Music |
Peter Gabriel: “Solsbury Hill”
By
Published: Jan 06, 2019
Category:
Rock
I had a birthday. I try and keep it secret, because I’m in denial about my age and, more days than not, I feel like I’m 19 and it’s all ahead of me.
In Thailand, I’m told, you don’t get gifts on your birthday — you give them. So that’s what I do. In honor of some friends, I gave money to Food Bank for New York City, because they were having a three-times-match; a $100 gift bought 2,000 meals. I’ve been helping a great man with his memoir; on my birthday, I hit SEND on 70,000 words. I called my almost 102-year-old mother to thank her for the gift of my life.
I gave one gift to myself: lunch with one of my closest friends. In two-and-a-half hours, I don’t think we left anything unsaid. Our conversation was challenging and exhilarating, and, after, I thought of what Picasso said to Matisse on one of their last visits: “We’ve got to see each other often, because when one of us goes, there are things the other will no longer be able to say to anyone.”
We’re both writers, so one of the topics we covered over lunch was writing — specifically, the pleasure of working hard on something that totally engaged us. For both of us, that means writing the books we most want to read, and to hell with the marketplace. (In fact, this is exactly how you get rich and famous, but the path begins at a crossroads, with an act of defiance and self-assertion.)
And that led me to “Solsbury Hill.”
The back story of the song is that Peter Gabriel had been in a group called Genesis for almost a decade. They had sold zillions of records. But the music business being what it is, there were Expectations, and Gabriel no longer felt like responding to them: “I just wanted to be out of the music business. I felt like I was just in the machinery. We knew what we were going to be doing in 18 months or two years ahead. I just did not enjoy that.” Phil Collins became the lead vocalist, and Genesis went on to sell another zillion records.
In 1977, Gabriel released his first single, “Solsbury Hill.” On one level, it’s about walking away from a super group: the agonizing decision, the epiphany, the flight. It’s also, as Gabriel has said, “about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get, or what you are for what you might be. It’s about letting go.”
It’s many people’s favorite song. It’s been in heavy rotation here for the last few days, as useful as a shot of tequila before a major confrontation. [To download the song, click here. To buy the CD of Gabriel’s greatest hits from Amazon for a bargain price, click here.]
Here you go. If you can: full screen, maximum volume.
Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing, stretching every nerve
Had to listen, had no choice
I did not believe the information
Just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom, boom, boom
“Son”, he said, “grab your things, I’ve come to take you home”
To keep in silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut
So I went from day to day
Though my life was in a rut
‘Til I thought of what I’ll say
Which connection I should cut
I was feeling part of the scenery
I walked right out of the machinery
My heart going boom, boom, boom
“Hey”, he said, “grab your things, I’ve come to take you home”
When illusion spin her net
I’m never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free
Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me
Today I don’t need a replacement
I’ll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going boom, boom, boom
“Hey”, I said, “you can keep my things, they’ve come to take me home”
BONUS VIDEOS
John Cusack plays Gabriel’s song, “In Your Eyes,” on a boom box outside his girlfriend’s window in “Say Anything.”
“Sledgehammer,” said to be the most popular video in the history of MTV.
The spooky, brilliant soundtrack to “Birdy.”
