01	Dancing With The Moonlit Knight						08:04
	02	I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)						04:08
	03	Firth Of Fifth						09:37
	04	More Fool Me (Vocals Phil)			Vocals : Phil			03:10
	05	The Battle Of Epping Forest						11:46
	06	After The Ordeal						04:16
	07	The Cinema Show						11:06
	08	Aisle Of Plenty						01:32

Selling England By The Pound
(Nov 1973)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personnel:
Tony Banks - Keyboards, 12 String Guitar
Phil Collins - Drums, Percussion, Vocal, Lead Vocals (More Fool Me)
Peter Gabriel - Vocals, Flute, Percussion, Oboe
Steve Hackett - Electric Guitar, Nylon Guitar
Mike Rutherford - Bass, 12 String Guitar, Electric Sitar

Production:

Produced by John Burns and Genesis
Engineered by Rhett Davies

Recorded at Island Studios, London, August 1973.

Cover painting by Betty Swanwick, ARA



definitive edition remaster version
Published by (C)1973 Genesis Music Ltd / Hit & Run Music Ltd
Remastered at The Farm and Abbey Road by Nick Davis, Geoff Callingham and Chris Blair


Genesis
Selling England by the Pound
Atlantic (19277-2)
UK 1973

Phil Collins, drums, percussion, vocal;
Michael Rutherford, 12-string, bass, electric sitar;
Stephen Hackett, electric guitar, nylon guitar;
Tony Banks, keyboards, 12-string;
Peter Gabriel, vocals, flute, oboe, percussion

Tracklist:
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 - 3:10
5. The Battle of Epping Forest - 11:43
6. After the Ordeal - 4:07
7. The Cinema Show - 11:05
8. Aisle of Plenty - 1:35

total time 53:44


jon b

The place of Selling England By the Pound in the Genesis canon is one hotly debated among the band's faithful. Some find it lacking in the epic scope of Foxtrot's "Suppers Ready" or The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, while others find it difficult to penetrate the thicket of very English concepts in the lyrics. For others, myself included, this is the best of Genesis, a document of a band at the peak of its powers. Not only that, it is the ultimate example of Genesis's flavor of symphonic prog, an example that is still being imitated today.
The album kicks off with an unaccompanied Peter Gabriel asking "Can you tell me where my country lies?", setting the stage for the lyrical tone to come. Steve Hackett once said that "selling England by the pound" was literally the platform of one of the major political parties in Britain in the early 1970s. As a result, most of the lyrics seem to relate to commentary on that time and place, which is either an interesting thing to be investigated (to do so, check out the link to "A Lament for Post War England" above) or something so dense as to ruin the album. For me, it is definitely the former. For all the head scratching the lyrics create, they never, in my mind, overshadow the music. In "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight," that includes some sublime Mellotron work (the "the captain leads his..." section) and nice guitar work from Hackett.

Oddly, for this benchmark of prog, it also includes the band's first bonafide single success, "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)." It's not the album's best track, but it's enjoyable in a playful sort of way. The walking bass line in the chorus is one of my all time favorites.

That leads to "Firth of Fifth," which may be the archetypal symphonic prog song. Tony Banks' acoustic piano intro gives way to the full band supporting Gabriel's mythic lyrics. The heart of the piece is the middle instrumental section, which begins with a mournful flute solo from Gabriel before kicking in a tricky up tempo section led by Banks's synth solo. From there, cue Hackett for a solo that is probably the standard to which all his disciples strive. Soaring and melodic, this is where Hackett shows that being a talented musician sometimes means not being the best technician in the world. The song concludes by returning to Gabriel's vocals. A classic.

The rest of the album contains, in essence, two interstitial palette cleansers, two epics, and a coda. The two shorter tracks are effective in their way, although neither is spectacular. "More Fool Me" is noteworthy as the first appearance of Phil Collins on lead vocal, while "After the Ordeal" is a longing instrumental that suits its place on the album.

That place is after "The Battle of Epping Forest," which is either a complete mess of over the top eccentricity or a sublime example of the band's lyrical style at its most absurd. It is based, rather loosely, I imagine, on gang fights which occurred in a certain area of London. I personally think the song works well, particularly the scathing ending where it is revealed that all the carnage was for naught as the heads of the factions flip a coin to "settle the score." Your mileage my vary. The other major track is "The Cinema Show," which includes a short vocal introduction about young lovers (and more mythic overtones) followed up by a long instrumental workout. The version on this album seems somewhat lifeless and dull compared to the live one on Seconds Out, but is still a fine piece, particularly with Hackett's guitar lines sliding in, out, and around the vocal lines in the first section.

The album ends with a brief return to the opening vocal melody in "Aisle of Plenty." It brings the album together in a way that, while not truly a single concept, it certainly shares a similar mindset and point of view throughout.

As I said, I think this is the peak of Genesis. From here it was only downhill, although fairly slowly so (until at least the 1980s). It's not surprising that the other releases of that year from the band's contemporaries were equally outstanding (think Larks' Tongues in Apsic, Brain Salad Surgery and Octopus, among others). Was it something in the water? Who knows. It was a very good year, and Selling England by the Pound was top of the heap. A classic.

3-2-03

conrad

Genesis released this album at the height of their musical creativity. The three classic Genesis albums came one after the other, and this was smack in the middle of them. It is notable for Genesis' continued studio experimentation, some very fine keyboard playing by Tony Banks, and lyrics that set the album very definitely in post-war England.
Despite the fact that the album is dominated by Banks, the first two band members to take the spotlight in "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" are Peter Gabriel, with his a capella opening, and Steve Hackett, with a pseudo-medieval guitar style, in the spirit of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. The band continued to experiment with new sounds in the studio. The most notable example is of an electric piano and an organ playing the same chord very slightly out of key. The resultant "beating" is responsible for the lawnmower sound on "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)".

Lyrically, this album takes a few unexpected turns. "The Battle of Epping Forest" is infamous for being based on a newspaper aritcle that nobody has read. The story of gangs fighting to decide on territory borders has not aged as badly as some would expect, because the fundamentals of this song are constant. Organising an all-out brawl to decide on territory will always be surreal, religious men of less than spotless character are always likely to be with us, and the wannabe gangster with a fine arts degree will always climb up the nearest tree when the going gets tough. This is social observation of a very English sort, and Genesis are inheritors of a tradition of parody shared by Lewis Carroll.

The last minute of the album is what made the album so addictive for me. The chord sequence used is the same as that for the early part of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", but with less ornamentation. The effect on me was that I found myself wanting to play the start of the record again, so that I could hear the sequence played in its more developed form.

Love or loathe the lyrics, this album contains some of the best music Genesis ever wrote. Tony Banks' keyboards have never sounded better, and the band continued to experiment with vigour and growing maturity. Is this the best album Genesis ever recorded? Maybe, but if not it is certainly very close to it.

3-11-03






Genesis - Selling England By The Pound


"Can you tell me where my country lies", said the Unifaun to his true love's eyes is the very first thing you hear on Genesis' 4th album. No music, just Peter Gabriel's husky voice. The music doesn't start until the third sentence, and by then you already know that this album is something very special.

A year after the critically acclaimed hit album Foxtrot Genesis is back, with the difficult task to surpass the album that had brought them their first real success and allowed them to step out of the shade of small university and club gigs, into the first bright rays of international success. Selling England by the Pound succeeded and brought the band international recognition with comparisons made by the press to Yes, ELP, The Rolling Stones and The Doors.

Where Foxtrot had still sounded as if the band was yet searching for a certain direction (despite the fact that this album contained their all-time masterpiece Supper's Ready) on Selling... they presented themselves as one solid band. You could hear that the band had grown and matured during their five years of existence and how the music had evolved from the gained experience.

The opening track Dancing with the Moonlit Knight is an 8-minute composition with the usual incomprehensible lyrics of Peter Gabriel. It starts with vocals only, while the rest of the band slowly joins in. After this mellow start all hell breaks lose after the third minute where The Mellotron, so blatantly introduced on the predecessor is now degraded to a more supporting role. And although the instrument is present on almost every composition on the album Tony Banks refrains from indulgent actions like the Watcher of the skies intro off the previous album.

I know what I like (in your wardrobe) is the band's first shot at the charts. Tony Banks' catchy melody line and Gabriel's funny lyrics make the song perfect for a single. The song reached a modest 19th position in the English charts and would probably have been a real hit, had the promotional video not been refused by Top of the Pops. The single did however boost the sales of Selling England.

The third track turned out to become another classic in Genesis' history. Firth of Fifth (a word-spin on the delta of the Scottish Forth River) is entirely written by Tony Banks and probably the best he's ever done to date. The classical piano intro is of true high-class standard. Tony's lyrics are so full of metaphors that even the best linguist won't get further than concluding that the song's about a river. And Steve Hacket's partly improvised guitarsolo has been often imitated yet never surpassed.


More Fool me, the next track, is written by Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford, with the result that Peter Gabriel let Phil do the vocals on the track, although Phil is clearly trying to copy Peter's vocal style. The song does however shows that Phil is more than just the drummer of the band, although probably nobody would have guessed at the time that Peter would leave the band two years later, leaving Phil at the singing spot.

The first song on side two The Battle of Epping Forest is the only "misser" on the album. As Tony later explained in an interview: "The music is great and Pete's vocal melody is great, however the two just don't seem to work together". Despite the serious subject of the lyrics, a gang fight, the song just doesn't sound serious at all.
After the ordeal is the instrumental on the album. It is a very calm, serene piece based around a beautiful guitarsolo by Steve Hackett,

The next track is the third song on the album that has become an all-time favourite: Cinema Show. The song has a slow build with a couple of lyrics sung by Gabriel, before Tony takes over for a 6-minute keyboardsolo, which is still considered one of his finest. (Although his solo of 1974's In the cage is considered his best ever). The song finishes with the theme of Dancing with the moonlit knight which completes the circle.

The last song on the album Aisle of plenty is also based on that same theme, which makes it a short reprise of the first song. The lyrics are a spin on the British supermarket industry. (Ease you now, there's the safe way home. Thankful for her fine fair discounts, Tes co-operates) and thus makes the circle, which started with Moonlit knight (which also deals with the British consumption industry) complete.
Selling England by the Pound is one of the few so-called head-and-tail records. There is a clear start, a middle piece and a worthy ending which sort of reprises the start.

The album did indeed bring them the international success they deserved after Foxtrot and a world tour followed the album. The tour brought them to America, and Peter's stage extravaganza received even more raving reviews by the American press than it ever had got by the British press. It was something they had never seen this side of hardrock.

To me, this album stands as a solid rock in Prog history. Despite the fact that their previous album Foxtrot was maybe a more emotional album, with more feeling, and despite the fact that their follow-up album The Lamb lies down on Broadway is maybe a far more ambitious album, I still prefer to listen to Selling... as this album is a lot easier to listen to - it is a real listening album, rather than an album which needs your full attention when you play it.



by: Bart Jan van der Vorst





Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

Track Listing
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 - 3:10
5) The Battle of Epping Forest - 11:43
6) After the Ordeal - 4:07
7) The Cinema Show - 11:06
8) Aisle of Plenty - 1:31

Member: ptuasca

Genesis' masterpiece in my humble opinion!

I never heard Genesis instrumentally tighter than here! The guys "shine on as crazy diamonds" in every tune!

You MUST buy this album!

Song by song review:

"Dancing with the moonlit knight":

My very favorite Genesis song ever! I'm a guitar player, I must state, and if this is not the best Hackett/Rutherford/Banks guitar work, then I'm a monkey. Every single note on this song is placed there with a genius care and love, I'm sure. Hackett makes a blazing fast tapping solo, alongside Banks. Gabriel makes his best here. I wish I was him. I doubt it if there is a better singer in the world...

"I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)":

There is strong humor in this song. The lyrics are very funny. Collins' vocals are louder here, I think. Hackett keeps repeating the very same riff throughout the song. The instrumental is not what one would expect from Genesis, but the song is very nice.

"Firth of Fifth":

This one begins with Banks on the piano, then the vocals. I heard it a billion times, and still I cannot tell if Collins is more audible than Gabriel or vice versa... The solo: Hackett's finest solo, IMHO. There is so much feeling in here, than there ever was in any David Gilmour solo! Hackett uses his eBow (http://www.ebow.com) to make an infinite sustain that almost makes me cry!

"More Fool Me":

Arguably the weakest spot on the album, this is a Collins sung ballad. It seems to me that it's the mold for the later "Entangled", which is very beautiful too.

"The Battle of Epping Forest":

This one tells a story of a street gang's fight for something I'm not sure yet... Gabriel is the star here. There are little characters all around in the story, giving Gabriel freedom to make all of them alive. I think this is Gabriel's showroom for someone who doesn't know his talents yet.

"After the Ordeal":

This instrumental has Hackett on the acoustic, making a very beautiful piece, while Banks frantic piano makes a very warm mood. Then they slow things down and Hackett makes another "almost makes me cry" solo, with Gabriel on the flute at the very ending of the song.

"The Cinema Show":

I can't quite figure out who sings the first part of the song, but it's a very nice acoustic piece, with Hackett and Rutherford backing each other. Then there's a burst when Gabriel sings, and Hackett makes a very nice solo. After all is sung, Banks makes what I call "his best performance ever" on the who-knows-what-o-tron, or something (I'm terrible identifying keyboard types...). There's a "segue" to the last track, which is very nice and smooth.

"Aisle of Plenty":

There are a few variations of the main theme on the acoustic from "Dancing out...", then Gabriel makes another vocal that makes you want to die!

Rating:

I would give it 345,7 on a 10 star rating.