{"id":1050,"date":"2022-06-18T04:43:25","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T04:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/marsb-may-23-2020\/"},"modified":"2022-06-18T04:43:25","modified_gmt":"2022-06-18T04:43:25","slug":"marsb-may-23-2020","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/marsb-may-23-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"marsb May – 23 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first few years of the early-70s must have been exciting to see all of these UK bands get more and more ambitious at the same time, each of them trying to outdo themselves and each other with long-form and multi-partite compositions, changing and even complex time signatures, and obviously technical instrumentation: Pink Floyd (\u201cAtom Heart Mother\u201d), Jethro Tull (\u201cThick as a Brick\u201d), Yes (\u201cClose to the Edge\u201d) and Genesis (\u201cSupper\u2019s Ready\u201d), and each of these cases felt like a leap (ie. the previous longest Genesis song, \u201cThe Musical Box,\u201d was less than half the length of \u201cSupper\u2019s Ready\u201d).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’ll get this out of the way quickly. “Supper’s Ready,” and many other beloved long classics like Suf\u2019s “Impossible Soul,” are obviously greater than the sum of its parts: there should’ve been a comedown after \u201cIkhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men,\u201d but I wish \u201cHow Dare I Be So Beautiful\u201d had anything like a tune or anything of textural interest (it\u2019s these piano chords being treated to sound more like an organ).<\/p>\n

But yeah, every section otherwise contributes to a feeling like you\u2019re listening to prog rock\u2019s magnum opus. \u201cThe Lover\u2019s Leap\u201d is already captivating in its triple-arpeggiated guitar (from Tony Banks, Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford), and it was a wise decision to still have Phil Collins hitting something – in this case, mostly triangle – to bring us to the next line, to say nothing of Peter Gabriel describing a normal night turn sour: \u201cWalking across the sitting-room, I turn the television off \/ Sitting beside you, I look into your eyes \/ As the sound of motor cars fades in the night\u201d is how the song begins and soon, he introduces \u201cSix saintly shrouded men move across the lawn slowly.\u201d In between these two parts, he sings two lines that could be<\/p>\n

prog rock\u2019s great love couplet: \u201cAnd it\u2019s hello babe, with your guardian eyes so blue-ooh \/ Hey my bay-by, don\u2019t you know our love is true,\u201d and well, I can\u2019t imagine any other artist during this time taking the chance Peter Gabriel does to sing \u201cblue\u201d or \u201cbaby\u201d in that manner.<\/p>\n

The song then slowly kicks into rock mode, segueing into \u201cIkhnaton and \u201cItsacon\u201d with \u201cThe Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man\u201d that features one of my favourite moments on the album: that ghost child\u2019s wail that comes in during, \u201cYou, can\u2019t you see he\u2019s fooled you all,\u201d and more poignantly, \u201cLook, look into my mouth he cries.\u201d And oh man, \u201cI know a fireman who looks after the farm\u201d switching to \u201cI know a fireman who looks after the fire\u201d is clever, backed by Tony Banks\u2019 organ runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIkhnaton and Itsacon\u201d is pure battle music, with the military gallop of Phil Collins\u2019 drums and how it culminates in Steve Hackett\u2019s guitar solo, which sometimes sounds like John Coltrane by way of the Byrds: notes splitting and fraying in an assault. (It always brings me back to \u201cHave You Seen Her Face?\u201d) And the lyrics sell it as a weird battle, with Tony Banks\u2019 keyboard notes swelling up and up and Peter Gabriel looking on ahead and realizing that \u201cAnd even though I’m feeling good \/ Something tells me I’d better activate my prayer capsule!\u201d<\/p>\n

After \u201cHow Dare I Be So Beautiful?\u201d we arrive at \u201cWillow Farm,\u201d and I\u2019ll note here that Tony Banks\u2019 has said that \u201cWillow Farm\u201d and \u201cLover\u2019s Leap\u201d were brought together from two different notebooks, so to speak, but it has never felt that way to me. Yes, it sounds tonally different with the rest of the song, but almost every part is tonally different, and it contains some of my favourite Gabriel singing ever when he sings, \u201cThere\u2019s Winston Churchill, dressed in drag \/ He used to be a British flag, plastic bag, what a drag!\u201d squeezing out \u201cBritish flag\u201d the way he does.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s also not mentioned enough is how funny Genesis were, in a genre constantly mocked for taking itself too seriously when Yes derived entire lyrics from Hindu texts. \u201cWillow Farm\u201d contains backing vocals that clearly go, \u201cFly away you sweet little thing, they\u2019re on your tail! They\u2019re going to change you into a human being!\u201d To say nothing of describing \u201cApocalypse in 9\/8\u201d as \u201cCo-Starring the Delicious Talents of Wild Geese\u201d in programme for live performances and future Genesis songs: \u201cI Know What I Like\u201d and \u201cCounting Out Time.\u201d When Peter Gabriel left, he took a vital humour with him too.<\/p>\n

The return to previous motifs after \u201cApocalypse in 9\/8,\u201d \u201cLover\u2019s Leap\u201d backed by Phil Collins on drums and Tony Banks on organ and \u201cGuaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man\u201d\u2019s melody backed by a different organ line actually feels like a release, and not merely a reprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupper\u2019s Ready\u201d is definitely the main attraction, but don\u2019t be so quick to write off the other tracks. Even Hackett\u2019s Baroque period-recalling instrumental \u201cHorizons\u201d is worthy, and deserves to be filed with the quick instrumentals by Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane as stuff that we didn\u2019t come for, but are glad to have. The only flaw is that \u201cCan-Utility and the Coastliners\u201d could\u2019ve been tighter, especially the non-transition out of the first section (and the melody at the 1:45 mark will be put to better use on \u201cSupper\u2019s Ready\u201d), and the loud section doesn’t feel as vital as the loud parts of other songs here.<\/p>\n

Opener \u201cWatcher of the Skies\u201d is more of the battle scene in \u201cIkhnaton and Itsacon,\u201d but in a sci-fi setting instead of a fantasy one, inspired by Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s Childhood\u2019s End around the same time that Pink Floyd and Van der Graaf Generator were doing the same, even though the title comes from a Yeats poem. That intro, oh man. So silly, so serious, so excellent. Tony Banks had more problems than the rest of the band even though this was a pretty democratic band as they come in that every member gets the space they need to do their thing, but Tony Banks usually squandered that with dated, cheesy keyboard tones. Not here, just two chords on a Mellotron that perfectly set the scene for what the rest of the song, and his contributions on songs like \u201cWatcher on the Skies\u201d makes me think of Herbie Hancock of all people: two artists in the early 70s that just totally owned these sci-fi keyboard tones that haven\u2019t aged well, but are still worthy from their technical chops. They tossed out Bob Potter, one of the original producers slated to work with them, because he wanted to cut this intro. Good move, not just for that but also because new producer Dave Hitchcock ultimately does more for them than their previous producers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also Banks that brings out \u201cTime Table,\u201d the shortest proper song on the album, both in his intro – it ain\u2019t \u201cFirth of Fifth\u201d to be sure, but it\u2019s still the perfect intro – and his toy piano solo later on.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s humour, and Gabriel\u2019s ability to sing fantastic stories that seem real, is on full display with \u201cGet \u2018em out by Friday,\u201d presenting a one-man, three-character play by himself. Mike Rutherford has said that these are Gabriel\u2019s best lyrics, another social commentary, this time about businessmen increasing the price of rent until the tenants can\u2019t afford to live there anymore, and, by the year 2012, Genetic Control has the brilliant idea of imposing \u201ca four foot restriction on humanoid height\u201d that\u2019s revealed so \u201cthey can fit twice as many in the same building site.\u201d Quite love how earnestly (and melodically) Gabriel sings as Mrs. Barrow (a Tenant) and how he rolls his r\u2019s as The Winkler to really show what an asshole that guy is.<\/p>\n

For me, this album represents the culmination of prog rock into a tight set of songs that, crucially, still rock. Earnest takes on sci-fi and fantasy from one of the greatest bands at the absolute height of their abilities.<\/p>\n

Go Back<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first few years of the early-70s must have been exciting to see all of these UK bands get more and more ambitious at the same time, each of them trying to outdo themselves and each other with long-form and multi-partite compositions, changing and even complex time signatures, and obviously technical instrumentation: Pink Floyd (\u201cAtom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1049,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1050","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}