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Peter Gabriel (1977 album)

1977 self-titled debut solo studio album by Peter Gabriel

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ134113 ↗
Source-derived summary

Peter Gabriel is the debut studio album by the English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, released in February 1977 by Charisma Records. After his departure from the progressive rock band Genesis was made public in 1975, Gabriel took a break to concentrate on his family life. In 1976, he began writing material for a solo album and met producer Bob Ezrin, who agreed to produce it. Gabriel hired several additional musicians, including guitarist Robert Fripp and bassist Tony Levin.

The album was later known as Peter Gabriel I or Car, referring to the album's artwork produced by Hipgnosis. Some music streaming services, including Gabriel's own Bandcamp page, refer to it as Peter Gabriel 1: Car.

Peter Gabriel reached No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 38 on the US Billboard 200. It is certified gold in both countries for selling 100,000 and 500,000 copies, respectively.

Editorial summary

“Peter Gabriel (1977 album)” enters the record as 1977 self-titled debut solo studio album by Peter Gabriel. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Peter, Gabriel and album can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1977, 1975, 1976—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1977-02-25. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Peter, Gabriel and album.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Peter Gabriel (1977 album)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Peter, Gabriel and album provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q134113. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1975 and 1976.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Peter Gabriel (1977 album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Peter Gabriel (1977 album) primary sources, Peter Gabriel (1977 album) archive and Peter research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Peter Gabriel (1977 album)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Peter Gabriel (1977 album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.