"It lies with me!" cried the Queen of Maybe

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

21/10/73 : Selling England By The Pound - Genesis


I listened to one of the early Genesis albums (I think it was Foxtrot, but I couldn't be sure) and remember thinking "well, it's OK I guess" - so I wasn't expecting to be bowled over by this.  But let's see...

Yeah, it's OK I guess.  It is very prog, with some fine musical showing off going on in places, but you can also hear them already heading towards their more US-friendly sound in some places.  I quite liked "Firth Of Fifth" and I recognised "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" (snappy title!) and didn't mind that either.  "The Battle Of Epping Forest" is somewhat more of a challenge though - it features some absolutely terrible accents from Pete and I really didn't need nearly twelve minutes of it (and there are some pretty chunky other numbers on the album as well).  Overall, it was an interesting listen and I can see people getting into it big time - but I doubt I'll be revisiting it any time soon.

We're at #4 this week on its second week of a nine week run, having peaked at #3 in its debut week.  It then disappeared for three months before coming back for a twelve week run, which was caused by "I Know What I Like" being released as a single.  This was the only single from the album, released sex months later - that wouldn't happen these days, would it?  The rest of the top five were Status Quo, Slade, Perry Como and Gilbert with the highest new entry being Neil Young at #20 (with an album that I surprisingly haven't had to endure yet).  The highest woman is, of course, Karen at #9 - but, for once, we had FOUR different women in the charts.  Wonders will never cease - was it even allowed?!?  Karen didn't even have the most albums in the charts - Diana Ross had three, which was, quite obviously, the same number as Max Bygraves.  And Bowie had five in there - were there really not that many people releasing albums in the 70s?

Wikipedia had a surprisingly large amount on the album (216 milliPeppers) - that's often the case with prog albums because I suspect that genre attracts the sort of people who like to update Wikipedia (or vice versa).  There is some interesting content though - the album cover was an existing original painting by Betty Swanwick (who did art for Underground posters in the 30s-50s) but the band wanted a lawnmover in it - so she added one for them.  Obviously.  Also, on the tour, Peter Gabriel sang "The Battle For Epping Forest" with a stocking over his head.  Again, obviously.

"Customers also listened to" Steve Hackett, Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel - even Anthony Phillips (who left Genesis in 1970), but no Phil Collins or Mike Rutherford.  I was pleased to have added this to my listened to list and did find it interesting, but would struggle to say I found it overly enjoyable.

14/10/73 - Odd album, cool cover
28/10/73 - Very "of its time"

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