History Music / SellingEnglandByThePound

* SiameseTwinSongs: "Cinema Show" and "Aisle of Plenty", to the point where some releases have them combined as one track.

! The album contains examples of:

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The chorus of "The Cinema Show"; see GenderBender below. This planet actually contains roughly twice as much sea as land. [[CaptainObvious The band weren't being literal here]].

[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco Tess]] co-[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-op_Foodop]]erates.

-->There's the safe way home[[note]]Safeway is a US-based grocery chain, and at the time of the album's release, the UK chain was a subsidiary before being sold off in 1987, and ultimately shut down in the mid-oughts.[[/note]]\\
Thankful for her fine fair discount[[note]]Fine Fare existed from the early 50's to the late 80's[[/note]],\\
Tess co-operates[[note]]sounds like "Tesco operates"; also refers to Co-op, another UK grocery brand.[[/note]].

* GenderBender: The chorus, such as it is, of "The Cinema Show" (it's the only segment of the song repeated) centres around Father Tiresias, a figure from Greek mythology who had lived as both a man and a woman.

''Selling England by the Pound'' is the fifth studio album by Music/{{Genesis}}, released in 1973. It was the first album by the band which charted a single in the UK ("I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", #21) and reached the US Billboard 200 (#70). Although a modest commercial success compared to both later works of both the band and its then-members Music/PeterGabriel and Music/PhilCollins, its impact has extended far beyond its commercial success; it remains not merely in all likelihood their most acclaimed album but one of the most acclaimed ProgressiveRock albums of all time.

* RecurringRiff: As "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "Cinema Show" and "Aisle of Plenty" were originally meant to be a suite, there is a similar progression that can be heard at any point in the three songs, of which it transitions the latter two in the final cut.

** The same song also mentions "Staffordshire plate". Although Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire ''is'' known as a pottery town, the above is also a slang term for oral sex.

''Selling England by the Pound'' is the fifth studio album by Music/{{Genesis}}, released in 1973. It was the first album by the band which charted a single in the UK ("I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", #21) and reached the US Billboard 200 (#70). Although a modest commercial success compared to both the band's later works and the solo works of then-vocalist Music/PeterGabriel, its impact has extended far beyond its commercial success, however; it remains not merely in all likelihood their most acclaimed album but one of the most acclaimed ProgressiveRock albums of all time.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Music/PhilCollins, whose vocal contributions at this time tended to be mostly backing vocals[[note]]he had also sung lead on "For Absent Friends" and "Harlequin" from ''Nursery Cryme'', sings lead on "More Fool Me". He would take over as lead vocalist two albums later, after the departure of Music/PeterGabriel.

* EpicRocking: There are four tracks longer than eight minutes, though originally "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "Cinema Show" and "Aisle of Plenty" were to be part of a 20-minute suite much like Music/SuppersReady, considering the riffs linking the tracks together.

** Really, the whole album is full of them. "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", we might note, is ''also'' a pun, as is "Firth of Fifth", which is a pun on the actual body of water the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firth_of_Forth Firth of Forth]]. And that's just song titles; if we delved into song lyrics we might be here all day.

''Selling England by the Pound'' is the fifth studio album by Music/{{Genesis}}, released in 1973. It was the first album by the band which charted a single in the UK ("I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", #21) and reached the US Billboard 200 (#70).

* HurricaneOfPuns: It's not just that "Aisle of Plenty"'s title is in itself a pun, the song has these for the big grocery chains of the time.

-->I followed a sign - it said "Beautiful Chest".

[[caption-width-right:350:When the sun beats down, and I lie on the bench, I can always hear them talk.]]

Tess co-operates[[note]]sounds like "Tesco operates"[[/note]].

Tess co-operates[[note]]Tesco is a major chain that still exists to this day[[/note]].

''Selling England by the Pound'' is the fifth studio album by Music/{{Genesis}}, released in 1973. It was the first album which charted a single in the UK ("I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", #21) and reached the US Billboard 200 (#70).