Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel (Security)"

Peter Gabriel is the fourth album released by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It is sometimes known by the title Security. A German-language version, entitled Deutsches Album, was also released.

The songs on the album cover a wide variety of subject matter. "The Rhythm of the Heat" is based on Carl Jung's experience while observing a group of African drummers. "San Jacinto" reflects on the fear and pain experienced by a Native American man who sees his culture overwhelmed by modern white society, its lyrics based on a story told to Gabriel by an Apache member. "Shock the Monkey", a meditation on jealousy, uses imagery of a primate to describe personal anxieties. "Lay Your Hands on Me" deals with a theme of healing, through trust, which is further explored on later albums. "The Family and the Fishing Net" is a song comparing a modern-day wedding to a voodoo sacrifice. "Wallflower" is about the treatment of political prisoners in Latin America during the 1980s.

Larry Fast, synthesizer performer on the album, mentioned during a presentation on Moog synthesizers that the working title for "The Rhythm of the Heat" was "Jung in Africa", the working title for "Shock the Monkey" was "Black Bush", and the working title for "Lay Your Hands on Me" was "93" – this was the number of the LinnDrum pattern used on the track.


In The South Bank Show's documentary of the album's recording, the working title for "I Have the Touch" was shown to be "Hands".

The album is an early full digital recording. Its instrumentation is mostly electronic with extensive sampling (through use of the then-new Fairlight CMI) and percussion. It was recorded at Gabriel's then-home, Ashcombe House in Somerset, England in 1981.


The album was remastered with most of Gabriel's catalogue in 2002.

As with his previous three albums, the album had no title other than Gabriel's name. In the United States and Canada, his new label Geffen Records issued the album, with Gabriel's reluctant agreement, with a Security sticker on top of the shrink-wrap to differentiate it from his previous releases, and this title was also printed on the labels. Whilst Gabriel provided the title himself, the album was officially known as Peter Gabriel in other territories. As a result, it is known by fans as Security or Peter Gabriel 4.


This was the last album by Gabriel to be titled Peter Gabriel until the 2008 compilation album released covermount into The Mail on Sunday.