Onstage story from Toledo, Ohio 6 April 1974

dancing

This rare story was recored during the second leg of North America tour in 1974.

“This particular feathered contraption before your eyes, represents the pomp, her majesty, the pride of the British empire. Her name: Britannia, her task: to guard the waves between England and France. She sits on a small pair of water-wings and sinks slowly into the water. As she sinks, she realises the answer to her fate, might be the seek for enlightenment. She rushes into the supermarket, grabs a small supermarket trolly, marked chariot of the gods. As she hurtles down the passageway, grabs a small packet of Buddha biscuits, a small packet of Krishna cookies and a few Jesus jumpers. These, she sticks in her mouth, chews upon them, until fully masticated, and spits the them out into a large balloon, ’til it’s about this big. She picks out a little pocketknife, rams it into the bottom of the balloon, the contents fall upon a small sheet of manuscript-paper, which when spun at a speed of 33 1/3 RPM. It sounds a little like this.”

 

Dancing with the Moonlit Knight

‘Dancing with the Moonlit Knight’ by Genesis is about the effects the British economy had on every day lives of Englishmen at the time in 1973. Large companies were destroying Britain’s heritage and the first oil crisis happened right around that time. Peter Gabriel dressing up as Britannia seemed a very apt visual metaphor for the very clever lyrics of this song.

Here is a link to an analysis of ‘Dancing with the Moonlit Knight’.