Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel 3: Melt (1980)

At the time of release, on May 30 1980, it was simply called "Peter Gabriel", just like the first two. But when you search for it on Spotify, you look for "Peter Gabriel 3: Melt." This is where Peter Gabriel truly achieves his artistic and creative breakthrough as a solo artist.

By Martin Johannessen

Bob Ezrin produced Peter Gabriel's first solo album, and Robert Fripp produced the next one. Now it was Steve Lillywhite's turn. Peter Gabriel truly achieves his artistic and creative breakthrough as a solo artist with this album.

No Cymbales

Drummer Jerry Marotta, who played on the previous album, is also featured on this one, along with Phil Collins. However, neither of them were allowed to use cymbals during the recordings. Peter Gabriel explained:

"Artists given complete freedom die a horrible death. So, when you tell them what they can't do, they get creative and say, 'Oh yes I can,' which is why I banned cymbals. Phil was cool about it. [Marotta] did object and it took him a while to settle in. It's like being right-handed and having to learn to write with your left.”

The album is also known for the so-called "gated drum" effect, the same sound Phil Collins later used on "In the Air Tonight." Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham began experimenting with this effect the previous year on XTC’s “Drums and Wires” (1979).

The effect was so important and influential that both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins claimed it was their idea. Well, they likely contributed to its development, but the idea originated from Lillywhite.

Public Image Ltd. was also inspired and used it on “The Flowers of Romance” (1981). Sound engineer Nick Launay, who had worked on Collins’ “Face Value” (1981), brought the idea over to PIL. This is how ideas traveled from studio to studio and from album to album.

Prominent Guests
As usual, there are many prominent and interesting names featured on the album.

Robert Fripp played on all three of Gabriel’s first solo albums. On this one, he appears on three tracks, including "I Don’t Remember," which was also released as a single. They had been performing the song live for a while already. It was initially supposed to be the first single, but the record company thought Robert Fripp's "guitar solos were not radio-friendly."

Dave Gregory from XTC also plays on two tracks: "I Don’t Remember" and "Family Snapshot."

Kate Bush sings on two of the tracks: "No Self Control" and "Games Without Frontiers," both of which were released as singles. However, only "Games Without Frontiers" did well on radio and charts.

Paul Weller from The Jam plays on "And Through the Wire." They had been working on their recordings in the neighboring studio, and Peter Gabriel liked Weller’s playing style, believing that Weller’s “intense guitar style was ideal for the track.”

Biko

The grand and longest track on the album is the closing song, "Biko." However, it was too political for the record company in the USA. The legendary Atlantic chief Ahmet Ertegun and A&R man John Kalodner disliked both the song and the album. Gabriel explains:

"Atlantic Records didn't want to put it out at all. Ahmet Ertegun said, 'What do people in America care about this guy in South Africa?' and 'Has Peter been in a mental hospital?' because there was this very weird track called 'Lead a Normal Life.'"

What is actually Gabriel's artistic breakthrough was perceived as "crap":

"They thought I'd had a breakdown and recorded a piece of crap ... I thought I'd really found myself on that record, and then someone just squashes it. I went through some primordial rejection issues."

John Kalodner even got Atlantic to drop Peter Gabriel. Everyone can make mistakes, and this was a huge blunder. The album was thus released on Mercury in the USA. But the following year, Kalodner joined Geffen and ensured that Gabriel became one of the very first artists they signed.

No. 1
With the album, Peter Gabriel achieved his first number one position in both England and France. In the USA, it reached number 22.

"In 1980, for one album only - a murky, mirror-gazing masterpiece - Peter Gabriel was the finest exponent of art-rock in the world," wrote The Quietus in a retrospective review of the album.