lol ... I'll survive. I reckon it's High Fructose Corn Syrup (what is the deal with American's and corn?) and a fifty year old metabolism
Mark, I have to ask you … Is the word "reckon" used in Australia frequently. Man, I thought that was an exclusively Southern USA term. BTW - I am in the Southern USA so I am familiar with the lingo. Hehe, heh! I, also, am plus of 50 years of age.
I have always said it to the best of my knowledge. Funny story. I was talking to a girl from church before I came over here (because she had been over here a few times) I said "so do ya reckon they'll be able to understand me over there?" her reply "only as well as we do Mark" lol
At the time that the boxset came out, they made downloads of those two tracks available via the official Genesis website. I can’t remember whether they were in FLAC or MP3, sadly I only have retained MP3s...
Oh yeah! I just finished writing up my take on the first song and sat back thinking....this is even more amazing than I thought. BTW- Is that your photo? If so, I am jealous as hell.
Looking forward to your take on this album, overall. Hackett really gets his time to shine. He (Hackett) has said that SEBTP is his favorite Genesis album! Yeah … I'm chomping at the bit.
I thought Wind and Wuthering was his number 1? Or was it a newer interview? Looked and found it was "one of his favorites" while Tony puts it at number 2 Okay I'm done, really. Promise.
yeah I thought it too, but here is the proof we are wrong: Steve Hackett Celebrating Genesis Album On 2019 UK Tour Now I'm done too hehe...
In either Genesis - A History or the VH1-behind the music (can't remember which), Hackett chimed in that it (SEBTP) was his favorite Genesis album. --- "the whole thing is sort of mad, really …" was the quote I remember. Hackett is supposedly going to tour SEBTP (complete) in 2019 amongst other gems. ------ Okay I see someone beat me to it.
Fingers crossed for another Aussie tour. I had front-row centre seats at the Brisbane show and it was one of my fave gigs ever. --Geoff
They were both MP3 and FLAC, although it turned out the FLACs were derived from a MP3 source. Nobody ever bothered to re-up the FLACs from a lossless source either, so crappy MP3 is all we have sadly.
Or on the ripping process/chain. Which was still kind of ridiculous. Even more so. Why on earth people do that?
Sorry guys, was really, REALLY stressed the last two weeks, couldn't really say much to Foxtrot or Live BUT... Selling England's coming soon... I'm preparing myself for a big write-up. Maybe I'll include portions of a lengthy piece I wrote about this album a few years ago
I’m not Mark, but I can tell you that’s not his photo, and the reason I know that is that I spent many hours sitting at that very table last weekend... It’s the eponymous table of the hugely entertaining “Tabletop Genesis” podcast which I think has been mentioned here and there on this thread. Two of my best friends are on the panel, and that’s their table! (I keep hoping I’ll manage to time one of my trips to their place with a recording so I can have my say about an album or two, but no joy yet!)
Selling England by the Pound Studio album by Genesis Released 13 October 1973 Recorded August 1973 Studio Island Studios, London Genre Progressive rock[1] art rock[1] Length 53:50 Label Charisma Producer John Burns Genesis Singles from Selling England by the Pound "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" Released: February 1974[2] Selling England by the Pound is the fifth studio album from the English progressive rock band Genesis, released in October 1973 on Charisma Records. It reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 70 in the U.S. A single from the album, "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", was released in February 1974 and became the band's first top 30 hit in the UK. The album was recorded in August 1973 following the tour supporting the previous album, Foxtrot (1972). The group set aside a short period of time to write new material, which covered a number of themes, including the loss of English folk culture and an increased American influence, which was reflected in the title. Following the album's release, the group set out on tour, where they drew an enthusiastic reception from fans. Critics and the band have given mixed opinions of the album, though guitarist Steve Hackett has said it is his favourite Genesis record.[3] The album has continued to sell and has reached Gold certification by the British Phonographic Industry and the Recording Industry Association of America. It was remastered for CD in 1994 and 2007. Several of the album tracks became fan favourites and featured as a regular part of the band's live setlist into the 1980s. In May 1973, the Genesis line-up of frontman and singer Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist and guitarist Mike Rutherford, guitarist Steve Hackett and drummer Phil Collins completed their 1972–1973 tour supporting their previous album Foxtrot (1972). The tour marked the band's first full scale North American tour which drew positive responses,[4] but journalists were still criticising the band and comparing them to other progressive rock bands of the time such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd.[5] Charisma pushed to release new Genesis material to capitalise on the band's newfound commercial success despite the band's wishes against it, and released a compilation of live recordings from early 1973, originally intended for broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show in the US, as their first live album Genesis Live (1973).[6][7] This budget-priced release also compensated for the cancellation of a proposed gig at Wembley Arena in May 1973, which was cancelled due to the inability to print tickets in time, and to act as a bridging album in between Foxtrot and the next studio album.[8] It became their highest charting album in the UK, peaking at No 9.[7] The group were too busy touring to write new material, so after coming off the road they set aside time to create new songs. Due to the success of Foxtrot the group's record label, Charisma Records, allowed them two to three months to come up with a new studio album, which Rutherford considered to be "the kiss of death".[7][9]Early into the sessions Collins formed a pick-up band with former Yes guitarist Peter Banks for a few gigs, and Rutherford revealed in an interview to Sounds in 1976 that "there had been worries that Phil might want to leave the group".[8][10] Despite this, Gabriel recalled this time as a "relatively happy and calm period".[11] The album was not written in a single session or location, and Banks recalled the group had some difficulty in coming up with musical ideas.[12][13] The extra time that Charisma allowed caused the band to adopt a more relaxed pace of working at first which included periods of unproductive work, such as the constant reworking of ideas to the point where they no longer worked or those that led them back to where they started.[14][7] The first sessions took place in what reporter Jerry Gilbert described as "a rambling old stately home" in Chessington, Kingston upon Thames,[8] the group practising in the living room causing the neighbours to complain about the noise and implicating a curfew.[15][16] Collins did not remember the album being particularly difficult to put together, but said the Chessington sessions was where the basis of "The Cinema Show" was put together. He had been listening to the jazz fusion group Mahavishnu Orchestra which influenced him to play more complicated time signatures on the drums for "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" and other parts on the album.[17] Rehearsals then moved to London in a space beneath the Una Billings School of Dance in Shepherd's Bush,[14] during which "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" was developed further.[18] Hackett had not contributed a great deal of material to the group at this point, which was made difficult by the breakdown of his first marriage going on around the same time. Rather than pitch whole songs he instead devised guitar licks, all of which were used, and believed it gave the album a jazz fusion feel yet still remain very English.[19] Two sections that were brought into the sessions from the start was a simple guitar riff that Hackett had been playing that the band liked and wanted to develop further and became "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", and three bits from Banks that he initially thought were for different songs but were instead used in the final arrangement of "Firth of Fifth". The third section developed early on became the opening of "The Battle of Epping Forest", and the band repeatedly performed these three pieces daily for a short while which Banks thought resulted in the latter song being too overworked.[12] Despite the setbacks, biographer Robin Platts wrote: "There were enough magic moments and inspired jam sessions to produce such enduring compositions".[7] One of the ideas that Gabriel wanted to convey with the album was the idea of looking at "Englishness in a different way". This included his suggestion of the album's title,[20] itself a slogan adopted by the Labour Party manifesto, to ensure that the British press would not accuse the band of "selling out" to America.[3] Rutherford later deemed the title to be among the band's best album titles.[21] Overall, it represented a decay of English folk culture and an increase in Americanisation.[3] Banks said the English theme across the album was not an intentional idea at first, but it is how the songs merely ended up.[22] Gabriel later said he wrote all his lyrical contributions to the album in two days.[23] Having rehearsed and written enough material for an album, the group entered Island Studios, London in August 1973. As with Foxtrot, John Burns helped with production.[10] Burns' technical skills resulted in a good recorded sound and environment, and this motivated the group to play better and tackle more complex arrangements.[3] Gabriel was conscious of the greater use of lengthy instrumental sections on the album which he thought presented the risk of the material becoming boring.[24] The album cover is a painting by Betty Swanwick titled The Dream.[32] Swanwick had designed posters for London Transport between the 1930s and 1950s.[27] The original painting did not include a lawn mower; the band had Swanwick add it later as an allusion to the track "I Know What I Like" because Swanwick told them she did not have enough time to paint a new picture for the cover.[32] Selling England by the Pound was released in October 1973, reaching No. 3 in the UK charts[40] and No. 70 on the U.S. Billboard Pop Albums chart.[41] The album's success in the U.S. benefitted from a switch from Buddah Records to Atlantic.[42] "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" was released as a single, with "Twilight Alehouse" on the B-side, in February 1974.[43] It was the band's first single to enter the UK chart, and peaked at No. 21.[2] It was successful enough for Genesis to be invited to perform the song on the British television show Top of the Pops, which the band declined.[44] In 2013, the album was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry for selling 100,000 copies.[45] The album was digitally remastered for compact disc in 1994[46] and again in 2007 by Rhino Records.[47] Contemporary reviews for the album were mixed. Rolling Stone's Paul Gambaccini praised the band for attempting something utterly different amidst "a stagnant pop scene", but criticised the album's lyrics, feeling they overused British pop culture references, and complained about some musical passages. Despite this, Gambaccini thought the album "merits some recognition".[51] NME's Barbara Charone said the album was "the band's best, most adventurous album to date".[53] The Guardian's Robin Denselow wrote that "much of the material is indistinctive and tedious".[34] Retrospective reviews have been more favourable. AllMusic and BBC Music remarked that the album returned to the whimsical eccentricity of Nursery Cryme while retaining the hard rock intensity and pessimism of Foxtrot, combining the best of both elements to make Genesis's best album up to that point.[48][49] Robert Christgau, who thoroughly panned most of Genesis's albums, admitted that the songs "Firth of Fifth" and "The Battle of Epping Forest" have "a complexity of tone that's pretty rare in any kind of art", though he summarised the rest of the album by saying "it sounds as snooty as usual."[50] In 2012, the album ranked seventh in Rolling Stone's "Readers' Poll: Your Favorite Prog Rock Albums of All Time".[55] It was also included in IGN's list "10 Classic Prog Rock Albums" in 2008, who praised its "subtle elegance, sublime textures, and lyrical splendor".[56] Rock author Edward Macan has mixed feelings towards the album, praising "Firth of Fifth" and "The Cinema Show" but questioning some of the other material.[26] Motoring journalist and broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson is a fan of the album and wrote sleeve notes for it when it was included in the box set Genesis 1970–1975.[57][58] Hackett has considered the album to be his favourite Genesis record, and was happy with his extensive contributions to it. In 2017, he explained, "It was an important watershed album for the band, and it was at the beginning of us struggling to find gigs in the States. If we could get into a club somewhere, wherever it was, that was good news for us at that time. A young, struggling band, but with an album that was due to become a classic in time."[59] Banks and Rutherford have had mixed feelings, saying there are a lot of high points but also some lows.[3] Charisma owner Tony Stratton-Smith was disappointed with the album, which he thought contained too many instrumental sections.[43] Band friend and former roadie Richard MacPhail thought the power of Genesis live had not been captured on record properly until Burns started to work with them and that by the time of Selling England, the group had acquired better equipment.[60] Selling England by the Pound has been praised by other songwriters and musicians. Rush drummer Neil Peart has said: "I think Selling England by the Pound is an enduring masterpiece of drumming. Beautiful drumming, lovely sound, and the arrangements, I think they really nailed the best of what that band as an entity could have done with that album."[61] Fish, solo artist and former lead singer of Marillion, has called it "the definitive Genesis album", praised its "emotive" quality, said the wordplay was "one of the things that became quite an influence on me - the games within the lyrics" and concluded it "took a whole jump forward and was the album that really got me into Genesis".[62] Singer and songwriter Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices considers Selling England by the Pound one of his ten favourite records of all time.[63] John Lennon said he really liked the album during a radio interview, which the band took great encouragement from.[64] Genesis supported the album with a tour of Europe and North America from September 1973 to May 1974. Initially they were to perform with a new and more elaborate stage set than before, that included inflatable objects that had images projected onto them, but a change in fire regulations following the Summerland disaster in August 1973 led to the idea being scrapped.[8][22][24] Gabriel devised new stories before songs, and wore a full costume with a helmet and shield representing the Britannia character for "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" and sung "The Battle of Epping Forest" with a stocking over his head.[65] The tour began with a sell-out tour of the UK,[34] but had to cancel the first date at the Green's Playhouse, Glasgow due to electrical safety issues minutes before its start.[66][65] The group realised they were substantially in debt and needed better management, so recruited Tony Smith (no relation to Charisma boss Tony Stratton-Smith).[66] In October 1973 a pair of dates in the tour were filmed by Charisma for a possible cinema release, but the plan was rejected by the band who felt the film was not up to standard.[67] Instead, the band performed a five-song set in front of an invited audience at Shepperton Studios that was filmed and broadcast as Tony Stratton-Smith Presents Genesis in Concert.[44] The group returned to the U.S. in December 1973 that included six shows in three nights at The Roxy in Los Angeles,[68] and a performance of "Watcher of the Skies" and "The Musical Box" on the late night television show The Midnight Special.[65] January 1974 saw the band perform five nights at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane which saw Gabriel lifted in the air by a wire during "Supper's Ready".[69] Side one 1. "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" 8:02 2. "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" 4:03 3. "Firth of Fifth" 9:36 4. "More Fool Me[c]" 3:10 Side two 1. "The Battle of Epping Forest" 11:43 2. "After the Ordeal" 4:07 3. "The Cinema Show[d]" 11:10 4. "Aisle of Plenty" 1:30 Peter Gabriel – vocals, flute, oboe, percussion Tony Banks – keyboards, 12-string guitar Steve Hackett – electric guitar, nylon guitar Michael Rutherford – 12-string guitar, bass, electric sitar Phil Collins – drums, assorted percussion, lead vocals on "More Fool Me", backing vocals John Burns – producer, engineer Genesis – production Rhett Davies – assistant engineer Betty Swanwick – cover painting ----------------------------------------------------- One of the reasons I like to do these threads is the chance to dig deeper, as it seems age means more responsibilities and less time, and these threads give me a much needed deeper look that was just a natural thing back in my younger days. With this deeper look comes more listening, and that often reveals things missed, or in cases like this where I have a lot of albums by a band, reveals the fact that I have had a tendency to reach for the same albums and some have been a little neglected. Each time you reach for the same three albums others never seem to get a chance to worm their way into your favourites status and so they are less likely to be reached for next time around also ... well that's how it works for me. So prior to my multi-spinning of this album, I was a little nervous that I would get roundly rebuked for my opinions on this album, but thankfully this album has revealed itself to have been sadly overlooked in my listening rotations. "What on earth is wrong with you?" everyone thinks. Well When I bought these box sets I was very familiar with Nursery Cryme, Lamb, And Then There Were Three, Duke and Genesis, and I certainly did listen to all of the albums more than once, but time constraints and just a general busying of middle age left me reaching for the more familiar albums when spare time and a Genesis feel came together at the same time ..... So I guess that's my history with this album. Another side issue I suppose, was the fact that because of the constant Gabriel/Hackett/Collins war amongst fans - With the catch cry of Phil Collins is the destroyer that turned Genesis into a pop band and we hate him - nonsense, I tended to be bewildered as "I know what I like" sounded to my ears like one of the most accessible pop/novelty tunes the band had ever done, so I sort of held a grudge against it, to a degree. You'll be pleased to know that these hideous diseases of the mind have been cured by this little foray into this album. Up to this point in their career, this is probably the best produced and recorded album we have come to so far. It has a clarity that some of the earlier works don't quite have. I have come to love songs on here that prior to this expedition into the grooves had been, in my mind, "pretty good". I'm not going to say that this is now my favourite Genesis album, because really all that has happened now is that I find it even harder to decide. All those albums I mentioned earlier hold a special place for me and now Foxtrot and Selling England sit with them and smile at my inattentive silliness. So anyhow, sorry about that long winded jabbering, I just felt a need to explain where I am and have been with this album. This is a great album that I can now understand why some would say it is their favourite, where-as two months ago, I was kind of scratching my head about that. So..... What do you think about this album? When did it first cross the brink of your attention? and when did you first discover it? Was it love at first listen? Please give us your heart and mind on this album and tomorrow we will hit the first song in the moonlight. Cheers Mark
I reckon that now we are talking about an album that is the archetypal of their cohesive approach as a unique 5 members band, it's where their work as a solid unit felt more evident to me. SEBTP is indeed a delightful album, it brings me truly great and captivating melodies, and its overall musical atmosphere enthralls me with such a dynamic oscilations from pastoral to dark to drama and to melancholy, all tinged with some romanticism here and there. I think SEBTP is also the most unique album from the Gabriel-era Genesis. Differently than its predecessors, it seems as a whole a more "down to Earth" album. I note the band stepping some bit away from their previously stronger escapist approaches, as such the band also drifting away some bit from those mythical themes and motifs and fairy tale like previous approach. And (correct me please if I'm wrong) it seems to lirically deal with some more earthly subject matters too. .
I have a vinyl reissue copy of SEBTP autographed by Steve. Once my stereo room is complete, it's getting framed and put up on the wall. As far as covers go, I think it's the most attractive Genesis album they ever released. I haven't played it and I am almost sure it's the remixed version. I got it from Steve's website about a year ago IIRC.
Yea, I must say, it certainly is an intriguing cover, and I can see how it lead to a song coming from it. There are so many things that come to mind looking at it. I am not sure if it is my favourite or not, but it is an excellent piece of work.
Just found this interesting article that I think it's worth sharing here as complementary info. Perhaps it's already of general awareness, but I found there an interesting description of some facts that influenced Gabriel on his writing of lyrics for SEBTP.
