Get 'Em Out by Friday
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| “Get 'Em Out by Friday” | |||||
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| Song by Genesis | |||||
| Album | Foxtrot | ||||
| Released | 6 October 1972 | ||||
| Recorded | August 1972 | ||||
| Genre | Progressive rock | ||||
| Length | 8:37 | ||||
| Writer | Peter Gabriel | ||||
| Composer | Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford | ||||
| Foxtrot track listing | |||||
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"Get 'Em Out by Friday" is a rock epic on the 1972 album Foxtrot by British progressive rock band Genesis, lasting eight and a half minutes. It also appears on their 1973 live album.
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[edit] Overview
The song is in the form of a futuristic play set initially in the present, but ending in 2012.[1] The practice of Genesis splitting the lyrics between characters was previously used in the songs "Harold the Barrel" and "The Fountain Of Salmacis" from their previous album Nursery Cryme, and the song is an amalgamation of "Harold the Barrel"'s multi-character format and epic format of "The Fountain of Salmacis". The song itself is structurally similar to Genesis' earlier song "Watcher of the Skies".
The song is primarily a social criticism of the UK's council housing system in the 1970s, corporate greed and oppression.[2] Social commentary was an evident theme throughout Genesis's early work, especially in their following album, Selling England by the Pound.[2]
[edit] Plot
The play contains three main characters:
- John Pebble: A business man of Styx Enterprises. Near the end of the song, he has been knighted and works for United Blacksprings International.
- Mark Hall (also known as "The Winkler"): Hall is charged with evicting tenants from properties purchased by Pebble and responsible for moving evictees into tower blocks.
- Mrs Barrow: a tenant in a house in Harlow,[3] purchased by Pebble.
The song starts with its fast paced refrain of Pebble ordering Hall to "Get 'em out by Friday". The next scene is of the Winkler telling a disbelieving Mrs Barrow that the new owners of the property are evicting and moving her. She refuses, so Pebble raises the rent on the property. In lieu of this, the Winkler offers £400 for Mrs Barrow to move; she does, albeit grudgingly. However, shortly after Mrs Barrow moves in, Pebble again raises the rent.
The song indicates a passage of time by an instrumental, before the next lyrical sections, an announcement on 18 September 2012 and a conversation with a "Joe Everybody". Both sections tell that Genetic Control are restricting the height of all humans to 4 feet, so they will be able to accommodate twice as many people in the same tower block.
The penultimate verse is that of Pebble, now knighted, repeating the process for another set of properties. The last verse is a "Memo from Satin Peter",[4]:
- Land in your hand, you'll be happy on earth
- then invest in the Church for your heaven
[edit] Reception
Both the song and its accompanying album were generally well-received; Rutherford commented that the lyrics were the best that Gabriel had written[5] while Allmusic.com cited the song as "the truest sign Genesis has grown muscle without abandoning the whimsy".[6]
[edit] References
- ^ [1972-10-06] (1994-09-03) Foxtrot liner booklet, 1994 remaster (in English), Virgin/Charisma. “(18/9/2012 T.V. Flash on all Dial-A-Program Services)”
- ^ a b Composizione e sperimentazione nel rock britannico 1967-1976. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
- ^ Mr Hall: [to Mrs Barrow] Here we are in Harlow New Town, did you recognise your block across the square, over there?
- ^ The album's lyric sheet has "Satin" either as a misprint or as a Peter Gabriel wordplay
- ^ "Genesis doing the Foxtrot" (1972-09-09). Sounds.
- ^ Foxtrot: Review. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
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