What that Song Is Really About:

[pauledwardwagemann]

Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" is about a fire that burned down the Montreux Casino in Switzerland when a guy fired a bottle rocket that got caugth on the ceiling during a Frank Zappa performance. Deep Purple was at the performance, and afterward went back to their room at the Grand Hotel where they recorded the entire Machine Head album on an mobile 16 track studio.

[Galactus]

The plan was to record at the casino but when it burned down they moved to the hotel. You probably knew that but the way you had phrased it it kinda sounded like they were just so inspired they wrote and recorded and entire album on the spot in their hotel room.

[pauledwardwagemann]

Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" is about finding Jesus.
If the lyric "turning water into wine" doesnt clue you in, then consider that Solsbury Hill is located near the city of bath in Somerset County--the place where (according to Arthurian legend) is where Joseph of Arimathea traveled to with a young Jesus from Palestine.

[Kensterberg]

pauledwardwagemann said:

Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" is about finding Jesus.
If the lyric "turning water into wine" doesnt clue you in, then consider that Solsbury Hill is located near the city of bath in Somerset County--the place where (according to Arthurian legend) is where Joseph of Arimathea traveled to with a young Jesus from Palestine.

No. Solsbury Hill is a (very) thinly disguised allegory about Gabriel's decision to leave Genesis. "Liberty she pirouet when I think that I am free." "Today I don't need a replacement, I tell them what the smile on my face meant ... keep your things they've come to take me home."

And the line about "turning water into wine" comes right before "open doors will soon be shut," meaning that he was about to cut off the options he had within Genesis, no matter how miraculous they may have been.

This isn't just my opinion ... here's the song review from AMG ...

by Steve Huey
Making his solo debut with an eponymous 1977 album, Peter Gabriel notched his first solo hit with the lilting "Solsbury Hill," a metaphorical ode to the freedom and excitement he felt upon leaving the acclaimed art rock band Genesis. Gabriel had arrived at the decision after witnessing a Bruce Springsteen concert, and in the song's first verse describes the Boss as an "eagle [who] flew out of the night," "standing, stretching every nerve" when he performed. According to the song, the experience left Gabriel feeling that his life was in a rut, that he was just "part of the scenery"; before the feeling of epiphany evaporated, before the "open doors would soon be shut," he had to decide "which connection I should cut," which path to take from the crossroads he felt his life to be at. The solo route is likened to someone having come to take him home, a curious comparison for a decision made to bring him new challenges and jolt him out of the familiar. Musically, "Solsbury Hill" approximates that home-like feeling of warm comfort. It isn't as melodically or harmonically experimental as much of Gabriel's early work, instead based around bright, major-key figures played on folky acoustic guitars. The simple guitar riff that backs the verses simply descends the major scale, and it's doubled on flute and synthesizer, which provides the basic arrangement for most of the song. There's a subtle worldbeat influence as well, with quietly burbling percussion that draws from the pitch-shifting capabilities of West African talking drums. It isn't wildly complex, but it's all beautifully and elegantly interwoven, right up to the electric guitar power chords suddenly introduced on the final chorus. "Solsbury Hill" is one of the most personal items in Gabriel's catalog, and it's also a moving statement of purpose about having the courage to risk starting a new life.

[pauledwardwagemann]

So Steve Huey is a moron then. First of all "Solsbury Hill" wasnt even a hit. He got that wrong right off the bat. The highest it reached on the US charts was #68. You call that a hit? Second of all, I might actually be interested in this interpretation if it was YOUR interpretation Ken, that way we could discuss it and you could tell me how you came to these conclusions. But simply allowing what a song means to you to be dictated by what some 'music critic' says its supposed to mean is infinately boring. Show some creativity. Show some independent thinking. Show some originality and tell me what YOUR interpretation of the song is...*sigh* sometimes you liberals are such sheep...

[Galactus]

Do you ever get tired of being a dumbass?

[rockysigman]

pauledwardwagemann said:

So Steve Huey is a moron then. First of all "Solsbury Hill" wasnt even a hit. He got that wrong right off the bat. The highest it reached on the US charts was #68. You call that a hit? Second of all, I might actually be interested in this interpretation if it was YOUR interpretation Ken, that way we could discuss it and you could tell me how you came to these conclusions. But simply allowing what a song means to you to be dictated by what some 'music critic' says its supposed to mean is infinately boring. Show some creativity. Show some independent thinking. Show some originality and tell me what YOUR interpretation of the song is...*sigh* sometimes you liberals are such sheep...

Shut the fuck up, Bozo.

[Kensterberg]

Solsbury Hill hit number 13 in the UK in '77, and helped get the album up to number 8 on the UK chart. That's a pretty substantial hit for a UK artist. Also, the song has been used in approximately 497 movie and television trailers/adverts, providing PG with a solid and lucrative ongoing stream of royalties. It's one of his best known songs at this point, which also (IMO) qualifies it as a hit.

As for what the song is about ... Jesus fucking Christ, read the lyrics (my comments are in parenthesis) :

Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
(FYI, SH is a very old sacred place in England; rooting the allegory in a known place immediately establishes both a place and a sense of wonder. It's a poetic and narrative shorthand often used by rockers, for example see Springsteen's own placement of his songs into a readily identifiable American landscape, i.e. "On a rattlesnake speedway out in the Utah desert ..." The eagle here is Springsteen, according to PG himself, as I understand it, which makes perfect sense, given the use of this symbol as an Avatar for America, and the next stanza ...)

He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
I had to listen had no choice

(Have you seen the video for Bruce's '75 Hammersmith show? This fits it perfectly.)

I did not believe the information
Just had to trust imagination
My heart was going boom boom, boom
Son, he said, grab your things, Ive come to take you home.

To keeping silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut

So I went from day to day
Tho my life was in a rut
till I thought of what Id say
Which connection I should cut

I was feeling part of the scenery
I walked right out of the machinery
My heart was going boom boom boom
Hey, he said, grab your things, Ive come to take you home.
Yeah back home

When illusion spin her net
Im never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free

Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes, but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me

(I don't see how anyone could NOT get that this is about Gabriel's role in Genesis and his decision to leave. But if you're deaf and dumb, I'll explain that the empty silhouettes are the audience, and "I will show another me" refers to doing solo work (which did not simply follow a 'more of the same' template from his group years. "Feeling part of the scenery" relates to being lost in the group, while "I walk right out of the machinery" shows his desire to get off the star-making aparatus (don't forget that one of the key tracks from his second album was D.I.Y., and that Gabriel would go on to work with such up and coming young punks as Paul Weller by the time of PG III) and forge his own path. How anyone could not follow this is beyond me).

Today I dont need a replacement
I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant

(Again, if you don't understand this, well, you're an idiot.)

My heart was going boom boom boom
Hey, I said, you can keep my things, they've come to take me home.

The "you can keep my things" final line is significant, b/c Gabriel rarely performed his earlier Genesis material once he left the band. At least IMHO, this final line is saying "You can have everything I've done up to this point, keep it, I've got my own life and new creations to be concerned with. In the final stanza of the song, Gabriel has realized that there is nothing keeping him in his cage with Genesis, beyond his own attachment to it. So all it takes for liberty to be his is to both think and accept that he is free -- which he does by walking away from an established niche in the British music scene in favor of something more fluid and potentially more rewarding. Hence the invocation of the uncertain new solo career as "home" b/c it is where he belongs.

There is only one line in Solsbury Hill that references Christian mythos at all ("turning water into wine"), but even this makes more sense in a rock and roll and biographical context. "To keeping silence I resigned, my friends would think I was a nut." Translation: I can't talk to the other guys in the band about this, because they'd call me crazy for wanting to leave. "Turning water into wine" -- they'd say that my ego had gotten too big, that I was having messianic delusions. "Open doors will soon be shut." Right now I can stay or go, but one of those doors will be closing soon, this situation won't stay like this for long, which decision should I make?

Got it?

And I originally just posted the AMG song review b/c I wasn't going to take the time to spell this out for you line by line, but you pissed me off enough. And FTR, I checked multiple sources on PG (including Wikipedia, which has some excellent material on the man and his work, IMDB, and a few other sites) and not a single one referred to Solsbury Hill as being about anything other than PG's decision to leave Genesis. It also appears (I couldn't find the exact quote) that Gabriel himself has said "this is what the song is about" so I really think that only a total moron could screw this interpretation up.

[kmc]

In other words, shut the fuck up, PEW.

[RocDoc]

Oooh yeah.
Emasculated castigated and kicked to the curb.

But beware, for the glutton corpse shall be arisen!

~

BTW, this is one of the coolest things I've ever read...unimaginable!

<sub>Monday Night Football could ... bring together the most unlikely people.

The weirdest scene I ever witnessed in the booth happened in 1976. The night before a game in Los Angeles, I ran into John Lennon at a cocktail party promoting the release of a Beatles collection. On impulse, I invited him on the show. He liked the idea but warned me he knew nothing about football.

Meanwhile, I'd forgotten we had arranged for Ronald Reagan to come on the same show.

Now it was just before halftime. I turned around, and there was Ronald Reagan with his arm around Lennon, explaining what was going on down on the field. And John looked absolutely enthralled. Here were two of the most political, ideological, and cultural opposites on the entire planet in the Monday-night booth -- acting exactly like father and son! - Frank Gifford</sub>

I do think I've heard that one before somewhere but thanks DED.

[bowiglou]

Come together is about Joe namath?...i always thought the rather cryptic lyrics were about something much deeper, though I had no idea what!!....shows how much I know


I'll admit, there have been many times when Bowie's lyrics have confounded me............

[Galactus]

What Wikipedia says about Come Together:

"Come Together" is a song by the rock band The Beatles. It was written mainly by John Lennon; Paul McCartney slowed it down and wrote the bass-riff, among other things. This song was the lead-off track on The Beatles' September 1969 album Abbey Road. One month later it also appeared as one of the sides of the group's twenty-first single (it was a double A-side, the other side being George Harrison's "Something") in the UK, their twenty-sixth in the US.
Here come ol' flat-top, he come groovin' up slowly
He got juju eyeball, he one holy rollah...

The song's history began with Lennon writing a song for Timothy Leary's failed gubernatorial campaign in California against Ronald Reagan, one which promptly ended when Leary was arrested for possession of marijuana. It was transformed by Lennon into a track with digs at McCartney and Harrison interspersed alongside tales of his Bagism movement with wife Yoko Ono. It was the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Chuck Berry's music publisher, Morris Levy, due to the fact that one line in "Come Together" closely resembled a line of Berry's You Can't Catch Me: (i.e. The Beatles' "Here come ol' flattop, he come groovin' up slowly" vs. Berry's "Here come up flattop, he was groovin' up with me"). After settling out of court, Lennon promised to record other songs owned by Levy, all of which were released on Lennon's 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll.

Lennon played rhythm guitar in addition to singing the vocal. Each exclamation of 'shoot' one hears during the opening bass line is actually 'shoot me', all though 'shoot' is immediately followed by a handclap which drowns out the word 'me'. McCartney played bass and the electric piano (estimated as "southern" by John), Harrison lead guitar, and Ringo Starr drums and maracas. It was produced by George Martin and recorded at the end of July 1969 at Abbey Road Studios.

[Fuzznuts]

Wash that cat, monkeybitch!

[pauledwardwagemann]

Finally! I was able to light a fire under Ken's ass and motivate him to post something original that was of interest(don't you feel better about yoruself now Ken?)--and thats really what this thread is about. Song interpretations. There are no right or wrong answers. Songs can be whatever you want them to be about. That's the beauty of music. The meaning of a song can even change into something completely different than what the artist originally intended it to be. Some songs tap into a culture consciousness, others even a cosmic consciousness--and that's because music is bigger than the individual.

One of my favorite lyrics is to Iggy Pop's Repoman:

I was a teenage dinosaur. Stoned and obsolete.
I didn't get fucked and I didnt get kissed. I got so fucking pissed.
Using my hands as an ashtray. I'm the Repoman

I like to think of the Repoman as a metaphor for the concept of an "equalizer" or more specifically as an equalizing force in nature (or human nature perhaps) that prevents someone from overextending his reach. The Repoman comes and takes things away that people can't afford or don't deserve. And it's not just in a material sense. A metaphysical Repoman can take other things away from people who don't deserve them: things like happiness, peace of mind, love, etc. The question is, who is the Repoman? Is it a force inside yourself that you have created to sabatage yourself from being happy, successful? The song also seems to be cognizant that something has casued this forse to be programmed inside of you--perhaps your parents, society, the government, the media, or perhaps any combination thereof...

[Galactus]

Wow, that's pretty deep man. So if my parents take my shit it's like them taking my happiness away, but it wasn't really them it was really me who took my shit? Awesome.