Harold The Barrel When I first got this record, I didn't like this song ..... It was so different from everything else on here and I couldn't process what they were doing. Anyhow, all these years later I really do like this song. In some ways it actually reminds me of ELO's Diary Of Horace Wimp ... The Gabriel and Collin's vocals work really well together in this song. I think this song starts a Genesis tradition of having a more light hearted song on the album to break up the intense moments. In spite of its more light hearted manor, this track still had some really good writing and the chord sequences are still very musically satisfying. Anyhow, I really like this track.
The same year I got into Genesis I also got into the Beach Boys and saw a lot of correlation between Brian Wilson's use of chords with unrelated bass notes alongside Tony's similar approach. Obviously Tony has mentioned The Beach Boys as an influence which isn't surprising.
"Light" song about suicide....... That'll break up the heaviness of the album. LOL I like it as well......
Seven Stones This is one of my favorites on the album. I love it when Genesis does folky songs, especially when they build it into something grander. They do both of those things extremely well on this song. I really like the mystical feel, which I think is more prevalent on this song than on any others on the album. It’s not “The Musical Box,” but it’s a great slow-burning track in and of itself. Harold the Barrell This is another odd one. An upbeat, darkly comedic song about suicide doesn’t sound like it should be unironically enjoyable, yet somehow it is. I like the fast-moving tempo with the brief, sudden changes in dynamics.
I think it helped that my first experience of Genesis was Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot together, so all told those two albums have quite a few humourous moments and I realised this was a Genesis thing. The best moment of the song - and it sounds ghoulish to say this but it's true - is at the end after "Take a running jump!" and then a dreamy series of chords that eventually fade out, suggestive of floating/falling in space after having jumped.
I think my favorite line in Harold the Barrel is "you're shirt's all dirty; there's a man here for the BBC". LOL at the mom who's more concerned that he'll be seen with a dirty shirt than the fact that he's going to jump
yea, that's why I like the fact that they wrote it out like a play/script, so you can see all the characters
The more I think about this song, the more I realise that the cartoonish lyrics send a really serious message - about people's lack of empathy amid their concern for trivialities. The townfolk seem more disturbed about the upset of their routine and the embarrassment at this scandalous situation than by the fact that a man appears intent on killing himself. Surely this one must also have been based on an actual incident, like so many others of Gabriel's narratives. Why Bognor? Why the mention of him cutting off his toes? Those details seem redundant to the story, unless they are part of something that actually happened.
The cutting off his toes and serving them all for tea just seemed like a very British nursery tale-like writing style, not unlike the often gruesome fables I grew up with as a child. To me, it always seemed like a very European or Aesop inspired line.
there are a lot of little subtle things in there ... first time "if you come on down and talk to us son". The last time it's more personal ""if you come on down and talk to us Harry" .... it's a surprisingly well written song
I agree. I stayed way from going into a technical comparison of some of Brian Wilson's harmonic approach to avoid boring everyone including me. Not the place for it. There are many similarities between Tony Banks style and Brian Wilson. Not only the use of odd bass notes but the way they use voicings.
I like the song. Very theatrical with the changes in the music between the characters. I like the part were Harold comes in. The music really fits the thoughts of fantasy and dread.
Cover for an unofficial 100 copies only white vinyl pressing single of a) Harold The Barrel (live) b) Harlequin (live)
You’ll have to put it in it’s context. This particular debut has a complicated history and it’s totally unlike the rest of their catalogue, for several reasons. A band in it’s early formative stage, an indifferent manager/producer and the unwanted strings that were added after the fact. It is what it is and a comparison to the other albums doesn’t really do it justice.
