Quintessentially English (Selling England By The Pound - Genesis)

Member Name: JonnyM79

Product:	Selling England By The Pound - Genesis
Date:	17/03/02 (223 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Engaging concept, Distinctive Hackett guitar, Inventive lyrics

Disadvantages: Too earnest for some, More Fool Me is out of placce

Genesis always had a way of doing things differently. In mid-1973 they had just released Genesis Live succesfully at home and gone on their first small American tour. Many commentators felt they were now ready to "crack" America. So what did they decide to do? Well, they bring out a semi-conceptual album lamenting the decay and loss of "Englishness" (whatever that is) and so riddled with English references that to Americans it must seem like a foreign language. After all what American is going to understand lines about Fine Fair, green shield stamps or Wimpy (remember any of them?). Even the title was the Labour party slogan of the time.

Recorded (like their previous 3 albums) at Island Studios in London, Selling England by the Pound was a fairly adventurous album for Genesis, marking the debut on lead vocals of a certain Phil Collins, and being the first time they had tried to follow a theme throughout an album. The line-up of the last few years was unchanged with Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett and Rutherford all returning.

The first song "Dancing with the Moonlit knight" sets the tone of the album and is very much about the central theme I mentioned above. It starts with Gabriel singing a cappela, a very unusual opening at the time. The lyrics are full of puns: "chewing through your wimpy dreams" and "Knights of the green shield stamp abd shout". The inspiration for that last line was brought about by the fact that the band at that time drove to all their gigs in a beaten up old van, and whenever they stopped to fill it up they would fight about who got to keep the green shield stamps they earned!

Following on is "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)," which was inspired by the painting used as cover art. Despite the lyrics being mostly nonsense it became Genesis's first even remotely succesfull single getting to no. 19 in the UK, helped by its catch
y chorus and the inclusion of some bizarre lawnmower sounds. Next up is "Firth of Fifth." The lyrics seem to be very loosely based on the wreck of a ship in some Scottish firth, but this song is mainly notable for the music. It opens with a quick and technically very demanding (I've tried to play it!) piano solo. The theme from this recurrs in the long instrumental in the middle of the piece, first on flute then on keyboard. This blends into a guitar solo that is memorable both for the fantastic tune and the style Steve Hackett uses, which noone else has ever been able to imitate succesfully. The song finally fades out, ending as it began with solo piano.

"More Fool Me" continues the album. A short and not too memorable love song, it is memorable only for Collins debut on vocals, and he does manage to sing with genuine tenderness. The album moves swiftly in "The Battle of Epping Forest." This was penned by Peter Gabriel after reading a news story about an East End gang battle. The article didn't have too many details so gabriel makes up his own wonderful characters such as "Little John's Thugs - the Barking Slugs", "Liquid Len", "Bob the Nob", "Jones the Jug" and "the Bethnal Green Butcher". The story is great and highly amusing with Gabriel twisting it into a parody of Robin Hood, accompanied by some suitably silly music, that means the song holds its interest over all 12 minutes.

"After the Ordeal", as the title suggests, makes a restful change after this, being a purely instrumental piece with some more distinctive guitar solos. This is followed by "Cinema Show", probably the strongest track on the album. The first half is lifted pretty directly from T.S. Elliott's "The Wasteland" with the two lovers now called Romeo and Juliet, and a delicate acoustic guitar accompaniment. Then about five minutes in
the keyboard and drums kick in and the band hit a blistering instrumental in 7/4 with a strong jazz/funk influence and Tony Banks's hands running up and down the keys at the speed of light. This finally melts away, segueing directly into Aisle of Plenty where Gabriel puns on the names of various supermarkets before fading out while chanting prices of very English items such as Anchor Butter and Bird's Eye sponges, returning to the theme of the album at the very close.

Although "Supper's Ready" on Foxtrot, their previous album was a stronger individual song than any of these, this album marked the first time Genesis had managed to pull a concept together while not allowing some weaker tracks to creep on to the finished album, and was overall their strongest work to date. Aided by their first single success it reached the top 5 of the album charts, going to no. 1 in some versions of it. They did surprisingly well in America with it, mainly due to repeating the British format of nonstop touring to build up publicity. After an album like this noone was quite sure what they would do next, but the future seemed like it could only be bright.

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