In 1769, the Royal Academy of Art in London held its first Summer Exhibition of contemporary art. Between 26 April and 27 May, 14,008 visitors took in 136 works by 54 artists, including Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. The Exhibition has been held every year since, even during World War II.
Leaping forwards to the Summer Exhibition of 1973, amongst more than 60,000 visitors was 23-year old Peter Gabriel, lead singer and theatrical frontman for progressive rock band Genesis, who was drawn to an image on a wall of the Large South Room gallery: a pencil drawing by Betty Swanwick called The Dream.
Above left: from the 1973 Exhibition catalogue; above right: The Dream (pencil), by Betty Swanwick
Elizabeth Edith Swanwick (1915 – 1989) was the daughter of a reservist in the Royal Navy who was also a watercolorist. Her father’s death when she was just 10 fuelled her determination to be an artist. At age 21 she was commissioned to create posters for London Transport, which she did for a number of years. This work was whimsical, presented in bright colours, and often depicted a variety of animals (she herself owned, among other creatures, an African grey parrot). Over the years her oeuvre included illustrations for periodicals and books (including child and adult works for which she also wrote the texts), murals, watercolours and drawings. She exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Her later works evolved to depict images that were rather other-worldly, almost ethereal in nature, often with religious and spiritual themes. Some consider her later watercolours to be in the tradition of William Blake while some of the vibrant lithographs certainly evoke Marc Chagall.
Contrasting styles: top – To The Farms (1936), one of many colour lithographs done for London Transport; bottom – The Walk to the Paradise Garden (1980), pencil and watercolour.
Back to 1973. In October of that year, Genesis released their fifth studio album, Selling England By The Pound. The second track, “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”, includes these lyrics:
When the sun beats down and I lie on the bench
I can always hear them talk
Me, I’m just a lawn mower – you can tell me by the way I walk
The album’s lyrics are printed inside the LP gatefold and according to the disclosure beneath the song title, were “based on the Cover Painting”. Inspiration had struck.
Swanwick had already completed a watercolour version of The Dream when the band visited her, had tea on the lawn, and asked her to create another version that included a lawn mower and a pitchfork. Swanwick, Gabriel recalled in 2007, was somewhat eccentric, often addressing remarks to her parrot. “She was a great old lady,” said Mike Rutherford. As an artist, she took a considerable amount of time creating her paintings; she was known as “a perfectionist, completing her work with difficulty.” Thus, rather than start from scratch, she agreed to simply add the requested items to the painting she’d already created, and that image adorned the album cover upon its release.
Left: The Dream (watercolor, pencil), by Betty Swanwick; right: the album cover (1973)
So what are we to make of The Dream and the bloke on the bench, with his helmet of ginger hair, tuber-like fingers and enormous feet? Gabriel’s opening line of “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” is “It’s one o’clock and time for lunch (dum de dum, de dum)” …our friend doesn’t seem to have made much of a dent in the baguette under the bench, and the other items are hard to discern… a hunk of cheese or a piece of fruit? And then there’s that mug and empty bottle, too. Is he sleeping off a mid-day tipple after completing a morning’s work in the garden? Is he even asleep? Close inspection suggests the gardener’s eyes are open.
Without knowing the work’s title, the only suggestion it’s depicting a dream are the eight individuals emerging in unison from among the neatly manicured hedgerows (a quintessentially British element for an album celebrating England while lamenting the decay of folk culture). A woman wearing a flower-bedecked hat and carrying a parasol approaches. Is she preparing to rouse our sleeping friend? Or to admonish him? Perhaps she’s going to remind him to, as the song says, “Keep them mowing blades sharp…”.
The gardening images seeped into the Genesis stage shows of the time. In addition to Britannia (“Dancing With The Moonlit Knight”, the opening cut from the LP) and concert staples such as his masked Watcher In The Skies, Peter Gabriel added a rustic type who sported a floppy felt hat, affected a West Country dialect, and chewed on a straw as he mimed pushing a lawnmower across the stage during the introduction to “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”.
Yet the song, despite being a successful single and an excellent example of this classic Genesis line-up, is not the centrepiece of Selling England By The Pound. That honour, most would agree, goes to the magnificent “Firth of Fifth”. With rich harmonies, shifting time-signatures and complex yet accessible ensemble playing, Tony Banks’ “Firth” is one of the pinnacles of Seventies progressive music.
These are not the only pleasures to be found in Selling England By The Pound. “The Cinema Show” holds up very well to repeated listens and demonstrates what fans revere in the band. Steve Hackett has commented that he was enjoying The Mahavishnu Orchestra at the time and included some of what he heard in his own playing. Same for Phil Collins, who enjoyed incorporating jazz-rock rhythms into the weave. Meanwhile, in “More Fool Me”, we hear a different side of Genesis: a heartfelt ballad sung by the drummer.
My only reservation about the album is the epic that opens side two. Although some defend “The Battle of Epping Forrest”, its extended length, lack of variety, and the parodic “East End” theatrics make it something of a chore. Collins described it as “a barrage of information” and even lyricist Gabriel conceded it could have used “some editing”.
Perhaps Selling England By The Pound is not quite as great an album as Foxtrot, its predecessor. But as the third instalment in a Genesis trilogy of legendary progressive rock albums it thoroughly deserves the respect in which it is held. There is something quintessentially English and a tad eccentric about the entire record, almost as if the dreamlike, mythological mundanity of the cover pervades and colours the music. The LP is consistently entertaining and multi-layered enough to satisfy prog fans, or indeed anyone seeking assiduously constructed and beautifully played “thinking” rock music. And if, perchance, such music causes fatigue on initial acquaintance, a quick kip on a handy park bench is sure to revive you enough for another listen.
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Art On Your Sleeve is an occasional series that has been enriched by contributions from JDB at Augenblick, who explores the fine art perspective, while the music is tackled by your correspondent. We hope you enjoy this most recent melding of sound and vision.
vinylconnection.com.au 
This is a fantastic collaboration.
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Thanks Jeff! USA and Aus — allies!
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A classic album. A classic cover and a whole story I had no idea of. I enjoy the imagery of the eccentric old lady hosting the long haired studious band. Tea on the lawn all it needs is an interruption from the vicar.
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True! More tea vicar?
Tony Banks’ recollection was very funny. He said that the table was on a sloping section of lawn resulting in a tendency for crockery slippage!
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Ah crockery slippage almost as bad as saucer rockage
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I wish Gabriel had written lyrics for Firth of Fifth – it’s great musically, but the lyrics drag it down for me. The good stuff is amazing though – Moonlit Knight and Cinema Show are both among the band’s best.
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I confess I slide over even PG’s lyrics at times; at that young age he was rather enamoured with his own private school education, I suspect. He really improved as a lyricist over the course of his excellent solo career.
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This really *is* a fun collaboration. Ready for another round whenever you are. 🙂 Thanks for the additional morsels of detail you added, particularly the one about tea on the law, with its incipient crockery slippage! The lead sentence of one of your paragraphs makes a perfect subtitle for the post: “Pleasures to be found in Selling England By The Pound…” I wonder what Swanwick’s thoughts on the album were…?
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Of course I meant tea on the *lawn*. Although maybe ‘tea on the law’ results when crockery slippage happens during teatime with a policeman…
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😅
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I enjoyed it too, JDB, even though the pace of my work left something to be desired.
Maybe we should ask the readership for suggestions of records sporting fine art on their covers?
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Great idea! 💡 👍🏻
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Great idea for a series, lovely backstory and coming together there…from the band and artist and you two music enthusiasts!
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Music is a lovely playground to meet in, as you and I know, Bill! I’m very fortunate to have connected with JDB, who brings an appreciative yet penetrating artistic sensibility to the cover art component.
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Complimentary
A fine collaboration
Almost seamless.
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Cheers, DD. Something satisfying about an Aussie and an American celebrating such an English package.
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An aside: it has been interesting to form a picture of the US of A as a result of reading your posts and related comments, and occasionally exploring the author’s sites, over years now. I’ve formed a very different view of the people and culture through WordPress than that which had been mainly based on Film and Television. It is terrific to see this elegant collaboration.
Thanks JDB and Bruce.
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💙 (Really)
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Foolish of me to suppress the urge to write about the context for making such an obvious comment- I had listened to something about de Gaulle’s response to the May ’68 Sorbonne revolution and thinking about the hatred of the US immediately before commenting on the VC/ JDB collaboration. I also excluded other thoughts about my own prejudices.
Etc.
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Fantastic history of Betty Swanwick here, Bruce. I knew of her from the documentary you mentioned, plus the published”Chapter and Verse” oral history of the band. But I never bothered to read about her on my own, so this was a special treat. Somewhere along the line, I think I read that the “Up on the garden wall, two little lovebirds” line was a tip of the hat to the original Garden Wall band of Gabriel and Banks at Charterhouse. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it makes for a great story. Selling England is my favorite Genesis album. – Marty
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That’s a great story, Marty. Thanks for adding it in. And I’m delighted (as I know JDB is) that you and others enjoyed our labour of love.
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My intro to the band back when. Love the album, the art work etc. A special place in my pile. Fantastic piece Bruce . Well done. “I’m just CB, you can tell me by the way I walk”
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Wouldn’t have you walk any other way, CB. 🙂
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While I was walking like CB I forgot to mention JDB. Another collab would be in order. Get me to blow off dust on a few albums.
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We are up for it. With three collaborative posts across seven years, we are scarcely over-saturating the market. 🤣
Any “fine art on LP cover” suggestions, CB?
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Here we go again. The first one that jumped into my head was Silly Wizard – So Many Paintings. How’s that for an apt suggestion. Something about the cover has stayed with me for years. So many Bruce. Kiln House, Bundles which is similar to Selling England. “I came for rock n roll and became an art lover” Just about midnight, time to mow the lawn. Ethel is getting on my case. Later.
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Sleep well, bud. ‘Bundles’ is a nice call (though, as you say, perhaps a bit similar to Betty Swanwick).
Dream up some more, CB!
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Nice one Bruce. I really enjoyed this, I love the LP too.
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Cheers Joe. Nice to have you back. 😷
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Me? I’m just a lawnmower, you can tell me by the way I walk
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Nice
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Thanks!
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[…] top post of the year was a collaboration. The Art On Your Sleeve series has remained popular, with this year’s instalment continuing that gratifying trend. Huge thanks to JDB of the criminally overlooked Augenblick blog […]
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[…] Of Fifth.” Ten minutes well spent. (More on the album in an Art On Your Sleeve post here.) [Released September […]
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