j o n b

The place of Selling England By the Pound in the Genesis canon is one hotly debated among the band's faithful. Some find it lacking in the epic scope of Foxtrot's "Suppers Ready" or The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, while others find it difficult to penetrate the thicket of very English concepts in the lyrics. For others, myself included, this is the best of Genesis, a document of a band at the peak of its powers. Not only that, it is the ultimate example of Genesis's flavor of symphonic prog, an example that is still being imitated today. The album kicks off with an unaccompanied Peter Gabriel asking "Can you tell me where my country lies?", setting the stage for the lyrical tone to come. Steve Hackett once said that "selling England by the pound" was literally the platform of one of the major political parties in Britain in the early 1970s. As a result, most of the lyrics seem to relate to commentary on that time and place, which is either an interesting thing to be investigated (to do so, check out the link to "A Lament for Post War England" above) or something so dense as to ruin the album. For me, it is definitely the former. For all the head scratching the lyrics create, they never, in my mind, overshadow the music. In "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight," that includes some sublime Mellotron work (the "the captain leads his..." section) and nice guitar work from Hackett. Oddly, for this benchmark of prog, it also includes the band's first bonafide single success, "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)." It's not the album's best track, but it's enjoyable in a playful sort of way. The walking bass line in the chorus is one of my all time favorites. That leads to "Firth of Fifth," which may be the archetypal symphonic prog song. Tony Banks' acoustic piano intro gives way to the full band supporting Gabriel's mythic lyrics. The heart of the piece is the middle instrumental section, which begins with a mournful flute solo from Gabriel before kicking in a tricky up tempo section led by Banks's synth solo. From there, cue Hackett for a solo that is probably the standard to which all his disciples strive. Soaring and melodic, this is where Hackett shows that being a talented musician sometimes means not being the best technician in the world. The song concludes by returning to Gabriel's vocals. A classic. The rest of the album contains, in essence, two interstitial palette cleansers, two epics, and a coda. The two shorter tracks are effective in their way, although neither is spectacular. "More Fool Me" is noteworthy as the first appearance of Phil Collins on lead vocal, while "After the Ordeal" is a longing instrumental that suits its place on the album. That place is after "The Battle of Epping Forest," which is either a complete mess of over the top eccentricity or a sublime example of the band's lyrical style at its most absurd. It is based, rather loosely, I imagine, on gang fights which occurred in a certain area of London. I personally think the song works well, particularly the scathing ending where it is revealed that all the carnage was for naught as the heads of the factions flip a coin to "settle the score." Your mileage my vary. The other major track is "The Cinema Show," which includes a short vocal introduction about young lovers (and more mythic overtones) followed up by a long instrumental workout. The version on this album seems somewhat lifeless and dull compared to the live one on Seconds Out, but is still a fine piece, particularly with Hackett's guitar lines sliding in, out, and around the vocal lines in the first section. The album ends with a brief return to the opening vocal melody in "Aisle of Plenty." It brings the album together in a way that, while not truly a single concept, it certainly shares a similar mindset and point of view throughout. As I said, I think this is the peak of Genesis. From here it was only downhill, although fairly slowly so (until at least the 1980s). It's not surprising that the other releases of that year from the band's contemporaries were equally outstanding (think Larks' Tongues in Apsic, Brain Salad Surgery and Octopus, among others). Was it something in the water? Who knows. It was a very good year, and Selling England by the Pound was top of the heap. A classic. review by Jon Byrne — 3-2-03 —

b o b

There's not much I can add to the existing reviews here at Ground and Sky other than agreeing with them and adding some personal experience. This was one of the first full-out prog albums I ever heard (and as such, it's kind of hard to think of critically - there's too much nostalgia connected to it). At the time, I was somewhat familiar with Genesis' pop output (I think this was shortly after Invisible Touch came out), and I decided to give one of their earlier albums a try. I can clearly remember driving home from the mall, popping the cassette into my car's tape deck for the first time and being hit with Gabriel's naked voice sing/speaking the opening line... and wondering what the heck I'd gotten myself into. Needless to say, the album grew on me quite a bit after a few listens, and now I'd definitely have to agree that it's one of the classics of prog. The first track, "Firth of Fifth" and "The Cinema Show" should be required listening for any prog newbies. Particularly "Firth", which is about as perfectly constructed a symphonic prog song as exists, from Banks' piano introduction right through Hackett's emotional guitar solo. My only complaint about the album is that it lacks some energy, particularly compared to live versions of the same material. On the other hand, one could say that the studio tracks are more subtle and understated, which has its own kind of charm (Collins' drumming on "Cinema Show" is particularly sublime). I probably don't need to recommend this album to most prog fans, as they probably already have it. But if you're a fan of symphonic prog and haven't heard this album yet, what are you waiting for? review by Bob Eichler — 5-10-03 —

c o n r a d

Genesis released this album at the height of their musical creativity. The three classic Genesis albums came one after the other, and this was smack in the middle of them. It is notable for Genesis' continued studio experimentation, some very fine keyboard playing by Tony Banks, and lyrics that set the album very definitely in post-war England. Despite the fact that the album is dominated by Banks, the first two band members to take the spotlight in "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" are Peter Gabriel, with his a capella opening, and Steve Hackett, with a pseudo-medieval guitar style, in the spirit of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. The band continued to experiment with new sounds in the studio. The most notable example is of an electric piano and an organ playing the same chord very slightly out of key. The resultant "beating" is responsible for the lawnmower sound on "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)". Lyrically, this album takes a few unexpected turns. "The Battle of Epping Forest" is infamous for being based on a newspaper aritcle that nobody has read. The story of gangs fighting to decide on territory borders has not aged as badly as some would expect, because the fundamentals of this song are constant. Organising an all-out brawl to decide on territory will always be surreal, religious men of less than spotless character are always likely to be with us, and the wannabe gangster with a fine arts degree will always climb up the nearest tree when the going gets tough. This is social observation of a very English sort, and Genesis are inheritors of a tradition of parody shared by Lewis Carroll. The last minute of the album is what made the album so addictive for me. The chord sequence used is the same as that for the early part of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", but with less ornamentation. The effect on me was that I found myself wanting to play the start of the record again, so that I could hear the sequence played in its more developed form. Love or loathe the lyrics, this album contains some of the best music Genesis ever wrote. Tony Banks' keyboards have never sounded better, and the band continued to experiment with vigour and growing maturity. Is this the best album Genesis ever recorded? Maybe, but if not it is certainly very close to it. review by Conrad Leviston — 3-11-03 —