Synopsis

Peter Gabriel appears within a surreal collage of painted surfaces, fragmented portraits, home-movie images, and dreamlike rural scenes. The video mixes Gabriel's own appearances with footage of a cabbage picker, abstract figures, and imagery that suggests transformation, release, and a break from ordinary routines. Rather than presenting a literal climb up Solsbury Hill, it creates an impressionistic visual counterpart to the song's account of leaving behind an old life and trusting an uncertain new direction.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Solsbury Hill" was released on March 21, 1977, as the first single from Gabriel's debut solo album, *Peter Gabriel*, commonly known as *Car*.

• No promotional video was made for the original 1977 single. The official video was assembled later from several sources, including footage shot in 1977 and 1990, Gabriel's home movies, and excerpts from the short film *Cabbages* by David Stewart and Wesley West.

• The 1990 material grew out of an informal, low-budget session at Real World involving Gabriel and painter Graham Dean. Gabriel later described the project as essentially experimenting with a painter friend rather than mounting a conventional video production.

• The video deliberately feels like an art-film collage instead of a straightforward performance piece. Its disjointed editing and mixture of personal, painted, and found imagery reflect the song's movement from uncertainty toward liberation.

• The song is widely understood as Gabriel's autobiographical response to leaving Genesis. Its imagery of cutting connections and walking out of the machinery gives the later video a strong transition-and-reinvention context.

• The single reached No. 13 in the United Kingdom and No. 68 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It became one of Gabriel's most enduring live songs, despite its unusual 7/4 rhythm.