Erasure of Peter Gabriel
“Solsbury Hill” is my favorite Peter Gabriel song, not only for its intensely personal lyrics, but for the jaunty quirkiness that comes from the tune being in 7/4 time. I have difficulty explaining my reaction to first hearing the Erasure cover of the song. I can’t say I was appalled; I give covers of my most admired performers’ songs a fair chance, the best result being my fondness for Kurt Cobain’s acoustic rendition of David Bowie’s “Man Who Sold the World.” The Erasure treatment of “Solsbury Hill” left me … confused. I recognized it as Erasure ably spinning a song they respect into a dance tune. But something about it wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t until the second time I happened upon it that I realized the problem. It was no longer in 7/4 time. In turning it to a danceable 8/4 rhythm they completely lost the appealing lilt of the song. As this interview with the duo reveals (scroll down to “Changing Times”), it was indeed the dance nature of their drum work that led them to change the song to 8/4.