Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Digesting England by the pound
"Can you tell me where my country lies?"
said the unifaun to his true love's eyes.
"It lies with me!" cried the Queen of Maybe
- for her merchandise, he traded in his prize.
"Paper late!" cried a voice in the crowd.
"Old man dies!" The note he left was signed 'Old Father Thames'
- it seems he's drowned;
selling england by the pound.
Citizens of Hope & Glory,
Time goes by - it's "the time of your life".
Easy now, sit you down.
Chewing through your Wimpey dreams,
they eat without a sound;
digesting england by the pound.
Young man says "you are what you eat" - eat well.
Old man says "you are what you wear" - wear well.
You know what you are, you don't give a damn;
bursting your belt that is your homemade sham.
The Captain leads his dance right on through the night
- join the dance...
Follow on! Till the Grail sun sets in the mould.
Follow on! Till the gold is cold.
Dancing out with the moonlit knight,
Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout.
There's a fat old lady outside the saloon;
laying out the credit cards she plays Fortune.
The deck is uneven right from the start;
and all of their hands are playing apart.
The Captain leads his dance right on through the night
- join the dance...
Follow on! A Round Table-talking down we go.
You're the show!
Off we go with - You play the hobbyhorse,
I'll play the fool.
We'll tease the bull
ringing round & loud, loud & round.
Follow on! With a twist of the world we go.
Follow on! Till the gold is cold.
Dancing out with the moonlit knight,
Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout.
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This song, with a good rhythm, talks about England; in fact, Genesis sing abuot old traditions of this country and they try to take them in the modern England, but the result isn't the same...
ReplyDeleteThe past in the present …
ReplyDeleteIt’s a beautiful song..
the singer through a vision of medieval style describes the world of today ...
for example in the fourth verse says:
-Young man says "you are what you eat" - eat well.
Old man says "you are what you wear" - wear well.
You know what you are, you don't give a damn;
bursting your belt that is your homemade sham-
This is the hypocrisy of people …
this song speaks about the abandonment of old traditions: The Captain leads his dance right on through the night
- join the dance...
Follow on! Till the Grail sun sets in the mould.
and it speaks about an ancient folk dance: the Morris dance.
in this dance one person does the rocking horse and the other crazy
You play the hobbyhorse,
I'll play the fool.
We'll tease the bull
ringing round & loud, loud & round.
it’s a fantastic song with a deep meaning …
And a fantastic final …
Genesis for ever!
C.tinè
The Genesis are a group British rock, grown and affirmed him inside the vast movement of the progressive rock. This song is very important because it speaks of the abandonment of the ancient traditions.
ReplyDeleteA very beautiful song above all thanks to the rhythm that introduces. A great guitarist as Steve Hackett perhaps one of the most important of the world!
The author wants to describe today's world through some medieval visions .
You can also be noticed the presence of the traditional dances English, in fact when in the text we find the words "You play the hobbyhorse, I'll play the fool." it is understood that it speaks of the morris dance….
This song is very beautiful .. i like it very much!
Antonio Di Fede
Magical performance! This is my favourite Genesis song, because it tells about the life in the medieval age and it tells also the passage of time and quality of life that is tied as the dialogue described by the singer from the way we eat and we dress according to the perspective of an elder and a young man.
ReplyDeleteFinally I really enjoyed this song because it describes the modern world by exalting the figure of the medieval knight difficult translation in the modern world.
This song speaks of the genesis of a figure of the Middle Ages''Knight''is inserted in the context of modern life.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked this verse:
‘’Citizens of Hope & Glory,
Time goes by - it's "the time of your life".
Easy now, sit you down.
Chewing through your Wimpey dreams,
they eat without a sound;
digesting england by the pound.’’
This verse speaks of the time going forward and never stops:
‘’Time Goes by – it’s the time of your life’’
-il tempo va Avanti – questo è il tempo della tua vita-
Calls later to stay calm and not go too fast:
‘’Easy Now , sit you down’’
-stai tranquillo , rilassati-
Overall I liked the song.
I think this song is very exciting but especially striking. At first listen seems to be a mixture of stories and moments without any historyc or moralistic meaning, but if everyone enters the story and identifies herself in the character evidence of very intense emotion and includes the true morality that Genesis wanted to send. I think the Genesis is one of the most important bands of all time so I want to give brief information about this group: Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Phil Collins (lead vocals and drums), Mike Rutherford (guitar and bass guitar), and Tony Banks (keyboards). Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett also played major roles in the band in its early days. Genesis are among the top 30 highest-selling recording artists of all time with approximately 150 million albums sold worldwide, including 21.5 million albums sold in the United States.
ReplyDeletebut now move our mind to the song…
the music is sweet, sharp, cold, the music is rock…
I think the true meaning of this song is the contrast between the old medieval traditions and new to this I conclude by highlighting particular words that emphasize Genesis:
1°=Unifaun: play on words that is to represent the historic Old England
2°=Queen of May =which in ancient England was the beginning of the good season and omen for a good harvest.
3°=Grail: is the chalice of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper that according to legend was brought to England at the court of King Arthur
"Dancing With The Moonlit Knights" is a song by Genesis,they are a famous rock group from England born in 1967. This song talks about the medieval traditions of England, in fact there are examples from the medieval world like the knights, or as the Grail and it speaks of morris dancing also. This song is example of the changing times also, an example is when there is the young man who says "you are what you eat" and instead the old man says "you are what you wear".
ReplyDeleteI think this is a beautiful song for both music and for the content.
Roberto Cassarà.
This genesis' song is very beautiful. It's musical, rock, in the central part instead is calmer in the initial and final parts, infact in the start the group's singer sings without music and in the end he doesn't sing and we can listen a sweet melody.
ReplyDeleteby Chiara Sarrica This song speaks about today's world from a medieval angle and the protagonist is the England. It says:< young man says "you are what you eat" - eat well; Old man says "you are what you wear" - wear well>. Besides when it says " You play the hobbyhorse, I'll play the fool” it makes a reference to traditional English dance, the Morrison dance, and when it says “There's a fat old lady outside the saloon; laying out the credit cards she plays Fortune” it explains that today’s fortune-teller doesn’t use playing-cards but she uses credit cards. This is the first genesis's song that I listen and I think that it's very beautiful.
this song speaking of the knights describes a lot today's world. I have been stricken very from the fourth strophe
ReplyDelete"Young hand says "you macaws what you eat" - eat well.
Old hand says "you macaws what you wear" - wear well.
You know what you macaws, you don't give to damn;
bursting your belt that is your homemade sham."
because the wealth and the hypocrisy brings the man to eat and this is really what happens today in fact it is said that the man is always of wide sleeves. however the first two lines are among the most famous of the career of the geneses..
"Can you tell me where my country lies?"
said the unifaun to his true love's eyes.
and with more than eight minutes of song they make to imagine to the man of the figures dancing and besides they make the excellent musical harmony.
floriana
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics are an ironic commentary on contemporary England that employs references to English staples like Wimpy hamburgers and Green Shield Stamps.
ReplyDeletethe song would have us reflect on the many luxuries that British people have given the British than in the past, but certainly have not reached their goal:for a demonstration, just do not see how it runs only England, but the world!
i like this song,because it's speak or better describe a vision of world medieval and it does a confront between past and present and,we can see a world in the past died with a good tradiction and, we can see a world in the present just in life but, it isn't better of world medieval for difference problem...
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis song was written by Genesis , a rock band that has changed much on the time.This rock band started in 1967 and it's still a great band.Speaking about this song, I can say that it has a nice and interesting text(I also like the melody but not as much as the text). As I can understand it speaks about past times ,taking them to present days.I particularly like some verses:
ReplyDelete'Young man says "you are what you eat" - eat well.
Old man says "you are what you wear" - wear well.
You know what you are, you don't give a damn;
bursting your belt that is your homemade sham.'
I like these verses because they are actual and they can rapresent our society.In fact nowdays most of people forget who they are because our society always changes and so we identify ourself with the things we eat or wear but this is wrong.
In this song,which was written by Genesis in 1973, is emphasized the contrast between the old and the new england, where everything is done for commercial purposes.
ReplyDelete-Are appointed the “unifaun”, a pun which represents the old england (from uniform, unicorn and faund) and the “Queen of Maybe”,from Queen of May,which in the ancient english tradition represented the start of summer, and which now it is used as the published information on products.
-The Tamigi river is rappresented as an old man who dies drowned. This thing represents the river which is polluted.
-Is appointed the “Wimpey”,which has a double meaning between “Wympey”,a famous construction company, and “Wimpy”,famous restaurants where you can eat hamburger. this thing in my opinion represent the anhelthy diet of the modern english people.
-”The Graal”,which represents the splendor of old period,is in the middle of the mold; The knights of the Green shield represent the “green shield stamps” which are stickers reward points.
-There is a reference about the hobbyhors and the fool which represent the “Morris dance”,the english traditional dances.
I like this song because it is critical of modern society and it can be related not only to England, but to all modern nations which are abandoning the traditions for the trade and progress without realizing that it isn't easy to regain the true values of a country.Future generations will lose part of their past.
I think this song is very beautiful and interesting because it talks about the past in relation to the present. In the song we can see that is a bad to abandon the ancent traditions because they can teach us how to behave in this life. I also like this song for its rhythm and musicality and I think it is one of the best songs that Genesis have ever done.
ReplyDeleteWow! they have naturally bent for music. To be quiet honest, I didn't listen to a their song before, because I don't like rock music. I did some research on genesis history and I discovered more things, for example in this group more people join the stage, but most of them deserted it. Infact Anthony Phillips went away from the group because of his illness. This song is fantastic. The Genesis wrote it in 1973,in that year the Genesis were five: Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett, a phenomenal guitarist, who used a new technique in this song: "tapping" (we can see this technique in this video). Tapping is a playing technique generally associated with the electric guitar, although the technique may be performed on almost any stringed instrument. There are two main methods of tappings: one-handed or "ordinary" tapping, and two-handed tapping. Peter Gabriel is an English musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flutist of Genesis. He's a nice person because during the concerts he wears more costumes (for example in this video). But then he deserted the group in 1975, for a solo career and for his daughter, who was born. Today the Genesis are three: Tony, Phil and Mark. Tony Banks and Mark Rutherford are the co-founders of Genesis; infact Phil Collins joined them later. I love this song because it says: "you know what you are, you don't give a damn; bursting your belt that is your homemade sham". Yes, I don't give a damn of judgment of other people, because I'm what I'm and for this I must be proud. Thank you Genesis :)
ReplyDelete