Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel aka “Scratch”

Peter Gabriel adopted some funny habits after he left Genesis in 1975. Things like shaving his head—not very popular in that era—and gardening. Weird stuff.

Musically, he got into a pattern of skipping titles on his first four solo albums (although in the US, the record company slapped Security on his fourth record.) His early albums are thus all known as Peter Gabriel, reflecting the only words appearing on the covers, or by one-word descriptions of the cover images, words like “Car” and “Melt.”

His second solo album, shown here, was produced by King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and released in 1978. Naturally, fans refer to it as “Scratch.”

For the cover, Gabriel enlisted famous British graphic designer Storm Thorgerson, who had helped bands such as AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, and Yes—and designed the Dark Side of the Moon cover for Pink Floyd—as a member of the Hipgnosis company. The album was the worst selling of Gabriel's eponymous albums, but its cover image remains one of his most memorable.