I never liked any live versions of "Solsbury Hill" all that much. The intro guitar on the studio version is beautifully arpeggiated/fingerpicked (by Fripp, I assume). When done live, the intro was always strummed, which struck me as a bit "dumbed down" and less musically effective. The studio arrangement works best for me.
Excuse Me When I first heard this song, I'll be honest, I thought "what on earth is this?" .... It really wasn't what I was expecting ...... but that's a good thing. This song starts of with a barber shop vocal section. A high note comes in, and is joined in harmony. A vocal that I assume to be Gabriel's, or it could actually be Tony Levin (as he is credited with leading the barbershop section ), comes in with a really cool vocal over the top. This moves into a piece of music that is part vaudeville and part oom pah pah ... It is actually fantastic. About three quarters of the way through we get a nice little Tuba solo of sorts from Tony Levin. I guess this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I reckon its fantastic. I guess lyrically this could be an ode to the start of his solo career " I want to be alone" and although it is somewhat sad that he needed to move away from Genesis, it is equally great that he got to start following his own muse, because I love this solo stuff.
I don't know if this post is out of place or not, but... I really like Peter Gabriel but he in no way comes close to the way I feel about Genesis' original lineup. I absolutely loved PG as their front-man. And what this taught me was that sometimes it really is the sum of all parts that's so huge when it comes to a band and how many artists don't realize it at the time. In revisiting PG's catalog, thanks to this thread, I realized how much I missed the musicianship of Genesis. And that's not any slight against PG. It's actually just a reflection of what I enjoy in my music. For example, when I listen to Moribund the Burgermeister I'm like, "Yeah - this is great! This sounds like something that could have been on the Lamb". But so many other songs are minimal in composition. And believe me, I get that he was trying to separate himself from Genesis and Prog altogether. I also respect that quite a bit. And sometime I really enjoy it, like with Intruder. Such a great tune. It just made me realize that I prefer him singing above the instruments like at the end of Supper's Ready much more than I like him just orating with an African drum beat as his backdrop and a plop of synth here and there. I say all that to say that because PG was still in a close proximity to his Genesis years I think I enjoy the Car album the most. You get dashes here and there. As he progressed he certainly went further away and eventually ended up in World Music (if that's what you call it). Not my cup of tea.
So in the name of reviving this thread and pushing the conversation forward, what are people's thoughts/opinions of Gabriel's second album, aka Scratch?
Although Excuse Me is the least good track on this masterpiece, it's what makes the album such a masterpiece.
First discovered this album during late 1978 following a musical jam with a mate at his house. He was sure he had it on tape......somewhere. He was useless at organisation - no tape had a box or a label. I cursed his cataloguing as I am so anal about mine. We searched through for 2 hours until we found it. Then.....wow. I cursed him no more. Here Comes The Flood & Slowburn were the first ones to make an impression on me apart from SH & Moribund which I already had on a single. I bought the LP from a small record shop in Leeds a few weeks later. It was a must have. I had been listening to a lot of Genesis at the time so was primed for this. I was grabbed by the great recorded sound of the album, particularly when I heard it on vinyl, the acoustic instruments sound beautiful. My mate went on to play with Sting amongst others & won an Oscar. Bet he's more organised now.
It's a highlight for me! I love vocal harmony, and PG's voice, and that's a rare combination on his records.
I'm late to the thread so it may have been mentioned, but am pretty sure that NME or some magazine of that ilk put out a live Solsbury Hill as a flexi-disc circa 78-79? Help!
Fabulous song. Although I’m not convinced that you’d see an eagle flying out of the night on the top of a hill in Somerset. Maybe an ornithologist could opine?
Humdrum Humdrum - lacking excitement or variety; dull; monotonous. Certainly an ironic title for a song on this eclectic collection of songs. This song starts out particularly beautifully, with just Gabriel singing very gently and backed with just an electric piano with a nice reverb sitting underneath it. Then we are hit with some castanets (?) and we get a little stan of semi-Latin American rhythm that then breaks down into to a reflective little piece of music. The castanets come back in and we hit another verse with a bit more vibrancy via the Latin-American vibe going on. This moves into another section that has a bit of a Genesis vibe about it. This is an incredibly interesting song to me and I find it to be a very good listen and ended side one of the old vinyl very well.
I'm afraid I am unsure about that, but it certainly had a few releases as a studio and live single and that surprised me quite a bit to be honest.
Spoilsport lol I think the lyrics are very symbolic of Gabriel's quite often spoken about "spiritual experience". I am not sure if that is in relation to the event with Jill where they thought she was demon possessed or whatever, but there is quite a bit of information that would suggest the Genesis track "Supper's Ready", The Lamb album, and a couple of songs on this album are direct results of that particular experience. Obviously there is also reference to his leaving Genesis in there also. The Eagle (without moving into pop-psychology, or some weird place) symbolically represents - Eagle conveys the powers and messages of the spirit; it is man's connection to the divine because it flies higher than any other bird. ... If eagle has appeared, it bestows freedom and courage to look ahead. The eagle is symbolic of the importance of honesty and truthful principles.
Love Humdrum. One of the highlights of the album to me along with two already discussed on side on. Side two holds two of my favorites as well, Slowburn and Here Comes the Flood, with Down the Dolce Vita, being either here or there.
