Trivia / Melt

• Ascended Fan Nickname: As with Gabriel's other Self Titled Albums, reissues have referred to it with the Fan Nickname, Melt.
• Banned in China: Both the album and the single release of "Biko" were banned by the government of South Africa because of the latter's overt anti-apartheid lyrics, describing them as "harmful to the security of the State." The song consequently had no presence among the South African population as a result despite being one of Gabriel's best-known songs everywhere else.
• Based on a Dream: According to Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis, the album art was inspired by a dream he had of "a melting face, some kind of wax effigy caught possibly in a museum fire."
• Breakthrough Hit: While Atlantic Records refused to release his third album because they thought it was uncommercial, the album reached a respectable no. 22 on the Billboard album charts. The "Games Without Frontiers" single only peaked at no. 48 on the Hot 100, but was a hit on rock radio, with Billboard only launching a chart to track airplay on album rock stations the following year. The success of this album set the stage for his success with Security and So later in the decade.
• Channel Hop: The album was issued by Mercury Records stateside after Gabriel was dropped by Atlantic Records. After Gabriel signed to Geffen Records for the U.S., Geffen acquired the rights to the album after the Mercury deal expired.
• Colbert Bump: "Biko" is widely credited with popularizing the anti-Apartheid movement in the west, with a number of activists in the movement citing Gabriel's single as their main inspiration.
• Cut Song: A track titled "I Go Swimming" was recorded during the album's sessions but was ultimately left off the finished product. A live performance of it would eventually be featured on the Live Album Plays Live in 1983. Additionally, the instrumental backing track for the studio version would be retitled "GA GA" and featured as the B-side to "Red Rain" in 1987.
• Referenced by...:
  • The Miami Vice episode "Evan" prominently features "Biko".
  • Simple Minds' Street Fighting Years features a Cover Version of "Biko".
  • Tears for Fears' "The Prisoner" was written as a Musical Pastiche of "Intruder".
  • The Homicide: Life on the Street episode "The City That Bleeds" has "No Self Control" playing over the end scene.
• Technology Marches On: "Intruder", recorded in 1979 and released the following year, refers to cutting a telephone line, presumably to render a victim unable to call for help if the narrator is discovered. The rise of cell phones would ultimately supplant landlines a few decades later, with the means of making them unusable being considerably different and more variable.
• Throw It In!: How the powerful "gated reverb" drum sound on the opening track, "Intruder", came about. The studio had a microphone hanging above the studio to allow the producers and engineers to talk to the musicians. The microphone used compression and a gate to allow all the musicians to be heard, but Phil Collins happened to be drumming when it was activated. The drums hit quickly instead of dying away gradually. Engineer Hugh Padgham liked the effect so much that it was directly wired into the mixing console.
• What Could Have Been: When "I Don't Remember" debuted in live performances during Gabriel's 1978 tour, it originally featured a much different, poppier mix that emphasized David Byrne-esque scatting and featured guitar solos by Robert Fripp. This version was intended to be released as Melt's lead single, but was rejected for being too uncommercial; it would end up becoming the B-side to the album's actual lead single, "Games Without Frontiers", and would receive its own music video after some considerable editing. Ironically, the version that ended up on Melt turned out to be less commercial than the live performance. The very first performances of the song also featured a radically different set of lyrics, which were changed as the tour went on; a performance featuring the original lyrics can be seen on the band's 1978 gig on the German music TV show Rockpalast.

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