Music / Foxtrot (Album)

aka: Foxtrot

"Walking across the sitting room, I turn the television off..."

This is an announcement from Genetic Control:

Foxtrot is the fourth studio album by Genesis, released through Charisma Records on 6 October 1972. Among others, it notably contains the 23-minute epic "Supper's Ready", which has its own page.(So does its animated video adaptation, Supper's Ready Illustrated.) It was Genesis' first album to chart in the UK, reaching as high as number 12 on the charts. Peter Gabriel, imitating the album cover, would wear a red dress and a fox's head during the tour for the album.

Preceded by Nursery Cryme, followed by Selling England by the Pound.

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Watcher of the Skies" (7:23)
2. "Time Table" (4:46)
3. "Get 'Em Out by Friday" (8:36)
4. "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" (5:45)

Side Two

1. "Horizons" (1:41)
2. "Supper's Ready" (23:06)
   1. "Lover's Leap" - 3:48
   2. "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" - 1:57
   3. "Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men" - 3:55
   4. "How Dare I Be So Beautiful?" - 1:26
   5. "Willow Farm" - 4:33
   6. "Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)" - 4:22
   7. "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)" - 2:55

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Principal Members:

• Peter Gabriel - lead vocals, flute, bass drum, tambourine, oboe
• Phil Collins - drums, backing vocals, percussion
• Mike Rutherford - bass guitar, bass pedals, cello, 12-string guitar, backing vocals
• Tony Banks - Hammond organ, Mellotron, electric and acoustic pianos, 12-string guitar, backing vocals
• Steve Hackett - electric guitar, 6-string guitar, 12-string guitar

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With the tropes of Magog swarming around, the Pied Piper takes his children underground:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The lyrics of "Get 'Em Out By Friday" has one verse titled '18/9/2012 T.V. FLASH ON ALL DIAL-A-PROGRAM SERVICES'◊, inferring that the events of the song take place in The New '10s.
• After the End: In "Watcher of the Skies", the titular superbeing encounters an empty future Earth and wonders if humanity has destroyed itself, gone to live somewhere else, or ascended to a higher plane of existence.
  Creatures shaped this planet's soil
  Now their reign has come to end
  Has life again destroyed life?
  Do they play elsewhere?
  Do they know more than their childhood games?
  Maybe the lizard's shed its tail
  This is the end of man's long union with Earth
• Cover Drop: This from "Supper's Ready":
  "Like the fox on the rocks...
• Crapsack World: "Get 'Em Out by Friday" is set in an Alternate History Britain that is dominated by an agency called 'Genetic Control', who are really just a bunch of megalomaniac capitalist landlords that are said to go to extreme lengths just to bag extra bucks. They also have total control over every aspect of human development and can change whichever one they want to on a whim, whether their subjects like it or not.
  I hear the directors of Genetic Control
  have buying all the properties that have recently been sold,
  taking risks oh so bold.
  It's said now that people will be shorter in height,
  they can fit twice as many in the same building site,
  they say it's alright...
  Beginning with the tenants of the town of Harlow,
  in the interest of humanity, they've been told they must go;
  told they must go-go-go-go...
• Epic Instrumental Opener: "Watcher of the Skies" opens with a two-minute Mellotron intro.
• Epic Rocking: Well, obviously, "Supper's Ready". There's also "Watcher of the Skies" and "Get 'Em Out by Friday", both of which are over 7 minutes in length.
• Instrumentals: A large part of "Supper's Ready" is made up of these, especially in the second half. "Horizons" is an instrumental acoustic guitar piece. After Peter left, the band decided to turn "Watcher of the Skies" into an instrumental piece, likely because Phil would have trouble singing the melody while focusing on a truly complex drum groove.
• Literary Allusion Title: "Watcher of the Skies" is named after a line from John Keats' poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer".
• MegaCorp: 'Genetic Control' from "Get 'Em Out by Friday".
• Miniscule Rocking: "Horizons", an acoustic guitar piece that lasts for fewer than two minutes.
• Non-Appearing Title: "Can-Utility and the Coastliners".
• Pride: "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" is inspired by King Canute of Denmark and his inability to hold back a flood. There is a legend that he was convinced through flattery into believing he possessed supernatural powers and was able to do so, which contradicts historical accounts of his reign. Genesis' song somewhat has it both ways — "We heed not flatterers," the song has him say, but then "By our command, waters retreat/Show my power/Halt at my feet." In any case, he is unable to stop the tide.
• Royal "We": King Canute speaks in this fashion because, well, he's a king.
• Song Style Shift: "Watcher of the Skies" opens with a churchy Mellotron solo, evocative of Baroque-era Classical Music, before the drums kick in and carry the song into Progressive Rock.
• Uncommon Time: "Watcher in the Skies" includes a 6/4 staccato passage during the intro; after the vocals end, the staccato portion shifts to 8/4 and is mixed with a 6/4 Mellotron part.
• Zeerust: Whatever became of those 'Dial-A-Program Services'?

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It is my sad duty to inform you of a four foot restriction on humanoid height.

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