Peter Gabriel Album by Album

I actually liked the album because it wasn't the next Genesis album and the one track that didn't really fit to me was "Moribund The Bergermeister" -- I enjoyed it but I felt that the departure was worth while.

 

I think the first album is easily the best. Solsbury Hill and Down La Dolce Vita are the standout tracks in my opinion.

 

Not a big fan of the first Peter Gabriel album. I mean, “Moribund the Burgermeister”, really?

Pete would do far better work starting with his third album. His entire 1980s output was brilliant, it goes without saying. This was a tentative and rather uninspiring first step, despite a couple of very good tracks.

 

I feel like this album has Robert Fripp’s most low profile guest appearances of his entire career. He apparently plays on several songs and if I listen closely I can hear parts that I guess are probably him, but there is really nothing that sounds like it’s unmistakeably his playing ... compare to Peter Gabriel II, where he fires off trademark Fripp solos on “On the Air” and “White Shadow” and fills “Exposure” with Frippertronics.

 

Yes, really. Whyever not??

 

Fripp's main guitar contribution here is the occasional feature of his precise, rapid arpeggiated chords, not the searing fuzztone leads you might expect. Listen to the end of "Humdrum" for an example. But, yeah, he mostly stays in the shadows.

 

well as stated, I love it and consider it the perfect starter

 

BTW I prefer the "Here Comes the Flood" version that's on Exposure by Robert Fripp

 

So does Gabriel.

This thread reminded me that I've never actually owned a copy of this recording, so I went and found one on eBait.

 

yea, it is great

 

It's a really good album

 

That's a stunning shot!

 

I liked it. Interesting read to.

 

I like it. I think it was a b-sides on a single I had, possibly Games Without Frontiers.

 

It's one of his very best songs. No, it isn't and no, he wouldn't.

 

It's a popular opinion in some camps, I prefer the version on his first album.

 

"Solsbury Hill"

UK vinyl single
Single by Peter Gabriel
from the album Peter Gabriel
B-side "Moribund the Burgermeister"
Released 1977 (UK)
1977 (US)
Format Vinyl record (7")
Recorded 1977
Genre

• Folk pop[1]
• progressive pop[2]

Length 4:21 (album version)
3:24 (single edit version)
Label Atco Records/Charisma Records
Songwriter(s) Peter Gabriel
Producer(s) Bob Ezrin

"Solsbury Hill" is a song by English musician Peter Gabriel. He wrote the song about a spiritual experience atop Little Solsbury Hill in Somerset, England,[citation needed] after his departure from the progressive rock band Genesis, of which he had been the lead singer since its inception. The song was his debut single.[3] The single was a Top 20 hit in the UK and reached number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977.[4] The song has often been used in film trailers for romantic comedies.[5]

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."[6] His former bandmate Tony Banks acknowledges that the song reflects Gabriel's decision to break ties with Genesis, but it can also be applied in a broader sense to situations of letting go in general.[citation needed]

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".[7] The meter settles into 4
4 time only for the last two measures of each chorus.[8] 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.[9]

It has been used in a number of films and television shows, including the 2001 film Vanilla Sky[10] and the 2004 film In Good Company.[11] More recently, it has been used in the trailer of Finding Dory[12] and featured as the send-off song for the series finale of AMC's Halt and Catch Fire.[13] Its prevalence has been called "ubiquitous", particularly its inclusion in a satirical re-cut trailer of The Shining.[14]

7" UK single (1977)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill" – (3:24)
2. "Moribund the Burgermeister" – (4:17)

7" "Old Gold" single (1982)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill" - (3:26)
2. "Games Without Frontiers" - (3:50)

UK maxi-single (1983, 1988)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill" – (3:24)
2. "Moribund the Burgermeister" – (4:17)
3. "Solsbury Hill (Full Length Live Version)" – (5:45)

7" European single (1990 re-issue)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill" – (4:24)
2. "Shaking the Tree" – (5:06)

12" UK single (1990 re-issue)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill" – (4:22)
2. "Shaking the Tree" – (5:06)
3. "Games Without Frontiers (Live)" - (6:06)

UK CD single (1990 re-issue)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill" – (4:21)
2. "Shaking the Tree" – (5:07)
3. "Games Without Frontiers (Live)" - (6:05)

"Solsbury Hill (Live)"
Single by Peter Gabriel
from the album Plays Live
B-side "Kiss of Life (Live)"
Released 1983
Format vinyl record (7")
Length 4:41
Label Geffen Records / Charisma Records
Songwriter(s) Peter Gabriel

"Solsbury Hill (Re-release)"
Single by Peter Gabriel
from the album Peter Gabriel (1977 album)and Shaking the Tree
B-side Shaking the Tree (New Vocal Remix) and "Games Without Frontiers"
Released 1990
Length 4:21
Songwriter(s) Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel singles chronology
"Shaking the Tree"
(1989) "Solsbury Hill (Re-release)"
(1990) "Digging in the Dirt"
(1992)
Live Version[edit]
7" US single (1983)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill (Live)" - (3:58)
2. "I Go Swimming (Live)" - (4:29)

7" Netherlands single (1983)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill (Live)" - (4:41)
2. "Kiss of Life (Live)" - (5:01)

7" US single (1983)[edit]

1. "Solsbury Hill (Live)" - (3:58)
2. "Shock the Monkey" - (3:58)

--------------------------------------------
Solsbury Hill has had a life all it's own and is one of Gabriel's many game changing tracks. Essentially a hit, if not a number one song, it never fails to spark my imagination and paints beautiful pictures lyrically and musically.
The intro guitar sounds quite simple but is actually quite a complicated little thing just of itself. It is one of the iconic music intros to me and leads into Gabriel's plaintive voice describing an obvious spiritual discovery. I was pleased to read that from Gabriel's perspective that is what it was, because that has always been the meaning and feeling I have always heard in it.
The flute fits in beautifully also and the dramatic building nature of the song, I have always found to be sensational. Over all these years of hearing this song, I have never tired of it.
The doubled vocal underneath is also very effective.
When the electric guitar stabs in, with such a great sound it really feels like an ultimate crescendo, and the series of noises underneath seem to give an impression of something bigger going on.
Such a fantastic song on every level and one of those songs I am sure many wish they had written. I know I would be very proud of it.

 

Looking through the singles releases I see the Plays Live version was released as a single also ... The kiss of life b-side live, was that an album out-take, chop out? Anyone know?

 

No love for Modern Love, huh? That's one of my favorite deep-cut PG tracks.
Like this album but it's a bit too schizophrenic for my tastes. I think PG figured it out by the time of Melt, though, and that 80s run is unparalleled.

Also, I checked out the picture gallery.... and FML on the price of those art prints.....

 

Solsbury Hill.... I remember hearing this for the first time only after being exposed to PG's 80s output (mostly So) and it was a revelation. Even after countless overplaying, it still retains its power, and I would argue it's the best-known PG track now, at least in America. (Despite the fact that many other songs charted higher, like Sledgehammer, Big Time, and Shock The Monkey.) People that have no idea who Peter Gabriel is still recognize this song.... In fact, a younger friend of mine hilariously gets PG confused with Phil Collins AND Eric Clapton, and claims to hate all three, but then when I play "Solsbury," she goes, "Oh I DO like this song!"

That said......
For an artist who wrote mostly challenging, heavy, unsentimental music (at least through the 80s), it's ironic that PG now has TWO songs that are lazy shorthand for "rom-com." Obviously, "In Your Eyes" took on a second life after its prominent use in Say Anything, and a certain segment of the population will always picture Jon Cusack holding a boombox aloft every time the song plays. Not sure exactly how or when "Solsbury Hill" became linked to romantic comedies and "uplifting" dramas, but its newfound popularity over the 2000s definitely comes from prominent placement in TV shows and movies, usually at the most climactic, heartrending moment. (After Jeff Buckley's take on "Hallelujah," of course.)

I first saw this clip over a decade ago, and since then, I've never been able to take a movie seriously when using "Solsbury" to soundtrack a big moment. It's a pretty hilarious send-up. I think PG would approve....

 

I like it!

 

me too

 

Oh I've heard it plenty of times, back to when it first came out, just never at home.

 

I think he's in the back of the car.

 

Rutherford and Banks tore them off!

Storm was not pleased.