![]() ![]() A big reason why the song lives on is due to its constant resurfacing in film trailers, particularly for coming-of-age dramedies like 2004’s In Good Company, and more recently for 2016’s blockbuster sequel Finding Dory. Despite becoming a rock radio perennial, “Solsbury Hill” was only a minor hit upon its initial release, peaking at No. That feeling of exhilaration and triumph is best demonstrated by the yelps, grunts and other non-verbals that start to scream out of each ear as the song draws to its end, like an entire village rejoicing in Gabriel’s victory.Ĩ. The song closes by fading out on its central groove, though by then it’s added enough new coats of flute, guitar and synth that it sounds more celebratory than ever before. But following the final verse and semi-chorus, a distorted guitar slide zooms in like a jet passing unexpectedly overhead, sending a chill down the song’s spine - a moment of release well worth the three minutes of acoustic tension leading up to it.ġ0 Reasons Why New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle' Is One of the Greatest Songs of All Timeħ. The song hits the ground running - launching right into its primary guitar riff, with its groove already in cruise control by the end of the first measure - and it stays relatively consistent throughout its runtime, with Gabriel and legendary producer Bob Ezrin merely adding thin layers of drums and synths for texture. “Solsbury Hill” only builds in subtle ways. When performing the song live, Gabriel’s drummer echoes the “boom”s himself it’s kinda redundant, since each word already echoes so loudly.Ħ. It’s a brilliant, understated through-thread for the composition: A moment of true fear and excitement, the onomatopoeic triplets resounding far greater than a more literal “my heart beating so fast” possibly could’ve. (If you were to try to identify “Solsbury Hill” to a friend, you’d undoubtedly either try to sing the guitar riff or this lyric.) ![]() ![]() “My heart going, boom boom boom…” There’s not really a chorus to speak of in “Solsbury Hill” - a melodic shift at before the last four measures of each verse signifies the arrival of some kind of refrain, but there aren’t many repeating lyrics, except for this line, which shows up in each of the three verses. It’s the first and only time the song’s titular location is mentioned, but the mental image it invokes is burned in your mind for well longer than the four-minute runtime.ĥ. Not even Martin Scorsese establishes the shot this well: “Climbing up on Solsbury Hill/ I could see the city light/ Wind was blowing, time stood still/ Eagle flew out of the night.” Doesn’t matter if you’ve never been within 500 miles of Somerset, England - with those 28 opening syllables, you’re right there with Gabriel, sharing in his moment of revelation. Sting and Peter Gabriel Trade Hits, Covers During Three-Hour Tour KickoffĤ. Played by Gabriel himself, by the way, because he’s just got it like that. A lesser arrangement would’ve resorted to a trumpet, but the song is far too stately for such brassiness, and the flute’s sturdy quiver is a perfect musical representation of the lyric’s anxious confidence. But “Solsbury Hill” keeps it simple: Four notes, a clarion-call sound-off at the beginning of each lyric, incandescent but not obnoxious. The list of iconic flute hooks in rock history is not a particularly long one, and is undoubtedly crowded with applicants from Jethro Tull, one of the few prog bands to match ’70s Genesis for both popularity and pomposity. But if the guitars are undoubtedly the blood pumping through “Solsbury Hill,” it still all stems from the beating heart of the drum thump, steady throughout, keeping the song even-keeled, marching forward and undeniably alive.ģ. Part of the reason the song’s unusual time signature works is because it’s all in the guitars - that gorgeous spider web of an acoustic riff (played by Lou Reed and Alice Cooper guitarist Steve Hunter) circling the song’s perimeter and providing its pristine, immediately recognizable framework. The fact that it’s always noticeable but never distracting is a tremendous accomplishment for Gabriel as a songwriter, and makes “Solsbury” a standout from the very beginning.Ģ. The 7/4 stomp of “Solsbury Hill” is one of its indelible and striking features, that feeling of a beat missing in every measure giving the song a constant sense of struggle - and subsequently, of endurance. Writing a perfect pop song is hard enough, but writing one in an imperfect time signature is damn near impossible. ![]()
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