Please accept my sincere apologies, Backdrifter. I reckon that my suggestion is completely pointless, absurd and totally irrelevant.
TotW 11/27/2023 - 12/03/2023: GENESIS - The Battle Of Epping Forest
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Please accept my sincere apologies, Backdrifter. I reckon that my suggestion is completely pointless, absurd and totally irrelevant.
Hahahahahaha!
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I have read all the criticism. Of course, everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion. But something occurred to me. Maybe, just maybe those who criticize that song forget or overlook the fact that the song is about a battle. It only makes sense that it's too busy. A gang fight is supposed to be busy. And the words and the music do express perfectly how chaotic a battle actually is.
I don't know, maybe I am wrong...
Perfectly good point, I'd say.
And as for comments by others that this is "the worst song on the album" - Have you not played More Fool Me? And at least this song has a story, and one that works. Dancing with the moonlit night is very weak lyrically, and not that great musically, except the solo, the following "There's a fat old lady" (Not very PC, is it?
) bit and the ending (The "disney" bit!), Firth is lyrical nonsense, and only saved by the famous guitar section, which the rest is mostly a vehicle for. It's a great album, overall, but it's very patchy, weaving from great bit to weak bit and back again. If anything, Battle is possibly the most consistent bit of it, except IKWIL, which I think is probably the second weakest track, but doesn't change much throughout. -
I have read all the criticism. Of course, everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion. But something occurred to me. Maybe, just maybe those who criticize that song forget or overlook the fact that the song is about a battle. It only makes sense that it's too busy. A gang fight is supposed to be busy. And the words and the music do express perfectly how chaotic a battle actually is.
...
For me, no it's definitely not that and the suggestion doesn't really make any sense to me at all.
I think it makes complete sense for the artist to try to match the feel of the music with the lyrics.
There are plenty of songs about battles or fighting that have a highly frenetic quality.
A prime example is Gates of Delerium by Yes, which is thematically about war and peace, and has this stretch of musical madness that eventually winds down and brings the listener back to a place of serenity.
Do I believe Genesis had this approach in mind when they created TBOEF?
No, because from what I recall reading in Gallo's book, the band members concurred that the battle between the music and lyrics heard in this song was completely unintentional..
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And as for comments by others that this is "the worst song on the album" - Have you not played More Fool Me?
Of course, and I know it's considered as a "less interesting" song, but I tend to like More Fool Me more than Battle (or let's say at least that I consider it as enjoyable as the rest of the album).
It's a strange little song, placed at the end of side 1, between two "big" songs and completely different from the other stuff in the album. To me, its purpose is to rest the listener a bit, after FoF and to me, it succeeds in doing that.
Same with After The Ordeal. And I Know What I Like probably too.
Was the band conscious of this balance between heavy and light stuff throughout the album ?
Imagine having other songs of the caliber of Dancing, Firth of Fifth, Battle, Cinema Show (or extended versions of the existing ones), it would probably be a little too much (to me at least).
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I tend to like More Fool Me more than Battle
This and your other comments are exactly my thoughts. Along with side 3 of The Lamb side 1 of SEBTP is the best bit of track sequencing they ever did. I like MFM, always have, down to a combination of its placement as you said, and it simply being a nice little song. One of the many reasons they're one of my favourite bands is that they came up with the diverse mix of stuff as exemplified by side 1.
Back to Battle, one frequent criticism is the avalanche of words. But despite disliking the song as a whole I do admire some of the wordplay. I'm surprised there aren't more board members who've taken names from the lyric.
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I think it makes complete sense for the artist to try to match the feel of the music with the lyrics.
There are plenty of songs about battles or fighting that have a highly frenetic quality.
A prime example is Gates of Delerium by Yes, which is thematically about war and peace, and has this stretch of musical madness that eventually winds down and brings the listener back to a place of serenity.
Do I believe Genesis had this approach in mind when they created TBOEF?
No, because from what I recall reading in Gallo's book, the band members concurred that the battle between the music and lyrics heard in this song was completely unintentional..
I agree, It could be argued the music and words suit the theme but my reading has always been that it got away from them when they put Peter's words to the band's backing tracks and they couldn't find a way out of it. As I've said, I like it and I agree with Backdrifter that the volume of the words is good. Some band members have suggested that the music before the lyrics were added sounded really strong- it's undoubtedly good, but I have tried to imagine it as an instrumental and then how it would sound with less cluttered lyrics and I cant see it. It either needed a completed re-think or its pretty good as it is, which seems to be how it was left.
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Of course, and I know it's considered as a "less interesting" song, but I tend to like More Fool Me more than Battle (or let's say at least that I consider it as enjoyable as the rest of the album).
It's a strange little song, placed at the end of side 1, between two "big" songs and completely different from the other stuff in the album. To me, his purpose is to rest the listener a bit, after FoF and to me, it succeeds in doing that.
To me, MFM tries to repeat the charm of For Absent Friends, a remarkable song with its insight into old age from two 20 year olds. Sadly, in this aim, MFM fails miserably.
