As noted earlier, Gabriel’s stories and costumes played a major role in raising the group’s profile. On record, aside from his vocals, he played flute, oboe and some percussion, though generally his instrumental contributions were limited (he was a capable keyboardist and also played some drums, but those roles in the band were more than adequately filled by Banks and Collins respectively). However, he contributed a great deal to the songwriting. Determining exactly how much is somewhat tricky, as on all the albums released while he was with the band the songs are credited to the group as whole (some sources do give individual credits for From Genesis to Revolution that seem to be accurate, though that is their least significant album). The band has talked about who wrote what in various interviews, though there are quite a few songs that they have not talked about, so there is still a lot of guesswork involved in parsing individual contributions. Gabriel certainly wrote a lot (though not all) of the lyrics, and he is known to have written or co-written the music for some tracks as well.
In their first two or three years, Genesis tended to write most of their songs in pairs, with Banks and Gabriel forming one pair and Phillips and Rutherford the other. Banks and Gabriel, for example, wrote the A-sides of the band’s first two singles, “The Silent Sun” and “A Winter's Tale”, as well as many tracks on the group’s first album. It seems likely that on these songs Banks tended to write more of the music and Gabriel more of the lyrics, though on many songs they seem to have shared responsibility for both. One track on From Genesis to Revolution, “Am I Very Wrong?”, is credited to Gabriel/Banks rather than Banks/Gabriel, which if accurate would seem to indicate that Gabriel was the main writer. On Trespass (1970), Gabriel wrote the opening section of “Looking for Someone” in addition to the lyrics for that track, and he and Banks wrote “The Knife” together (Gabriel said in the interviews the band did for Trespass that he started the song on his own and Banks helped him finish it). On Nursery Cryme (1971), Gabriel wrote “Harold the Barrel” mostly on his own, except for some help on the lyrics from Collins (who also sang in unison with Gabriel on the track), and he wrote lyrics on several other tracks. On 1972's Foxtrot, he wrote the lyrics for the group’s 23-minute opus “Supper’s Ready” and he wrote the music for the “Willow Farm” section of that song. He also wrote the lyrics for “Get 'Em Out by Friday” and contributed musically to “Watcher of the Skies”. On Selling England by the Pound (1973), he wrote the opening section of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” and parts of “The Battle of Epping Forest” as well as the lyrics for both of those tracks. Since "Aisle of Plenty" is musically a reprise of the opening section of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”, it can also presumably be attributed to him. He also wrote the lyrics for “I Know What I Like” and he and Collins wrote the melody for the verses. On the double concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel wrote the story and all the lyrics with the exception of one track, and wrote the music for “Counting Out Time” and most of the music for “The Chamber of 32 Doors”. He and Banks wrote the music for the title track together. Gabriel also wrote the melody for “Carpet Crawlers” based on a chord sequence by Banks and Rutherford. He probably contributed musically to other tracks here and there, both on The Lamb and elsewhere, but detailed information is lacking.
A look at the songs that Gabriel wrote on his own or mostly on his own for Genesis indicated that he specialized in somewhat quirky, humorous pieces like “Harold the Barrel” and “Willow Farm”. On other tracks like “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” he came up with the initial ideas that were expanded into a longer song by the rest of the band. While he didn’t compose as much for the band as Banks, he seems to have composed at least almost as much as Rutherford, and more than Hackett or Collins. Lyrically, he was the biggest contributor, though Banks and Rutherford in particular also wrote many of the group’s lyrics. He was also arguably the band’s best lyricist, though the others also wrote some good lyrics and he occasionally wrote some that weren’t so great, or were at least overly obscure. But ultimately, despite his important role in Genesis, Gabriel’s departure was probably a good thing. The group went on to make a lot of music that was just as good as anything they did with him, and he was free to embark on a solo career free of the restraints that the band placed on him.
After leaving Genesis in 1975 and taking a short break from music, Gabriel came out with his first solo album in 1975, titled simply Peter Gabriel (it’s also sometimes referred to as Car, for the picture on the album cover of Gabriel sitting in a rain-covered car). It included the hit song “Solsbury Hill”, inspired by his departure from Genesis. He released his second album, again labeled simply Peter Gabriel (it is also known as Scratch, for the scratched picture of Gabriel on the cover) in 1978 and a third, again untitled (generally called Peter Gabriel 3 or Melt, for the melting image of Gabriel on the cover) in 1980. Phil Collins, who had taken over as lead vocalist in Genesis after Gabriel’s departure, played drums and percussion on several tracks on Gabriel’s third album, and together with engineer Hugh Padgham and producer Steve Lillywhite the two of them developed the gated reverb drum sound that Collins further popularized on his own solo albums. This album featured the hit “Games without Frontiers” and the anti-apartheid anthem “Biko”, which heralded Gabriel’s increasing interest in human rights issues (he became a prominent supported of Amnesty International) and world music. He cofounded the world music festival WOMAD (World of Music and Arts) in 1980, with the first festival taking place in 1982. It was initially a financial disaster, and Genesis performed a reunion concert with Gabriel to help pay off the resulting debts, but since the festival has become one of the world’s most prominent international arts festivals.
In the meantime, Gabriel continued his solo career, with his fourth album (titled Security in the US) being released in 1982 (he also released German versions of both this and his third album). “Shock the Monkey” from this album became Gabriel’s first US top 40 hit. Following the release of the soundtrack for Birdy in 1985, Gabriel released his most commercially successful album, So, in 1986. This featured the hits “Sledgehammer”, “Big Time”, “Don’t Give Up” (a duet with Kate Bush), “In Your Eyes” (later prominently featured in the movie Say Anything) and “Red Rain”. “Sledgehammer”, which featured a groundbreaking video that became the most played video in the history of MTV, was Gabriel’s first and to date only US No. 1 hit, ironically knocking “Invisible Touch” by his former band Genesis off the top spot. In 1989, Gabriel released Passion, his soundtrack for the movie The Last Temptation of Christ, which featured music inspired by the traditional music of the Middle East. He also co-wrote “Shaking the Tree” with Youssou N'Dour, a version of the song appearing on a 1990 greatest hits compilation of the same name. In 1992, he released Us, his first standard studio album since So, featuring the hits “Steam” and “Digging in the Dirt”. It was not until 2002 that Gabriel, a famously slow worker, released his next studio album Up, though in the intervening period he’d released the soundtracks OVO (2000) and Long Walk Home (2002). He has not released an album of new material since, but in 2010 he released Scratch My Back, an album of orchestral covers of songs by artists ranging from Paul Simon, David Bowie and Randy Newman to Radiohead, the Magnetic Fields and Arcade Fire. He had the innovative idea of pairing this with an album in which those same artists covered his songs (to be called I’ll Scratch Yours) but unfortunately some of the artists declined to participate so the second album was put on hold, though some of the tracks recorded for it have been released on iTunes. In 2011, Gabriel released an album of similar reworkings of his own songs called New Blood.
Peter Gabriel has without question had the most pioneering and adventurous solo career of any past or present member of Genesis. He has said that he is happiest when he is trying new things and pushing the boundaries, and he has shown it in his solo work. Aside from his wide-ranging musical explorations, he has produced groundbreaking music videos, nearly all of which are included in the video collection Play. On the downside, Gabriel’s work is not always very accessible, as he has a tendency to produce music that is somewhat abstruse and requires repeated listening to get into. Partly for this reason, I don’t necessarily prefer his solo albums to the best ones by his erstwhile bandmates; in addition to the sometimes difficult nature of Gabriel’s music, I prefer Collins’s voice, at least for certain types of songs, and I think Collins and Banks in particular often come up with melodies that are stronger than many of Gabriel’s. But Gabriel’s music remains very enjoyable, and while Genesis and the solo ventures of members like Collins deserve greater critical respect than they generally receive, Gabriel’s work deserves all the critical plaudits it has received.
The first list below includes the Genesis songs that Gabriel is known to have had a hand in composing (according to quotes from him and other band members and in some cases secondary sources such as books on the band), though there are no doubt others, and there are certainly many more that he wrote the lyrics for. The second list includes a selection of thirty of his solo tracks. As I don’t have every one of his solo albums (I have his first and third albums, So, Passion, Scratch My Back, and Hit, and I once had Security on cassette tape), my choices are slightly biased towards the tracks I am more familiar with, though I have included selections from all his major releases of new material. In any case, most of these appear on the compilation Hit, which is an excellent overview of his solo material.
Peter Gabriel with Genesis
(All songs performed by Genesis)
Am I Very Wrong? (Gabriel/Banks)
Looking For Someone (Music: Gabriel[opening section], Banks/Gabriel/Phillips/Rutherford[closing section]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
The Knife (Gabriel/Banks)
Harold the Barrel (Music: Gabriel; Lyrics: Gabriel[primarily]/Collins)
Willow Farm (from "Supper's Ready") (Gabriel)
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (Music: Gabriel[opening section]/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
I Know What I Like (Music: Hackett[basic riff], Banks[chorus melody], Gabriel/Collins[verse melody]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
The Battle of Epping Forest (Music: Gabriel/Banks[primarily]/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Aisle of Plenty (Music: Gabriel[primarily]; Lyrics: Gabriel?)
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Music: Banks/Gabriel; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Counting Out Time (Gabriel)
Carpet Crawlers (Music: Banks/Rutherford[chord sequence], Gabriel[melody]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
The Chamber of 32 Doors (Music: Gabriel[primarily]/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Peter Gabriel Solo
(All songs written and performed by Peter Gabriel except where otherwise noted)
Solsbury Hill
Moribund the Burgermeister
Down the Dolce Vita
Here Comes the Flood
On the Air
D.I.Y.
Games Without Frontiers
Intruder
I Don't Remember
Family Snapshot
Biko
Shock the Monkey
San Jacinto
Wallflower
Sledgehammer
Red Rain
In Your Eyes
Big Time
A Different Drum
Zaar
Shaking the Tree
Digging in the Dirt
Steam
Blood of Eden (duet with Sinead O'Conner)
Washing of the Water
Father, Son
Signal to Noise
Growing Up
I Grieve
Cloudless
Honorable Mentions: Modern Love, Slowburn, Mother of Violence (Peter Gabriel/Jill Gabriel), No Self-Control, And Through the Wire, I Have the Touch, Don't Give Up (duet with Kate Bush), Passion, Kiss That Frog, More Than This, The Drop, Burn You Up Burn You Down (Gabriel/Sparkes/Wallinger)
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