Peter Gabriel spent a decade building Genesis from a group of school friends into one of progressive rock’s most ambitious bands. He had formed the band in 1967 and fronted it through its transformation into a major international act.
But by 1975, following the group’s ambitious double concept record The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, he was gone. Gabriel’s departure from Genesis was driven by a combination of personal and professional pressures, but his first solo single turned that moment of uncertainty into song.
“Solsbury Hill,” released in 1977, was inspired by what Gabriel described as a spiritual experience atop the hill in Somerset, England — one that helped him come to terms with leaving behind the band he had led for close to a decade.
“It’s about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get,” Gabriel later said of the song. “It’s about letting go.”
The song itself sounds like a musical expression of that leap into the unknown. Built around a complex, Travis-picked acoustic guitar part in an unusual 7/4 meter, “Solsbury Hill” was recorded at the very end of the sessions for Gabriel’s self-titled debut album. The guitarist who played that intricate part, Steve Hunter, initially wasn’t sure he could pull it off.
It ended up being the last song we recorded. Literally, the day after we recorded it, all the New York musicians were scheduled to fly back to New York.”
— Steve Hunter
Famous for his work with Alice Cooper and Lou Reed, Hunter was among the studio musicians — alongside the likes of Robert Fripp — selected by Gabriel and producer Bob Ezrin to help launch the singer’s career away from Genesis.
“In my opinion, ‘Solsbury Hill’ is one of the most perfectly written and produced pop songs ever,” Hunter says. “It was also one of the most interesting sessions for me. We were doing the album and Peter was having some trouble with a couple of lines of lyrics in ‘Solsbury Hill,’ so we kept putting it off.”
Ezrin was unhappy with Gabriel’s original last line of the chorus. By the time the singer came up with the solution, the sessions were nearly over.
“It ended up being the last song we recorded,” Hunter says. “Literally, the day after we recorded it, all the New York musicians were scheduled to fly back to New York. Robert Fripp had already flown back to England because he had sessions scheduled. I didn’t even know if we were going to record it.”
Hunter’s introduction to the tune came during a private session with Gabriel and Ezrin.
“Bob and Peter took me into Bob’s office at Nimbus 9 Studio up in Toronto. Peter played it for me on the piano, and I realized it was in an odd meter, which petrified me, because I’d never played in an odd meter before, other than 5/4.”
I was petrified, ’cause now I had to play Travis picking and adjust it to play in 7/4, and I wasn’t sure I was gonna be able to do that.”
— Steve Hunter
The song is mostly in 7/4, switching to 4/4 for the final two measures of the chorus. Despite his trepidation, Hunter was immediately impressed by the composition.
“I thought it was an amazing song. You could tell right away just from the piano and the vocal.
“Bob said, ‘I have this idea. I thought we could do some Travis picking on this, with acoustic guitars.’ He showed me what he was looking for, because he plays guitar, so between he, Peter and I, we worked out the guitar part.
“Again, I was petrified, ’cause now I had to play Travis picking and adjust it to play in 7/4, and I wasn’t sure I was gonna be able to do that. But the song is so well written that when I sat down to work out the guitar part, it just sort of fell under my fingers, and it really wasn’t a burden.”
Hunter used a Martin acoustic to record his part, triple-tracking the guitar to create the distinctive shimmering effect heard on the finished recording.
“I recorded three acoustic guitars playing the same thing. The first was recorded at normal speed, and we changed the speed of the tape a tiny bit slower and faster for the other two takes to get a very small difference in tuning. When you hear the three of them together, it’s this beautiful chorus effect.
It was a fabulous thing, and probably one of the most difficult things I had done up to then. But it was really good for me to do it, and I’m really, really proud of that song.”
— Steve Hunter
“It was a fabulous thing, and probably one of the most difficult things I had done up to then. But it was really good for me to do it, and I’m really, really proud of that song.”
That intricate acoustic pattern became the musical foundation for Gabriel’s first major statement outside Genesis. “Solsbury Hill” went on to become a Top 20 hit in the U.K., peaking at number 13, and reached number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.
But its real significance was more personal. Gabriel had spent nearly 10 years leading the band he had helped create. Now he was standing on his own, with no guarantee that the next step would work.
The song’s message was to let go of what he had built and accept the uncertainty of what might come next. Nearly five decades later, “Solsbury Hill” remains one of the clearest musical documents of that leap — a song about leaving Genesis behind, and finding the courage to discover what came after.
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