SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

The seismic impact felt from King Crimson`s groundbreaking 1969 opus, In The Court Of The Crimson King, by other art-minded bands who were just beginning to find their voices in the early seventies is immeasurable. With exestential cover art, symphonic mellotron colouring, dark medieval imagery and metallic tinctures of jazz-rock it would spawn a number of bands who would harvest these components and formidably meld them into their own unique musical pattens.

One of the most profound aftershocks that emanated from Crimson`s sonic frankenstein were the enchanting musical stylings of Genesis who, after several kicks at the cat, refined the symphonic rock concept both in terms of musical structure and production. Favouring melodic and harmonic thematic developments over virtuosic resplendence, 1973`s Selling England By The Pound eclipsed anything the band had previously recorded and in retrospect can be seen as the Mount Everest in the evolution of progrock in the early seventies. At the same time it could well have been reponsible for driving a proverbial nail into the coffin of the progressive rock movement. With expansive pastoral tones combined with abstruse lyrics it is widely accepted amongst conniossuers as the genre`s finest hour. But on the contrary, it provided all the bombastic flatulence that fed critics for their seathing commentaries. Paradoxically though, the work transformed Genesis into a viable commercial endeavour on both sides of the Atlantic. A catchy and rather philisophically charming single entitled I Know What I Like ( In Your Wardrobe ) almost made the UK top 20 while the album itself peaked at #3. The absurd, yet alluring, cover painting, The Dream, by Betty Swanwick alludes to the single and was even altered to better suit the lyrics of the song by adding a lawnmower at the request of the band! Genesis also began headlining their own shows, a US breakthrough loomed over the horizon and previous albums such as Nursery Cryme and Genesis Live began to climb up the UK charts. This was the happy time for progrock with other bands such as Jethro Tull, Yes and Pink Floyd sharing the limelight.

The splendour of the intricate musical stuctures and outré lyrics on the work cannot be overderstated. The love tragedy of Cinema Show, the absurdity of The Battle Of Epping Forest and the ostensibly classical Firth Of Fifth which loosely follows a sonata model of theme/development/recap/coda all reflect affections for early classical compositional structures and a learned private school education. Although not their strongest lyrical effort, ( aknowledged by members of the band themselves ) a contemporary conciousness prevails over the work using both ancient and coeval English metaphors. This is evident from the onset with singer Peter Gabriel`s opening capella, " Can you tell me where my country lies?" which questions the economical and social strife in Britain at the time. The lyrics become somewhat muddled at times particularily on The Battle For Epping Forest and Firth Of Fifth so it is best to let one`s immagination flow here. Guitarist Steve Hackett even once refered to the album as mad and surreal!

Overshadowed by later commercial successes, early Genesis albums such as this one don`t age well and it is more likely that they will hold more lasting appeal for those who lived through the period and witnessed the visual backdrops and Peter Gabriel`s theatrical characterizations on the live stage unseen on vinyl and CD reproductions. I attended a Genesis concert in the summer of 2007 and when they played some of the earlier material I noticed a look of perplexity on the faces of some of the younger people in the audience!

Passage of time notwithstanding, Selling England By The Pound is without question the most exquisite of the Peter Gabriel phase of the band and although not without flaw, it remains one of the most enduring stylistic elucidations of the early seventies progrock phenomenom.