I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

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“I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”

Single by Genesis
from the album Selling England by the Pound

B-side

Twilight Alehouse

Released

August 3, 1973

Format

Vinyl

Genre

Pop rock, progressive rock

Length

4:07

Genesis

John Burns & Genesis

Genesis singles chronology

Happy The Man / Seven Stones
(1972)

I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) / Twilight Alehouse
(1974)

Counting Out Time / Riding The Scree
(1974)

Selling England by the Pound track listing

"Dancing With the Moonlit Knight"
(Track 1)

"I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)"
(Track 2)

"Firth of Fifth"
(Track 3)

"I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" was the first charting single by the rock band Genesis. Its original b-side was the non-album track, "Twilight Alehouse," a ballad of a man who finds solace in the local tavern. The single was first released in the UK in August of 1973, but did not become a hit until April 1974.

"I Know What I Like" is also the second track on the Selling England by the Pound album. A lighthearted pop song, it provides a moment of relief after the opening number, "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight." The Selling England album cover, which was famous in its own right, provided inspiration for the song.

The song's lyrics, like much of Peter Gabriel's in his Genesis days, tell a story. It portrays a young man who pushes a lawn mower for a living and shares his philosophy on life that he does not want to grow up and do great things, being perfectly happy where he is.

The song has a somewhat Eastern sound, full of hand percussion rhythms and an electric sitar riff from Mike Rutherford (played in concert by Steve Hackett), and it foreshadows the world music that Gabriel would later experiment with in his solo career. Rutherford's bass playing is also highly prominent, and guitarist Steve Hackett uses a unique effect during the intro and ending to imitate the sound of a lawn mower.

Live versions of this song (such as the one on Seconds Out) feature an extended instrumental section which includes snippets of various other Genesis songs – such as "Visions of Angels," "Blood on the Rooftops," "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" and "Stagnation" – and even songs by other artists, such as the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." Collins also performed a dance and a tambourine act during these instrumentals.

"I Know What I Like" was the band's only pop hit of their early years, at a time when progressive rock bands largely avoided the singles market. Its success would not be topped until And Then There Were Three's "Follow You Follow Me," some four years later, and it remains the band's biggest hit without Phil Collins as frontman.

In 1993, Marillion's ex-frontman Fish did a cover version of this song on his Songs from the Mirror album.

For the The Way We Walk and Turn It On Again tours, this song was played as part of a medley of old Genesis songs. During the Turn It On Again tour shows, images from the band's history cycled by in the background.