Peter Gabriel had walked away from Genesis, stepped into the unknown and suddenly had something enormous to prove. Then came Solsbury Hill ā an unusual, deeply personal song that helped turn one of prog rockās most recognisable frontmen into a solo star.
There are career changesā¦ and then thereās leaving Genesis just as the band are becoming one of the biggest and most ambitious names in progressive rock.
That takes some serious bottle, mun. š¤
In the mid-1970s, Peter Gabriel found himself standing at one of those terrifying musical crossroads where one path leads towards reinvention and the other potentially leads straight towards the bargain bin of rock history.
Gabriel chose reinvention.
And in 1977, he emerged with a song that sounded hopeful, strange, intimate and gloriously unlike the obvious Genesis sequel some listeners might have expected.
That song was āSolsbury Hill.ā
More than four decades later, it remains one of Gabrielās defining songs ā and perhaps the perfect musical snapshot of what it feels like to leave something enormous behind without knowing exactly what comes next.
š WALKING AWAY FROM GENESIS
To understand why Solsbury Hill mattered so much, you have to rewind to Gabrielās extraordinary years with Genesis.
As the bandās frontman, he wasnāt exactly the stand-at-the-microphone-and-say-thanks-between-songs type.
Oh no.
This was Peter bloody Gabriel.
He transformed Genesis concerts into surreal theatrical spectacles, appearing in elaborate costumes and characters while delivering bizarre stories between songs.
There were masks.
There were costumes.
There were strange creatures.
There was enough eccentric British prog weirdness to make an unsuspecting audience wonder whether somebody had slipped something suspicious into their pint.
Albums including Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway helped establish Genesis as one of progressive rockās most inventive bands.
But behind the increasingly ambitious music and theatrical performances, pressures were building.
Gabriel eventually decided to leave.
Following the sprawling The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway era and tour, his departure became public in 1975.
For Genesis, it created one massive question:
How on earth do you replace Peter Gabriel?
For Gabriel himself, however, there was an equally intimidating question:
What the hell do you do after Genesis?
š THEN CAME SOLSBURY HILL
Gabriel didnāt immediately rush into releasing music.
When his debut solo album eventually arrived in 1977, however, listeners were introduced to a Peter Gabriel who was clearly determined to establish an identity beyond his former band.
And Solsbury Hill became the breakthrough.
Inspired by Little Solsbury Hill near Bath, the song is widely understood as Gabriel reflecting upon his decision to leave Genesis and embrace an uncertain future.
That makes its emotional core incredibly relatable.
Strip away the prog-rock history and celebrity involved and youāre left with something almost everyone understands:
Standing at a crossroads.
Knowing something has to change.
Being terrified of making that change.
And eventually thinking:
Sod it. Iām going.
Thereās something wonderfully human about that.
š¶ A SONG THAT SHOULDNāT FEEL THIS CATCHY
Musically, Solsbury Hill contains one of those brilliant tricks where something unusual sounds completely natural.
Much of the song famously moves in 7/4 time.
For anyone whose brain immediately switches off when musicians start shouting numbers at each other, donāt panic.
Basically, itās an odd metre.
Yet instead of sounding like someone has accidentally removed a beat from the song, it flows beautifully.
Thatās part of its magic.
The acoustic guitar pattern keeps everything moving while Gabrielās vocal gradually builds the emotional weight.
Thereās warmth.
Thereās tension.
Thereās optimism.
And thereās that feeling of somebody stepping cautiously into a completely new chapter.
It doesnāt need twenty-minute instrumental passages or enormous prog theatrics.
The cleverness is baked into the song rather than waved around like a bloke showing everybody his new guitar pedal at rehearsal.
š¤ PETER GABRIEL, SOLO ARTIST
The song appeared on Gabrielās first solo album, released in 1977.
That record is commonly nicknamed Car because of its distinctive cover artwork ā the first in a run of Peter Gabriel albums simply bearing his name.
Because apparently giving albums individual titles was far too straightforward.
Proper prog behaviour, that. š
The record was produced by Bob Ezrin, whose CV already included work with Alice Cooper and who would later become associated with numerous landmark rock recordings.
The album demonstrated immediately that Gabriel wasnāt interested in recreating Genesis.
Instead, he explored different sounds, moods and approaches.
But it was Solsbury Hill that became the calling card.
The single reached the UK Top 20, giving Gabriel exactly the sort of early momentum a newly solo artist desperately needs.
And considering the enormous shadow cast by Genesis, that mattered.
A lot.
ā° ARRIVING AT EXACTLY THE RIGHT MOMENT
Leaving a successful band is one of rock musicās great gambles.
History is littered with musicians who departed massive groups convinced solo superstardom awaited them, only to discover the public had other ideas.
Gabriel had another problem too.
Genesis werenāt collapsing without him.
Quite the opposite.
With Phil Collins stepping forward as lead vocalist, the band continued developing and eventually became absolutely enormous.
Imagine leaving your old workplace and then watching them become one of the biggest organisations on Earth.
No pressure then, butt. š¬
That makes Gabrielās solo success even more impressive.
He couldnāt simply rely indefinitely on being introduced as:
āFormer Genesis singer Peter Gabriel.ā
He needed songs capable of building a new identity.
Solsbury Hill did exactly that.
It arrived when Gabriel needed to establish himself as an artist capable of standing completely on his own.
šļø THE PERFECT SONG ABOUT STARTING AGAIN
Perhaps thatās why Solsbury Hill has endured so brilliantly.
Yes, itās connected to a very specific moment in Gabrielās life.
But you donāt need to have left one of Britainās greatest progressive rock bands to understand it.
Anyone who has ever:
- walked away from a job
- ended a chapter of their life
- moved somewhere new
- taken a frightening opportunity
- left something comfortable behind
- or simply decided āI canāt keep doing this anymoreā
can recognise something in it.
Thatās the beauty of the song.
Gabriel turned an intensely personal decision into something universal.
Itās not really just about leaving Genesis.
Itās about having the courage to change direction.
And sometimes thatās considerably scarier than staying somewhere you already know.
šø GENESIS SURVIVED ā AND SO DID GABRIEL
One of the loveliest things about this chapter of rock history is that there doesnāt have to be a loser.
Genesis survived Gabrielās departure.
Gabriel survived leaving Genesis.
In fact, both ultimately flourished.
Genesis transformed dramatically over the following years, moving from their progressive roots towards a hugely successful, more accessible sound while retaining plenty of musical ambition.
Gabriel, meanwhile, became one of the most innovative solo artists of his generation.
Albums including Peter Gabriel 3, Peter Gabriel 4 and the blockbuster So expanded his reputation enormously.
Then came songs including:
āGames Without Frontiers.ā
āShock the Monkey.ā
āSledgehammer.ā
āBig Time.ā
āIn Your Eyes.ā
And many more.
He became known not merely as the bloke who used to sing in Genesis, but as Peter Gabriel ā solo artist, songwriter, visual innovator and musical explorer.
Thatās a difficult transition to pull off.
Solsbury Hill was one of the first enormous steps.
šŗ AND THEN THERE WAS SLEDGEHAMMERā¦
Of course, Gabrielās career would eventually produce one of the most recognisable music videos ever made.
When Sledgehammer arrived in 1986, Gabriel wasnāt merely surviving as a solo musician anymore.
He was a global superstar.
Its groundbreaking video became an MTV phenomenon, while the album So became a gigantic commercial success.
But that future wasnāt guaranteed back in 1977.
Thatās what makes listening to Solsbury Hill retrospectively so fascinating.
Youāre hearing an artist right near the beginning of his second act.
He doesnāt know Sledgehammer is coming.
He doesnāt know So is coming.
He doesnāt know what his solo career will ultimately become.
Heās simply taking the leap.
ā¤ļø WHY SOLSBURY HILL STILL FEELS BEAUTIFUL
There are technically more complicated Peter Gabriel songs.
There are darker songs.
There are bigger productions.
There are songs that pushed studio technology considerably further.
But Solsbury Hill has something incredibly difficult to manufacture:
emotional honesty.
It feels hopeful without becoming sugary.
Intelligent without becoming smug.
Unusual without becoming inaccessible.
Personal without becoming self-indulgent.
Thatās a hell of a balancing act.
And underneath everything sits that wonderful sense of release.
A musician who had spent years inside an increasingly elaborate musical machine was suddenly discovering what his own voice might sound like outside it.
š¤ THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT
Rock history loves the dramatic departure.
The arguments.
The newspaper headlines.
The reunion rumours.
The inevitable documentary where everybody sits in separate rooms saying:
āWellā¦ thatās not quite how I remember it.ā
But sometimes the most interesting part isnāt leaving.
Itās what happens next.
For Peter Gabriel, what happened next included Solsbury Hill.
Released in 1977, the song helped establish that his departure from Genesis wasnāt the ending of his story.
It was the beginning of another one.
Gabriel had stepped away from one of progressive rockās defining bands with no guarantee that audiences would follow him.
Then he climbed the hill, metaphorically and literally, and turned that uncertainty into one of the most enduring songs of his career.
Nearly fifty years later, Solsbury Hill still sounds like freedom.
Still sounds like possibility.
Still sounds like somebody standing on the edge of a completely unknown future and deciding to jump anyway.
And sometimes, mun, thatās exactly where the best rock ānā roll stories begin. š¹š„š¤
šø THE RIFF REPORT BLOG
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Zero Apologies. šš¤
Whatās your favourite Peter Gabriel track ā Solsbury Hill, Sledgehammer, Games Without Frontiers, Shock the Monkey, or something deeper from the catalogue?
Crank it up and let us know. š„š¶
