Genesis: Selling England by the Pound (1973)
Tony Banks - Keyboards, Acoustic Guitar, Background Vocals
Phil Collins - Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Peter Gabriel - Lead Vocals, Flute, Oboe, Percussion
Steve Hackett - Electric and Acoustic Guitars
Mike Rutherford - Bass, Bass Pedals, Guitar, Electric Sitar, Cello, Background Vocals
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
Firth of Fifth
More Fool Me
The Battle of Epping Forest
After the Ordeal
The Cinema Show
Aisle of Plenty
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The most successful album thus far by the classic five-piece lineup, it reached #3 in the UK and spent a total of 21 weeks on the charts. It was also the first album to have a single in the charts. "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" reached #21 on the UK Singles Chart.
Selling England by the Pound seemed to finally pull together the elements which Genesis had been developing separately on the previous albums, while still breaking new ground and taking some chances, resulting in an album with even greater artistic peaks than ever before.
The album opens
a capella, for the first time since
Trespass. "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" is the quasi-title track; its refrain contains the line "selling England by the pound", and if one didn't know better, one might think that that is actually the title of the song. There are many examples of wordplay on this album, including the title itself, which references dividing England and selling it a small quantity at a time, and also the fact that the pound is the standard English unit of currency. The musical theme introduced in "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" returns in the closing song "Aisle of Plenty" which also contains a number of plays on words. An "isle of plenty" refers to an island paradise where one wants for nothing; here it refers to aisles in a grocery store. The lyrics mention Safeway and Fine Fare, two grocery store chains in the U.K., and the phrase "Tess co-operates" likely refers to Tesco and The Co-op, two other grocery stores.
Mike, perhaps the most versatile musician in the band, not only plays bass, bass pedals, and guitar on this album, as he has in the past, but his cello makes another appearance, and he adds electric sitar to his resume, on the single "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)".
Tony has had acoustic piano breaks in the past, but he takes the spotlight here with his magnificent introduction to "Firth of Fifth". As with other albums from this period, all songs are credited to all five band members, but it's pretty obvious that Tony had a major hand in this one, and Mike and Steve both refer to it as "one of Tony's finest". The title, by the way, is likely a play on words based on the firth (estuary) of Scotland's River Forth, where it feeds into the North Sea.
Side One of the original LP closed with Phil's second outing on lead vocals, "More Fool Me". As with "For Absent Friends" from
Nursery Cryme, it is a short song with only voice and acoustic guitar. While "For Absent Friends" was written and performed by Phil and Steve, as their way of introducing themselves (
Nursery Cryme was the debut for both of them), "More Fool Me" was by Phil and Mike, who also performed it as a duo on the
Selling England by the Pound tour.
"The Battle of Epping Forest" is the longest track on the album and opens what was originally Side Two. While its title might seem to evoke a battle involving knights and armies, it's actually about territorial gang wars. More wordplay, perhaps.
A rare Genesis instrumental follows, Steve's composition "After the Ordeal". A somewhat uneven piece, Peter and Tony were actually against including it on the album. It was likely included because it was one of Steve's only songwriting contributions this time around.
Another mini-epic "The Cinema Show" follows. Its two characters are Romeo and Juliet, but these are not Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The lyrics, written by Tony and Mike, are instead inspired by T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland". After a flute solo by Peter and a reprise of the chorus, the song leads into an extended trio instrumental with Tony, Mike, and Phil. The trio in 7/8 is a series of musical vignettes by Tony on various keyboards with contrasting sounds. Genesis would revisit this format several times on later albums ("Second Home by the Sea" from
Genesis, "Duke's Travels" from
Duke, and "Fading Lights" from
We Can't Dance all feature similar sections) but this was the first, and possibly the most interesting due to its unusual time signature.
The instrumental section of "The Cinema Show" switches to 4/4 and, after a few clever modulations courtesy of Tony, falls into a reprise of the opening track titled "Aisle of Plenty", bookending the album.
For the first time, the album features a cover painting not by Paul Whitehead, and not inspired by lyrics found on the album. Instead, the band commissioned a piece by Betty Swanwick called "The Dream". With a little imagination, the painting seems to reference bits of "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" but the lawnmower was added at the band's request so as to make the assocation more clear, so it was actually the other way around.
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At over 53 minutes total time, this was Genesis' longest album yet, and in some ways its most ambitious. Many Genesis fans regard it as their favorite, but that is true of pretty much every Genesis album. They are each so different, with not a weak one in the lot, that it's only natural that each one would have its champions.
Personally, I had a lot of trouble getting into this one. I recognize its brilliance, but while there's a lot of great work on this album, somehow it never quite comes together for me. It starts strong, but 5:35 into "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" when it seems to be building up to a big ending to cap off a great instrumental section, it instead downshifts and switches to a quiet, introspective bit that wanders around for another two and a half minutes.
The instrumental "After the Ordeal" just doesn't seem to work. Everything sounds quite nice, and there's some great guitar work and nice guitar-and-keyboard interplay, but it all feels rather tentative. Then halfway through, a strong melody on lead guitar finally emerges, making everything up to that point feel like an introduction. But it doesn't last; instead it falls into refrain which repeats, introduces a few variations, and fades out. It just seems rather unsatisfying, and I wasn't surprised to learn that Tony and Peter (the band's unofficial leaders) really didn't want to include it. As much as I like instrumentals, I think the album may have been stronger overall without it.
Part of my problem with this album -- and I freely admit that it's
my problem -- is that I picked it up after owning
Seconds Out for many years. While I was thrilled to discover that "Firth of Fifth" had that amazing piano intro in 13/16 (which inspired myself and I'm sure countless other pianists to spend hours learning it by ear) and flute solo by Peter, my reaction to "The Cinema Show" was the exact opposite. On
Seconds out, the 7/8 instrumental makes the 4/4 transition, then switches back to 7/8 and builds up to a great ending. Here, it seems to fizzle out. True, the way it segues into "Aisle of Plenty" is actually pretty clever. But as with the opening track, we get a hint of building up to a big ending, and instead things downshift and honestly leave me feel more than a little unsatisfied.
"I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" is nice enough, but again, I've been spoiled by the live version, with the tambourine dance and that great solo by Steve and its quotes from various other Genesis songs. Here, it's a single. Peter says that the band had been trying to write a hit single for a while and finally managed to do it; Tony seems rather embarassed by it and doesn't seem to hold the song in high regard.
"The Battle of Epping Forest" is another song that sounds good on paper (a 12-minute mini-epic) but it just seems to suffer from too many ideas and not enough direction. There's some great playing and some clever lyrics, but overall it just doesn't gel for me.
Okay time for me to shut up and let others talk about this album. It's not a bad album by any means, and it even has probably my single favorite Genesis track in "Firth of Fifth". But other than the debut, it's my least favorite Gabriel-era album.
Topic: Genesis Discography (Read 54814 times)
