Firth of Fifth
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| “Firth of Fifth” | |||||
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| Song by Genesis | |||||
| Album | Selling England by the Pound | ||||
| Released | 12th October, 1973 | ||||
| Recorded | August 1973 | ||||
| Genre | Progressive Rock | ||||
| Length | 9:37 | ||||
| Label | Charisma (UK) Atlantic/Charisma (U.S.) |
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| Writer | Tony Banks Phil Collins Peter Gabriel Steve Hackett Mike Rutherford |
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| Producer | Genesis & John Burns | ||||
| Selling England by the Pound track listing | |||||
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"Firth of Fifth" (sample ) is an epic rock song by progressive rock band Genesis from their 1973 album Selling England by the Pound. The title is a pun on the estuary (firth) of the River Forth in Scotland, commonly known as the Firth of Forth.
The song starts out with a classical-style grand piano introduction by Tony Banks before switching tempo toward the first section of lyrics, with a pounding drum line and majestic chord progression on the organ. The song then features a gentle flute melody followed by a synth-driven instrumental which restates the opening piano theme. Steve Hackett then plays a solo (an interpretation of the flute melody) using one of his signature violinesque guitar tones. Peter Gabriel then sings a brief section of lyrics before Banks concludes the song on piano.
At over nine minutes long, this song is representative of Genesis' work during their progressive rock period. It is also one of the band's most popular early works, and is featured on their second compilation album Platinum Collection.
Although "Firth of Fifth" is credited to the entire band, Tony Banks would later claim that much of the music was developed from his own ideas (the flute and guitar solos were interpretations of a melody that Banks wrote on piano.) Banks also wrote much of the lyrics, though he would later state in Hugh Fielder's The Book of Genesis that it was one of the worst sets of lyrics he had been involved with.
Peter Gabriel would tell a story before the performance of the song while on tour. The story was about a group of travellers who were dying of thirst. They came upon a group of dead bodies. Because the human body is approximately 75% water, they started jumping on the bodies to try and extract water from their mouths. However, they soon realized that it was taking more energy to get the water out of the bodies than they would receive. They realized this fact as they finished jumping on the fifth body. Being that he was a Scotsman, he called his mouth the "firth." Thus it was the "Firth of [the] fifth [body]." This story seems unrelated to the lyrics of the song.
The song has appeared in instrumental form (the middle piano and guitar solos) as part of the 1992 We Can't Dance tour as well as in 2007's Turn It On Again: The Tour. The instrumental segues directly into "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)".
[edit] Personnel
- Peter Gabriel: Vocals, Flute, Tambourine and Bass Drum
- Steve Hackett: Electric Guitar and Guitar Effects
- Mike Rutherford: Bass, Bass Pedals and Backing Vocals
- Tony Banks: Piano, Hammond Organ, Mellotron, ARP Pro-Soloist and Backing Vocals
- Phil Collins: Drums and Backing Vocals
