Family Snapshot

The song was inspired by An Assassin's Diary, published in 1973 and written by Arthur Bremer, who, on May 15, 1972, attempted to assassinate George Wallace, a Democratic Party politician who supported racial segregation. Gabriel talked about the book in an interview with Sounds magazine:

An Assassin's Diary was a really nasty book, but you do get a sense of the person who is writing it. Bremer was obsessed with the idea of fame. He was aware of the news broadcasts all over the world and was trying to time the assassination to hit the early evening news in the States and the late night in Europe to get maximum coverage.^[1]

Gabriel stated in the introduction to the song during his concert at the Paramount Theatre, Seattle in 1983 that the song is "partly taken from the writings of Arthur Bremer and The Diary of an Assassin and mixed with a few images of Dallas twenty years ago", referring to the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.^[2]

The song starts off as a slow, understated piece, where the killer goes through his plan, becoming more intense as the target unwittingly comes closer to the assassin.^[2] By the third section of the song, guitar chords from Dave Gregory of XTC are introduced; the lyrics in this section detail the assassin scouting the area for their target. At the song's climax, which features full instrumentation, the assassin rationalises their decision to carry out the murder as a means to gain notoriety.^[3] Finally, the song transitions back to a quiet, mournful climax as the shooter, having just shot his target, remembers his childhood loneliness and desire for attention.^[2] This final section is accompanied by sparse instrumentation consisting of a fretless bass played by John Giblin and minimal keyboards.^[3] Gabriel stated that the assassin's flashback at the end of the song was meant to express the notion that "patterns of behavior begun in childhood do carry through."^[1]

Early tracking was conducted on 28 August 1978 at Trident Studios with members of Gabriel's touring band.^[4] The final recording features Gabriel's first use of the Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano.^[5] Gabriel recalled that Larry Fast and engineer Hugh Padgham assisted with the processing of a Prophet synthesizer. "There was a sound I used to like on 'Family Snapshot' which was a small variation on a Prophet noise. It was OK on its own, but it was magical with the processing. And then Hugh Padgham, at that time, made some nice additional stereo imaging and delays, so it was a beautiful swirl sound. In the mix you don't hear it as much, but it's the sort of G minor where the band comes in."^[6] The working title was "FMR", according to early tour setlists.^[7]

• Peter Gabriel – vocals, piano
• David Rhodes – guitar
• Jerry Marotta – drums
• Larry Fast – synthesizer
• Phil Collins – snare drum
• John Giblin – bass
• Dave Gregory – guitar
• Dick Morrissey – saxophone