Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill

Description

“Solsbury Hill” is the debut solo single by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. He wrote the song about a spiritual experience atop Solsbury Hill in Somerset, England, after his departure from the progressive rock band Genesis, of which he had been the lead vocalist since its inception. The single was a Top 20 hit in the UK, peaking at number 13, and reached number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977.

Gabriel has said of the song’s meaning, “It’s about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get … It’s about letting go.”

The song is mostly written in ⁷
₄ time, an unusual time signature that has been described as “giving the song a constant sense of struggle”. The meter settles into ⁴
₄ time only for the last two measures of each chorus. It is performed in the key of B major with a tempo of 102 beats per minute, with Gabriel’s vocals ranging from F♯₃ to G♯₄.

Background

Recorded at The Soundstage studios in Toronto, producer Bob Ezrin placed some restrictions on the session musicians to give the song its distinctive sound. While earlier versions of the song featured more prominent electric guitar, Ezrin instructed guitarist Steve Hunter to instead perform the main riff on a twelve-string guitar, an instrument “he hadn’t played in a long time”. However, Hunter states that he instead borrowed a Martin acoustic guitar, and Travis picked the voicings with a capo on the second fret. As Ezrin wanted the acoustic guitar to be tripled, Hunter was required to provide three satisfactory takes, all of which had to be aligned with one another. Bob Ezrin used the variable speed oscillator on guitar tracks to achieve the chorusing effect.

Rather than employ a full drum kit, Allan Schwartzberg placed a shaker in one hand and a drum stick in another, which he used to strike a telephone directory. For additional rhythmic textures, Larry Fast constructed a fake drum kit on his keyboard, which he dubbed the “synthibam”, although the liner notes credit percussionist Jimmy Maelen with the instrument. After all of the session musicians departed, Fast also overdubbed some additional electronics, including the synth horn orchestration. From verse two onwards, a subdued four note flute riff, played by Gabriel himself, sounds-off the beginning of each section of the lyrics.

Use in soundtracks

It has been used in a number of films and television shows, including the 2001 film Vanilla Sky and the 2004 film In Good Company. It has also been used in the trailer of Finding Dory (2016), and featured as the send-off song for the series finale of AMC‘s Halt and Catch Fire. It was also used for the conclusion of an episode of Fox’s 9-1-1. It was used in a Cingular Wireless TV ad campaign, a Toyota ad campaign, and a Nespresso TV ad campaign. Its prevalence in romantic comedy trailers has been called “ubiquitous”, particularly its inclusion in a satirical re-cut trailer of The Shining (1980).