GENESIS: Selling England by the Pound
It was
the 5th studio album by the Genesis, and it was released on 12th of October
1973.
It was
the 5th studio album by the Genesis, and it was released on 12th of October
1973.
It was their first album that reached the
charts, peaking at No.3 in UK, and remained in the charts for 21 weeks in
total.
The
beautiful 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’.
On
this album the sound is slightly changed when compared to the previous albums.
Is more melodic, more soft and the sound is more ‘illustrated’ I could say, and
it contains some of the best moments in the Genesis’ first era. (The one with
Peter Gabriel). It also contains their first charting single ‘I know what I
like’ that peaked at No.21 in the UK singles charts. (In the B-side of this
single was the superb ‘Twilight Alehouse’, one of the best 5 songs of Genesis
in my opinion).
The
album opens with Peter Gabriel's the’ a-cCapella’ on ‘Dancing of the
Moonlight Knight’, again one of the best 5 songs of Genesis. (Again in my
opinion)… (A Capella means singing without music in the background). The sad
tune at the start of the song slowly changes, more instruments are added, and
the rhythm becomes faster. Many music styles can be found in this song in its
many changes before the –again sad- finale.
The second track is ‘I know what I like’ , a
rather “Pop” song (for Genesis’ style I mean), that was their only hit single,
followed by the epic ‘Firth of Fifth’ with the glorious piano solo in the
start.
The A-side closes with the ballad ‘More Fool
Me’, the second song that Phil Collins was on lead vocals. (The first was ‘For Absent Friends’ from the
album ‘Nursery Cryme’). (You can read about that album in the same series of
posts, at No.1)
The B-side opens with the weird ‘The Battle of
Epping Forest’. Even the band was having second thoughts about it, but they
finally put it in the record. But its difficulty and complexity made it very
hard to be performed live without mistakes. So, after the ‘Selling England…’
tour it was never performed live again.
‘After the Ordeal’ is an instrumental
piece with wonderful classic guitar and a majestic piano backing. That song
could be used as a (long) intro for the wonderful ‘The Cinema Show’ that is
next. Another great song, one of the
finest moments of the album.
The album is closing with the 1.32 – minute
long ‘Isle of Plenty’, that is not much of a song, but mostly a reprise of
‘Dancing with the Moonlight Knight’.
Well, now it’s the time to apologise for
making this post so long, but this album is a real music diamond, and a great
example of the Progressive Rock scene of the ‘70’s.
As an
epilogue, I will put Steve Hackett’s exact
words after learning that John Lennon was a fan of this album: ‘When I was
with Genesis I’ll never forget being on
tour in the USA in 1973, when we were trying to make it there, hearing John
Lennon say on WNEW (New York radio station) that he loved our album ‘Selling
England by the Pound’. Even if I never sell another album in my life, I will
always remember that. A tribute from Lennon, the great man himself listened to
our records. It gave us a heck of a buzz and a real encouragement’.
In the following video you can watch a live
performance of ‘Dancing with the Moonlight Knight’ from 1973. The sound is not
very good, but I believe it is worth watching this. Also, P. Gabriel is dressed
with his famous ‘Britannia’ costume.
P.S: It doesn’t really matter, but because I
mentioned a couple of times in the post about the best 5 songs of Genesis in my
opinion, I decided to write them down.
Here
they are: (In Chronological order)…
The Knife (Trespass – 1970)
Musical Box (Nursery Cryme – 1971)
Supper’s Ready (Foxtrot – 1972) (But only in
the live version that is included in the box set ‘Genesis Archives’)
Twilight Alehouse (B-side on the single ‘I
Know What I Like’ – 1973)
Dancing of the Moonlight Knight (Selling
England by the Pound – 1973)
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