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Counting Out Time Review:

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:49 (A review of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway)

"Counting Out Time" is a song by progressive rock band Genesis off of their 1974 album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The song is more pop-like than the rest of Genesis' earlier work, possibly the cause of it being the lead single from this album. As part of the rock opera, this song describes the main character, Rael, as he attempts to make his way through a book he had bought a long time ago titled 'Erogenous Zones and Difficulties in Overcoming Finding Them.' This was one of the three songs included from The Lamb on Genesis' 3-disc compilation, Platinum Collection.

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In The Cage Review:

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:48 (A review of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway)

"In the Cage" is a song by progressive rock band Genesis off of their 1974 double-album and rock opera The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The song is one of their most popular songs from their earlier works, despite not being released on any of Genesis' compilation albums. The song is tied as the longest on the album at just over eight minutes, (along with side four's "The Colony of Slippermen"). The song itself has multiple musical themes that repeat throughout the piece. One interpretation of the lyrical portion of this song is that the rock opera's main character, Rael, has just woken up in a cave and that stalactites and stalagmites are gradually forming a cage around his body. It is stated that he then sees his brother John in the cage, (or likely hallucinates him), and cries out for help. John ignores him.

Musically, the song is notable for its prominent synthesizer solo, performed by keyboardist Tony Banks on an ARP Pro Soloist.


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The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:45 (A review of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway)

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (sometimes called simply The Lamb) is a two-record concept album recorded and released in 1974 by British progressive rock band Genesis. It was their seventh album (sixth studio album) and the last album by the group to feature the involvement of lead singer Peter Gabriel.

The album tells the surreal story of a half-Puerto Rican juvenile delinquent named Rael living in New York City, who is swept underground to face bizarre creatures and nightmarish dangers in order to rescue his brother John. Several of the story's occurrences and places were derived from Peter Gabriel's dreams, and the protagonist's name is a play on his surname. It should be noted that in an interview Phil Collins remarked, "It's about a schizophrenic." This would make the tale similar in some ways to the film "The Fisher King". Another interpretation comes from Gabriel himself who says it is about a "split personality". In this context, Rael would believe he is looking for John but is actually looking for a missing part of himself. The individual songs also make satirical allusions to everything from mythology to the sexual revolution to advertising and consumerism. The title track, as well as "The Carpet Crawlers" and "In the Cage", were still live favorites for the band into the 1990s.

Most of the music on the album was written by band members Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford, without Gabriel's participation. Gabriel insisted on writing the story and all the lyrics himself, which caused friction, in particular because Rutherford had originally suggested another project for the band - an album based on Antoine de Saint Exupéry's The Little Prince. Gabriel was absent from the album's writing and rehearsal sessions due to personal problems — his wife was having difficulties with her first pregnancy — which added to the strain. However, Banks and Rutherford wrote the words for "The Light Dies Down on Broadway", as Gabriel could not come up with a linking piece between "Ravine" and "Riding the Scree".

During the album's pre-production, Gabriel was contacted by filmmaker William Friedkin, (at the time enjoying great success with The Exorcist), about a possible film project, after Friedkin read Gabriel's short story on the sleeve of Genesis' 1973 live album. Despite his bandmates' disapproval, Gabriel left them to work on some early script drafts. However the project came to nothing (Friedkin instead working with Tangerine Dream to make his next film, Sorcerer), and Gabriel returned to the band.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway met with mixed reviews, and reached #10 in the UK, while nearly cracking the U.S. Top 40, reaching # 41 and eventually going gold. The band went on a world tour upon its release, performing the album in its entirety 102 times. The Lamb Tour was slated to begin on October 29, 1974; but due to an injury to Steve Hackett's hand, the tour was postponed until November 12, 1974; days prior to the album's release to the public. Opening night for the tour commenced at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois; November 20, 1974. The final show on The Lamb tour was May 27, 1975 at the Palais Des Sports in Besançon, France. Early into the tour, Gabriel decided he would be leaving Genesis, although he would finish the tour amicably with the band and not go public until August 1975. The album eventually would go Gold in the US in later years.

A digitally remastered version was released on CD in 1994 on Virgin in Europe and on Atlantic in the US and Canada. The remastered CD's booklet features the lyrics and story that came with the original vinyl although some of the inner sleeve artwork was not re-produced.

A SACD / DVD double disc set (including new 5.1 and Stereo mixes) is planned for release in late 2007/early 2008.

Musically, the album is a mixed effort, filled with brilliant moments linked in a collage which does not always cohere, just like the ever-changing dream-scenery of the lyrics. Banks continues to dominate, with his use of synthesizers coming to increasingly define the band's sound, while Collins' drumming continues to get technically more adventurous. Like the Beatles' White Album, this double album gains in diversity what it loses in coherence, providing in fragments the various members of the band a chance to take risks, even if the final result is more like a quilt than a tapestry. Full of short, more pop-oriented tunes than previous outings, but linked by a diverse set of instrumental interludes, this album opts for a series of short, linked segments, over the more long form compositions of previous outings. Thematic repetitions throughout the album work to bring these various fragments towards a greater unity, with mixed results.

Compared to the folkish whole of Selling England... the Lamb is more extreme in all senses - the soft songs whisper ("The Lamia", "Cuckoo Cocoon"), the harder songs have an almost proto-punk edge to them ("Back in N.Y.C.", "In the Cage") and there are even songs that integrate musical experimentation in an extremely compact form ("Anyway"). "The Waiting Room" is reminiscent of the sonic stylings of avant-garde producer Brian Eno (who contributed to the album's recording sessions, in return for Collins playing drums on Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy) album). Tony Banks was later quoted as saying that he didn't feel that Eno had contributed sufficiently to be credited on the basis that he just twiddled a few knobs.

Following the tour to support this album, Genesis would lose Gabriel, and, with him, the sarcastic whimsy of his lyrics, as well as his flamboyant live performance, both of which many saw as essential to the band. Still, even with the loss of Gabriel's idiosyncratic melodic sensibility, the band's evolution towards melody, intensity, and compositional focus would continue with the next album, A Trick of the Tail and while the band most definitely changed, its reputation as one of the most influential progressive outfits would continue — with varying degrees of success — for years to come.





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Aisle of Plenty Review:

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:28 (A review of Selling England By The Pound)

"Aisle of Plenty" is the final song on the 1973 Genesis album "Selling England by the Pound". It is not so much its own song as a reprise of the eight-minute opening number "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight". The acoustic line that opens the song is repeated several times at the end of the previous track "The Cinema Show", thereby "connecting" the two tracks.

This track, the shortest on the album at a mere 1:32, is peppered with wordplay which may possibly escape those not familiar with the store names it references. Peter Gabriel incorporated them into the lyric, thus:

"Thankful for her fine fair discount, Tess co-operates...."
At the time, Fine Fare was a major grocery store chain in the UK, and both Tesco and the Co-op (The Co-operative Group) were, and still are, names of grocery stores.

There were also unconfirmed rumours that the interwoven lyrics which closed the song were actually taken from Peter Gabriel's own shopping list.


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The Cinema Show Review:

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:26 (A review of Selling England By The Pound)

"The Cinema Show" is an epic rock song by British progressive rock band Genesis off of their 1973 album, Selling England by the Pound. The song references two characters, named Juliet and Romeo, who appear to be readying themselves for a date at a cinema show. The song also references "Father" Tiresias, who was turned into a woman for seven years by the Goddess Hera because he struck a couple of copulating snakes. When she transformed him back into a man, he became caught up in an argument between Hera and Zeus about which gender derives more pleasure from sex. They asked Tiresias, as he had experienced sex as a member of both genders. He replied that it is the woman who gets more pleasure ("there is in fact more earth than sea"), and in her rage, Hera struck him blind. Because of this, Zeus granted him the gift of foresight. Musically, the song starts out quietly based on a keyboard melody. After the second verse, it becomes a little louder. After the third verse, a short flute solo by Peter Gabriel is heard. The third verse is then repeated before segueing into a 4-and-a-half minute keyboard solo by Tony Banks. The solo, in the unusual time signature of 7/8, has frequently been integrated into the "Cage" melody that appeared in later years

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The Battle of Epping Forest Review:

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:23 (A review of Selling England By The Pound)

"The Battle of Epping Forest" is a song by English rock band Genesis, appearing on their 1973 album Selling England by the Pound.

Inspired, according to the liner notes, by a news story about two rival gangs' territorial battles, the lyrics play out as such, featuring characters such as "Mick the Prick" and "Bob the Knob" as they battle for turf. The song is particularly characteristic for singer Peter Gabriel's changing of voices for different characters as well as the frequent changes in tempo.

The song was performed live during the tour to support Selling England, featuring Gabriel moving around the stage telling the story, and even "flying" (he was attached to a harness) early on before this was dropped for safety reasons).

The band's feelings about the song are mixed. In Hugh Fielder's The Book of Genesis, the band members seem to agree that, although the track was intended to be the album's focal point, it falls short on account of having too many lyrics that don't always fit the music and an altogether too-busy arrangement. The song was dropped from the band's setlist after the Selling England tour, whereas other songs from the album -- such as "I Know What I Like," "Firth of Fifth" and "The Cinema Show" -- remained in the setlist for many years afterward


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Firth Of Fifth Review:

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:21 (A review of Selling England By The Pound)

"Firth of Fifth" is an epic rock song by progressive rock band Genesis from their 1973 album Selling England by the Pound. The title is a pun on the name of a river in Scotland, the Firth of Forth.

The song starts out with a classical-style grand piano introduction by Tony Banks before switching tempo toward the first section of lyrics, with a pounding drum line and majestic chord progression on the organ. The song then features a gentle flute melody followed by a synth-driven instrumental which restates the opening piano theme. Steve Hackett then plays a solo (an interpretation of the flute melody) using one of his signature violinesque guitar tones. Peter Gabriel then sings a brief section of lyrics before Tony concludes the song on piano.

At over nine minutes long, this song is normal for Genesis' work during their progressive rock period. This is also one of the band's most popular early works, featured on their second compilation album Platinum Collection.

Although "Firth of Fifth" is credited to the entire band, Tony Banks would later claim that much of the music was developed from his own ideas (the flute and guitar solos were, in fact, interpretations of a melody that Tony wrote on piano.) Tony also wrote much of the lyrics, though he would later state in Hugh Fielder's The Book of Genesis that it was one of the worst sets of lyrics he'd been involved with.

Peter Gabriel would tell a story before the performance of the song while on tour. The story is about a group of travellers who were dying of thirst. They came upon a group of dead bodies. Because the human body is approximately 75% water, they started jumping on the bodies to try and extract water from their mouths. However, they soon realized that it was taking more energy to get the water out of the bodies than they would receive. They realized this fact as they finished jumping on the fifth body. Being that he was a Scotsman, he called his mouth the "firth." Thus it was the "Firth of [the] fifth [body]." This story seems unrelated to the lyrics of the song.


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I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) Re

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:17 (A review of Selling England By The Pound)

"I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" was the first charting single by the rock band Genesis. Its original b-side was the non-album track, "Twilight Alehouse." The single was first released in the UK in August of 1973.

"I Know What I Like" is also the second track on the Selling England by the Pound album. A lighthearted pop song, it provides a moment of relief after the opening number, "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight." The Selling England album cover, which was famous in its own right, provided inspiration for the song.

The song's lyrics, like much of Peter Gabriel's in his Genesis days, tell a story. It portrays a young man who pushes a lawn mower for a living and shares his philosophy on life that he does not want to grow up and do great things, being perfectly happy where he is. It can be argued that the song takes some inspiration from the themes of the 1967 classic film The Graduate, such as the lines "Sunday night Mr. Farmer called, said 'Listen son, you're wasting time! There's a future for you in the fire escape trade, come up to town!'" (similar to that of the infamous "plastics" line).

The song has a somewhat Eastern sound, full of hand percussion rhythms and an electric sitar riff from Mike Rutherford (played in concert by Steve Hackett), and it foreshadows the world music that Gabriel would later experiment with in his solo career. Rutherford's bass playing is also highly prominent, and guitarist Steve Hackett uses a unique effect during the intro and ending to imitate the sound of a lawn mower.

"I Know What I Like" was the band's biggest pop hit for many years and was the first tentative step in bringing Genesis into the mainstream. Its success would not be topped until And Then There Were Three's "Follow You Follow Me," some five years later, and it remains the band's biggest hit without Phil Collins as frontman.



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Dancing with the Moonlit Knight Review:

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:07 (A review of Selling England By The Pound)

"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" is the first track on the Genesis album Selling England by the Pound, released in 1973.

The powerful a capella voice from Peter Gabriel opens the track. Then, the song progressively gets louder and more upbeat, becoming a powerful rock number.

It is notable that guitarist Steve Hackett used the tapping and sweep-picking techniques on this song. Dancing With the Moonlit Knight´s lyrics are an ironic commentary on contemporary England that employs references to English staples like Wimpy hamburgers and Green Shield Stamps.

The album's closing song, "Aisle of Plenty", is a reprise of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight". This gives the album a book-end effect. This effect is also featured on later albums by the band, such as A Trick of the Tail and Duke.


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Selling England By The Pound Review:

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 May 2007 05:05 (A review of Selling England By The Pound)

Selling England by the Pound is the fifth studio album by the progressive rock band Genesis and was recorded and released in 1973. It followed Foxtrot and was the band's commercial peak with Peter Gabriel, hitting # 3 in the UK. The album would eventually go Gold in the US in 1990.

The album cover is a painting by Betty Swanwick called The Dream. The original painting did not feature a lawn mower; the band had Swanwick add it later as an allusion to the song "I Know What I Like."

A digitally remastered version was released on CD in 1994 on Virgin in Europe and on Atlantic Records in the US and Canada. The remastered booklet features the lyrics and credits which were missing on the original CD.

A SACD / DVD double disc set (including new 5.1 and Stereo mixes) is planned for release in late 2007/early 2008.

Theme:

Retaining the pastoral yearning for ancient or medieval England as its primary thematic material, the album focuses on traces of this past in the present. Songs about England's mythological past ("Dancing With the Moonlit Knight") co-exist with sketches of contemporary lawnmowers ("I Know What I Like"), and the centerpiece of the second side, the epic "Cinema Show", has two lovers serve as reincarnations of ancient Greek figures in a way which is almost directly out of the "Fire Sermon" scene in T.S. Eliot's epic poem The Waste Land.

Sound & Live performance:

The musical performances are much more polished and tight than on the preceding LPs. Musical diversions are more often unified into the general song structure. In particular, Steve Hackett's guitar solos in "Firth of Fifth" show his unique voice on guitar at its best, while the song opens with a highly structured classically inspired piano-instrumental by Banks. As with previous efforts, unusual time signatures and shifts in key and pace continue as key structural devices, and while these formal aspects are no less present on this album, they often serve to support the general melodies of the songs, rather than dominate them. In fact, this album in general shows a focus on melody as the structural unifying force of the songs, as opposed to having the music center around Gabriel's vocal and lyrical forays.

The album contains many pieces that would become central to Genesis' live act for years to come, particularly "Firth of Fifth" and "Cinema Show," both of which use short lyrical sketches to frame extended instrumental compositions. Along with "The Battle of Epping Forest," a song based upon a gangland brawl yet full of references to the squabbles for the English countryside of the far removed past, songs such as "Firth" and "The Cinema Show" make prominent use of synthesizers, introduced to the band's sound on this album. Compositionally, "The Cinema Show" provides the climax for the album's second side, starting off with Rutherford and Hackett's trademark intertwining acoustic guitars, providing the backdrop for mythological lyrics, and leading to a long-form synthesizer solo by Banks. This anthemic solo section would later form the melodic centerpiece of the extended instrumentals at the core of the band's 'Cage Medley' (a combination of song excerpts that Genesis would perform live years after it had stopped performing other songs from the 70's), demonstrating Banks' increasing role as one of the band's primary songwriters.

Ending with the reprise of motifs from the start of the album, "Aisle of Plenty" mournfully brings the album full circle to where it began - nostalgia for old England. The album also produced the shorter track "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", which became Genesis' first single to receive any sort of chart action, hitting #17 in the UK in April 1974.





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