Yes fans vs. Genesis fans

They did make a short version of Watcher of the Skies, but it didn't get much airplay, so perhaps with that one they tried to make it into a pop song, but it wasn't 'popular' hence wasn't a pop song.>>

Thanks for answering that question.  I was going to ask if they ever released it as a single and if they did did they cut out the opening organ solo. 

Pop song has nothing to do with the idea of "popular,in the sense of mass appeal  At this time, pre-rap, circa 1885-1990, pop is defined by specific structures and practices that have to do with the tradition and audience expectation.  The most common structure from Tin Pan Alley is the aaba structure, also known as aba.  Both Watcher and Roundabout have this structure. It is no accident.  these guys knew their pop music. 

look and learn

Fascinating Rhythm

A)

Fascinating Rhythm, 
You've got me on the go! 
Fascinating Rhythm, 
I'm all a-quiver. 

A)

What a mess you're making! 
The neighbors want to know 
Why I'm always shaking 
Just like a flivver. 

B)

Each morning I get up with the sun -- 
Start a-hopping, 
Never stopping -- 
To find at night no work has been done. 

A)

I know that 
Once it didn't matter -- 
But now you're doing wrong; 
When you start to patter 
I'm so unhappy. 

A)

Won't you take a day off? 
Decide to run along 
Somewhere far away off -- 
And make it snappy! 

B)

Oh, how I long to be the man I used to be! 
Fascinating Rhythm, 
Oh, won't you stop picking on me?

Watcher of the skies

A)

Watcher of the skies watcher of all
His is a world alone no world is his own,

A)
He whom life can no longer surprise,
Raising his eyes beholds a planet unknown.

B)
Creatures shaped this planet’s soil,
Now their reign has come to end,
Has life again destroyed life,
Do they play elsewhere, do they know
More than their childhood games?

A)
Maybe the lizard’s shed it’s tail,
This is the end of man’s long union with earth.

A)
Judge not this race by empty remains
Do you judge God by his creatures when they are dead?

A)
For now, the lizard’s shed it’s tail
This is the end of man’s long union with earth.

B)
From life alone to life as one,
Think not now your journey’s done
For though your ship be sturdy, no
Mercy has the sea,
Will you survive on the ocean of being?

A)
Come ancient children hear what I say
This is my parting council for you on your way.

A)
Sadly now your thoughts turn to the stars
Where we have gone you know you never can go.

A)
Watcher of the skies watcher of all
This is your fate alone, this fate is your own.
 

Roundabout

A)

I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out ’n’ out
You change the day your way
Call it morning driving thru the sound and
In and out the valley

A)
The muses dance and sing
They make the children really ring
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving thru the sound and
In and out the valley

B)

In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they
Stand there
One mile over we’ll be there and we’ll see
You
Ten true summers we’ll be there and
Laughing too
Twenty four before my love you’ll see I’ll be
There with you

A)
I will remember you
Your silhouette will charge the view
Of distance atmosphere
Call it morning driving thru the sound and
Even in the valley

Roundabout has this wonderful contrasing bridge section that brings you back to the basic structure, oh, afterthe big jam session,  and it ends with a coda.  Is somebody going to argue that this is a sonata rondo form?

Along the drifting cloud the eagle searching
Down on the land
Catching the swirling wind the sailor sees
The rim of the land
The eagle’s dancing wings create as weather
Spins out of hand
Go closer hold the land feel partly no more
Than grains of sand
We stand to lose all time a thousand answers
By in our hand
Next to your deeper fears we stand
Surrounded by a million years

A)
I’ll be the roundabout
The words will make you out ’n’ out
I’ll be the roundabout
The words will make you out ’n’ out

A)
I’ll be the roundabout
The words will make you out ’n’ out
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving thru the sound and
In and out the valley

Just to show how you try to manipulate things to preove the silly arguments you give, i will go with this one:

Ken4music wrote:

The most common structure from Tin Pan Alley is the aaba structure, also known as aba.  Both Watcher and Roundabout have this structure. It is no accident.  these guys knew their pop music.

According to your argument, the AABA structure is exclusive of Pop or at least you are trying to convince us about that, but:

The thirty-two-bar form, often shortened to AABA, is a musical form common in Tin Pan Alley songs, later popular music including rock and pop music, and jazz, though "there were few instances of it in any type of popular music until the late teens," it became "the principal form" around 1925-1926 (Wilder 1972, p. 56, [1]).

So, this structure is common in ROCK, POP, and even JAZZ

Watcher of the Skies is a Progressive ROCK song, so it's obvious they use some characteristics and structures common in ROCK.  

I could prove you have clearly reorganized the lyric structure of Watcher of the Skies to pretend it takes an AABA form (You omit the instrumental sections at the start and the middle that change the basic structure), but it's useless, because  it's evident AABA is the most common structure to most genres.

You also say properly that the AABA form is called the Tin Pan Alley song.........But you forget to mebtion that the Tin Pan Alley structure was created around 1890:

The history of Tin Pan Alley is a history of the United States as seen by its tunesmiths. We find an incredible variety of materials documented in songs which do, indeed, seem to have mirrored every aspect of American life from the beginning of Tin Pan Alley in the 1890s to the latest digital technology. We can chronicle the changing musical tastes of Americans, along with our social, economic and political concerns, by the kinds of popular music we bought, played and listened to -- from the tear-jerker to the latest rock song.

The Tin Pan Alley song structure is not only usred by Rock, Pop and Jazz, but it's part of the history of music in USA, being common also in almost any genre.

For your proper information, this structure is also called the Thirty-Two-Bar Form, and it was used among others:

Thirty-two-bar form was often used in rock in the 1950s and 60s, afterwhich verse-chorus form became more prevalent. Examples (ibid, 71) include: The Brill Building and other songwriters, such as Lennon-McCartney, often used modified thirty-two-bar forms, often modifying the number of measures in individual or all sections. Examples include (ibid, p.70):

So it's obvious that this structure was created almost 100 years before the POP genre was even born, and it's common to almost any genre, including Rock and Jazz.

If you are going to argue something...use the complete quotes please.

Iván