Genesis - Selling England by the Pound (1973)

Dan:

After moving to Miami in 1977, I kept hearing about a band named Genesis, like they were something special. As I read about them, one reviewer maligned their music as "ponderous Medieval suites." I took that as a positive and began investigating more deeply. 

I began with Trespass. Indeed, it was a Medieval suite replete with murderous wolves and threatening knives. I liked it. The following album, Foxtrot, was even stranger judging from the cover that pictured a red-dressed woman with a fox's head standing on a floe surrounded by sharks. Nursery Cryme also had disturbing cover art: a croquet-playing child poised to swing her mallet at decapitated heads. 

Despite their gruesome covers and themes, each LP contains great prog compositions, including gentler songs like "Time Table" from Foxtrot, "Harlequin" and "For Absent Friends" from Nursery Cryme, and "Visions of Angels" from Trespass. Each of these earlier albums tell compelling musical stories that helped to shape the emerging genre of progressive rock. 

Phil Collins had been with Genesis through all of the aforementioned albums (save Trespass), and frequently sang harmony vocals behind Peter Gabriel. He was given a rare lead vocal spot on Selling England by the Pound, on which he sang the brief "More Fool Me." Soon he would take over the band and adopt a more pop style, leading to outrage among dedicated fans but more album sales and popularity. I won't weigh in on that overworked controversy.

To my ears, Selling England by the Pound, is the best Genesis album. That's NOT because the earlier and subsequent albums were flawed in any way, but because Selling England is so good. It combines the narrative approach but anchors it in more contemporary English life. It includes the accustomed theme of conflict - "The Battle of Epping Forest" - which refers to a real park that is literally just outside many Londoners' doors. A modern version of Romeo and Juliet is the subject of "Cinema Show". The four lengthier tracks are superb in design and execution, beginning with the opener "Dancing with the Moonlight Knight," which nods to the Medieval themes of previous albums. 

"Firth of Fifth" is a masterpiece, highlighted by one of the most perfectly constructed guitar solos I've ever heard. It's not an improvised solo, of course, since Steve Hackett plays the same notes in live versions of the song. "Firth" also contains the best lyrics I've heard from Genesis, especially the closing line: "The sands of time were eroded by the river of constant change." 

Also noteworthy is "Cinema Show" which segues into "Aisle of Plenty" to close the album. I remember sitting with Steve after a long car trip. At home, I put on my Classic Records pressing of Selling England, side 2 as requested because Steve liked "Cinema Show" the best. I had to agree with the choice, even though I usually played side 1 to hear "Firth." Steve also clued me into the source of the deep bass notes that add to the drama of "Firth of Fifth;" he said they were pedals. I never knew what they were except I was sure they were not simply electric bass notes. Nice to have a living prog encyclopedia in the family!

Steve:

Like many people of my generation, my first exposure to Genesis was hearing their numerous late 70s and early 80s hits on the radio. Abacab, Three Sides Live, and Genesis were all extremely popular among my peer group, and I rarely heard any mention that there was a band before "Follow You, Follow Me". I was fully on board with this crowd (and for the record, I still enjoy the Collins years as much as I do the Gabriel years). Of course, I was aware of the Peter Gabriel era (Peter himself was making hits at the time as well) because I would see these oddly Medieval looking earlier albums in the record stores. At the time, seeing a track on an album such as "Supper's Ready" with its multiple sections and 23-minute length was decidedly not a selling point for me. I can still remember what it felt like to be neither impressed by nor interested in the supposed selling points of progressive rock, and that memory has helped me understand the mindset of average folks for whom majesty, complexity, and musical ambition really doesn't matter much. I still liked what I liked, and I was certainly exposed to a lot of progressive music thanks to Dan, but it wasn't something I was actively seeking at that age.

I got a fairly good introduction to the Gabriel-era stuff via Dan, which prepared me for the full-on obsession come my college years, where I had a similarly curious friend to discover prog with (Rob, mentioned elsewhere in this blog). Selling England by the Pound is widely considered to be one of the elite prog albums in the genre's entire history. Progarchives.com currently lists it as the #2 album of all time, based on an algorithm primarily driven by user ratings and reviews. I had not looked at the rankings for over a decade prior to writing that last sentence, yet I was confident that this album's stature would not have changed since that time.  

Even music fans not particularly into prog hold it in high regard. I believe this is because of the poetic yet approachable lyrics and the fact that the band had reached a peak in its ability to compose and arrange lengthy songs that told a story apart from (but in tandem with) the lyrics. Simply put, this album is surprisingly accessible and deals with very human emotions, fears, and concerns. The overriding theme, I believe, is that of wistful regret over a Britain that somehow lost its way - with vivid character studies of everyday people in a variety of settings, my favorite being the eccentric man obsessing over his lawn while wondering where it all went wrong in "I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe)".  

I still have a hard time following "The Battle of Epping Forest", the one song that is forever singled out as a weak spot on the record. Its only flaw, however, is that it makes you work a little harder to enjoy it - in contrast with the rest of the record, which goes down as easily as a nice cup of tea.