Artist: Genesis
Release Date: October 12, 1973
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (Music: Gabriel/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) (Music: Hackett/Banks/Gabriel/Collins; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Firth of Fifth (Music/Lyrics: Banks)
More Fool Me (Music/Lyrics: Rutherford/Collins)
Side Two
The Battle of Epping Forest (Music: Gabriel/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
After the Ordeal (Music: Hackett/Rutherford)
The Cinema Show (Music: Rutherford/Banks/Collins; Lyrics: Rutherford/Banks)
Aisle of Plenty (Music/Lyrics: Gabriel?)
Note on Song Authorship: Credit is given based on what members of the band have revealed in interviews about the writing of the songs and may not be complete. In most cases the primary writer(s) of the music are listed first, though in the case of “I Know What I Like”, Hackett just came up with the riff the song was built upon, while the others wrote different parts of the melody. In some cases, deduction or guesswork are involved, such as in the case of “Aisle of Plenty”, which is musically a reprise of the opening section of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”, which was written by Gabriel. On the original album, all songs were credited to the entire band.
Few bands had as long and varied a career as Genesis. After starting out as a sort of songwriting collective writing slightly quirky pop songs, they quickly morphed into a progressive rock (or “art rock” as it was often called then) band before slowly evolving into a very popular pop rock band with a progressive edge. They also went through quite a few personnel changes in the process, particularly the departure of original lead singer Peter Gabriel and then guitarist Steve Hackett, reducing the band to the core of keyboardist Tony Banks, guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford and drummer/vocalist Phil Collins. While as I explained in my review of the group’s 1983 album Genesis, I like the later pop incarnation of the band as much as the earlier progressive one, there are many fans with a decided preference for the “classic” five man lineup, and I would not deny that they produced some great music which has virtues that that the more concise and direct later songs lack. A good place to hear what the early Genesis sounded like is the 1973 album Selling England by the Pound, which contains some of the best music recorded by the five-man lineup of the group.
Interestingly, even though there are quite a few fans and critics who consider Selling England the best album Genesis ever released, the only member of the group who seems to consider it their favorite is Steve Hackett, though Phil Collins has said it was enjoyable to record. Peter Gabriel unsurprisingly seems to prefer The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, while Tony Banks (who has named Foxtrot as his favorite early album) and Mike Rutherford were slightly disappointed with it. Banks has said that he thinks the material was slightly uneven, with a few great songs and a few that are not so great. I can see his point, since while “Firth of Fifth”, “The Cinema Show”, and “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” are among the band’s very best songs, some of the others don’t work quite as well. In terms of the average quality of the songs, Foxtrot may be slightly stronger. But Hackett and to lesser extent Collins also rightly feel that the album features some of the group’s best playing. This in part explains the differing opinions about the album expressed by the band members, since for Banks and Rutherford (and Gabriel as well) songwriting was always the most important thing, whereas Hackett and Collins placed more emphasis on playing, particular in those days.
For myself, though I agree with Banks and Rutherford that good songwriting is ultimately more important than virtuoso playing – which is why I like Genesis better than Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer – the crisp sounds and excellent performances on this album make even the lesser tracks sound good, and make the best ones sound outstanding. While there may be times when I prefer Foxtrot or The Lamb or even Nursery Cryme, to speak only of the Gabriel-era albums (and I should emphasize that I like several of the later albums as much as any of these), Selling England is almost always near the top of my list of favorite Genesis albums, and if I were to recommend one album from this period to someone who’d never heard the five-man lineup of Genesis, chances are it would be this one.
Selling England by the Pound Song by Song
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight: The album’s opening track begins with a line sung acapella by Gabriel. The instrumentation slowly builds through the first few minutes of the song, centered on a repeated riff. Eventually it goes into an instrumental section featuring some great playing by the band before reprising the vocal section and concluding with another instrumental bit. The music for the first part of the song was written by Gabriel (who wrote the lyrics as well), though the entire band contributed to the instrumental sections. This is definitely one of the stronger tracks on the album and a great opening.
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe): This quirky, slightly Beatlesque song was the first Genesis song to make the pop charts in the UK, narrowly missing the top 20. It was developed from a riff Hackett had come up with, while Banks wrote the chorus melody and Gabriel and Collins wrote the verse melody. While it’s not quite the equal of the songs before and after it, it’s a fun track that pointed the way to the band’s future pop success, and it remains one of the best known songs from their early days.
Firth of Fifth: This nine and a half minute song opens with a very cool minute-long piano solo by Banks followed by the main vocal section, then a lengthy instrumental featuring flute, piano and guitar in turn, and finally another vocal section. The music, all of which was written by Banks, is brilliant and performed very well by the band. Hackett’s guitar solo, which is basically his interpretation of the flute melody, is justly praised, though credit for writing the melody itself goes to Banks. The lyrics, which were mainly written by Banks (though some sources claim Rutherford helped) have been criticized, even by Banks himself, but while they are certainly not the best he ever wrote, they aren’t all that bad except for one or two weak lines. In any case, the music alone makes this the best song on the album and one of the best songs Genesis ever released.
More Fool Me: In a complete contrast to “Firth of Fifth”, this is a short, gentle acoustic song sung by Phil Collins with only Mike Rutherford’s guitar as accompaniment. Many of the “fans” with a pathological dislike of the 1980s incarnation of the band also hate this song, because they see it as a harbinger of the future. I would say that while it may not be anything spectacular, it’s a pleasant song that makes a nice break from the lengthy, heavily arranged tracks that surround it.
The Battle of Epping Forest: At almost twelve minutes in length, this track is the longest on the album (though since “The Cinema Show” segues directly into “Aisle of Plenty”, the two together could be considered longer). The music was written mostly by Banks and Gabriel, and the lyrics, a long, elaborate tale about a gangland fight, were written by Gabriel. Both the music and the lyrics have a lot to recommend them, but as Banks, Collins, Rutherford and even Gabriel have said in interviews, the song is far too busy, with the dense lyrics clashing with the music. As a result, though the song is interesting and even fairly entertaining, it doesn’t work nearly as well as the other long songs on the album.
After the Ordeal: This classical-flavored instrumental was mainly written by Hackett, with a little help from Rutherford. Banks and apparently Gabriel as well disliked it and wanted to drop it from the album, though Banks once admitted that one of his objections to it was that he thought his own playing on it was poor. I’d say it’s a decent piece of music, though perhaps not the most successful instrumental bit on the album.
The Cinema Show: The guitar-based song that makes up the first few minutes of this eleven-minute track was written by Rutherford, with help from Banks on the lyrics (Gabriel also made a few suggestions lyrically). The second half of the song is an instrumental written by Banks, Collins and Rutherford and featuring a lengthy solo by Banks. The song part is one of Rutherford’s best compositions, and the instrumental part is one of the strongest Genesis ever did, one that they were still playing live decades later. The lyrics are also quite good. The combination of these elements makes this one of the band’s best songs, though I would give the edge to “Firth of Fifth” as the best track on the album.
Aisle of Plenty: “The Cinema Show” segues directly into this short song, which musically speaking is basically a reprise of the first part of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” and so can be credited to Gabriel, who presumably wrote the lyrics as well. By returning to the album’s opening musical theme it brings the listener round full circle and so makes a good closing number.
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