliant piece of art. Especially the B side.
It’s hard to single one album out from the PG catalog, but since I’m being forced to choose, I’d give “So” the nod as my favorite. It came out in what I consider to be the greatest (and certainly my favorite) music year in my life – 1986 – smack dab in the middle of my college years. It was one of my first purchases of that magical new technology, the CD (!) and when I saw Peter live for the first time touring in support of the album the following summer, it was on one of my first dates with the woman who would later become my wife. Even today when I spin up “So” it immediately transports me back to some of the most special times in my life.
“So” because it was a staple of the 80’s and I love Peter G.
Big Time!!
So,great songs & wonderful lyrics.
So,gr really good stuff
Definitely “SO”, not so much because of the mainstream success it achieved, but – as a few others have said – it was such an integral part of my high school experience. I have such good memories of it and the desire it gave me to delve back into PG’s catalog, when all I really knew up to that point were “Shock The Monkey” and “Solsbury Hill”…
Man…”So” or “Melt”…gotta go with “So”. I saw him on that tour in 1987 (I think it was the second leg of that tour). Awesome. Still one of the two or three best concerts I’ve ever seen.
Gotta go with “So.” As many have said it was part of my high school experience and a couple of songs remind me of some girlfriends in particular. But would love to win all these albums to compare and be convinced otherwise.
The first Peter Gabriel TAPE I bought was “So”. I wasn’t a huge “Sledgehammer” fan, but it was on sale for 4.99 and I thought I’d be different as a 15 year old and buy it. “Sledgehammer” grew on me and I instantly loved the remainder of the record. Exploring the back catalog was fun, but “So” will always be my gateway and favorite.
I would say for its visceral ability to bring you back to how incredible the movie was, “Passion”, but Different Drum is just incredible in the rhythmic cacophony and blending of Youssou N’Dour’s voice. I just can’t get enough of it.
I do love me some Peter Gabriel.
So…. it was so 80″s
So hard to choose… The Lamb Lies Down is probably out of the running but should not be missed. I guess it’s a toss up between Melt and Security… I’ll go with Melt for Biko, Not One of Us, And Through the Wires, not to mention the radio hits.
Going to go with… PLAYS LIVE, mainly because after So, that’s what got me into his prior work.
The third album was the one I was first exposed to at the college radio station at Miss State at the start of the 80s.
My pick is quite unconventional, but I will always ahave a soft place in my heart for the ‘Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats’ compilation. It served as my primary introduction to the world of Peter Gabriel. Plus, it contains my favorite version of one of my most favorite Gabriel songs, ‘Here Comes the Flood.’ If forced to choose one of the excellent studio albums, I’d have to go with 3:Melt. Just a terrific track list. Many consider it to be his best album, and I wouldn’t necessarily argue with that…
It’s not easy to choose one favorite: I really dig Up, Us, So, and the third album. I like the sound of Up- it will age well. “Darkness” is such an awesome opener- easily one of my favorite songs by anyone. “The Drop” is a beautiful song, but I wish it wasn’t the closer. In between are some more of my very favorite Gabriel moments: “Growing Up”, “I Grieve”, and the wonderful “More Than This”.
Us has both a great opener and closer with “Come Talk To Me” and “Secret World”. And in between those are of course “Washing of the Water” and “Digging In the Dirt”. Some of the other tracks aren’t top notch Gabriel in my opinion, though.
So is pretty full of greatness, and while “This Is The Picture” is a good song, I’d rather have one of the other songs as a closer; if I remember correctly, the remaster has “In Your Eyes” as the closer. Furthermore, I don’t know if “This Is The Picture” and “We Do What We’re Told” fit well with the other tracks- they’re both good, they just seem out of place with songs like “Red Rain”, “Don’t Give Up”, “That Voice Again”, “Mercy Street”, and “In Your Eyes”.
The third album just flows. And there are some outstanding songs on it: “I Don’t Remember”, “Family Snapshot”, “Games Without Frontiers”, and “Biko” is probably Gabriel’s greatest closer album and concert wise. 3 (Melt) wins for me.
So – The music from that album is so inspiring
Security. Peter has always had a great ability to move with words. If he had adopted career without music and turned his attention to poetry proper, he’d be part of the English poetry pantheon, IMO. With Security, at least for me, I felt that he attained that point with music. He found that second nature where he could move with music alone. Yet, he has the words as well. A double good and quadruply enjoyable.
I’m going to have to go with So. So many memories associated with it as I was just really getting into music at that time. Love it!
Security, without a doubt. The first digitally-recorded cd I ever bought. The sound is incredible.
Peter Gabriel 4: Security is my favorite simply because of Shock the Monkey
“So.” 1) College, freshman year. End of the ’80s. Fantastic. 2) Lloyd Dobler rules.
Security. Shock the Monkey, San Jacinto…the ‘stars’ of today could spend entire careers trying and still couldn’t get anything that comes close to one of these songs.
I love all of his work but US holds a lot of emotional value, both personally and from Peter. These songs have such a simple, pure messages that are extremely heartfelt that you don’t need to be listening to the album to feel it. Musically, it’s quite experimental and unique. Working with a lot of guest artists and new technology, making it an exciting album. Lets not forget the advances in technology to make the music videos; Steam, Kiss that Frog, Digging in the Dirt.
Overall, this is one of the two albums I always recommend when someone asks about Peter. Of course, every album is genius but US is such a heavy album, that I feel that it can’t and shouldn’t be ignored.
“So” While I’d been hearing songs from his previous albums on the radio for years, “So” was the first one I bought, at a time when I was just starting to actively listen to music. Because it had both songs from MTV, songs I only heard on alternative radio, and songs that were different from anything I’d ever heard before it helped me on my path to musical maturity.
Definitely So, which is overwhelmingly popular. Teenagers of the 80’s were clearly affected by this album, whether it was from feeling the emotion of a song in movies or listening to the powerful lyrics on the radio, it really moved a generation. My husband and I are closely bonded to the music of Peter Gabriel, past, present and future. I can truly say he is a musical genius and mean it.
“Solsbury Hill” will always be my favorite track (always the Genesis fan, this song made his departure okay for me because it speaks to my heart more than my head), “So” hands down is that album to me. It was a time in my life when Peter’s So album and Elvis Costellos King of America album stopped my life from the downward spiral it was becoming. Now I’m an Ameican Educator reaching out to kids like me, and showing them the better parts in life … Such as Mr. Gabriel gave to me. Although not from “So” the line from the song “And Through the Wire” “I speak in pictures not I words” was best shown with songs like “Red Rain”, “don’t Give Up” and of course “Mercy Street”. Giving me two new loves, Anne Sexton and Kate Bush.
“So” was one of the great albums of its era, by Peter Gabriel or anyone else. It defines my high-school years.
While I love 70’s Peter Gabriel, I must say that US was his finest alchemical work, a nigredo, a most beautiful black sun, shining. His humanity is all over that piece, longing, love, loathing. It is a profound tribute to the school of depth psychology and the underworld journey of individuation.
Peter Gabriel opened my eyes and ears to the possibilities of fourth world musics in the pop realm.
at the moment, i think my fave is Up. that peter can continue to make such compelling, emotional material is a testament to his talent. it’s sort of a modern So with the added tension of Security. longing, urgency, confusion, submission, bliss, all woven together so seamlessly…
(secretly, though, my favourite is actually Passion.. or IV/Security. oh, or….)
‘Security’ is the music to demonstrate how loud your stereo goes.
Without question it is PG3: melt. When I was in high school, there was about a 4 month period when I was obsessed with this record and listened to it every day. Being a drummer, I was fascinated by the fact it had no cymbals on the album and had great performances by Phil Collins and Jerry Martotta. It was also the album that made me love Steve Lillywhite’s production even more having loved his U2 and XTC work.
I just love the sound of the recording and, of course, the songs. Let’s face it- this is a perfect album of songs from first to last. GREAT SONGS!!!
It is still an album I turn people onto based on the songs, the playing and the production…plus the fact that Paul Weller, Kate Bush, Dave Gregory & Robert Fripp are on the tracks is a nice bonus too!
It would probably have to be “So,” because that’s the album when I first really became aware of Peter Gabriel’s work while in high school. Right after “Sledgehammer” became a big hit, I went back and investigated further and got enthralled by “Security,” etc.
Secret World Live is the standard by which all live albums should be judged. Eleven Minutes and thirty four seconds of In Your Eyes? Sublime.
It’s got to be “So”, because it came along when I was just old enough to start really listening to and buying my own music, but not yet old enough to find new music unless it was played non-stop on the radio. Since “So” was such a breakthrough album, successful enough to have multiple singles played on multiple stations, I got a full dose and fell in love.
My favorite Gabriel album is Plays Live. It was a concert that I saw at the Paladium in NYC during my college years with my best friend and roommate. It contains I Go Swimming which is still one of my favorite Gabriel songs and great live versions of his early music. During the concert he did not play I Go Swimming but replaced it with Johnny’s Got A Headache so the album is the only place I have ever heard the song I love. Soon after that concert I met the women who would become my wife who is also a Gabriel fan.
So is and will probably always be my favorite for a variety of reasons — in part because the most gut wrenching song I’ve ever heard is “Red Rain.” Never get tired of hearing it.
OK, contest is now closed. Thanks so much for all of your entries… they’ve been fun to read…
I love the third album (“Melting Face”) simply because I bought it when I was 15. I had a strong emotional connection with that music, in particular, the rhythms. That was the time in my life when I started discovering music that was not on the radio regularly. I started searching in the corners because bands like Whitesnake were of no interest to me. I couldn’t connect with it. When I listen to that album now at 40, I have a similar emotional response to that album as I did at 15. It is an experience of timelessness when I listen to it.