I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
Encyclopedia
"I Know What I Like" was the first charting single by the rock band Genesis
. The single was first released in the UK in August 1973, but did not become a hit until April 1974, when it reached number 21 in the UK Singles Chart
.
Its original b-side was the non-album track "Twilight Alehouse," a song about a lonely man who finds solace in the local tavern. This song had been in Genesis's live set since 1970 but was not recorded in the studio until 1973.
"I Know What I Like" is also the second track on the Selling England by the Pound
album. A lighthearted pop song, it provides a moment of comic relief after the opening number, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
.
The song's lyrics, like many of Peter Gabriel
's in his Genesis days, tell a story. It portrays a young man who pushes a lawn mower for a living and shares his philosophy on life that he does not want to grow up and do great things, being perfectly happy where he is. Betty Swanwick's painting The Dream, which was used as the Selling England album cover, provided inspiration for the lyrics.
The song has a somewhat Eastern sound, full of hand percussion rhythms and an electric sitar
riff from Mike Rutherford
(played in concert by Steve Hackett
), and it foreshadows the world music
that Gabriel would later experiment with in his solo career. Rutherford's bass playing is also highly prominent, and keyboardist Tony Banks
uses a note played on the low end of the Mellotron
during the intro and ending to imitate the sound of a lawn mower
. This particular effect was discovered during a recording session by Peter Gabriel
while Banks was taking a bathroom break.
Later live versions of this song (such as the one on Seconds Out
) feature an extended instrumental section which includes snippets of various other Genesis songs – such as "Visions of Angels," "Blood on the Rooftops," "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
" and "Stagnation" – and even songs by other artists, such as the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
." Phil Collins performed a dance during these instrumentals, in which he would beat himself silly with a tambourine; this can seen in the Genesis: In Concert
film from 1977, as well as the live DVDs The Way We Walk – Live in Concert (1992) and When in Rome 2007
.
"I Know What I Like" was the band's only pop hit of their early years, at a time when progressive rock
bands largely avoided the singles market. The song was even played on Top of the Pops
and danced to by Pan's People
. Its success would not be topped until And Then There Were Three
s "Follow You, Follow Me
," some four years later, and it remains the band's biggest hit without Phil Collins
as frontman.
For the The Way We Walk
and Turn It On Again
tours, this song was played as part of a medley of old Genesis songs, and was often performed with excerpts of one of band's oldest pieces, Stagnation, from the album Trespass
. During the Turn It On Again tour shows, images from the band's history cycled by in the background.
In 1993, Marillion's
ex-frontman Fish
did a cover version
of this song on his Songs from the Mirror
album.
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
. The single was first released in the UK in August 1973, but did not become a hit until April 1974, when it reached number 21 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
.
Its original b-side was the non-album track "Twilight Alehouse," a song about a lonely man who finds solace in the local tavern. This song had been in Genesis's live set since 1970 but was not recorded in the studio until 1973.
"I Know What I Like" is also the second track on the Selling England by the Pound
Selling England by the Pound
- Sound and live performance :The piano introduction to "Firth of Fifth" has not been included in a performance since 1974, in a Drury Lane Theatre concert, when Banks misplayed and Collins covered by starting the song from after the intro...
album. A lighthearted pop song, it provides a moment of comic relief after the opening number, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" is the first track on the Genesis album Selling England by the Pound, released in 1973.The a cappella voice of Peter Gabriel opens the track. Then, the song progressively gets louder and more upbeat, becoming a powerful rock number...
.
The song's lyrics, like many of Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
's in his Genesis days, tell a story. It portrays a young man who pushes a lawn mower for a living and shares his philosophy on life that he does not want to grow up and do great things, being perfectly happy where he is. Betty Swanwick's painting The Dream, which was used as the Selling England album cover, provided inspiration for the lyrics.
The song has a somewhat Eastern sound, full of hand percussion rhythms and an electric sitar
Electric sitar
An electric sitar is a kind of electric guitar designed to mimic the sound of the traditional Indian instrument, the sitar. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these instruments bear varying degrees of resemblance to the traditional sitar...
riff from Mike Rutherford
Mike Rutherford
Michael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford is an English musician. He is a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist and backup vocalist. In later incarnations of Genesis, he assumed the role of lead guitarist. He is one of only two constant members in Genesis . He also fronts Mike + The...
(played in concert by Steve Hackett
Steve Hackett
Stephen Richard Hackett is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. He gained prominence as a member of the British progressive rock group Genesis, which he joined in 1970 and left in 1977 to pursue a solo career...
), and it foreshadows the world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
that Gabriel would later experiment with in his solo career. Rutherford's bass playing is also highly prominent, and keyboardist Tony Banks
Tony Banks (musician)
This article is about the musician. For other people named Tony Banks, see Tony BanksAnthony George "Tony" Banks is a British composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who performs as a keyboardist and a guitarist...
uses a note played on the low end of the Mellotron
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
during the intro and ending to imitate the sound of a lawn mower
Lawn mower
A lawn mower is a machine that uses a revolving blade or blades to cut a lawn at an even length.Lawn mowers employing a blade that rotates about a vertical axis are known as rotary mowers, while those employing a blade assembly that rotates about a horizontal axis are known as cylinder or reel...
. This particular effect was discovered during a recording session by Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
while Banks was taking a bathroom break.
Later live versions of this song (such as the one on Seconds Out
Seconds Out
Seconds Out is a live double album by Genesis, released in October 1977. It reached No.4 in the UK, remaining in the charts for 17 weeks. The performances were recorded in Paris in 1976 and 1977 on their tours in support of A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering...
) feature an extended instrumental section which includes snippets of various other Genesis songs – such as "Visions of Angels," "Blood on the Rooftops," "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" is the first track on the Genesis album Selling England by the Pound, released in 1973.The a cappella voice of Peter Gabriel opens the track. Then, the song progressively gets louder and more upbeat, becoming a powerful rock number...
" and "Stagnation" – and even songs by other artists, such as the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is a song written by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus for the singer/pianist Nina Simone, who first recorded it in 1964. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" has been recorded or performed by many artists, and is widely known by the 1965 blues rock hit...
." Phil Collins performed a dance during these instrumentals, in which he would beat himself silly with a tambourine; this can seen in the Genesis: In Concert
Genesis: In Concert
Genesis In Concert is a concert film directed and produced by Tony Maylam for the English progressive rock band Genesis. The recording of the film took place during concerts in Glasgow, Scotland and Stafford, England in 1976...
film from 1977, as well as the live DVDs The Way We Walk – Live in Concert (1992) and When in Rome 2007
When in Rome 2007
When In Rome 2007 is a live DVD by Genesis recorded at Circo Massimo, Rome, Italy, on 14 July 2007, during the successful Turn It On Again Tour. The concert was directed by David Mallet. The collection was released on 26 May 2008 in most of the world and 10 June 2008 in North America...
.
"I Know What I Like" was the band's only pop hit of their early years, at a time when progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
bands largely avoided the singles market. The song was even played on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
and danced to by Pan's People
Pan's People
Pan's People were a British TV dance troupe, who are usually associated with the BBC TV music chart show Top of the Pops.In an era before pop videos, they danced to songs whose original artists were not available to perform them live...
. Its success would not be topped until And Then There Were Three
...And Then There Were Three...
...And Then There Were Three... is the ninth studio album by the British band Genesis and was released in 1978. It is the band's first album as a trio.-Background and recording:...
s "Follow You, Follow Me
Follow You, Follow Me
"Follow You Follow Me" is a 1978 single by Genesis. The music was written by Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford, with lyrics by Rutherford. Originally released as the last track from their 1978 album …And Then There Were Three…, the single was Genesis's first to reach the American Top 40...
," some four years later, and it remains the band's biggest hit without Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
as frontman.
For the The Way We Walk
The Way We Walk - Live in Concert
Genesis – The Way We Walk – Live in Concert is a 2001 double DVD9 featuring live performances from the We Can't Dance tour by Genesis. The footage was filmed on 8 November 1992 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, and first released on VHS in March 1993 as Genesis Live – The Way We Walk – In...
and Turn It On Again
Turn It on Again: The Tour
Turn It On Again: The Tour was a 2007 concert tour of Europe and North America by progressive rock band Genesis. The tour was notable for the return of drummer and vocalist Phil Collins, who left the group in 1996.-History:...
tours, this song was played as part of a medley of old Genesis songs, and was often performed with excerpts of one of band's oldest pieces, Stagnation, from the album Trespass
Trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels and trespass to land.Trespass to the person, historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, mayhem, and maiming...
. During the Turn It On Again tour shows, images from the band's history cycled by in the background.
In 1993, Marillion's
Marillion
Marillion are a British rock band, formed in Aylesbury, England in 1979. Their recorded studio output comprises sixteen albums generally regarded in two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988, and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve...
ex-frontman Fish
Fish (singer)
Derek William Dick, better known as Fish, is a Scottish progressive rock singer, lyricist and occasional actor, best known as the former lead singer of Marillion.-Biography:...
did a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of this song on his Songs from the Mirror
Songs from the Mirror
Songs from the Mirror is the third solo album by singer Fish. It does not contain any original Fish material; instead it is a cover album featuring Fish's versions of songs by artists who inspired him before his career started...
album.
Line-up
- Peter GabrielPeter GabrielPeter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
: vocalsLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
, fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and percussion - Steve HackettSteve HackettStephen Richard Hackett is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. He gained prominence as a member of the British progressive rock group Genesis, which he joined in 1970 and left in 1977 to pursue a solo career...
: electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
and backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Mike RutherfordMike RutherfordMichael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford is an English musician. He is a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist and backup vocalist. In later incarnations of Genesis, he assumed the role of lead guitarist. He is one of only two constant members in Genesis . He also fronts Mike + The...
: bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, electric sitarSitarThe 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
and backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Tony BanksTony Banks (musician)This article is about the musician. For other people named Tony Banks, see Tony BanksAnthony George "Tony" Banks is a British composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who performs as a keyboardist and a guitarist...
: Hammond organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
, ARP Pro SoloistARP Pro SoloistThe ARP Pro Soloist was one of the first commercially successful preset electronic music synthesizers. Introduced by ARP Instruments, Inc. in 1972, it replaced the similar ARP Soloist in the company's lineup of portable performance instruments.-History:...
and backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Phil CollinsPhil CollinsPhilip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
: drumDrumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s, backing vocals and percussion