I'll just say that, to me, Selling England is their masterpiece. The culmination of all the previous albums. It was the last time an album of theirs would sound like this … before they took a hard turn with The Lamb.
I believe the very first time I heard Genesis was SEBTP, at the house of a friend who at that time was living in Alice Springs. The English guy with whom I was travelling knew the album well, and opined that it was "possibly the best record I have ever heard." The track that piqued my interest the most was - surprise sirprise - "After the Ordeal". I then put it out of my mind until I was lent the aforementioned double album containing Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot, and that got me hooked. I can understand why "I Know what I Like" might have put people off. I like the song well enough but it's a lightweight compared to most of the album, except for "More Fool Me" which is even more so, and established Genesis fans might have thought they were starting to get a bit too simple. Still if they wanted to release a single it's hard to know what else would have worked. They were really not a singles band at that point.
Selling England is their best record. I might personally consider Foxtrot my favorite but there's no denying Selling England is an even better record. I love both equally, I suppose. They are like Rubber Soul and Revolver, peanut butter and chocolate. "Firth of Fifth", which Hackett's epic guitar solo, is one of my favorite Genesis cuts. I recently bought the remixed vinyl from Steve's website just to have it signed by him. But I stick to the original when I listen.
Very tempted to see Steve Hackett do SEBTP in its entirety when he tours it next year. Hearing SH do the solo from Firth of Fifth is almost worth the price of the ticket.
SEBTP is my 2nd favorite Genesis album, and it only gets the #2 spot because it contains my least favorite Gabriel-era Genesis track ever, so Foxtrot comes out on top. I'll express my views when we get there.
SEBTP has never been a favorite of mine even though it features what I consider Genesis' crowning achievement - Firth of Fifth. Plus the absolutely incredible Cinema Show and the proggish pop-ish hit I Know What I Like. I think The Battle Of Epping Forest is the reason why, even though I don't dislike the track per se. But it meanders, and I've nothing to connect to with its very British sensibilities. But it took quite a few listens before I was willing to consider it worthy of any praise. And beyond Epping, as much as I love a lot of these tunes, this album wasn't my introduction to these tracks. As I've mentioned before it was Seconds Out that made me a Genesis fan to begin with. So after experiencing these songs in the electric environment of the Paris stage, these seemed subdued by comparison. I do appreciate that this was where these songs msde their debut however, and despite my Epping misgivings, the album contains a lot of fantastic music.
Oh man, should I make a review now or wait to fill up half the page with a single post? As I have said before, Selling England by the Pound is not only my favorite Genesis album, it is my favorite album, period. If Foxtrot got me interested, this is the album that threw me down the rabbit hole. I’ll probably wait until a bit later perhaps to make up a review, but I will recommend a 1st German pressing for anyone who doesn’t own the album. A great sounding record that is, and not very expensive, though it took me a bit of waiting to find a perfect listing on Discogs. I don’t have anything to compare it to, so I’m sure a UK 1st press might be even better, but this one is very, very good, so I don’t see myself hunting one down. Here’s a Discogs link: Genesis - Selling England By The Pound And finally, here’s a link to the ever-popular 1973 Rainbow show, ripped from the DVD from the Live box set: I’m going to listen to this album again today to get it fresh in my mind, then I’ll post my thoughts.
My starting point with Genesis. A friend of mine gave me a copy tape, made from his uncle's original LPs. I prefer the previous more dreamy Genesis to this one, but it's clearly more mature, controlled, refined in terms of arrangement, especially Phil's drumming, as already noted. I suspect I have nothing to contribute that others won't mention, so what about a little trivia? Well, Italians loved their Genesis. They were the first to enthusiastically welcome their music and back then they got a special treat in the form of an exclusive album packaging. It included full translation of the lyrics and, even more, explanations for the puns and wordplay. A nice move from commercial perspective too, because many of them would remain oscure or inaccessible to us in the pre-internet age. Later on I bought some translation books and guess what: they were less thorough and detailed than that LP gatefold. Good job, really. The photo Mark posted with the live picture is from that edition. And about "too much instrumental passages, it can get boring". Shut up. Pretty please.
Agreed. It's Prog, FFS. There is no such thing as too much instrumentation or too little instrumentation, if the music is good. Peter did have this problem: performing the songs live, he as the vocalist had nothing to do during the instrumental passages, and there is only so much cavorting around in red dresses and fox heads and bat wings to occupy the time interval. there must have been times during performances when Peter was - quite literally - counting out time, and thinking "Come on Tony, enough already, let's get on with the song." That is something that a lot of bands from the progressive side of the tracks must have to deal with, if the vocalist is someone who doesn't do much else on stage.
Well the thing is about Genesis instrumental passages is that, especially in the early days, they were very rarely improvising over a structure, they were playing the solos as written, with the only exceptions I can think of being Steve's solo in The Knife, Tony's solo at the end of I Know What I Like, and Steve's solo at the end of Supper's Ready (and even then he still had riffs he would play every time). I think it's exactly this that makes Genesis so engaging, every solo is extremely well thought out.
Tony Banks Anthony George Banks (born 27 March 1950) is an English musician, songwriter, singer, and film composer primarily known as the keyboardist and founding member of the rock band Genesis. He is one of the band's two members who have been members throughout the band's history, the other being guitarist and bassist Mike Rutherford. Banks is also a prolific solo artist, releasing six solo albums that range through progressive rock, pop, and classical music. Banks co-formed Genesis in 1967 while studying at Charterhouse School as their keyboardist and one of their principal songwriters and lyricists. He became a prolific user of the Hammond T-102 organ, Mellotron, ARP Pro Soloist and Yamaha CP-70 piano. In the band's earliest years Banks would play acoustic guitar for some of the mellow and pastoral songs. In 2010, Banks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis.[1] In 2015, he received a Prog God Award at the Progressive Music Awards.[2] Banks is ranked No. 11 on MusicRadar's greatest keyboard players of all time.[3]
Selling England By The Pound ... my first Genesis album ... borrowed the tape from the local library when I was 14 or 15 ... way back in the 80s ... loved it from first listen, still my favourite Genesis record to day. --Geoff
Coincidentally I picked up Genesis - Live CD today at the local markets for $1 ... V/C CLACD 1 (Nimbus) to go with my V/C CLAC CD1 (Sonopress) ... not sure if there's any difference in sound but ye cannae resist for that price. --Geoff
I have a lot to say, but waiting for each song - else I'll have a huge post and nothing to say later.
SEBTP was the first Genesis album I heard with Peter Gabriel. I was already familiar with some of the material, though, from Seconds Out and - to a lesser extent - Three Sides Live. In fact, that was probably why I picked that one to start with, as I found those songs to be the highlights. SEBTP is yet another improvement over their past album, IMO, and an album I think is an all-time great, yet it's not without a few issues. I've always felt that More Fool Me sticks out like a sore thumb on the album, not having much of anything to do with the rest of the songs. I could really do without the piano intro to Firth of Fifth. Over the years, I've wavered on how much I like Battle of Epping Forest. Yet (with the exception of More Fool Me) it really hangs together well. It's got what I think is Gabriel-era Genesis' best song (Moonlit Knight), perfectly complementary cover art, and the production is inching ever closer to being good. Most of the 1970s prog bands released their best album in either 1972 or 1973 and Genesis was to be no exception.
I bought the album when it was first released. I remember not listening to the second side for almost two or three weeks. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the song structures and guitar parts. At that point, Genesis was my favorite band.
