What is it about Peter Gabriel that’s made him an untouchable among critics and rock nerds? Beside the “Sledgehammer” single/video, which rock nerds feel free to dismiss and mock, the guy seems to have been given a free ride despite having been one of the most over-the-top of tuneless prog-rockers and a long-time enabler of players of geeky instruments, like the Chapman Stick, headless guitars, and hi-tech synths that I can’t understand enough to fully describe and then mock.
For some understandable reasons, Peter Gabriel is thought of as having a higher degree of integrity and relevancy than his prog-rock contemporaries – and even moreso than most of his more readily embraced “Art Rock” contemporaries (I trust you understand these fine lines). In fact, Salon termed it “weirdly arty integrity.” Understandably, this shields him from the slings and arrows so freely directed at former bandmates and members of other prog ensembles. Along with the prog-transcendent Robert Fripp, he’s reached out to younger, non-prog artists for collaborations on his albums, such as Paul Weller, at the time still a member of the decidedly un-prog The Jam, and Kate Bush. He’s done the charity/world music scene as well as anyone, some cool soundtrack work, and other deeds befitting a musician of David Byrne‘s rock-crit stature, but even Byrne gets beat up now and then.
Here’s a sampling of some of the worst things I’ve seen critics say about Peter Gabriel:
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