Lyrics for AISLE OF PLENTY
Anthony Kyle Monday
: "I don't belong here", said old Tessa out loud./"Easy, love, there's the Safe
: Way Home"./-and, thankful for her Fine Fair discount, Tess Co-operates//Still
: alone in o-hell-o/-see the deadly nightshade grow//ENGLISH RIBS OF BEEF CUT
: DOWN TO 47p. LB/ PEEK FREANS FAMILY ASSORTED FROM 17 1/2 TO 12/FAIRY LIQUID
: GIANT-SLASHED FROM 20p. TO 17 1/2/TABLE JELLYS AT 4p. EACH/ANCHOR BUTTER DOWN
: TO 11p. FOR A 1/2/BIRDSEYE DAIRY CREAM SPONGE ON OFFER THIS WEEK.//It's Scram-
: bled Eggs.
Uh, you're joking. No, you aren't. I just listened to it. Here I was
thinking it was something really profound, but it was old PG up to his
joking again. No the title makes sense; it's about a supermarket. I see.
hahahahahaha
(you people have no idea how much this makes me laugh, I really thought
it was something utterly profound, for over *ten* years).
Thanks,
Kyle
--
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(@ @)
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Anthony Kyle Monday
Hello Amsterdam!
Don't I look cool in my white shirt?
Don't I look hip in my red tie?
--mark eitzel
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Michael
akmo...@uclink3.berkeley.edu (Anthony Kyle Monday) writes:
>: : I've known it was about a supermarket for five years now, and I think
>: : the lyric is *very* profound (as well as having a sense of humor, no
>: : matter how bitter it my seem). If you can't see it, Kyle, then I feel
>: : sorry for you.
>
>: In what way is it *very* profound? As a commentary on consumerism?
>
>That's what I meant when I said I struck me as funny. You can feel
>"sorry" for me if you like. I could use the sympathy, if not for this
>than for other things.
When I said I felt "sorry", I meant no insult. I was truly sorry you
didn't see the brilliance I see in it. Anyway, I'll try and explain
exactly what I *do* see in it right now.
>The reason I thought it was funny is because I was convinced the song
>depicted a murder: I could have sworn there were lyrics that said "She
>feels the hands upon her throat," but this did not turn out to be the
>case. It's a bit like going to see a horror movie and being treated
>(well, I dont' know if "treat" is the right term here) to "The Brady
>Bunch."
>I'm not exactly sur how this song has a "bitter" sense of humour, and
>perhaps I am missing something. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Well, I actually think that your first interpretation about it being a
murder is actually a lot *less* meaningful than what it actually is!
SS has the right idea about its being a commentary on consumerism, and
both the play on words and the way Gabriel sings it makes it a rather
chilling comment, at that. The way I see it, at first good ol' Tessa
doesn't feel she belongs "here"--here probably means modern-day English -----
society, with all of its problems as depicted in the other songs on the
album. However, she is comforted by an unknown figure, who leads her to
her "home"--the Safeway supermarket, which is the "aisle of plenty" she
feels comfy with. Taken in by all of the sales, she is reassured, and
"Co-operates", or easily rejoins the English society which she had
momentarily questioned. Gabriel is basically saying that the "masses" -----
are kept "alone in o-hell-o", suckered in by the glitzy promises of
consumerism while all the while, the "deadly nightshade grows", or the
society collapses around them. The song (and album) ends with products
and prices repeated over and over again, in aching, chilling voices,
showing us that it is *these* seemingly innocuous items which symbolize
the death of individual concerns in the face of modern society. So
one could still say it's about a "murder" of a sort! The "bitter humor"
comes from the supermarket being regarded as a fruitful paradise, an
"aisle of plenty". Do you see it better now? Hardly what I'd call on
the level of The Brady Bunch, although to tell you the truth, TBB
actually unintentionally depicts what is said in the song!
Michael
Andy Saltiel
You may be right, you may not, but personally I think you're
over-intellectualising. FWIW, Tesco, Safeway, Fine Fare and Co-op are (or
were) UK supermarket chains. A simple play on words?
Cheers,
Andy
***************************************************************
Andy Saltiel, Logica UK Ltd (Opinions are my own etc)
Salt...@lgsh.logica.com
There's no sensation to compare with this...
***************************************************************
Robert Thurston
>From: salt...@lgsh.logica.com (Andy Saltiel)
>Subject: Re: Lyrics for AISLE OF PLENTY
>Date: Fri, 3 Mar 1995 11:36:39 GMT
>You may be right, you may not, but personally I think you're
>over-intellectualising. FWIW, Tesco, Safeway, Fine Fare and Co-op are (or
>were) UK supermarket chains. A simple play on words?
>Cheers,
>Andy
>***************************************************************
>Andy Saltiel, Logica UK Ltd (Opinions are my own etc)
>Salt...@lgsh.logica.com
>There's no sensation to compare with this...
>***************************************************************
BRAVO!!! Thank you for putting this lyric in its proper perspective. Although
I am one of the biggest fans of Genesis (bought Foxtrot in 1973 at the ripe
age of 11), I am sick and tired of people trying to write Junior High School
literature papers about their lyrics. Genesis has a great sense of humor
(especially Peter Gabriel and especially once Phil Collins - the prankster -
had more influence in the band, which was certainly true by SEBTP). Gabriel
was always poking fun at the British society (see e.g. Willow Farm). Aisle of
Plenty is just what Andy suggests...a spoof/satire on UK supermarkets.
Nothing more, nothing less. Why is it that just because people love a band,
they think that the band has really deep Wordsworth-like lyrics? Not always,
gang. Just appreciate the humor and great music. Stop beating your chests.
Before any of you attempt to analyze what was in PG's mind or the collective
writing talents of the original 5, PLEASE read Armando Gallo's I Know What I
Like or Genesis: A Biography. It may shed some light on the band's approach
to lyrics and its music.
FLAME ME BABY. :)
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Michael
salt...@lgsh.logica.com (Andy Saltiel) writes:
>You may be right, you may not, but personally I think you're
>over-intellectualising. FWIW, Tesco, Safeway, Fine Fare and Co-op are (or
>were) UK supermarket chains. A simple play on words?
Well, I may be overdoing it, but I really don't think my interpretation
is that far-fetched at all. You should have been on alt.music.peter.
gabriel when some guy posted a lenghty interpretation of The Family And
The Fishing Net which said it was about an abortion!!! No, I think I'm
on the right track with Aisle Of Plenty. I got the Safeway and Fine
Fare puns. Of course it's a play on words, but that does *more*, not
less, to support my interpretation. I assumed Co-op, because it was
capitalized in the lyrics, was probably another play on a supermarket
chain. Which is why it fits so beautifully: when Tessa "Co-operates",
she is also "cooperating" as well, with the system. I didn't know about
Tesco, but that *is* a funny pun now that I do know!
BTW, Safeway is also a supermarket chain in the US.
Michael
Andrew Keegan
On 2 Mar 1995, Scott McMahan -- Genesis mailing list owner wrote:
> That's the problem with a lot of Genesis' humor, it is utterly lost
> on Americans. I think that gave them much of their "art rock"
> reputation -- no one got the jokes, so they thought it was
> profound :)
Well, I get the jokes, and I still think it's profound.
>
> If you want to get the jokes, read The Genesis Discography's Explanations
> Of Song Elements. It has 90% of all the British humor of the early albums
> spelled out. It even explains why the name "Tess" was chosen.
>
Damn- Can I get one of those for Python, too? Like Genesis, even though
us Americans buy the records and watch the movies.... We 'just don't get
it." ;)
Andy
==============================================================
"Emancipate yourself from "There's only one way
mental slavery, of life,
None but ourselves can free And that's your own"
our mind" - B. Marley - Levellers
==============================================================
Michael
capn...@interaccess.com (Robert Thurston) writes:
>BRAVO!!! Thank you for putting this lyric in its proper perspective. Although
>I am one of the biggest fans of Genesis (bought Foxtrot in 1973 at the ripe
>age of 11), I am sick and tired of people trying to write Junior High School
>literature papers about their lyrics. Genesis has a great sense of humor
>(especially Peter Gabriel and especially once Phil Collins - the prankster -
>had more influence in the band, which was certainly true by SEBTP). Gabriel
>was always poking fun at the British society (see e.g. Willow Farm). Aisle of
>Plenty is just what Andy suggests...a spoof/satire on UK supermarkets.
>Nothing more, nothing less. Why is it that just because people love a band,
>they think that the band has really deep Wordsworth-like lyrics? Not always,
>gang. Just appreciate the humor and great music. Stop beating your chests.
>Before any of you attempt to analyze what was in PG's mind or the collective
>writing talents of the original 5, PLEASE read Armando Gallo's I Know What I
>Like or Genesis: A Biography. It may shed some light on the band's approach
>to lyrics and its music.
>FLAME ME BABY. :)
OK. ;)
I have read I Know What I Like (thanks again, Linda!). I realize the
humor in Genesis, and especially in Aisle of Plenty. In fact, with
only two or three exceptions, I don't think there was a single song
between Nursery Cryme and The Lamb that *didn't* have a sense of humor
imbued in it. Like you, one of my problems with Genesis fans is that
many of them take the songs too seriously/literally, and then complain
that the lyrics are silly without ever realizing it was all a joke to
begin with!
However, it is also just as ridiculous to think that the band was *only*
telling clever jokes, and never tried to say anything meaningful with
them. Was Get Em Out By Friday just a clever joke? How about Dancing
With The Moonlit Knight? "Oh, gee, PG made a clever joke about the
drowning of Father Thames, so I guess there's no other meaning there."
Uh, sorry, but there *is* meaning there, and you're missing half the
point of the lyric if you think you can just ignore it because it
happened to be told in joke/pun form. One of the great things about
Genesis' lyrics in the '70's was that they were both humorous *and*
meaningful at the same time. I (and other fans) don't, as you suggest,
force meaningful lyrics because we love the band, we love the band
becaue of the meaningful (and humorous) lyrics which we saw in the
first place!
I'm sorry if anyone thought my interpretation of AOP sounded like a
Jr.High paper. I thought it was a rather simple and straightforward
one, myself. The song is a commentary on consumerism, just as someone
else on this newsgroup pointed out before I did. I did not arrive at
this conclusion by over-intellectualizing. It's right there in the
lyric. Tell me, if it was only a joke, why all that stuff about deadly
nightshades growing? Why all the aching voices repeating product prices
to the accompaniment of ominous mellotron sounds at the fadeout? And
yes, I got the puns on Safeway, Fine Fare, etc. They are funny, yes.
But every pun is two-sided by definition. And so is Aisle of Plenty.
Believe me, it's *not* that hard to see the song as saying we
(literally) buy into the system. But sometimes people don't get that,
because they're too busy laughing at the puns.
Michael
Michael
sull...@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu (Steven Sullivan) writes:
>: I have read I Know What I Like (thanks again, Linda!). I realize the
>: humor in Genesis, and especially in Aisle of Plenty. In fact, with
>: only two or three exceptions, I don't think there was a single song
>: between Nursery Cryme and The Lamb that *didn't* have a sense of humor
>: imbued in it. Like you, one of my problems with Genesis fans is that
>: many of them take the songs too seriously/literally, and then complain
>: that the lyrics are silly without ever realizing it was all a joke to
>: begin with!
>
>ANy humor in "Watcher of the Skies' and 'Time Table' would seem to me to
>be unintentional.
I said *except* for two or three songs. Actually, I should've made that
five or six. Watcher and Time Table would be among those, as well as
Firth of Fifth (which might've used some humor!), For Absent Friends,
Harlequin, and Musical Box. On The Lamb, almost every song has at
least three jokes or clever puns, although some songs are more humorous
than others. In The Cage, The Chamber Of 32 Doors, The Lamia, and In
The Rapids are probably the most straightfaced. But the rest show more
genuine humor than probably all other prog bands *combined* have shown.
>They may *meant* them to be more than just clever jokes, but many prog
>lyricists have reached for the 'profound' and come up empty-handed. The
>original claim was that Aisle of PLenty was not just meaningful, but
>*profound* -- i.e. showing notable intellectual depth and insight. I
>guess that's a judgement call......I'm know I thought a lot of things
>were profound when I was 16, that I now find merely clever at best...
And yet you still cling to Tales, which at a mere 19 years I find the
lyrics of which to be neither clever OR profound...
You sound like Peter Stoller! Is it a trait for all men in their mid-
thirties to rattle on about how much they've "outgrown" things they
liked in their teens? Well, as someone who will *very* shortly be
leaving his teens, I can say that I still find the lyrics to AOP to be
profound, much more profound, in fact, than the "murder" that Anthony
originally saw in them. If I'm being pretentious, so be it. But
pretentiousness usually involves po-faced seriousness, and as we all
know, AOP is told with plenty of humor. I'm saying that it's that kind
of skillful balance between humor and profundity which kept the band
from pretentiousness (and thus my view of the song from same!). I
might come to think of the song as just "clever" when I grow up, true.
But at this point, I wouldn't label that a sign of maturity.
>And others get the joke, and the 'meaning', and wish maybe they'd stuck
>to just the jokes.
That's true for a number of songs, but not, I think AOP. If its
social commentary is too simplistic, pretentious, or uninteresting for
you, I'm sorry. I won't try to convince you otherwise (although it
would be interesting to know exactly what it is you don't like about the
"meaning"). But to place the lyrics to *Tales* above it shows, IMHO,
that you're not as "mature" as you think! ;)
Michael