- Watcher of the Skies
- Timetable
- Get'em Out by Friday
- Can-Utility and the Coastliners
- Horizons
- Supper's Ready
Watcher of the Skies
A truly astounding performance by the band at a peak of inspired creativity. There were few more dramatic moments during a Genesis concert than when Peter Gabriel donned his Famed batwings and glared at the audience with luminous eyes as he became... the Watcher Of The Skies. Here is the best version they could manage in the studio at this time, and despite the limitations of early Seventies' technology, it still retains its power and excitement. The Mellotron sets the scene with minor chords filled with menace. The volume drops as Rutherford's bass builds up a staccato, insistent rhythm gradually joined by restless drums, ready for Gabriel's grand vocal entrance. He tells his tale of the Mysterious One, contemplating the fate of a departed human race, while all around him guitars howl mournfully and the band create a war chant of despair. There are overtones of Gustav Holst's 'Mars' from The Planets Suite, in the band's use of strident, single note rhythm, but the theme and the execution is all Genesis. A particularty inspired moment comes when drums and guitar answer Banks' solo voce chords in a chilling exchange before the almost unbearable momentum is resumed, finally resolved by a great roar from Collins' rolling tom-toms.
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Timetable
Light relief after the pounding excitement of the previous track, on this gentle but stirring pop song. Gabriel sings at his most expressive, without having to cope with over complex imagery or too many difficult words! Built over a kind of pedal Aythm from the acoustic piano, there is an lntriguing middle section where Mike Rutherford's bass picks out melodic notes in the upper register behind delicately plinking piano. The lyrics have poetic depth and tenderly evoke a bygone age of kings and queens, ultimately banished by war and conflict.
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Get'em Out by Friday
One of the most popular numbers in the stage set, this is a kind of radio play set to music. Genesis introduce more Dickensian characters to their roster of heroes and villains. This time 'Winkler', a bailiff in the employ of property developers Styx Enterprises, is the man Genesis audiences liked to boo, in his attempts to evict Mrs. Barrow and family, on the orders of the hated John Pebble. Written at a time when Peter Gabriel was undergoing real life landlord problems, it is full of biting satire. Even when the family agree to leave their home for a flat in Harlow New Town, they discover their rent is raised again. Worse is to come. When they reach the year 2012, genetic engineers order that all humans must be restricted to four feet in height, so more people can be packed into the tower blocks. Anyone over that height has to go! Amidst all the comic lines (including the bizarre voice of Genetic Control, that sounds like Phil Collins at work, there is some superb ensemble playing from the band, full of jazz-rock fusion rhythms, interspersed with cascading flutes and more suitablv mournful Mellotron.
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Can-Utility and the Coastliners
The sea makes an early appearance as a Genesis motif, a theme they would explore many years later in 'Home By The Sea'. But this is a strange tale indeed, ostensibly about King Canute, but one wonders if it is actually about Peter Gabriel, as he tells of a singer wary of flatterers and tired of singing. It is indeed a mysterious tale concluding with the abrupt lines "See a little man with his face turning red. Though his story's often told you can tell he's dead." While the listener can puzzle over the inner meanings of the lyrics, the band offers a more direct example of their astonishing musical growth. Although Steve Hackett seems held in check (compared to the space allowed his less able predecessors), when he makes his contribution it is always vital and telling. Here he manages a brief solo before locking into a tricky unison passage with the vocals.
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Horizons
Instrumental
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Supper's Ready
Following straight on from 'Horizons', a short but nonetheless very attractive Steve Hackett solo acoustic piece, with some nifty harmonics, comes Genesis' most celebrated epic, which takes up the whole of side two of the original vinyl album. The piece is sub-divided as follows: (1) Lovers' Leap, (2) The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man, (3) Ikhnaton And Itsacon and Their Band Of Merry Men, (4) How Dare I Be So Beautiful'? (5) Willow Farm, (6) Apocalypse In 9/8 (Co-Starring The Delicious Talents Of Gabble Ratchet), and (7) As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet). A 12-string guitar plays a beautiful melody to create a romantic mood before Gabriel sings 'Lovers' Leap', with its soulful cry of "Hey baby, don't you know our love is true."
The song is curiously at odds with the rest of the lyrics which become increasingly manic. Acoustic guitars beaver away, then an electric piano joins in the fun as the danse macabre begins. Peter breathes a lover's greeting: "It's been a long time. Hasn't it?" with gentle understatement, as the band finally make their appearance on 'Sanctuary Man'. Each piece tends to segue seamlessly into each other, as the musical moods change, but there is pause for thought and reflection. Children's voices chant a nursery rhyme during 'Sanctuary Man,' then Peter heralds a clash of dark forces. "Killing for peace... bang, bang, bang!" he yells as the combined forces of Hackett, Rutherford, Banks and Collins march into action.
A sudden halt creates a cliffhanging moment of tension before the main refrain is repeated. Gabriel's gift of extracting maximum meaning and sensual effect from well chosen words is exemplified on 'How Dare I Be So Beautiful'!' when in the aftermath of battle he says: "We climb up the mountain of human flesh." The final line of this piece "... Narcissus is turned to a flower," concludes with "A Flower?" The phrase was given much greater emphasis during 'live' performances. It was the signal for gasps and chuckles from the audience as Gabriel appeared dancing in tight black trousers with a huge flower wreathing his head, launching him into the camp and comic 'Willow Farm'. Gabriel, growing ever more surreal, chants over a suitably silly march, "There's Winston Churchill dressed in drag, he used to be a British flag, plastic bag... what a drag." This piece of eccentric nonsense, much in the tradition of Edward Lear and John Lennon, stops in its tracks with a cry of "All change!"
'Apocalypse' begins with doomy chords, heralding an Elizabethan style serenade on flute and guitar. This is supplanted by a grinding, angular organ solo over a pounding, relentless rhythm in 9/8. Phil's drums skitter around the Hammond as Tony's stabbing notes become increasingly hysterical during a lengthy instrumental interlude. Bells chime and the snare drum rolls as Gabriel sounds a return to the theme from 'Lovers' Leap'. The denouement of this massive work is reached with 'As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs,' where the tempo reverts to a slow but steady rock beat, with huge notes from Mike Rutherford's bass pedals underpinning an exultant guitar hymn. It sounds like the whole band is waving farewell, but the piece ends abruptly, right up against the stop grooves of the vinyl album. It's not a good ending, considering the epic scope of the piece, which suggests they simply have run out of tape. 'Supper's Ready' explores the complexities of human relationships, the threat of external forces and the ultimate power of love to heal.
