What is this song about?

Kilgore

Black Francis has a bit of a reputation for penning impenetrable lyrics. 

Vintage65

Tannin said:

I happened to be listening to Sailsbury Hill earlier today. Always been a good song, got horribly overexposed a few years back but a good 'un nevertheless. It struck me that: "Pack your bags I'm going to take you home" is the only line I actually know the words to. 

In short, I haven't got the faintest idea what the song is actually about.  

Winny_Pooh

tony99 said:

Haych said:

Ah, and then we have artists like Tori Amos, whose lyrics are probably incredibly deep but written in such a cryptic manner than nobody can understand what she's on about most of the time.

Well I know that Cornflake Girl is about female genital mutilation rather than well known popular branded breakfast cereals.

Women betraying other women to be precise.

Boromedic

drofluf said:

<Pedant mode> it’s “Solsbury” but I’ll forgive you as, from your perspective, the two places are virtually next door

For me most of R.E.M.’s early stuff is pretty opaque. For example, Moral Kiosk

Scratch the scandals in the twilight 
Trying to shock but instead 
Idle hands all orient to her 
Pass a magic pillow under head 

It's so much more attractive
Inside the moral kiosk 

Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight 
Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight

They scratch the scandals in the twilight 
She was laughing like a Horae 
Put that knee in dour landslide 
Take this step to dash a roving eye 

It's so much more attractive
Inside the moral kiosk 

Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight 
Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight

Oh, oh

Scratch the scandals in the twilight 
Trying to shock but instead 
Idle hands all orient to her 
Pass a magic pillow under head 

It's so much more attractive
Inside the moral kiosk 

Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight 
Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight

Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight 
Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight

I love early REM, and like the fact that the songs are more about evocative things, they stir emotions and feelings in the listener that is in some instances completely different to the idea that Stipe and the band probably had in mind at the time. That gives a lot of their earlier material a gift to the listener in that you make the song what you want. There's definitely a theme that comes from their name, in that the songs are more dreamscape, like REM sleep and therefore it's meanings can be interpreted in different ways.

From reading many of their interviews and books, I don't think it's deliberate. There's also a lot of child like imagery, themes of childhood and innocence that resonates in there too. I think in a lot of ways, it's pretty much a scrapbook poetry art project to Stipe so the songs reflect that, in so much as Peter says unless something really caught his ear, he never asked Michael what the meaning was. 

Personal faves include Gardening At Night and Driver 8, which certainly with Driver 8 had a theme but the listener takes it wherever they feel. Gardening At Night was about a local figure who did in fact garden at night but there's elements in there about things that happened like change falling out of someone's pockets! It's totally meaningless and yet means everything to me in a weird way. Not many artists have moved me like their early records do. 

jonnyburgo

Coctaeu Twins, you think you can pick one or two words out but can't figure the meaning, then you actually look at the lyrics and the words that you thought you knew aren't those words and it all still makes no sense. But sounds fantastic. 

PeteBo

jonnyburgo said:

Coctaeu Twins, you think you can pick one or two words out but can't figure the meaning, then you actually look at the lyrics and the words that you thought you knew aren't those words and it all still makes no sense. But sounds fantastic. 

Elizabeth Frazer was quite clear that she used words purely for the sound, and didn't understand them herself, including using bits of random foreign language.
One of my favourite bands, particularly like Robin Guthrie's guitar approach, great stuff

axisus

merlin said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solsbury_Hill_(song)

That was a fascinating read, what intrigued me the most was the power that Bob Ezrin seemed to hold as Producer:

Ditched the prominent electric guitar, insisted the guitarist (Steve Hunter) use a 12 string (but accepted regular acoustic in the end)

Rather than employ a full drum kit, Ezrin removed Allan Schwartzberg's cymbals and placed a shaker in one hand and a drum stick in another, which he used to strike a telephone directory.

The song originally had seven different parts, but Ezrin helped Gabriel pare it down to a shorter length.

Solsbury Hill was almost left off his first album. Ezrin attributed this to the final line of the chorus, which was originally "make your life a taxi not a tomb", which he refused to allow on the album. He commented that the song "was not going on the record until we found the proper last line". During the final day of mixing, Gabriel changed the line to "grab your things I've come to take you home", which Ezrin accepted

stufisher

Just as @Danny1969 mentioned ... here's some back story intel:

https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-meaning-of-solsbury-hill-by-peter-gabriel/?origin=serp_auto

maltingsaudio

48 crash is a silk sash bash …….simples!

PolarityMan

Been wondering for years what this one's about

Emp_Fab

I think it's about Nicotine, Valium, Wankalittle, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcohol.

Sporky

A Solsbury Hill is a Midlands lunch - a big whipe bap, buttered, and filled with chips and slices of black pudding.

It'll make sense if you eat one while listening.