Solsbury Hill

Solsbury Hill was Gabriel's first solo single and the first single from his 1977 album. It reached number 13 in the UK and number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100. He wrote it about a spiritual experience at the top of Solsbury Hill in Somerset after he left Genesis, and he has said it is about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get, and about letting go.

The song is mostly in 7/4, settling into 4/4 only for the last two measures of each chorus. It began with seven sections, and the producer Bob Ezrin helped Gabriel cut it down. The last line of the chorus was a problem, and the song was nearly left off the album until Gabriel changed it on the final day of mixing to the line about grabbing your things because he had come to take you home.

Recording

It was recorded at The Soundstage in Toronto and was the last song finished for the album. Robert Fripp had returned to London, so every guitar part was played by Steve Hunter. Ezrin had him play the main riff on an acoustic guitar and triple-tracked it. Ezrin removed the cymbals from Allan Schwartzberg's drum kit and had him strike a telephone directory. Larry Fast designed a synthesised percussion sound he called the synthibam, played by Jimmy Maelen, and a four-note riff on flute and synthesiser leads into each line of the lyric.

Reception and afterlife

The NME called it the most overtly personal song on the album, and Caroline Coon of Melody Maker praised its syncopated rhythm. Rolling Stone's Stephen Demorest called it a superior, lilting soft-pop tune. In 2021 the magazine placed it at number 472 on its list of the 500 greatest songs. The song has been used in the films Vanilla Sky and In Good Company and in the final episode of Halt and Catch Fire. Erasure recorded it in 2003 for Other People's Songs, and their version reached number 10 in the UK.