46. Interview: David Wilcox discusses Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill"
Sounds Out of Time, episode 46
David Wilcox came out of the folk scene in the late 1980s, and he has been writing songs that are like little jewel boxes ever since. He distills his music down to its essence. Every phrase counts.
David talked in depth about how writing songs transforms him. “The process of writing it [a song], if you really take your time, changes your heart and mind. It rewires how you see the world,” he said.
I was surprised when he told me he wanted to talk about Peter Gabriel’s song “Solsbury Hill,” because in my mind David was a folkie and Peter Gabriel was more or less the opposite. That was lazy thinking on my part. It turned out he had a whole lot to say about “Solsbury Hill,” and he even sang a bit of it.
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Recent inspirations:
Keith Jarrett Quartet with Dewey Redman, 1973. (youtube.com) - h/t Scott Metzger.
Q+A with drummer Billy Hart. (sfjazz.org)
Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, “Russian Lullaby,” 1950. (youtube.com)
“Cate Le Bon Chooses Absurdity.” (pitchfork.com)
Hiroshi Yoshimura, “Green.” (youtube.com)