Display MoreWe've been ODing on Trick, now it looks like England will get a look-in.
At #6 I have Dancing with the Moonlit Knight from the same album.
Genesis seem to have a particular genius for starting albums strongly, and for picking a track which "heralds" what is to follow. Volcano, Mar and Down and Out provide that strong opening statement on their mid era trio. Here the acapello opening is a clarion call, opening up what many consider to be their strongest album. The title itself is an unforgettable choice, inspired by a reference to a Labour Party campaigning slogan, though I've never been able to get closer to the source of that story.
The theme of the song is a nostalgic harkback to an England disappearing under the avalanche of modernism and Americanism. According to the Wiki resource on this album, Genesis were already conscious of criticism from the music press that they were trying too hard to appeal to an American audience, and this work, with its references to Green Shield stamps and Wimpey is an attempt to counter this. Did Genesis themselves "sell England by the pound" by abandoning the theme for a totally American based one in the Lamb, their next album?
The lyrics are complex and inspire some in the fanbase to great feats of analysis, such as this one:
http://starling.rinet.ru/music/song1.htm
In such a poetically rich piece we should guard perhaps against projecting more meaning into the lyrics than the author intended at the time or can remember now. Sometimes I feel that PG disappeared a little up his own rear end, but I'd say the same too about Leonard Cohen, and even Roger Waters, also lyric-led artists and favourites of mine. The music is stupendous and that's what counts.
This is the third nomination for this track. Quelle surprise! Will there be yet more to come, I wonder!