My 50 Favorite Albums (continued)
In 1982, my friend Bob convinced me to go on a road trip with him and some friends to some place in upstate NY (from Boston where we were all at MIT) to see Peter Gabriel. I wasn’t really a fan at the time but Bob was and it sounded like a fun time. So I went along.
It was the greatest show I had seen at the time and certainly one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. When Peter Gabriel jumped into the crowd singing "Lay Your Hands On Me", I was blown away.
It was artist meets audience in its most fundamental form and it was amazing. It wasn’t a cheap trick to get the audience going. Gabriel was living out his music and he meant it.
That tour was for Gabriel’s fourth record, called Security. It is a brilliant record, many say his best. And I love it as I do all of Gabriel’s records (and his Genesis work before he went solo).
But it’s not my favorite Gabriel album. I’ve gone back and listened to all of them this week. And the one that makes my skin tingle and brings tears to my eyes is Gabriel 3, also called Melt.
What a record this is. The drumming, the bass, the singing, the lyrics, the sound, everything about this record is stunning.
There is a part of this record that may be my favorite song sequence in rock music. No Self Control into Start with its haunting sax solo, into I Don’t Remember, then the devastating Family Snapshot, and finally And Through The Wire. Wow. Music like that just doesn’t get made very often.