Gabriel's songwriting suffered from naivety and an overblown ego. He refined himself and learned to take his time. Almost to a fault.

He was always quite poetic, but coherency was something he was not good at.

That gave me an interesting thought. Maybe Peter Gabriel gets too much credit for Genesis lyrics and his natural writing style was being made more "obtuse" to fit the band (my guess is that Tony Banks might have influenced that). For soon after Gabriel left, he wrote "Solsbury Hill," which is rather typical lyrically of his ongoing solo material (and a great song, if you ask me). According to Wikipedia, he wrote almost all the lyrics to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, but prior to that, most songs seem to have been group compositions.

Gabriel's solo records and Genesis are two entirely different animals. I've always thought it odd.

Uh, why would it be odd? If an artist goes solo, the chances are that they want to spread their wings and tackle music/styles/themes/directions their parent band couldn't, or that they couldn't in their parent band. Not a whole lot of point in leaving to go solo and then churning out the same music you did in the band, is there?

Look at the music of anyone who's gone solo: Fish with Marillion. Neal Morse with Spock's Beard. Bob Catley with Magnum. Gilmour. Waters. Peter Hammill. All engaged in different types of music --- sometimes subtly, sometimes radically --- to that which they played within the bands they left. After all, you have to have a reason to go solo, and ego aside, that's often a case of "musical differences", which sometimes means that you want to play a certain style/genre or just way, that your bandmates don't.

Yeah, I'll give you that. But then, what do you expect from a man who used to dress as a flower, and also a fox, onstage? :laughing:

Tell that to Rob Thomas :D

I'm into mainstream artists, so I can't comment on the examples given. Let me compare Gabriel and Sting. They both left and started exploring different styles of music. Sting's lyrical style, however, didn't change much. Gabriel seems to have made an extreme change, from what little I know. I could also use Robert Plant as an example. I stick to my suspicion that Peter Gabriel didn't contribute as much to Genesis lyrics as is popularly thought.

I agree to a point. But there isn't a single trace of his musical past on Peter Gabriel 1. It was like he just sprouted up out of nowhere.

When he was in Genesis the band wrote music together, but when he was on his own he had control of the reins and done his own music - so it seem likely he would not have the same sound as Genesis.

Peter Gabriel era Genesis were playing music that was popular for Rock bands to play at the time. Still it was uderground music, it was heavy and more complicated than songs on the Pop charts. But they still did well with album sales.

He developed as an artist. When he was on his own he had more control over his music, and just like any one else his musical taste changed (along with everyone else in the decade).

more like "he degnerated over time, and his music got worse and worse"

I think he stopped trying so hard. Which really worked for him.

Now he doesn't try at all, and I resent him for it.