Selling England by the Pound

Selling England by the Pound is the fifth studio album by the progressive rock band Genesis and was recorded and released in 1973. It followed Foxtrot and was the band's commercial peak so far hitting No.3 in the UK^[1] where it remained on the charts for 21 weeks. The album went gold in the US in 1990. It was also a major breakthrough in terms of critical reception.

The album cover is a painting by Betty Swanwick called The Dream. The original painting did not feature a lawn mower; the band had Swanwick add it later as an allusion to the song "I Know What I Like."

A digitally remastered version was released on CD in 1994 on Virgin in Europe and on Atlantic Records in the US and Canada. The remastered booklet features the lyrics and credits which were missing on the original CD, while they had been on the inner sleeve of the LP album.

A SACD/DVD double disc set (including new 5.1 and stereo mixes) was released in the UK on 11 November 2008, including extensive interviews with the band and footage from concerts performed during 1973–74.

Songs

Dancing with the Moonlit Knight

"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" is the first track on the album. An a cappella vocal opens the track. Then, the song progressively gets louder and more upbeat, becoming a rock number. This song is one of several tracks where Tony Banks used his newly-acquired Mellotron M400; toward the middle of the song the 8 Voice choir is featured prominently, and in the closing section the strings are used. Guitarist Steve Hackett used the tapping and sweep-picking techniques on this song.

The lyrics are an ironic commentary on contemporary England that employs references to English staples like Green Shield Stamps. The reference "chewing through your Wimpey dreams" is an allusion to Wimpy Burger Chain that was prevalent in many UK town high streets, in the early 1970s. The latter reference has some echoes with the theme of "Get 'Em Out by Friday". The album was named after a lyric in this song.

The song's melody is repeated in a different form at the closing of "The Cinema Show". The beats of the melody are shifted backwards once.

The line "Paperlate, cried a voice in the crowd" was alluded to in the title of the band's 1982 song Paperlate.

Firth of Fifth

The title of "Firth of Fifth" is a pun on the estuary of the River Forth in Scotland, commonly known as the Firth of Forth.

The song starts out with a classical-style grand piano introduction. This section is rhythmically complex, with certain bars in the rare time signatures of 13/16 and 15/16, alternating with bars of 2/4.^[2] This section changes tempo and segues into the first section of lyrics, accompanied by drums and a chord progression between the organ and guitar. The song then features a flute melody, followed by a synth-driven instrumental section which restates the opening piano theme. Hackett then plays the flute melody using a violinesque guitar tones. Peter Gabriel then sings a brief section of lyrics before Banks concludes the song on piano.

"Firth of Fifth" is featured on their second compilation album, Platinum Collection (2004). Although it is credited to the entire band, Banks would later claim that much of the music was developed from his own ideas. Banks' authorship has been confirmed by Mike Rutherford^[3] and Steve Hackett, who called it "one of Tony's finest."^[4] Banks and Rutherford wrote the lyrics. Banks would later state in Hugh Fielder's The Book of Genesis that it was one of the worst sets of lyrics he had been involved with.

From autumn 1973 onwards, the song's piano intro was omitted during live performances. Banks felt he could not do the intro justice on the RMI electric piano he used on stage instead of a proper piano, as the RMI was not touch-sensitive.

The song appeared in instrumental form (the middle keyboard and guitar solos) as part of the 1992 We Can't Dance tour and 1998 Calling All Stations tour, as well as in 2007's Turn It On Again: The Tour. The instrumental segues directly into "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" in 1992 and 2007 versions. It also appears on Steve Hackett's solo album of re-worked Genesis songs, Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited (1996), with lead vocal by John Wetton, as well as on Hackett's live album "The Tokyo Tapes".

In 2009 the DJ Absolut sampled parts from the guitar solo for the song "Flashback Memories" for the mixtape "Blood On Chef's Apron" with MC's The Game and Raekwon.

More Fool Me

"More Fool Me" is one of two songs from the Gabriel era to feature Phil Collins on lead vocals (the other being "For Absent Friends" from their 1971 LP Nursery Cryme.) The song is about a man whose lover walks out on him, yet he is "sure it will work out alright." Musically, the song is much simpler and more sparse than the rest of the album, as it features only acoustic guitar and vocals. It was written by Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford while sitting on the steps of Island Studios. It became Collins's featured solo vocal spot on the Selling England by the Pound tour.

The Battle of Epping Forest

"The Battle of Epping Forest" was inspired, according to the liner notes, by a news story about two rival gangs' territorial battles. The lyrics play out as such, featuring characters such as "Mick the Prick" and "Bob the Knob" as they battle for turf in east London on a grand scale.

The song is characteristic for singer Peter Gabriel's changing of voices for different characters as well as the frequent changes in tempo and time signature. The song was performed live during the tour to support Selling England by the Pound, featuring Gabriel moving around the stage telling the story.

The band's feelings about the song are mixed. In Hugh Fielder's The Book of Genesis, the band members seem to agree that, although the song has a lot of good ideas, it suffers from having too many lyrics (some which don't always fit the background music) and an altogether too-busy arrangement, making it difficult to play live without mistakes being made. The song was dropped from the band's setlist after the "Selling England" tour.

After the Ordeal

"After the Ordeal" was written mainly by Hackett. The first half is an up-tempo classical guitar piece with a majestic piano backing; the second half is a slower piece performed on electric guitar. Although Genesis never performed the song live, Hackett plays it on his acoustic trio tours as part of a medley in between Apocalypse in 9/8 (from "Supper's Ready") and "Hairless Heart." According to Banks, both he and Gabriel were against the inclusion of this song, and they had many arguments with Hackett about this issue. Although Hackett won out in this case, such disputes over his compositions would eventually lead him to quit the band four years later.

The Cinema Show

"The Cinema Show" is divided into two main sections: The first section is a gentle 12-string guitar-based piece, featuring vocal harmonies between Gabriel and Collins, as well as a short flute solo. Afterward, the song segues into a four-and-a-half minute keyboard solo by Banks, with Rutherford and Collins laying down the rhythm in a 7/8 time signature (this solo has frequently been integrated into the "In the Cage" medley that appeared in later years). The song ends by switching back to 4/4 time and seguing into the following song, "Aisle of Plenty." When performed live, however, "Aisle of Plenty" was not performed; instead, a new ending was added at the end of the 7/8 section, as heard on live album Seconds Out.

The lyrics, written by Banks and Rutherford, draw much of their inspiration from the T. S. Eliot poem The Waste Land. They refer to two characters, Romeo and Juliet (after the famous Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet), each readying oneself for their date at a cinema show (with Romeo entertaining high hopes for a sexual encounter with Juliet afterward). The chorus makes reference to Tiresias, a character from Greek mythology who lived as both a man and a woman, and who concluded that women derive more pleasure from sex than men do.

Aisle of Plenty

"Aisle of Plenty" is not so much its own song as a reprise of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", with lyrics following the same thematic connections. This gives the album a book-end effect, a technique that had been popularized on then-recent albums by groups such as The Carpenters (on Offering and A Song for You), King Crimson (on In the Wake of Poseidon), and Simon & Garfunkel (on Bookends, an album which took its name from this technique). Genesis used it on later albums like A Trick of the Tail and Duke. The acoustic line that opens the song is repeated several times at the end of "The Cinema Show", thereby "connecting" the two tracks. This track is peppered with word play which may possibly escape those not familiar with the store names it references:

"Easy, love, there's the safeway home,

"Thankful for her fine fair discount, Tess co-operates...."

At the time, Fine Fare and Safeway were major grocery store chains in the UK, and both Tesco and the Co-op (The Co-operative Group), were, and still are, names of grocery stores. These lyrics are a pun because the word aisle is associated with grocery stores.

Reception

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford. 

Sound and live performance

The piano introduction to "Firth of Fifth" has not been included in a performance since 1974, in a Drury Lane Theatre concert, when Banks misplayed and Collins covered by starting the song from after the intro. "The Cinema Show" contains a long-form synthesizer solo in which Gabriel and Hackett played no part; during live performances, they both left the stage for this section. This solo section would later form the melodic centrepiece of the extended instrumentals in the 'In The Cage' Medley (a combination of song excerpts that Genesis would perform live years after it had stopped performing other songs from the 1970s).

"I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" was Genesis' first single to receive any sort of chart action, hitting No.21 in the UK in April 1974.^[1]

Trivia

According to Steve Hackett, John Lennon was a fan of the album: "When I was with Genesis, I’ll never forget being on tour in America in 1973 when we were trying to make it there and hearing John Lennon say on WNEW New York radio that he ‘loved’ our album Selling England By The Pound. Even if I never ever sell another album in my life – I will always remember that. It doesn’t get much better than that – a tribute from Lennon, that the great man himself listened to our records. It gave us a heck of a buzz and real encouragement."^[11]

Personnel

• Peter Gabriel – lead vocals, flute, oboe, percussion
• Phil Collins – drums, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals on "More Fool Me"
• Tony Banks – piano, keyboards, backing vocals
• Steve Hackett – lead guitar
• Mike Rutherford – bass guitar, bass pedals, rhythm guitar, electric sitar, cello on "Dancing With The Moonlight Knight", acoustic guitar on "The Cinema Show"

Charts

Album

Certifications

Notes