FOXTROT

Two of the first three songs on Foxtrot are relatively heavy tunes with semi-science-fictional lyrics. "Watcher of the Skies" opens the album in full progressive mode: a minute-and-a-half synthesizer introduction gives way to a 12/8 (or maybe 6/4) rhythm played by the drums, guitar, and bass. It's not surprising to read that Yes was an influence here. The story seems to be about an either powerful or wise alien entity who is observing the earth. Apparently the lyrics were written by bassist Mike Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks, but they certainly fit with singer Peter Gabriel's interest in the supernatural. Along the same lines, "Get 'Em Out by Friday" tells a story which begins with a tenant eviction and ends in an Orwellian future in which the government restricts the height of people so as to make housing more efficient. Like "Watcher of the Skies," "Friday" has a complex rhythm pattern and undergoes a number of mood changes. 

The other songs on the first side, "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" and "Time Table," begin more softly, but each builds to a more energetic chorus. "Can-Utility," which I understand is primarily the work of guitarist Steve Hackett, is said to tell a thousand-year-old tale of an English king, although having read the lyrics I still don't see any evidence of that. "Time Table" is less opaque, being the story of a table which witnesses several hundred years of history. "Time Table" also has a nice chorus, and I've wondered why it was apparently never released as a single; that distinction went to "Watcher of the Skies" / "Willow Farm," the latter being a section of "Supper's Ready." Watcher" was also the b-side of the non-album single "Happy the Man."

Side two begins with Hackett's brief acoustic-guitar piece "Horizons," which is followed by the seven-part "Supper's Ready." Since "Supper's" begins abruptly with the first verse, many have pointed out that "Horizons" could just as well been the opening to an eight-part "Supper's Ready."

As any major dude will tell you, "Supper's Ready" is widely viewed as the band's magnum opus. Some side-long, prog-rock "epics," like "Ashes are Burning" and "Gates of Delirium," move through several distinct sections, ending far afield from where they began. Tracks like "Nine Feet Underground" are somewhat similar, but are more like extended variations on a theme (or two). Some "epics" are more rightly called "medleys" (e.g., "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers"), while others are unified works with separate movements that are repeated and recapitulated - - "Close to the Edge," for example. "Supper's Ready" falls somewhere between these last two. It would be evident, even if members of the band hadn't said so, that "Supper's" is strung together from several unrelated songs. On the other hand, the final three minutes of the song is made up of two recapitulations. First, at about 20:10, a chorus from of the first movement ("And it's 'Hey, babe, with your guardian eyes so blue'") is repeated, followed by a brief segue ("Now I'm back again / And babe, it's gonna work out fine," 20:36-20:47) into the finale, which begins "Can't you see our souls ignite," and which is a rearrangement, with different lyrics, of the second movement ("Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man").

This masterful recapitulation ensures that "Supper's Ready" is much more than a medley. I don't quite rank it with "Close to the Edge," but it's definitely an all-time prog-rock classic.

On the whole, Foxtrot itself is not quite a classic album, although it is a very good one. The songwriting is good, and the performances are very good. Its sound, however, suffers from a problem shared by most of Genesis's work of the era: the individual instruments, and the lead vocals, seem to have been enveloped in bubble wrap before they were mixed. There's just too much isolation or separation for my tastes. And I do believe it's a matter of taste, because even the newer mixes replicate the effect, although to a lesser degree.

I would recommend Foxtrot to any fan of progressive music, if or no other reason but to own a copy of "Supper's Ready."

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