ABSTRACT
An important songwriter on a world scale and a uniquely English eccentric. Peter Gabriel first found fame as front man and founding member of Genesis. Forming the band at Charterhouse public boys school with schoolmates Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, Gabriel led Genesis from complete unknowns to a powerful musical force, peaking with the epic Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album and his theatrical stage shows. Leaving the band at its peak, Gabriel began a rich and varied solo career. His first four albums were all eponymous, the first of which (Atco 147; 1977; #38), saw the singer abandon his traditional theatrical costumes in favor of a plain tracksuit, shaved head and a musical approach that was highly melodious, intriguing, and experimental, but without the pompous bombast associated with his former band. These albums combined both hit singles (“Solsbury Hill,” “Games without Frontiers”) with some of the most experimental music to be put in front of a mainstream audience in the 1970s and 1980s; “DIY” and “Exposure” made the second album (Atlantic 19181; 1978; #45), a minimalist classic, the third (Mercury 3848; 1980; #22), heavily explored synthesizer sounds, and the fourth (Geffen 2011; 1982; #28), computer music and treatments.
