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BaldFriede 
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 Topic: Origin of the title of a Genesis track
Posted: July 27 2015 at 15:08 |
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No idea if this has ever been mentioned before, but the title of the Genesis track "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers in that Quiet Earth" is a quote from the novel "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë (the last words of the final sentence).
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 BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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someone_else
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Posted: July 27 2015 at 16:02 |
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Interesting; I did not know this. Now that the link with Wuthering has been established, let's find the connection with Wind.
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The Dark Elf
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Posted: July 27 2015 at 23:04 |
 BaldFriede wrote:
No idea if this has ever been mentioned before, but the title of the Genesis track "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers in that Quiet Earth" is a quote from the novel "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë (the last words of the final sentence).
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Yes, just like Floyd's "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" title was originally a chapter heading (Chapter 7) in Kenneth Grahame's book The Wind in the Willows.
Edited by The Dark Elf - July 27 2015 at 23:05
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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
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chopper
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 06:48 |
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Yes, I thought that was fairly well known. Isn't mentioned on the original LP cover?
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BaldFriede
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 08:15 |
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Not even the novel is mentioned and neither the quote.
I sincerely doubt it is common knowledge. How many prog fans have actually read "Wuthering Heights"? I reckon that not more than 10% of the prog fans have read the novel, most probably even much less. Pog fans may have noticed the similarity between the titles of album and novel and thus supposed there is some relation between them, but they would not have known what that relation is unless they had, like me, read the novel.
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BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Moogtron III
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 13:59 |
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There's more to discover in terms of Genesis and literature, like the link between "Firth Of Fifth" and "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot.
And on The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Peter Gabriel sings in "The Colony Of Slippermen": "I wander lonely as a cloud" which comes from a poem by William Wordsworth.
Maybe a nice idea for a thread: literature and prog. That is, if it hasn't already been done before some time.
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Dean
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 14:03 |
someone_else wrote:
Interesting; I did not know this. Now that the link with Wuthering has been established, let's find the connection with Wind. |
 and 
The first line in "The Eleventh Earl of Mar" is a direct quote from The Flight of the Heron, the bridge section of that song was originally called The House of the Four Winds.
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What?
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BaldFriede
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 14:39 |
Moogtron III wrote:
There's more to discover in terms of Genesis and literature, like the link between "Firth Of Fifth" and "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot.
And on The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Peter Gabriel sings in "The Colony Of Slippermen": "I wander lonely as a cloud" which comes from a poem by William Wordsworth.
Maybe a nice idea for a thread: literature and prog. That is, if it hasn't already been done before some time. |
And "The face that launched a thousand ships" is a quote from Christopher Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus". It refers to Helen of Troy.
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BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Moogtron III
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 15:16 |
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prog4evr
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 20:22 |
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With Genesis, we are after all talking about boys who were educated at Charterhouse School. And, in myriad interviews, they have said something to the effect that it was always easier to write about the ethereal and ephemeral ideas and concepts of their Charterhouse upbringing rather than the cliche "sex, drugs, and rock and roll". This is certainly one of the main reasons why I enjoy many songs from the Gabriel-era collection of Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. These, in fact, are the only Genesis albums I listen to consistently...
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BaldFriede
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Posted: July 29 2015 at 00:28 |
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"A Trick of the Tail" and "Wind and Wuthering" are in my opinion lyrically underrated. There is much more to the lyrics than meets the eye.
Just to give another example of literary allusions in Genesis post-Gabriel: The squonk is taken right out of Jorge Luis Borge's "Book of Imaginary Beings" (original title "Manual de zoología fantástica"). The description of the squonk on the album cover is actually a quote from that book (translated into English, of course). The song lyrics utilize a lot of English proverbs, idiomatic phrases and riddles in an unusual way.
Edited by BaldFriede - July 29 2015 at 04:23
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BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Zenbadger
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Posted: July 30 2015 at 18:19 |
This is the newspaper cutting regarding to the Battle of Epping Forest  Taken from The Times, 5 April 1972
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Barbu
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Posted: July 30 2015 at 19:20 |
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Couldn't care less, let's have another titties and beer.
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Intruder
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Posted: August 01 2015 at 20:24 |
The Unquiet Slumber quote is mentioned on the album cover. I've always had a soft spot for the album.....and the book (don't tell my wife.....she's mad for that Thomas Hardy, Bronte sisters, Jane Austin stuff). I dug the mood set in the book of melancholy and grey.....just like the album. From cover to the tunes (except Wot Gorilla....awful choice, totally breaks the mood), there's an autumn mood.....that day when winter's first touch is in the wind and that final green has turned to brown (that's the kind of shyte the book is always throwing at you). The perfect early November album. Even the pop hit love song has that mood over it.
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I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there.....
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Progosopher
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Posted: August 03 2015 at 17:54 |
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I have read the novel but have not made the connection with the song or the album beyond the word 'wuthering.' The Fountain of Salmacis, from Nursery Cryme of course, retells a story found in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
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The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"
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fuxi
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Posted: August 04 2015 at 09:35 |
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I did mention that literary connection in my review of W & W, and I don't want to blow my own trumpet but I also tried to write about some of the poetic references in SELLING ENGLAND and THE LAMB LIES DOWN when I reviewed those albums.
It seems to me the titles of the two passages are a delightful example of irony on the band's part. If you recall the ending of WUTHERING HEIGHTS, the narrator is wondering "how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth". This comes right after he has told us that some of the local villagers believe they have seen the ghosts of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw on the moors at night. The narrator, on the other hand, assumes both Heathcliff and Catherine have found peace in death (as did Emily Bronte, the actual author of the novel, I presume). But when it comes to WIND AND WUTHERING, "Unquiet slumbers for the sleepers" does sound rather worried and restless, as if the presumed ghosts haven't found peace at all, while "In that quiet earth" is one hell of a racket (and one of the most interesting tracks on the album, in my opinion) - I can never listen to it without smiling.
Edited by fuxi - August 10 2015 at 12:26
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symphonicman
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Posted: August 15 2015 at 18:33 |
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I didn't know this. Thank you for the information.
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Master James of St. George.
Of the fields and the sky.
He used to build castles of stone, steel, and blood.
But lines get broken down.
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Blacksword
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Posted: August 16 2015 at 01:00 |
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I didn't know that about Unquiet slumbers until I joined this forum. Someone had mentioned it..
Didn't know that about Squonk though.
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Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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Ivan_Melgar_M
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Posted: August 16 2015 at 01:47 |
BaldFriede wrote:
"A Trick of the Tail" and "Wind and Wuthering" are in my opinion lyrically underrated. There is much more to the lyrics than meets the eye.
Just to give another example of literary allusions in Genesis post-Gabriel: The squonk is taken right out of Jorge Luis Borge's "Book of Imaginary Beings" (original title "Manual de zoología fantástica"). The description of the squonk on the album cover is actually a quote from that book (translated into English, of course). The song lyrics utilize a lot of English proverbs, idiomatic phrases and riddles in an unusual way.
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I'm a fan of Borges (As well as all the Marvelous Real Latin American authors), and I have Bestiario or Manual de Zoología fantástica (By Borges and Margarita Guerrero) a long time ago, but the Squonk is a traditional mythological creature from Pennsylvania. as a fact The Squonk was mentioned by William T Cox in 1910 and Borges quotes him expressly.
| "EI señor J. P. Wentling, antes de Pennsylvania y ahora establecido en St. Anthony Park,Minnesota, tuvo una triste experiencia con un Squonk cerca de Monte Alto. Había remedado el llanto del Squonk y lo había inducido a meterse en una bolsa, que llevaba a su casa, cuando de pronto el peso se aligeró y el llanto cesó. Wentling abrió la bolsa; sólo quedaban lágrimas y burbujas". William T. Cox. Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, 1910.
Translation: Mr. J. P. Wentling, originally from Pennsylvania and now established in St. Anthony Park Minnesota had a sad experience with a Squonk near Mont Alto. He had mimicked the cry of the Squonk and had inducted it to enter into a sack, when suddenly the weight lightened and the sobbing ceased, Wentling opened the sack: only bubbles and tears remained. William T. Cox. Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, 1910.
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Borges is famous because most of his quotes, even in the most fantastic stories are real, and usually hard to find.
About Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers...In that Quiet Earth, only noticed this like 10 years ago, because I read Wuthering Heights in Spanish (Cumbres Borrascosas), but the translation is not remotely clear because the book ends like this
inquietos sueños a los que descansaban
en tan quietas tumbas.
unquiet dreams for those who rest in such quiet graves.
So it's hard to make the connection. 
Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - August 16 2015 at 02:20
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TGM: Orb
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Posted: August 18 2015 at 11:29 |
Moogtron III wrote:
There's more to discover in terms of Genesis and literature, like the link between "Firth Of Fifth" and "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot.
And on The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Peter Gabriel sings in "The Colony Of Slippermen": "I wander lonely as a cloud" which comes from a poem by William Wordsworth.
Maybe a nice idea for a thread: literature and prog. That is, if it hasn't already been done before some time. |
The Cinema Show is an exact rewrite of part of The Waste Land. I'm not sure what relationship Firth of Fifth has to it. I believe the word undinal appears in Hart Crane and is a neologism based on waves. Watcher of the Skies is a quote from Keats, I think, and the song's inspired by Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End. Fountain of Salmacis I'm guessing they got from Ovid's telling.
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Origin of the title of a Genesis track
