Salmacis
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- Joined: 5/18/2002
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RE: Genesis Album Discussion Thread Volume 6: Selling England By the Pound
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Friday, September 16, 2005 5:22 PM
An awe-inspiring album. One of the ultimate defining prog albums. One of their few albums with no real 'centerpiece' cut. Between "Moonlit Knight", "Firth" and "Cinema Show", there is no clear winner. Other albums have their "Supper's Ready"s and their "Musical Box"es, but this one is just rock solid from beginning to end, with the notable exception of "Epping", which I like but is the obvious weak spot due to what has already been stated:
The band members usually cringe when talking about this song, feeling that all of the instruments are battling each other for the primary focus of the song.
Actually, the band really likes the instrumental of this, I've never heard them say anything negative about the music. Banks has said he loved Pete's lyrics, but the problem is the two of them do not blend. The problem was, they didn't have time to work it out properly before recording it. I've always found it strange that they played it for the full tour. Pete wore a nylon stocking over his head! One listen to the Selling England studio sessions will convince anybody that the band is right: the song was amazing as an instrumental, especially the slightly slower version they were jamming in the studio. Phil rules! I highly recommend any version of those sessions to you guys - so cool to hear them jamming, talking, arguing (Phil telling Pete to "settle down!" when he is trying to come up with parts of "Epping"), etc... Here are a couple of neat quotes from my "Book Of Genesis" (I had to type these in, or else I'd post more): PHIL: 'The Battle Of Epping Forest' just has too many words per minute. If we had worked on the lyrics beforehand, or if there'd been a melody to start with, we could have said "Hang on, we'll take a breather here." As it is, you end up having to take the record off to have a burst of oxygen before you can listen to the next track! It literally left Pete out of breath on stage quite regularly; although he did sing it with a stocking over his head - which didn't help matters!
PETER: I really got carried away with the lyrics for 'Battle Of Epping Forest'. I enjoyed writing them, but they didn't fir the music and by that point it was too late in the day. What happened was that I insisted on doing most of the words as I thought I could do them better than the others - which, I think, was true. The problem was that I was incredibly slow, so that, often, by the time they saw the lyrics, they would have done their parts. The backing tracks would be complete but there were no melodies and no words.
...anyway, on to "Firth". This is an incredible song (and yeah, Banks' lyrics are a little whacked on this one. Undinal??), and to me contains the ultimate moment in Genesis' entire history (I know there are a lot, but this one is THE ultimate moment): Steve's solo during the middle section. When they played in live on the Wind & Wuthering tour in '77, with Phil & Chester bashing away, and Mike's chest-rumbling bass pedals, and the 747 landing lights cascading down on them - THE BEST GENESIS MOMENT EVER. I've always loved Banks' intro to the song too, which he only did on one leg of the tour. He has said that he "kept quiet" about that solo because that sort of thing was 'frowned upon'. Not sure exactly who he means, whether it was band members or just the public in general. "Moonlit Knight" is another favorite of mine, just a cracking intro to the album! I'd love to cover this song. I think that if DT were to cover this album, I'd be in my glory. And it would be SO cool to hear James start off a song finally! Just have him walk on the stage and start singing "Can you tell me where my country lies...." - WOW that would be awesome. Here's more tidbits, this time about IKWIL: TONY: It came from a riff that Steve had been playing for years. We just jammed on it for hours during some of the better days when making this album. I think the day it really took off was when I was playing the fuzz electric piano and the organ. The electric piano was slightly out of tune with the organ, and the effect was just amazing. Pete was making funny noises into a mike, and we were working out a melody line for the verse.
STEVE: It was a riff that I'd been playing with Phil, right back at the time of 'Foxtrot' (*), which the rest of the band felt was too Beatle-ish. We just kept on playing it and it became 'I Know What I Like'. We used to joke about it as our hit single. Everyone used to say "Oh, pass the hit single please, will you." We sat around and Pete & Phil jammed a vocal which developed from something on the guitar, and it was transformed from something which sounded a little too much like The Beatles to something which sounded a lot like Genesis. It became the first little bit of plastic which got anywhere in the charts.
(*) - Sal's note: "Firth" was also batted around during the Foxtrot sessions but Phil wanted to rework it so it was shelved until Selling England. OK, one last one from this time period, I'm getting all typed out. (See what I do for you guys?  ) - This is just one I thought you'd find interesting: PETER: Tony and I knew each other very well by now, and were a combination of the best of friends and worst enemies. Like any long-term relationship, as with a married couple for instance, you get to know each others' Achilles' heel. You turn the screw and you know exactly how to pulverise the opposition. He was slightly better at it than me largely because he had a better defense mechanism. It was all part and parcel of our relationship, which included moments that were really positive and good.
I felt very easy with Phil. There were times at some gigs when we used to go into a room to get away from it all and sit down together at a piano. My piano playing was humble, and at that point, Phil's was even more humble. We used to sing with each other and get into grooves. He was very much into an American style of singing, a soft Richie Havens - the type of singing that you can still hear in some of his songs today. My style was quite different, a sort of weird English thing - the way I sounded on 'Willow Farm' in the middle of 'Supper's Ready' or 'Harold The Barrel' or whatever.
They were great moments. I think we would both fantasise then about making music on our own, or doing things together.
I felt that Mike and I could talk things through and change positions or at least admit to being seen to change positions. Tony was more insecure in some ways, and could not be seen to let go of what he'd originally argued for. This is what really interests me when I see other bands - their internal structure. It's interesting to observe any group of people that are functioning as a collaborative team on a creative project as there's always an immense amount of ego manipulation.
Phil could be a terrible coward. I had originally asserted a lot of influence over the choice of a new drummer and, at the time, i felt that I got a sort of soul brother int he band, in terms of feel. When there were arguments, I would look to Phil, as I thought that he would be in support of what I was saying, and he would sit on the fence, and refuse to budge. Other times, when he was basically in support of Tony's position and opposed to me, he would still be afraid of committing himself.
Tony was always the most difficult about having his stuff rejected. We'd all submit bits, and people would only like a certain number of them. After he'd stormed out of the room twice, you didn't want another major explosion from him, so you'd say "OK Tony, let's go with that."
Then Phil would have to work very hard to try and loosen up Tony's stuff. Mike's stuff tended - and my stuff too, I think - to have more feel to it. But Tony used to come up with great melodies.
<message edited by Salmacis on Friday, September 16, 2005 5:24 PM>
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