Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man
Lover's Leap, the first part of Supper's Ready, is a sparkling acoustic guitar piece about two lovers who get lost in each other's eyes. During a lovely, sensitive instrumental section, the song changes pace and subsequently flows into the more electrical The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man. This is a rather vague part in which a town is described which is dominated by two characters; one a benevolent farmer, the other (the Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man) the head of a highly disciplined scientific religion.
Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men with its somewhat galloping pace, is about an army below the ground that is summoned to come to the surface by the Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man. This section contains a great guitar solo by Hackett, effectively visualising the following battle between good and evil. The enemy is slain and the army fades away in the distance until it cannot be heard any more.
The beginning of How Dare I Be So Beautiful? consists of waves of misty organ. Gabriel describes the deserted battle field where a solitary figure is sitting who is obsessed by his own image and spontaneously turns into a flower.
Willow Farm, on the other hand, is full of silly word play and has the sense of some psychedelic dream. The whole scene changes into a faster but no less strange interlude before this part of the song returns to its original theme.
Hackett's electric guitar wails in the distance after which a very sensitive instrumental enfolds, born by a quivering flute solo, which erupts into the great Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet). On the breath of the lovely organ solo by Banks, the song is directed towards various more and more inescapable climaxes. After the introduction of Gabble Ratchet (apparently the sound of wild geese that heralds the arrival of archangels, or something in that vein), the song comes to a grand, bombastic climax with Gabriel singing as if his life depends on it (which is exactly how he described it felt).
Gabriel actually recorded his vocals for the Apocalypse in 9/8 part in secret, since he knew that Banks had a very particular idea about how this part of Supper's Ready should sound.
"I made sure there was no-one else around when I recorded my part, because I knew that (a) I couldn't do some of the vocals very well and also I would be rather self-conscious, and (b) I was trying stuff that I knew some of the others wouldn't like. I knew that the keyboard solo was too long for the number. It was distracting. There was a great solo in there, but it needed editing. I thought that the only way that I could keep this number working was to get a vocal in. I worked for a long time to get it right. When the band came in - and they came in together, thank God, I made sure of that! - and I played them the tape, sure enough, Tony was outraged that I'd gone over his sacred solo. However the rest of the band were really excited by what I'd done and popular vote was always the deciding factor. There were the absurd manipulating tactics which we were all guilty of - but probably me, more than any other!" Banks had to admit that "[t]he vocals added drama, and I felt that, as a result, the song reached an incredible peak."
