They are really good, and just my thinking, but I think they help flesh out the thread with info, and that's what it's all about. Thank YOU, for doing that! Cheers mate
Can Utility And The Coastliners Can-Utility and the Coastliners is the fourth song on Genesis' fourth album, Foxtrot, released in 1972. "Can-Utility and the Coastliners", written mostly by guitarist Steve Hackett,[1] is based on the legend of King Canute, who supposedly ordered the seas to retreat to mock the sycophancy of his followers. An early, longer version of the song found its way into pre-album live sets (as heard on certain bootleg recordings); known as "Bye Bye Johnny" or "Rock My Baby", it featured an extended instrumental section in which the Mellotron string sound dominated. -------------------------------- As I have no real knowledge of King Canute, aside from knowing the name, I can't really give any reference as to how it plays into this song .... So any of you guys that are Canutophiles, give us some references please. This starts off with some nice acoustic guitar and sounds fairly average until the " A shadow forms ... " section and then it really shows some melodic power and it draws me into the song. After the second time through that section we have the full band come in. After a small interlude the form of the song changes completely and we get a breezy kind of sound and a swelling Mellotron and a bit of a Mellotron lead break. After the Mellotron has its moment Gabriel comes back in for a short section and the Mellotron comes back in with an urgent sounding series of chords that moves into a descending pattern and is taken over by the organ and a staccato bass, then an organ lead break. Hackett then play a short lead break. Gabriel comes back in with the vocals, that follow the melodic pattern of the volume swell guitar underneath. We have a staccato riff come in and Gabriel lets loose with a quite aggressive vocal line and then song runs to a close with a unison riff. I like this song, but it isn't a favourite off the album. Certainly it's well written, most Genesis stuff is, and certainly it contains some good music, but again Genesis rarely don't have some good music in their tracks ...
Yes please. This is one of the few Genesis songs I'm guilty of having overlooked the lyrics... because the music was enough. Back in my Genesis devoted days I was a teen, not very proficient in English, and in the pre-Internet age I relied on translation books to get my infos. This song was omitted in my books. The lyrics in the booklet weren't enough of making much sense of them, from the middle onwards. A curious note. This is the only Genesis song I had heard before. When I was a kid, yard before, the organ section just after "were they fell" was used for a commercial of... furs! (Or it was something darn similar to it). Minor TV channels, so possibly that was never authorized.
Been lurking in this great thread since it started, albeit just a couple of posts of mine in its first pages, iirc. But it steered me to revisit a bunch of times to each and every Genesis album up to Foxtrot. Nevertheless, unfortunately few things changed since my former spinnings of those albums. "Selling England" remained the only one affording to grab me from beginning to eend. But then again, lirically I can't say a word about most of Genesis songs, of course you all can beat me to it (to say the least). Anyways thank you Mark for this really interesting thread , I've been delighted especially by the great thoughts, rich descriptions and detailed informations about the songs' lyrics and instruments used. And your thread just helped me getting to enjoy a bit more "Can Utility And The Coastliners" (besides also "The Fountain Of Salmacis"), their freaking dynamic shifts among catchy and intense melodic lines are really rocking! , besides some energetic Phill's and Mike's rythmic drives. Today I can say that these two tracks are my very faves from the Gabriel era, along with "After The Ordeal" and "Firth Of Fifth". But yeah still to these days I find "The Musical Box" great and enjoyable too, though not on the league of the aforementioned tracks imb. And yes, I'm really sorry... but not even having another good bunch of spinnings of "Supper's Ready" it could ever afford to grab me... and sincerely neither the rest of the songs from that era, alas.
This is my favourite of the "normal" songs on Foxtrot, which is to say my second favourite after "Supper's Ready". Re the lyrics: The first two verses seem to be simply telling the legend of king Canute, as outlined above my Mark. I'm not quite sure what is being said in the rest of it, but I THINK it could be that people in authority usually think they are more powerful and more important than they are. "The cause was lost" may mean that over the years the message Canute was trying to put across has been ignored. "The waves surround the sinking throne" - kings and emperors, no matter how mighty, are eventually vanquished by time and events. "See a little man with his face turning red" and "you can tell he's dead"could mean that the time of this archaic governance model has passed. Or I could be misinterpreting it completely.
I really like Can-Utility. I've never paid any real attention to the lyrics, but I generally don't for progressive rock, as prog-rock lyrics tend not to be very good. Gabriel-era Genesis could be an exception to this from time to time, but nevertheless this isn't one of those tracks that draws the listener's attention much to the lyrics. I do remember back when I first got Foxtrot (on cassette!) in the '80s and there were of course no lyrics in the insert, and no way to "look them up" (I guess I could have gone to a used record store and tried to find the LP, but there weren't many used record stores in my area growing up and I didn't own a turntable),. Trying to figure out what the heck Gabriel was singing about was always a challenge, but this song brought that to new levels.
No, I think that's a pretty good reading/interpretation of the lyric ... Can Utility is one of my favorite Gabriel era pieces, hands down. I'm a history buff, so I like the lyrics, and what great music, without having to dedicate 22 minutes to a listen
King Canute and the tide - Wikipedia The story of King Canute and the tide is an apocryphal anecdote illustrating the piety or humility of King Canute the Great, recorded in the 12th century by Henry of Huntingdon. In the story, Canute demonstrates to his flattering courtiers that he has no control over the elements (the incoming tide), explaining that secular power is vain compared to the supreme power of God. The episode is frequently alluded to in contexts where the futility of "trying to stop the tide" of an inexorable event is pointed out, but usually misrepresenting Canute as believing he had supernatural powers, when Huntingdon's story in fact relates the opposite.
Canute + Utility = Can-Utility. Now I get it. Still no idea what it means though (and what about the coastliners?) Around the web I've read this is mainly a Hackett song and Banks doesn't like it. Anyone?
though it reminds of the initial image of the book and the story being absorbed by the sea (of time), I can't avoid picturing the "waves" of people kneeling around the throne, "sinking" it in (blind?) devotion. I admit it's over-interpretation.
Out of all, Seconds Out remains my most played Genesis album. Beautifully recorded and strangely doesn't really suffer from having Hackett virtually mixed out of proceedings. Bruford owns Cinema Show.
Genesis:Can-Utility And The Coastliners This link seems most likely to get close to how I hear the lyrics playing out.
"Can-Utility" is great. The opening section has a beautiful melody, very well sung by Gabriel, and very nice chords, in that great tradition of the band coming up with great melodies which make complex songs accessible to the audience. Banks was at his "mellotron peak" in this record -- the opening section of "Watcher.." and the middle section here have great melloton strings' arrangements. By the way, I played my "Foxtrot" CD yesterday and noticed that the "detune effect" in the middle of "Supper's Ready" is there. It does sound weird, but, being in the middle of a "weird" song works well as camouflage.
Yeah, this song honestly makes me revisit Foxtrot more often simply because of the live versions of the big pieces being really good. This one doesn't really have a great bootleg anywhere, and I love it's movement.
Steve Hackett Stephen Richard Hackett (born 12 February 1950) is an English musician, songwriter, singer, and producer who gained prominence as the guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis from 1971 to 1977. Hackett contributed to six Genesis studio albums, three live albums, seven singles and one EP[1] before he left to pursue a solo career. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. Hackett released his first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte, while still a member of Genesis in 1975. After a series of further solo albums beginning in 1978, Hackett co-founded the supergroup GTR with Steve Howe in 1986. The group released the self-titled album GTR, which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 in the United States and spawned the Top 20 single "When the Heart Rules the Mind".[2] When Hackett left GTR in 1987, the group disbanded. Hackett then resumed his solo career. He has released albums and toured worldwide on a regular basis since. Hackett's body of work encompasses many styles; in addition to his work in progressive rock, he has explored pop, blues, world music and classical music on his solo recordings. According to Guitar World: "Hackett's early explorations of two-handed tapping and sweep picking were far ahead of their time, and influenced Eddie Van Halen and Brian May."[3] Other guitarists influenced by Hackett include Alex Lifeson and Steve Rothery.[4][5]
I love "Can Utility". I love whole album, so why even say it? But I really love this one. Great chords from Steve, terrific enthusiastic Gabriel vocal, "rains a lot", more of these historical type lyrics that make the album such an adventure, and when the bass pedal kicks in at "The waves surround the sinking throne" it always makes me tingle. Could probably have been a 3 minute song, instead we ride take to the high seas in a ship made of mellotron. So dramatic, then the organ, with a little "ting ting ting" acoustic sparklies, and then here comes Rutherford winding up with some crazy bass work to rock us out to the end. Ah... I can feel my eyes getting misty just thinking about it. I want to run out the door and into my car so I can hear these sounds RIGHT NOW.This is another song I saw Steve play live and really got to understand better just how much work it is to play this thing. Just wonderful, all around. I want to live inside this record and never come out.
I have a similar relationship with foxtrot where I tend to revisit it more than nursery cryme because I like the non epics more and there are no good live versions. nursery cryme I am pretty satisfied with the live versions of the tracks I love so rarely go back to the album itself.
On the opposite end, I probably revisit Nursery Cryme more often due to it having a lot of the best short songs from the early period and I always loved the studio Salmacis more.
This is one of my favorite recordings. The Italian tours of 1972 and 1973 are well represented with live recordings, and often with fairly decent quality. I always thought of Can-utility as a portmanteau of Canute + Futility, as in the king (or any authority) can't command whatever they want; the futility of human will over Nature. There's even a hint of power of the people over unjust authority. "Nothing can my peace destroy as long as none smile" More opened ears and opened eyes and soon they dared to laugh See a little man with his face turning red Though his story's often told you can tell he's dead It's such a great song, even if the lyrics are obscure. Steve Hackett has been playing it on tour recently and it brought the house down when I saw him a couple years ago. Actually he started the second set with Get 'Em Out By Friday followed by Can-Utility!
Can-utility is a play on words combining references to Canute and Utility Can Opener. Great song - a highlight behind Supper’s Ready on this album.
