Blogocentric Formulations

Climbing up on Solsbury Hill with Peter Gabriel

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Song: "Solsbury Hill"
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Album: Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel would be my vote for the best thing to come out of the band Genesis... if it weren't for that drummer guy Phil Collins. And while Phil's accomplishments and music are more my style, I can't deny that this track from Peter Gabriel is one of my all-time favorites. It was his debut single after leaving the band to go solo (not too shabby for an opening single!), and was originally written about letting go and being prepared to give up what one has for the possibility of what they might get. While Gabriel admits that he was largely inspired to write this song as a result of his decision to leave Genesis, the song can easily be applied to a much broader scope of emotional situations.

Over the years, the song has increased in popularity as it's been frequently used in soundtracks and trailers for movies and television. It's all-time best use, though, was in this parody trailer   where an editor re-cut The Shining into a family film. If you haven't seen it yet, it's well worth 90 seconds of your time. There are a ton of parody trailers out there now, but as far as I know this was one of the very first that went viral and started the trend, and Gabriel's song really pulls it all together, if you ask me.