The Musical Box -
While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet-smiling Cynthia raised her mallet high and gracefully removed Henry's head. Two weeks later, in Henry's nursery, she discovered his treasured musical box. Eagerly she opened it and as "Old King Cole" began to play, a small spirit-figure appeared. Henry had returned - but not for log, for as he stood in the room his body began ageing rapidly, leaving a child's mind innside. A lifetime's desires surged through him. Unfortunately the attempt to persuade Cynthia Jane to fulfill his romantic desire led his nurse to investigate the noise. Instictively Nanny hurled the musical box at the bearded child, destroying both. As explained on the leaflets of their 'LIVE' album, 1973
Supper's Ready -
"There was one particular incident that gave me the inspiration for Supper's Ready. There was this room at the top of Jill's (his wife) parents' house. The room was the coldest part of the house. I always used to get the shivers when i went in there. It was covered in strong purple and turquoise wallpaper. Everything was bright purple and turquoise. Anyway, we had this strange evening up there which ended with Jill feeling like she'd been possessed. It was extremely frightening. I don't know how to explain it - it was as if she had had a fit, or something. I experienced a sense of evil at that point - I saw another face in her face. I don't know how much of this was going on inside my head and how much was actually happening, but it was an experience I could not forget and was the starting point for a song about the struggle between good and evil." - peter gabriel
For a more unique explanation, this annotation comes from a program from the Foxtrot or early Selling England tours: i) Lover's Leap
In which two lovers are lost in each other's eyes, and found again transformed in the bodies of another male and female. ii) The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man
The lovers come across a town dominated by two characters: one a benevolent farmer, and the other the head of a highly disciplined scientific religion. The latter likes to be known as "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" and claims to contain a secret new ingredient capable of fighting fire. This is a falsehood, an untruth, a whopper and a taradiddle, or to put it in clearer terms; a lie.
iii) Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men
Who the lovers see clad in grays and purples, awaiting to be summoned out of the ground. At the G.E.S.M.'s command they pour forth, from the bowels of the earth, to attack all those without an up-to-date "Eternal Life Licence" which were obtainable at the head office of the G.E.S.M.'s religion. iv) How Dare I Be So Beautiful?
In which our intrepid heroes investigate the aftermath of the battle and discover a solitary figure, obsessed by his own image. They witness an unusual transmutation, and are pulled into their own reflections in the water. v) Willow Farm
Climbing out of the pool, they are once again in a different existence. They're right in the middle of a myriad of bright colours, filled with all manner of objects, plants, animals and humans. Life flows freely and everything is mindlessly busy. At random, a whistle blows and every single thing is instantly changed into another. vi) Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)
At one whistle the lovers become seeds in the soil, where they recognize other seeds to be people from the world in which they had originated. While they wait for Spring, they are returned to their old world to see the Apocalypse of St. John in full progress. The seven trumpeters cause a sensation, the fox keeps throwing sixes, and Pythagoras (a Greek extra) is deliriously happy as he manages to put exactly the right amount of milk and honey on his corn flakes. vii) As Sure as Eggs is Eggs (Aching Mens' Feet)
Above all else an egg is an egg. 'And did those feet ..............' making ends meet.
As explained on the Genesis Frequently Asked Questions Website
A Trick Of The Tail -
"I got the idea for the lyric after reading William Golding's The Inheritors. It's about a race who were on earth before man and it's the story of the last survivor of this race. The very last chapter deals with our reaction to him whereas the rest of the story is his reaction to us. It's about an alien with horns and a tail who appears in a modern city and how people react to him.." Tony Banks explains about ATOTT in the Genesis FAQ website
Mama -
Our manager, when he first heard it, thought it was about abortion, the kind of feeling of the, you know, the featus, if you like, saying to the Mother 'Please give me a chance, can't you feel my heart, don't take away my last chance', all those lyrics are in the song but in fact what it is, is just about a young teenager that's got a mother fixation with a prostitute that he's just happened to have met in passing and he has such a strong feeling for her and doesn't understand why she isn't interested in him. It's a bit like Niven in 'The Moon's A Balloon', I don't know if you've read that book, he's very young, just come out of cadet college or whatever, and he meets this quite, you know, 45 year old prostitute who he has a fantastic time with. He's special to her but it definitely can't go any further than what it is and that's really what the song is about, with sinister overtones. Phil Collins explains at the Genesis FAQ Website
Domino -
"..the song is basically a love story in the context of a nuclear war. The reason why the narrator of the story doesn't know if he'll see his lover again is that he's not sure if she survived the blast or not. He pleads to those who started the war, "Can't you see what you are doing to me? Can't you see what you have done?" - so obviously the backdrop for the song is nuclear war. This describes the "only foreign cities sirens can cut through" and "Blood on the windows" sections of the song just to name a couple. Tony Banks's cynicism comes in full strength at the end of the song. "Now you never did see such a terrible thing as you seen last night on the TV. Maybe, if we're lucky, they will show it again, such a terrible thing to see." Here he's remarking how we see the symptoms of war on TV developing, but we choose nothing to do about it. It's almost like entertainment to us. This kind of sounds like how the Gulf War played out 5 years later come to think of it. "Now I'm one with the living and I'm feel just fine. I know just what I gotta do. Play the game of happiness and never let on that it lives on in a song" Here Tony is poking fun at how we all sort of seem oblivious to the threat of nuclear war. We just live our lives as if nothing's gonna ever happen to us. But as he reminds in the next line, "There's nothing you can do if you're the next in line", so it's probably just as well.." Genesis FAQ Website
I Can't Dance -
My own interpretation is that this song is Genesis's way of joking about modern music and the direction it's heading in, with the emphasis more on music videos and dancing rather than on the actual song itself...Phil Collins is probably singing this song through the voice of a 'modern day singer' saying "I can't dance, and I can't sing".
Some people believe that this song is about an escaped convict. While this may be true, I can't seem to understand what that has to do with him not being able to dance or sing.
No Son Of Mine -
The title pretty much sums up the entire song..it's another Phil Collins song about domestic violence and problems. This is about a kid, who, sick of his mother and father fighting at home, runs away to live on his own. He spends a few days in tunnels and on the roads and hopes that he will be able to survive. Finally when realization dawns on him, he has no choice but to return home. When he gets back home, his father doesn't want anything to do with him and says "You no son of mine...you walked out, you left us behind".
Land Of Confusion -
The theme of this song seems resemblent in some ways to WB Yeats' The Second Coming. What Genesis is trying to say is that we(humans) are so self indulgent that we don't even try to help each other. We're completely devoid of compassion and don't stick out to help other humans. What's more, we seem hell bent on destroying the earth. Genesis tells us "This is the world we live in, these are the hands we're given, use them and let's stop finghting, and make this a place worth living in".
Home By The Sea -
a) My Interpretation : Home By The Sea is about a man abducted by aliens. The man finds himself inside the alien spaceship and sees "shadows, but no subtance, in the shape of men" while "round and around and sideways they go". He lets out yells in desparation saying "Help me someone, get me out of here".
b) Tony Banks' Interpretation :
"The idea of the song really was taking a simple... Home by the sea was a
haunted house and it was like, taking a fairly simple tale of a burglar going
into a house and when he thinks he's going to walk out with all the stuff, he
finds actually attacked by all these ghosts and everything. It was really a
way of talking about things happening in life really. These ghosts, the idea
was that they were trapped in this house and they could never get away and
they looked backed on their previous existence with sort of great longing and
everything. It's supposed to sort of allegorical look and it's kind of life
as it goes past you if you like. Umm, so that was really the main thinking
about it." (Credit : Joseph Dixon from the Genesis Webring)
The Silver Rainbow -
The Silver Rainbow is about an adoloscent's first sexual experience. This seems apparent from lines such as "...if you're sitting there beside her,with your arms you hold her closeand you're wondering how far she'll let you go..."And then the "...You haven't been there either..." hints at the adoloscent's virginity. The Silver Rainbow is about the adoloscent's first sexual experience and his own sexual insecurities. The 'silver rainbow' apparently is his zipper. (Credit : Matt Grayson)
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) -
'I Know What I Like' is about a guy called Jacob who is in his late teens or very early twenties, and is very lazy and clumsy and just dosen't want to work [he finds contentment in being a self employed lawn-mower]. People are always telling what to do and he hates that. Elder sister Ethel wakes him up and tells him to clean up his room, while a neighbour Mr. Lewis believes that it's time he got to stand on his own feet. Meawhile Mr. Farmer, a businessman / family friend calls him and tells him to come to town as a try out for the fire-escape business.The story is basically about people pressurising poor Jacob to get a move on in life, while he wishes they would just shut up, because he knows what he likes, and he likes to be a self employed lawn-mower.
Firth Of Fifth
'Firth Of Fifth' is a timeless classic that tells the tales of saliors and mariners who try to cross the mystical 'Firth of Fifth' (A firth is a narrow estury near Scotland, UK). Nobody actually knows what lies beyond the firth, because no body has been able to cross it. Any sailor who has sailed toward that territory has never retured. Somehow all of them have mysteriously disappeared. What actually happens is that while trying to cross the firth of fifth, sailors encounter sirens at the firth. The sirens sing melonchalic tunes [This is the sengment of the song where Peter Gabriel plays flute], and these tunes are so mesmorizing that he sailors lose control of the ship and indeed even themselves and bring it down crashing into the ocean, where yet another victim has been claimed ["..so Neptune (Greek God of Oceans) has claimed another soul.."].
Down And Out
"Down and Out" is a look at the music industry from the band's
perspective.
The "business" of music often outweighs the music itself: Making deals,
"'sitting on the phone", marketing and selling yourself takes a back
seat to
the creative process. At the time, the band was in a state of
transition:
Hackett left, Phil's personal life was in flux, Banks was getting ready
to
do a solo album, etc. The line about "a more commercial view, a fresher
face" reflects the pressure on the band to have the big breakthrough
they
wanted, because time was running out on them. The driving beat and
"muddled"
sound all combine to illustrate pressure. Credit Matt Grayson
Blood On The Rooftops
You can draw a line from BOTR to "Man on the Corner", "Land of
Confusion" ,
"Tell Me Why" and Phil's "Long, Long Way to Go". It's a look at human
beings
and their capacity to ignore pain and misery around them. The person in
the
song wants to sit down, have a spot of tea, and not hear (or see)
anyone
else's problems. The acoustic (and thoroughly "Hackett") introduction
is sad
and somber. A tremendous song. Credit Matt Grayson
The Fountain of Salmacis
Hermaphrodite : a flower containing both male and female organs; a person or animal of both sexes.
The child Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, the result of a secret love affair. For this reason he was entrusied to the nymphs of the isolated Mount Ida, who allowed him to grow up as a wild creature in the woods. After his encounter with the water-nymph Salmacis, he laid a curse upin the water. According to fabl, all persons who bathed in the water become hermaphrodites. Credit : Taken from sleevenotes on the 'Three Sides Live CD'
