Music / Car

"Hey," I said
"You can keep my things, they've come to take me home!"

"Expect the unexpected..."

—Tagline from the album's advertising campaign.

Peter Gabriel, also known as Car (a Fan Nickname that later became Ascended Fanon), is the debut solo studio album by the Progressive Rock musician of the same name, It was released through Charisma Records in the United Kingdom, and Atco Records in the United States, on 25 February 1977.

While on tour for The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway with Genesis, Gabriel, citing estrangement from the rest of the band, as well as the strain said tour was taking on his marriage to then-wife Jill Moore^note while the album was being planned in a decrepit Headley Grange, his first child Anna was born prematurely, announced that he was leaving them after the tour, growing disillusioned with the music industry and feeling that he had to spend more time with his family. The group went on to have Phil Collins fill the leading role starting with A Trick of the Tail.

The album was recorded in Toronto and London with Canadian producer Bob Ezrin, best known at the time for working with KISS, Lou Reed, and Alice Cooper, giving the album his characteristic bombastic sound with brass and string arrangements. Peter Gabriel himself was happy with his music but felt that "Here Comes the Flood" was overproduced. In future releases of the song as well as live performances, he would do piano-only renditions.

Supported by two singles: "Solsbury Hill" (which charted in the UK Top 20 and reached #68 in US charts) and "Modern Love".

Tracklist:

Standard edition

Side One

1. "Moribund the Burgermeister" (4:20)
2. "Solsbury Hill" (4:21)
3. "Modern Love" (3:38)
4. "Excuse Me" (3:20)
5. "Humdrum" (3:25)

Side Two

1. "Slowburn" (4:06)
2. "Waiting for the Big One" (7:15)
3. "Down the Dolce Vita" (5:05)
4. "Here Comes the Flood" (5:38)

North American cassette edition

Side One

1. "Moribund the Burgermeister" (4:20)
2. "Solsbury Hill" (4:21)
3. "Slowburn" (4:06)
4. "Waiting for the Big One" (7:15)

Side Two

1. "Modern Love" (3:38)
2. "Excuse Me" (3:20)
3. "Humdrum" (3:25)
4. "Down the Dolce Vita" (5:05)
5. "Here Comes the Flood" (5:38)

Trope up, dreamers, you're running dry:

• '70s Hair: Gabriel sported this look on the album cover and associated publicity photos.
• all lowercase letters: The lettering on the front cover.
• Cool Car: The Lancia Flavia Gabriel is sitting in on the cover, owned by Hipgnosis co-founder and album cover designer Storm Thorgerson.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The album cover art, except for the hand-tinted car, was in black and white, a motif that Gabriel would use on later albums.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: Referenced in "Excuse Me":
  You got the money back, that's OK
  Who needs a Cadillac, anyway?
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The album largely continues in the style of his work with Genesis, compared to the eclectic worldbeat-influenced style Gabriel would develop on later albums.
• Epic Rocking: "Waiting for the Big One" is just over seven minutes.
• Everything Is an Instrument: The kick drum on "Solsbury Hill" was achieved by striking a phone book with a drumstick.
• Fading into the Next Song: "Waiting for the Big One" → "Down the Dolce Vita" → "Here Comes the Flood".
• Freud Was Right: "Humdrum":
  Out of woman comes the man
  Spend the rest of his life getting back when he can
• Genre Roulette: The album's songs go from rock to folk to barbershop to jazz.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Gabriel's eyes on one of the inner sleeve photos and publicity stills to promote the album, achieved using special reflective contact lenses and a flash bulb.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: The theme of "Here Comes the Flood". The inspiration was from a dream Gabriel had where "the psychic barriers which normally prevent us from seeing into each others' thoughts had been completely eroded producing a mental flood. Those that had been used to having their innermost thoughts exposed would handle this torrent and those inclined to concealment would drown in it."
• Real Life Writes the Plot: "Solsbury Hill" was about him leaving Genesis.
• Scatting: The remaining parts of "Solsbury Hill" involve it.
• The Song Before the Storm: "Down the Dolce Vita", both in the context of the song itself (it's literally before an impending storm) and the album as a whole (it's the penultimate song on the album, preceding and leading directly into the even more bombastic original version of "Here Comes the Flood").
• Special Guest:
  • King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp plays both electric guitar, classical guitar, and banjo on the album. Fripp and Gabriel would record a new arrangement of "Here Comes the Flood" for the former's own debut solo album Exposure.
  • Prolific session musician Tony Levin features as bassist, tuba player, and barbershop quartet leader. Fripp was impressed by Levin's musicianship here and on Gabriel's following two albums, hiring him to play on Exposure and eventually inducting him into King Crimson in 1981 as a result.
  • The London Symphony Orchestra plays in the background of "Down the Dolce Vita" and "Here Comes the Flood"
• Splash of Color: The hand-tinted car on the album artwork.
• Surreal Music Video: "Solsbury Hill" received one in 1990 to promote Gabriel's first Greatest Hits Album; the video features a combination of home movie footage, vignettes and abstract art pieces related to the song's lyrics, and scenes depicting a farmer gathering crops for a vegetable-themed wedding.
• Uncommon Time: "Solsbury Hill" is in 7/4 time, with the last two measures of each chorus switching to 4/4.

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