ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Since I was just on the topic of Genesis the other day, I’ll go ahead and bring this up even though it might seem odd to be fixating on Grumpy Reunion Tour Phil Collins one day and then Mysteriously Old Peter Gabriel the next. Anyway, I happen to really like the Peter Gabriel song “Solsbury Hill”, and sometimes I listen to it on repeat for hours on end, but I’ve never bothered to actually look up the lyrics before. I mean, I had some idea that some of them were not what I thought, but I wasn’t actually concerned enough about it to bother correcting my misconceptions. Also, sometimes I wind up being very disappointed by what I learn.

As it turned out, I was mostly right about how I’d guessed. Only toward the end where he’s getting more and more unclear do I start to get way off. And in some places I don’t even know what he’s saying. I mean, there are some sections where it totally sounds like he’s speaking another language.

Inilushy sinnered turns out to be When illusion spin her net. And libbertayshee firu et turns out to be liberty she pirouette which makes about as much sense anyway.

More importantly, there’s this line that goes:

Today I don’t need a replacement
I’ll tell them what the smile on my face meant

When I saw this the whole song just fit together better. I mean, I knew he couldn’t really be singing I’ll tell them ’bout the style of my basement. This song is about spiritual awakening or something. Or it’s about Peter Gabriel being kidnapped by a giant eagle after doing a lot of drugs, I don’t know. But it’s sure as hell not about how he decorates his basement.