Line #18 Music/SuppersReady


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cas_1058_b.jpeg]]
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3	As Music/PeterGabriel has said, it's "a personal journey which ends up walking through scenes from Revelations in Literature/TheBible."
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5	"Supper's Ready" is a seven-part song[[note]]or, arguably, eight-part song, as explained under SubduedSection, but there are only seven official movements[[/note]] by the seminal ProgressiveRock band Music/{{Genesis\|Band}}, appearing on their 1972 album ''Music/{{Foxtrot\|Album}}''. At around 23 minutes long, it takes up almost an entire side of the original vinyl release (apart from a brief, unrelated instrumental entitled "Horizons") and is Genesis' first real RockOpera (if "The Musical Box" doesn't count, anyway). Alongside ''Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway'', it's one of the major contributors to Genesis' lasting reputation and influence on progressive rock, and it's exactly how a surrealist prog-rock opera should be done.
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7	Note that while this is the only 20-plus-minute suite Genesis released, it's not the only one they wrote. From ''Music/SellingEnglandByThePound'', "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "The Cinema Show", and "Aisle of Plenty" were originally conceived as a single composition, but the band split "Dancing" and "The Cinema Show" up after deciding it was too similar to "Supper's Ready"; the songs ultimately {{bookend\|s}}ed the album. Also, from ''Duke'', "Behind the Lines", "Duchess", "Guide Vocal", "Turn It On Again", "Duke's Travels", and "Duke's End" were originally a side-length suite as well, sometimes called "The Story of Albert", but the band split it up for a number of reasons, similarities to "Supper's Ready" being one of them.[[note]]The band also believed that it would've left ''Duke'' with a weaker B-side (or A-side if they'd used it as the B-Side), and also - correctly, as it turned out - that progressive rock's commercial fortunes were declining, though one can't help wondering whether, if they'd released the suite in its initial configuration, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen that could have revived them]].[[/note]] "The Story of Albert" was still performed in its entirety live during almost every show the band played in 1980, though.
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9	A fan-made music video, ''Supper's Ready Illustrated'', [[WebAnimation/SuppersReadyIllustrated has its own page]].
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11	!!The song is divided into:[[note]]Movement lengths are unofficial, based on the lyrics and musical shifts between movements[[/note]]
12	#"Lover's Leap" - 3:48
13	#"The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" - 1:57
14	#"Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men" - 3:55
15	#"How Dare I Be So Beautiful?" - 1:26
16	#"Willow Farm" - 4:33[[note]]counting an unnamed interlude of about 1:54 that doesn't definitively belong to either this or the following movement, as detailed under SubduedSection below; excluding the interlude, "Willow Farm" runs for about 2:39[[/note]]
17	#"Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)" - 4:22
18	#"As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)" - 2:55
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20	----
21	!!The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Tropes:
22	* AsTheGoodBookSays: The supper in the title is the "great supper of God" during the Second Coming in Revelation 19. The song later paraphrases that passage.
23	* {{Bookends}}: "Lover's Leap" and "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs" both open with the same melody (though the bulk of the latter actually uses the main melody of "Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man").
24	* CoverDrop: "like the fox on the rocks..."
25	** ContinuityNod: "...and [[Music/NurseryCryme the Musical Box]]".
26	* CrossDresser: UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, as mentioned during "Willow Farm". [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Yes, really.]]
27	* EpicRocking: Teases throughout, until "Apocalypse in 9/8", when they never look back. The song as a whole is 23 minutes long, so it definitely counts.
28	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "Apocalypse in 9/8" describes an apocalypse, and as for its meter signature... well, guess. (Though it's perhaps better described as 9/4, and parts of the organ solo irregularly throw in 4/4.)
29	* GoshDangItToHeck[=/=]UnusualEuphemism: "You're all full of ball", as heard twice in "Willow Farm".
30	* GratuitousPanning: All throughout the song, but especially in "Willow Farm", in which the vocals very obviously pan from left to right during one line, and back to the left in the next.
31	* IronicNurseryTune: "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" ends with a child's voice singing, "We will rock you, rock you little snake/We will keep you snug and warm" like a nursery rhyme.
32	* LongestSongGoesLast: The song, clocking in at 22:57, closes ''Foxtrot'', and is the longest song on the album.[[note]]Or, indeed, on any of Genesis' studio albums, although had "The Story of Albert" been recorded in its original configuration, it would have been some 28 minutes long. It was performed that way in concert several times and can be found on bootlegs. Many live recordings of "Supper's Ready" are also longer than the studio version due to a mostly spoken intro that went on for about two minutes.[[/note]]
33	* LouisCypher: The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man.
34	* LyricalColdOpen: The song opens with Gabriel and Collins singing the line "Walking across the sitting room" over acoustic instrumentation.
35	* MeaningfulEcho: Twice in "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs":
36	** The lyric "And it's hello babe, with your guardian eyes so blue... hey, my baby, don't you know our love is true?" recalls "Lover's Leap".
37	** The melody of the section is the same as that for "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man".
38	* MindScrew: Some of the lyrics are fairly easily comprehensible, but the meaning of the piece as a whole is not. It does not help that much of the song's concept is based on a supernatural experience Gabriel claimed to have had, and it relies heavily on religious symbolism that may not be easily accessible to general audiences.
39	* MindScrewdriver: The story of the song (as featured in the concert programme) gives a clearer idea of what's going on, but it still doesn't answer everything.
40	* MoodWhiplash: So we've just gotten through a quiet, melancholy, droning section of the song, and Gabriel is singing about Narcissus turning into a flower...suddenly, the instruments all drop out, Gabriel asks, "A flower?", and the hilariously zany (and rather loud) "Willow Farm" section begins.
41	* {{Narcissist}}: "How Dare I Be So Beautiful?", which directly alludes to the myth of Narcissus staring at his reflection in the pond and getting turned into a flower.[[note]]A flower?[[/note]]
42	* NonAppearingTitle: While there are a couple of allusions to supper, the title "Supper's Ready" never appears in the lyrics. Also, "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" and "Willow Farm" are the only sections whose titles appear in the lyrics.
43	* NumberOfTheBeast: Alluded to during "Apocalypse in 9/8": "666 is no longer alone/He's getting out the marrow in your backbone..."
44	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The whole song was heavily inspired by Gabriel's thoughts about good vs. evil after he, his then-wife Jill, and the record producer had a supernatural experience at Jill's parents' house; in fact, the lyrics to "Lover's Leap" are a recounting of what happened that night.
45	* ShaggyDogStory: Not the song itself but a lengthy, [[SpokenWordInMusic mostly spoken-word]] intro Gabriel (supported by the band for a couple of brief passages) would give it when performed live. The only thing it had to do with the song was that the punchline was "supper was ready".
46	* SubduedSection:
47	** Between "Apocalypse in 9/8" and "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs". All of the instruments drop out, the flute comes in, then church bells, then a drum roll, then quieting under Peter's vocals, followed by full instrumentation returning via a drum break.
48	** There's also a gentle flute-and-guitar segment between "Willow Farm" and "Apocalypse in 9/8" that lasts for about two minutes; it doesn't clearly belong to either movement, as its melody and chord progression aren't found in either of them (or, indeed, anywhere else in the song). Because it isn't given a title, it could almost be considered an unusual early example of a HiddenTrack. It's possible it was left untitled because the band wanted the song to have [[RuleOfSeven seven movements]].
49	* TriumphantReprise:
50	** The initial singing of "Lover's Leap" isn't necessarily dark, per se, but since it's at the beginning, it's clear that problems are about to occur very soon for the protagonists. When the lyrics are reprised after "Apocalypse in 9/8", the tone is much more positive, especially since it leads directly into the triumphant finale.
51	** The melody from "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" is reused in "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs", but while the former is about a false prophet fooling everyone, the latter is about Jesus returning for real.
52	* UncommonTime: "Apocalypse in 9/8"[[note]]Which is actually more accurately described as ''9/4''.[[/note]]. The Hammond L-122 tonewheel organ solo is an exception as parts of it are in CommonTime.
53	* WordSaladLyrics: "Willow Farm".

Context Music / SuppersReady