Firth of Fifth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Firth of Fifth" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Song by Genesis | ||
| from the album Selling England by the Pound | ||
| Released | 12th October, 1973 | |
| Recorded | August 1973 | |
| Genre | Progressive Rock | |
| Length | 9:37 | |
| Label | Charisma (UK) Atlantic/Charisma (U.S.) |
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| Writer(s) | Tony Banks/Phil Collins/Peter Gabriel/Steve Hackett/Mike Rutherford | |
| Producer(s) | Genesis & John Burns | |
| Selling England by the Pound track listing | ||
| "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" (2) |
"Firth of Fifth" (3) |
"More Fool Me" (4) |
"Firth of Fifth" (sample ) is an epic rock song by progressive rock band Genesis from their 1973 album Selling England by the Pound. The title is a pun on the name of a river in Scotland, the Firth of Forth.
The song starts out with a classical-style grand piano introduction by Tony Banks before switching tempo toward the first section of lyrics, with a pounding drum line and majestic chord progression on the organ. The song then features a gentle flute melody followed by a synth-driven instrumental which restates the opening piano theme. Steve Hackett then plays a solo (an interpretation of the flute melody) using one of his signature violinesque guitar tones. Peter Gabriel then sings a brief section of lyrics before Tony concludes the song on piano.
At over nine minutes long, this song is normal for Genesis' work during their progressive rock period. This is also one of the band's most popular early works, featured on their second compilation album Platinum Collection.
Although "Firth of Fifth" is credited to the entire band, Tony Banks would later claim that much of the music was developed from his own ideas (the flute and guitar solos were, in fact, interpretations of a melody that Tony wrote on piano.) Tony also wrote much of the lyrics, though he would later state in Hugh Fielder's The Book of Genesis that it was one of the worst sets of lyrics he'd been involved with.
Peter Gabriel would tell a story before the performance of the song while on tour. The story is about a group of travellers who were dying of thirst. They came upon a group of dead bodies. Because the human body is approximately 75% water, they started jumping on the bodies to try and extract water from their mouths. However, they soon realized that it was taking more energy to get the water out of the bodies than they would receive. They realized this fact as they finished jumping on the fifth body. Being that he was a Scotsman, he called his mouth the "firth." Thus it was the "Firth of [the] fifth [body]." This story seems unrelated to the lyrics of the song.
