PG3 (Melt/'80/Vol. 3)

[Dave_Wetzel@vos.stratus.com]

     I'm a *BIG* Peter Gabriel fan (there's actually two dieties in my

musical pantheon:  Kate and Peter ;-).  SO (pun intended) I thought I'ld jump
in and give some background on this PG3 question.

     Jeff Burka writes:  "On a slightly different subject, what is the
correct word for multiple self- titled works, and are there any artists other
than Gabriel who have released such things (I'm not counting Chicago, who
specifically number their albums as part of the titles)?"

     Actually, the truth is that these are not self-titled works.  They have
no title at all.  People may think they were all intended to be self-titled
because "Peter Gabriel" is the only text that appears on the covers, but that
wasn't the intent at all.

     The first four albums were meant to be like issues of a magazine (and
really he intended all his albums to be like this, but the American
distributors refused to carry any more un-titled albums).  That's also why
you see the name "Peter Gabriel" appear in the same spot in the same
type-font on all the ablums.  So far as I know it was an original idea.

     When they first came out, we (my circle of friends who were PG fans)
simply called the albums Volume 1, 2, 3, and 4.  I've heard them refered to
by the year they were issuesd ('77, '78, '80, '82) and by a description of
the cover art (Car, Scratches, Melt).  The fourth is usually called by it's
American name:  Security.  On the whole I like Volume 1, 2, 3, and 4 best.
It seems most in keeping with the original intent.

     Angelos, I've never heard it called "(Mercury)" so I can't really say.
I rough guess (and it's blatently that - my guess) would be that some one saw
the melting face and decided it looked like mercury (a metal that exists in
liquid form at room temp.) running down the picture.


Dave_Wetzel@vos.stratus.com