what do genesis lyrics talk about?

From the stuff i've heard, no one thing in particular...... different ideas in most albums but the thing common 2 most is a whimsical & artistic writing style ( due to Gabe )....... & a British sort of humor, if u know what i mean. In a few cases the lyrics remind me of Ian Anderson

He mixes together references to classics, contemporary (at the time) Britain, Victorian Britain and the Bible. Probably the best example is Supper's Ready with the man turning into a flower (Greek, I think?) mentions of social security, and Jerusalem... just the sort of things a public school instils in one, I guess

A lot of the concepts - especially those related to British culture and tradition - are used pretty subversively ("Nursery Cryme", anyone?) if not just with a taste for the absurd. Some are straight retellings of other stories, like Can-Utility and the Coastliners (doesn't escape an awful pun in the title, though ).

A lot of Selling England... focuses on the various cultural dilemma of contemporary Britain. Or rather, Dancing With... does, which frames the rest of the album quite nicely. This track is pretty sober lyrically compared to some others.

They primarily discuss Giant Hogweeds...

I often think of early Genesis lyrics as perverse nursery rhymes for big kids, what with Peter Gabriel’s innocent, child-like voice and the songs' often harmeless themes (sweet smiling Cynthia of the nursery, Romeo and his chocolate surprise, etc.). That is, until you get hit over the head with a Knife, a mallet or some other blunt object, just to see if you were paying attention.

 

It’s all very tongue-in-cheek, really, yet very powerful stuff that works its way into your psyche and creates surreal images you only find in dreams. I love it.

BaldJean wrote: Narcissus is an old Greek legend about a young man who falls in love with his own mirror-image when he drinks from a lake and is turned into a flower (the narcissus, of course). there is a rather famos painting of Dali about it (see below)

i have that poster in my room

such a prog head

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is an acid
drenched adventure into the Fall of Man(probably
Peters experience revisited).

Its only Knock and Knowall!
Bedazzling

NetsNJFan wrote: BaldJean wrote: Narcissus is an old Greek legend about a young man who falls in love with his own mirror-image when he drinks from a lake and is turned into a flower (the narcissus, of course). there is a rather famos painting of Dali about it (see below) i have that poster in my room such a prog head

Good choice, it really struck me when I looked at even this small copy here (Thanks, BaldJean! )... I'm sadly uninformed on art though . Maybe I should spend a few days after the summer teaching myself something.