Play me my song

On Sunday my oldest nephew mentioned that he's taken to listening to Genesis, a band I used to listen to back in the 70s and 80s. More coincidentally, when I babysat my nephew lo all those many years ago, I used to sing him a bunch of Genesis songs to try to keep him from crying and coax him to sleep. A while back I'd been trying to think of which were my favourites in the Genesis discography. Here's the rudimentary list:

• In the Wilderness – All I hear is music. When Piano Boy (since Piano Man would be Billy Joel) and I first started dating, I was listening to this song over and over and it always reminds me of that time.
• Visions of angels – Dance in the sky
• Dusk – A pawn on a chessboard. It’s those Banksian background lyrics that add enough to make it great.
• The Knife – Give us a land fit for heroes! It seems I once read Peter stating that “Back in New York City” was the most violent song he’d ever written but I always thought this was moreso what with lopping heads off. I always loved the live version with the audience shouting out their request for it and Peter nonchalantly saying the title before beginning.
• The Musical Box
• For Absent Friends - leaving tuppence
• Harold the Barrel - hasn't got a leg to stand on
• Can Utility and the Coastliners – Starts out so peaceful, like looking out on a pacific (if not the Pacific) ocean and then builds until the last scathing line.
• Supper’s Ready – of course. "Something tells me I better activate my prayer capsule." The ultimate struggle of good vs evil with the book of Revelations and the Apocalypse in 9/8 time thrown in. And the fade-out at the end which ends on a symbolic upswing.
• Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
• I Know What I Like – Keep them mowin’ blades sharp!
• The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – Title track to the album. An unbeatable opening piano section. And its refrain of “On Broadway.”
• Cuckoo Cocoon
• The Carpet Crawlers - extremely poetical lyrics and beautiful musicality
• Lilywhite Lilith
• Squonk
• Your Own Special Way – Everybody say “awwww.”
• The Lady Lies
• Follow You, Follow Me – Way back when, Piano Boy wrote a couple lines from this on a slip of paper he gave me which I tacked up on my door. The slip is probably still in a box of his letters and things I never had the cruelty to toss out.
• Me and Sarah Jane – The only song past 1978 worth considering. And that probably only for the Dr Who reference.