Supper's Ready? Nope, though similar

Both are EXTREMELY influenced by Genesis epic, Supper's Ready. While one being from the early 80's and another from the 00's.

Both extract the Apocalypse on 9/8 section, while the rest of the song has the structure of Supper's.


So which one do you prefer?

Grendel for me, I really never liked IQ, the vocals are quite ugly, and their new stuff being better, it seems less and less prog.

Both great songs, but Grendel just does it for me that little bit more.

Grendel seems much more similar to Supper's Ready than Harvest of Souls does, IMO. On a completely unrelated note, I prefer Harvest of Souls.

I'm a huge Marillion fan, and I LOVE Grendel, but IQ's Harvest of Souls (in my opinion) seems way more thought out and mature; Grendel seems, structurally, a little chunkier and strung together without the use of as many recurring parts as Supper's Ready. IQ takes it more Supper style, chock full of leitmotifs and story.

Some could argue that Harvest is just five or six songs strewn on a piece of composition paper. It could be; and God knows it's no Supper's Ready, but every part works in a more pleasing manner than Grendel.

I do enjoy the abstractness of Grendel. Fish is the modern Romantic poet, with a little Kerouac thrown in. Grendel is an impressionist painting, while Harvest could be a scenic mural.

As an American, I have mixed feeling with Harvest. I agree with most of the sentiment, but the small, hidden patriot inside me says (with apologies to my UK friends on PA) "What the *@*% do these Brits know!" Life in the US sucks right now (especially when Harvest was written,) but I'm living with/in it. As soon as that Holmes outro solo plays, all is right and forgiven! But serioulsly, I don't care for much politics in any music, and that may be my biggest problem with the song.

To sum it up, both songs are brilliant, yet I choose Harvest of Souls as an epic resembling Supper's Ready the best.  

Hey Cacho, I touched on this in an article on General Topics only a couple of days ago - how spooky!  I love IQ, one of my fave bands, but I'm not overkeen on Marillion. However, Marillion definitely do the 9/8 section better. That said, whist I do like Harvest of Souls, it's nowhere near my favourite by IQ.

Nice poll though

Mousoleum wrote: I do enjoy the abstractness of Grendel. Fish is the modern Romantic poet, with a little Kerouac thrown in

The problem with Grendel for me (apart from the fairly amateurish execution of the song for which you can forgive a band as young as they were at the time - no wonder they dropped the song live as soon as they made it big-ish) is that not only did they borrow vast amounts of music from SR, but Fish borrowed the entire story + some of the dialogue directly from John Gardner's book (which in turn was lifted from 'Beowulf'); there's virtually no originality at all there.

With IQ's Harvest Of Soul's, the lyrics & vocal stylings is entirely different to SR - yes, they copied the song structure & some of the riffs wholesale, but I think the result with IQ is a song they can genuinely call their own.

As a fan of both Marillion & IQ - I go 100% for 'Harvest...'

'Harvest of Souls' for me. One of the best things IQ ever done.

I actually heard Grendel, some time before I heard Suppers Ready, and back in 1982, Grendel seemed like a work of genius. Grendel is ok, from a nostalgic point of view, but once you've heard the song that influenced it, there seems little point in listening to it again..

Harvest is less derivative, in my opinion, and obviously it's played and produced better, although as Jim says you cant hold that against Marillion, as they were pretty young when they done Grendel.

Harvest of Souls for me.

I used to adore Grendel in the 80s. But it sounds so dated now. Unlike Supper's Ready oddly enough, which still sounds fresh to these ears. Harvest is epic and may stand the test of time better due to superior production and playing. Time will tell but it's definitely HoS for me.