Favourite Marillion Bit

"Threshold" from Misplaced Childhood

Certif1ed wrote: ^Laugh? I nearly DID

sorry, I was in a funny mood

I go with Snowies choice of "The Party" from "Holidays in Eden" - not only the bit he points out but the whole piece. It is up there with "Afraid of Sunlight" (the song) and from "Brave"  - "Hard As Love" the instrumental - some top moments from Steve Rothery in particular

Hmmm... my Favourite Marillion Bit eh?

Where to begin...?

Well... how about the part where I

TURN IT OFF!!!

eh?

final "seasons end": song " the space" and:

Everybody in the whole of the world

Feels the same inside

Everybody in the whole of the world

Everyone is only everyone else

Everybody's got to know

Everybody lives and loves and laughs and cries

And eats and sleeps and grows and dies

Everybody in the whole of the world

Is the same this time

Is the same inside

In the whole of the world

 

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Over 20-plus years and umpteen albums, I could never hope to mention all of my favorites, but there are a few that stand out ... a good many already mentioned:

(in no particular order)

1. The third verse of "Warm Wet Circles"

2. Pretty much all of "Bitter Suite" but especially the "Blue Angel" section:

The sky was Bible black in Lyon
When I met the Magdalene
She was paralysed in a streetlight
She refused to give her name

And a ring of violet bruises
They were pinned upon her arm.
Two hundred francs for sanctuary and she led me by the hand
To a room of dancing shadows where all the heartache disappears
And from glowing tongues of candles I heard her whisper in my ear
"'J'entend ton coeur"

3. Rothery's incredible solo on "Easter", then the entire "What would you do?" section.

4. From "The Great Escape", the "Falling From The Moon" and "The Last Of You"

Don't ask me why I'm doing this
You wouldn't understand
You're asking the wrong questions
You couldn't understand

A bridge is not a high place
The fifty-second floor
Icarus would know
A mountain isn't far to fall

When you've fallen
When you've fallen from the moon

5. I'm particularly taken with Hogarth's lyric in "After Me", particularly the first two verses:

There's a line on her jeans that a ball-point made
From a careless mistake that she can't wash away
And there's a heart on her sleeve from a spill of red wine
There's a piece of green in the blue of her eyes
She named it after me

There's a stray dog she feeds that she found in the street
And he loves her to hold him, but he won't let her keep him
And he claws at the door to be let out at night
And she makes do without him, and she worries about him
She named him after me

6. The final line of "Assassing"

7. Hogarth's lyric on "Estonia":

Feeling you shake
Feel your heart break
Thinking if only, if only, if only, if only
And the salt water runs
Through your veins and your bones
Telling you no not this way, not this way, not this way

And you would give anything
Give up everything
Offer your life blood away
For yesterday

No one leaves you
When you live in their heart and mind
And no one dies
They just move to the other side
When we're gone
Watch the world simply carry on
We live on laughing and in no pain
We'll stay and be happy
With those who have loved us today

 

I had an off-line discussion a while back with another member who just does not get Marillion.  And of course, that's okay ... all music is art and art means different things to us all.  But what surprised me is that none of his reviews or comments to me ever included one word about the lyrics.  As powerful as Marillion are in my eyes musically, It's been Fish's lyrics (and though they're miles apart stylistically, some of Hogarth's as well) that have set them apart from most of the pack.

I love the instrumental passages in That Time of the Night, from CaS.

Forgotten Sons.

"Halt who goes there?" .... "Death Approach" .... silence ..... guitar

Lately for me it's Don't Hurt Yourself from Marbles...

Easter is one of the most emotional stirring songs I have ever heard.  There is no one better in the business as Rothers for putting in blinding solos just when you want to hear them (except for maybe Gilmour).  Like I mentioned on my list, Fantastic Place off Marbles contains another very emotional solo and also how stirring is Sugar Mice ?

If you look over Marillion's 20+ years as a band you'll find so much diversity - they have really experimented with a number of different sounds.  I find it incredible that the music press still SLATE them for being old dinasours who should pack it all in because they are simply known as Marillion.  I vividly remember Q magazine's summing up of Afraid of Sunlight (and this was 10 years ago !) - "if this was by any other band than one called Marillion then this would be a huge album".  What kind of reporting is that ?  To say the album is excellent but it's let down because it's by Marillion.

Anyhow, it's really great to see so many Marillion fans on here !!