Music Monday: Songs of Our Lives Meme

30: A song that reminds you of yourself

Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel

"Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill" (Watch on YouTube)

I was haunted by this song from when I first heard it. It came out the year I turned 19, not long after I had my first major depressive episode on my own as an adult. The weird mysticism, the percussion beat to the odd 7/4 time signature, the theme of alienation from those who think they know you ("To keep in silence I resigned / My friends would think I was a nut"), and the yearning to go home (and at this point, my real home was pretty broken) hit me hard.

And then at the end, the singer realizes he doesn't need his things, all he needs is his actual home, where he can be himself. My spirit still rises in anticipation every time I hear the opening bars, and my heart is full in sympathy every time he sings "My heart going 'boom boom boom.""

( Cut for complete lyrics )

The video is weird as all get out: I'm not sure what the cabbage theme at the fade-out has to do with anything.