"'Can you tell me where my country lies?'
Said the unifaun to his true love's eyes
'It lies with me,' cried the Queen of Maybe
For her merchandise, he traded in his prize"
Said the unifaun to his true love's eyes
'It lies with me,' cried the Queen of Maybe
For her merchandise, he traded in his prize"
—"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight"
Selling England by the Pound is the fifth studio album by Genesis, released through Charisma Records on 13 October 1973. It was the first album by the band which charted a single in the UK ("I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", #21) and reached the US Billboard 200 (#70).
Tracklist:
Side One- "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" (8:02)
- "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" (4:03)
- "Firth of Fifth" (9:36)
- "More Fool Me" (3:10)
Side Two
- "The Battle of Epping Forest" (11:43)
- "After the Ordeal" (4:07)
- "The Cinema Show" (11:10)
- "Aisle of Plenty" (1:30)
Principal Members:
- Tony Banks – keyboards, guitars
- Phil Collins – drums, percussion, vocals ("More Fool Me")
- Peter Gabriel – vocals, woodwinds, percussion
- Steve Hackett – guitars
- Mike Rutherford – guitars, bass guitars
And so with gods and men, the tropes remain inside their pen:
- Album Title Drop: While there is no Title Track, the album title appears early on in "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight":''"'Paper late!' cried a voice in the crowd
Old man dies
The note he left was signed "Old Father Thames"
It seems he's drowned
Selling England by the Pound. - Artistic License – Geography: The chorus of "The Cinema Show", in which Tiresias states that "there is, in fact, more Earth than sea." This planet actually contains roughly twice as much sea as land. The band weren't being literal here, using the water and earth as metaphors for how sex feels as a man and a woman, respectively.
- Black Cap of Death: At the end of "The Battle of Epping Forest", the gangs' accountants check back on the battlefield and find that all the participants killed each other, resulting in a draw; consequently, they decide to flip a coin to settle the boundary dispute that started the battle. The narrator of the song refers to the accountants as "Blackcap Barons" when recounting this, implying that they ultimately hold full responsibility for the carnage that took place.
- Book Ends:
- "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" begins and ends with the same rumbling, groaning synth line.
- "Aisle of Plenty" is a reprise of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight". Both songs additionally feature wordplay based around grocery stores, with "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" referencing the Green Shield Stamps program and "Aisle of Plenty" featuring plays on a number of grocery store chains in the UK.
- Breather Episode: The three shorter tracks, all of which are a bit more subdued overall, are all sequenced between the album's longer epics (counting "Aisle of Plenty" as part of one of the latter).
- Brief Accent Imitation: Gabriel does several different voices for "The Battle of Epping Forest", which frequently represent different areas of the United Kingdom. One of them is a pretty clear goof on Bob Dylan, too.
- Concept Album: The album's lyrics center around the decline of English folk culture in the wake of growing commercialization and Americanization, as exemplified by the album title. According to Tony Banks, the album was not originally conceived this way, but ended up leaning into the concept as the songs developed.
- Cover Drop: "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" features the line "when the sun beats down and I lie on the bench, I can always hear them talk," imagery that is reflected on the album cover, which itself was hastily adjusted to include a lawnmower to better tie it to the track.
- Death by Irony: In "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", the narrator notes that Old Father Thames committed suicide by drowning — in British folklore, Old Father Thames is an anthropomorphic representation of the eponymous river, making his aquatic death in the song a marked contrast with his lot in life.
- Design Student's Orgasm: Like Genesis' previous albums on Charisma Records, the album cover for Selling England by the Pound depicts a detailed painting related to the lyrics of some of the songs. In this case, the album cover is The Dream, painted by former London Transport poster artist Betty Swanwick, which depicts the intro and bridge of "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" (i.e. "when the sun beats down and I lie on the bench, I can always hear them talk").
- Double Entendre:
- In "The Battle of Epping Forest":It all began when I went on a tour,
Hoping to find some furniture.
I followed a sign — it said "Beautiful Chest".
It led to a lady who showed me her best. - The same song also mentions "Staffordshire plate". Although Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire is known as a pottery town, the above is also a slang term for oral sex. Really, the entire "Reverend" section is one double entendre after another.
- "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" also has a few, starting with the song title.
- "The Cinema Show" also has one centering around Romeo and Juliet.
- In "The Battle of Epping Forest":
- Driven to Suicide: In "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", the narrator encounters a news headline stating that Old Father Thames drowned himself to death as a result of his participation in England's decline through commercialization.
- Epic Instrumental Opener: "Firth of Fifth" opens with an extended piano solo by Tony Banks that goes on for around a minute before the vocals kick in; this solo is reprised again on the ARP Pro Soloist during the song's bridge.
- Epic Rocking: There are four tracks longer than eight minutes, though originally "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "The Cinema Show", and "Aisle of Plenty" were to be part of a 20-minute suite, much like "Supper's Ready", considering the riffs linking the tracks together.
- Gender Bender: The chorus, such as it is, of "The Cinema Show" (it's the only segment of the song to be sung twice) centres around Father Tiresias, a figure from Greek mythology who was transformed into a woman for seven years by Hera after he struck a pair of mating snakes. The lyrics allude to an episode in Tiresias' life where Zeus and Hera ask him which gender draws more pleasure from sex, with each god arguing in favor of the other gender; Tiresias, having slept around in both of his forms, states that he enjoyed it more as a woman.Take a little trip back with Father Tiresias
Listen to the old one speak of all he has lived through
I have crossed between the poles
For me there's no mystery
Once a man, like the sea I raged
Once a woman, like the earth I gave
But there is in fact more earth than sea - Gratuitous Panning: "The Battle of Epping Forest" begins with the sound of an army platoon marching from the left channel to the right channel.
- Hurricane of Puns: The whole album is full of them.
- For starters, the "pound" in the title can refer either to the measurement of weight or to the British currency, tying into the overarching concept of how commercialization and Americanization led to the decline of English folk culture.
- "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" has wordplay which incorporates British mythology with the modern world. Among other things, the opening lines mention a "unifaun" (a portmanteau of "uniform" and "faun") and the "Queen of Maybe
," and the chorus ends with the cry "Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout". - "Firth of Fifth" is a pun on the actual body of water the Firth of Forth.
- It's not just that "Aisle of Plenty"'s title is in itself a pun; the song has these for the big grocery chains of the time.
- Instrumentals: "After the Ordeal", although the liner notes erroneously list the lyrics of the Reverend movement of "The Battle of Epping Forest" as if they were the lyrics to "After the Ordeal".
- Literary Allusion Title: The album title comes from a former slogan by the British Labour Party.
- Longest Song Goes Last: Some CD versions have "The Cinema Show" and "Aisle of Plenty" indexed as a single, 12:40 track. They are Siamese Twin Songs either way; the only obvious reason for separating them is that the latter is a reprise of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight". (It is also not obviously lyrically related to either "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" or "The Cinema Show", but the Romeo and Juliet and Father Tiresias sections of the latter also are not obviously related, so it's not clear how much impact that had on the band's decision.)
- Lyrical Cold Open: "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" (and by extension, the album) opens with the acapella line "'Can you tell me where my country lies?' said the unifaun to his true love's eyes." The guitar then kicks in with the line "'It lies with me,' cried the Queen of Maybe."
- Although the album version does not, many live performances of "Firth of Fifth" cold open, omitting the studio version's piano intro.
- Mob War: "The Battle of Epping Forest", written about the turf wars in London's East End that Peter Gabriel had heard of for years. Said turf wars actually were fought in Epping Forest in Greater London and Essex.
- Non-Appearing Title: The album plays around with this trope. "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", and "The Cinema Show" each feature a phrase that sounds similar to the title but isn't 1:1.note "Firth of Fifth", "After the Ordeal", and "Aisle of Plenty" are more conventional cases of this trope (though with "After the Ordeal" it's inevitable on account of it being an instrumental), and "More Fool Me" and "The Battle of Epping Forest" feature conventional title drops.
- No Ending: In a way, "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", because it was intended to lead into "The Cinema Show". It simply fades out on the recording, but it's pretty clearly meant to build tension until the opening of the latter track releases it.
- Recurring Riff: As "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "The Cinema Show", and "Aisle of Plenty" were originally meant to be a suite, there is a similar progression that can be heard at any point in the three songs, of which it transitions the latter two in the final cut.
- Re-Cut:
- On 8-track releases, the running order is substantially altered to fit a four-program format. What the rearranged order is depends on the region:
- On the UK edition, the tracklist goes "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", "Firth of Fifth", "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "More Fool Me", "The Cinema Show", "Aisle of Plenty", "The Battle of Epping Forest", and "After the Ordeal", Additionally, "The Cinema Show" is split into two parts due to it overlapping with the changeover between programs two and three.
- On the US edition, the 8-track running order is "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", "Firth of Fifth", "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "The Battle of Epping Forest", "More Fool Me", "The Cinema Show", and "Aisle of Plenty". Additionally, "The Battle of Epping Forest" is split into two parts due to it overlapping with the changeover between programs two and three.
- On cassette releases, "Firth of Fifth" is moved between "The Battle of Epping Forest" and "After the Ordeal" to even out the lengths of the two sides.
- On 8-track releases, the running order is substantially altered to fit a four-program format. What the rearranged order is depends on the region:
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: After all the fighting in "The Battle of Epping Forest", all the participants end up dead. Because the battle would otherwise be a draw, their accountants flip a coin to settle the matter.
- Shout-Out: All over the place.
- "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" makes references both to an old Labour Party slogan (which also provides the album with its name) and to "Land of Hope and Glory", a song commonly associated with the British Conservative Party.
- "The Battle of Epping Forest" makes a passing reference to Woodstock, and Gabriel does a brief Bob Dylan impression. Liquid Len is also named after a pseudonym of Jonathan Smeeton, a lighting and production designer who adopted the moniker during his work with Hawkwind. Smeeton, incidentally, would end up lending his services to Gabriel's solo shows from the late '70s all the way up to the 1990s.
- "The Cinema Show" refers to both Romeo and Juliet and the Greek myth of Tiresias within the span of a few minutes.
- Siamese Twin Songs: "The Cinema Show" and "Aisle of Plenty", to the point where some releases (including the original 1973 LP) have them combined as one track.
- Song Style Shift: Because it's Progressive Rock, these can happen anywhere, but a particularly noteworthy one is the shift from folk at the beginning of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" to complex, fast-paced progressive rock in the middle (which Steve Hackett compared to a rocket launching) to an eerie twelve string guitar-led instrumental at the end.
- Step Up to the Microphone: Phil Collins, whose vocal contributions at this time tended to be mostly backing vocalsnote , sings lead on "More Fool Me". He would take over as lead vocalist two albums later, after the departure of Peter Gabriel.
- Uncommon Time: Used several times in most of the longer songs, but a few noteworthy cases are that "Firth of Fifth" opens with a piano segment (later reprised on synthesizer later in the song) that shifts between 2/4, 13/16, and 15/16, "The Battle of Epping Forest" is mostly in 7/8, and "The Cinema Show" also contains a lengthy instrumental segment in 7/8.
"It's Scrambled Eggs"
