Track Listing

1. Script For A Jester's Tear
2. He Knows You Know
3. Web
4. Garden Party
5. Chelsea Monday
6. Forgotten Sons
7. Market Square Heroes
8. Three Boats Down From The Candy Grendel
9. Chelsea Monday(2)
10. He Knows You Know(2)
11. Charting The Single
12. Market Square Heroes(2)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2696 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-29
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
Teenage angst meets prog rock on Marillion's first and still finest album from 1983. Singer Fish plays the role of misunderstood poet to perfection, his bedsit anguish memorably realised by sleeve artist Mark Wilkinson. In the title track a convoluted web of lyrical imagery invests its prosaic lost-my-girlfriend theme with a tortured passion previously alien to prog rock. Elsewhere, loss of another kind is explored in "Chelsea Monday"; Fish commendably vents his spleen at the establishment in "Forgotten Sons"--a crowd-stopping finale to Marillion's live show in those days--and pokes wordy fun at the toffs in the band's first and most unlikely hit, "Garden Party". Musically it's earnestly sub-Genesis most of the time, as the inclusion of the almost 20-minute "Grendel" (a thinly veiled take on "Supper's Ready" from Foxtrot) on the second disc shows only too clearly, but the musician's sheer energy--galvanised by Fish's angry young man polemics--carries the day. It's an astonishingly confident debut destined never to be bettered, but thankfully now given a remastered new life, with extensive notes from all involved in the booklet plus earlier material and demos collected on disc two. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews

the Afflicted Man
When I look in the mirror of a morning, I see,(apart from outstanding natural beauty!) some-one who likes Marillion staring back at me. This is a gut wrenching admission on my part, but what can I do? From an initial position of deep mistrust and even mockery, I have to be completely honest and confide; I have liked every record of their's I've ever heard, and I'm not sure why.
'SFAJT' is the absolute zenith of my confusion. A punky soul's worst nightmare. I firmly believe if you can't say-what-you-gotta-say in 2 minutes it's time to pack up, yet 6 songs only, nothing under 5 minutes, why am I doing this to myself? What can I possibly be gaining?
The title track is a good example. Nearly 9 minutes!! It starts all slow and piano and then livens up in predictable rockist fashion. (and isn't saying 'predictable' when referring to music, really predictable?)
This is something Busted or Avril would do, in a forced and feeble attempt at 'surprise'(to let it stay a ballad would be a REAL surprise!), but here, it just seems to work.
Ditto 'the Web';
"The rain auditions at my window,
It's sympathy echoes in my womb."
What!? There's a grown man writing this stuff! It invites scorn and derision on every level and yet, there's a dignity to it, a child-like aloofness which appeals. You can almost hear Fish's schoolboy giggling off-mic, as he nudges excellent guitarist Steve Rotherhay (very much his partner in crime) and whispers "Did you hear THAT!?"
Like a rock (good analogy - imaginary Amazon ed) it's its own purpose, good or bad, black or white, hard or soft, it's simply just there. It exists in the world, and some of us choose to live with it. And don't we just love it?
I tried unsuccessfully to oust this unhealthy Marillion fixation when I finally reviewed 'Misplaced Childhood'. I felt better afterwards, but not completely cured. I'm a cheery, intolerant punk-rocker, bold and true, I can't be seen to be liking (and I'm sure I'll get my reward in hell!) this Marillion stuff, but I do. It's a funny thing, but I have friends, (I do, honest!) who like hip-hop/rnb and stuff, who like them as well!
It's got me beat.
Anyway, 'SFAJT'. Long, pompous songs that don't make any sense, and unintelligible (bravo! - imaginary Amazon ed) lyrics, straight from the worst excesses of Yes and Wishbone Ash.
Can it get any better?
Four stars only because I don't like it as much as 'Misplaced Childhood' but (somehow!) it's a great album nonetheless.

Mullets & Trainspotters...
Although I'm a fan of the later Marillion Hogarth era stuff - Brave is one of the prog rock classics, closely followed by Marbles - I never really bothered with the Fish albums. For one thing, at that time I was into the REAL Genesis and Pink Floyd and contemporary thinking at the time was, Marillion were just a cheap club rip-off (sorry, homage) band with something of a misogynistic reputation. Whenever I travelled round in the 1980's, they always seemed to be the preferred band for lonely trainspotters and traction "bashers" listening on their portable cassette players.

Anyhow I finally got rond to buying this album and Misplaced Childhood a couple of months ago. There are some good moments on the album, in a 1980's sort of way, but it does sound so like Genesis from the Gabriel era. Fish projects his vocals somewhere between Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel so you do feel you are listening to a homage band, rather than an original act. On the second play I gave up on Track 4, it just all seemed a bit corny. Matters do improve a bit on Misplaced Childhood but overall I prefer the Hogarth era.

Sheer Poetry
Fish's lyrics were never better than on this debut release and what a strong debut it was. My first encounter with Marillion, was hearing 'Garden Party' on Radio 1. I've read a review here that says this album spawned no hit singles? Well 'Garden Party' got to No.16, which isn't bad in my book. It all depends on what you regard as a hit. But it remains possibly the only track to reach the Top 20 where parts of the song are written in 17/16 time signature!

I bought the album on the basis of finding something unusual and progressive in that single - something that was rare in early 80s chart singles. And I wasn't disappointed. Chelsea Monday, Forgotten Sons and the eponymous track are all beautifully crafted songs accompanied by Fish's poetry. Rothery's guitar was the sweetest I'd heard since Dave Gilmour (Floyd) and Andy Latimer (Camel) and it still holds up now, which is more than can be said for Fish's makeup.

It was all very theatrical, befitting both the prog rock genre and Fish's angst, portrayed through his alter ego - the jester. And a special mention for the great cover art work - that original LP gatefold sleeve was fabulous, something that CDs and of course, downloads, can never do justice.

But Grendel? "The last real twenty-minute epic in the history of prog rock" as someone has written here? NO WAY! Check out Transatlantic's 2 studio offerings 'SMPTe' and 'Bridge Across Forever' or IQ's 'Dark Matter' amongst others. There's plenty of fine prog epics out there. You just need to open your eyes and ears. That said, Grendel is a fine bonus to have on this expanded version of the original album.