Watcher Of The Skies, was in essence written by Rutherford and Banks during a tour in Italy. The two had been staring out over the landscape at the back of a hotel in Naples. Banks talked about it in an interview: "Early one morning, it was totally deserted. It was incredible. We had the idea of an alien coming down to the planet and seeing this world where obviously there had once been life and yet there was not one human being to be seen."
Watcher of the Skies is the first track on Genesis' 1972 album Foxtrot. The title is borrowed from John Keats' 1817 poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer":
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken.
"...it's more likely to be about Clarke's "Childhood's End", which is about mankind evolving to leave Earth and their bodies behind and to join a cosmic consciousness called the Overmind "
("do they know more than their childhood games"). A highly influencial book, Pink Floyd also had a song entitles "Childhood's End".
You are exactly right, 6th! An alien (played live by Peter Gabriel in his Batwing headgear and inverse mohawk) comes to Earth, only to find it deserted. It begs the question - is it deserted because the creatures here destroyed themselves ("has life again destroyed life") or because they have left Mother Earth behind to go elsewhere (do they play elsewhere). Whatever the cause, like a primitive lizard leaving it's tail behind it, humanity as a whole has gone beyond it's union with the mother planet.
This alien is old, and has travelled a vast amount of space. Perhaps it is huge, or is organically grown into a massive ship, for we are told that the alien is a world unto itself, and that no world he passes is his.
After observing conditions on the planet, the alien imparts a bit of it's age-old wisdom to the vanished inhabitants, saying:
"From life alone to life as one,
Think not your journey's done
For though your ship be sturdy, no
Mercy has the sea,
Will you survive on the ocean of being?"
(Mention of the Ocean of Being here is important symbolism.)
Then, sad because it is still alone, the Watcher turns and heads back to the stars.
@Madprophet A couple friends and myself have an idea about the geographic location of the Fox Trot artwork - that's far and away from where was mentioned. I wonder if there's been any outside discussion on it - ck email.
@Madprophet A couple friends and myself have an idea about the geographic location of the Fox Trot artwork - that's far and away from where was mentioned. I wonder if there's been any outside discussion on it - ck email.
@Madprophet Interesting.
Let me just add that the whole "this is your world..." part is simply metaphorical: the Watcher is a solitary being whose destiny is to move from world to world only to learn what happened there. He has no world of his own (perhaps his own world has suffered the same fate of the one he just visited) and in a way, this perennial wandering is "his world" in the same way, say, as the sea is a pirate's "world".
@Madprophet Interesting.
Let me just add that the whole "this is your world..." part is simply metaphorical: the Watcher is a solitary being whose destiny is to move from world to world only to learn what happened there. He has no world of his own (perhaps his own world has suffered the same fate of the one he just visited) and in a way, this perennial wandering is "his world" in the same way, say, as the sea is a pirate's "world".
Watcher Of The Skies, was in essence written by Rutherford and Banks during a tour in Italy. The two had been staring out over the landscape at the back of a hotel in Naples. Banks talked about it in an interview: "Early one morning, it was totally deserted. It was incredible. We had the idea of an alien coming down to the planet and seeing this world where obviously there had once been life and yet there was not one human being to be seen."
Watcher of the Skies is the first track on Genesis' 1972 album Foxtrot. The title is borrowed from John Keats' 1817 poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer":
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken.
"...it's more likely to be about Clarke's "Childhood's End", which is about mankind evolving to leave Earth and their bodies behind and to join a cosmic consciousness called the Overmind "
("do they know more than their childhood games"). A highly influencial book, Pink Floyd also had a song entitles "Childhood's End".
You are exactly right, 6th! An alien (played live by Peter Gabriel in his Batwing headgear and inverse mohawk) comes to Earth, only to find it deserted. It begs the question - is it deserted because the creatures here destroyed themselves ("has life again destroyed life") or because they have left Mother Earth behind to go elsewhere (do they play elsewhere). Whatever the cause, like a primitive lizard leaving it's tail behind it, humanity as a whole has gone beyond it's union with the mother planet.
This alien is old, and has travelled a vast amount of space. Perhaps it is huge, or is organically grown into a massive ship, for we are told that the alien is a world unto itself, and that no world he passes is his.
After observing conditions on the planet, the alien imparts a bit of it's age-old wisdom to the vanished inhabitants, saying:
"From life alone to life as one, Think not your journey's done For though your ship be sturdy, no Mercy has the sea, Will you survive on the ocean of being?"
(Mention of the Ocean of Being here is important symbolism.)
Then, sad because it is still alone, the Watcher turns and heads back to the stars.
@Madprophet A couple friends and myself have an idea about the geographic location of the Fox Trot artwork - that's far and away from where was mentioned. I wonder if there's been any outside discussion on it - ck email.
@Madprophet A couple friends and myself have an idea about the geographic location of the Fox Trot artwork - that's far and away from where was mentioned. I wonder if there's been any outside discussion on it - ck email.
@Madprophet Interesting. Let me just add that the whole "this is your world..." part is simply metaphorical: the Watcher is a solitary being whose destiny is to move from world to world only to learn what happened there. He has no world of his own (perhaps his own world has suffered the same fate of the one he just visited) and in a way, this perennial wandering is "his world" in the same way, say, as the sea is a pirate's "world".
@Madprophet Interesting. Let me just add that the whole "this is your world..." part is simply metaphorical: the Watcher is a solitary being whose destiny is to move from world to world only to learn what happened there. He has no world of his own (perhaps his own world has suffered the same fate of the one he just visited) and in a way, this perennial wandering is "his world" in the same way, say, as the sea is a pirate's "world".