You stand there with your fixed expressionĮvery last ‘now’ becomes a howl. The second time I can yell along parts of it, before long I sing all of it as loudly as I can. This cannot be, this cannot be this good. I’m headbanging even more, the drums send me into a frenzy. The guitar returns and plays hide and seek with the bass and keyboards. And I want, and I feel and I touch the walls”. The clock, tick-tock, on the mantlepiece. “Old King Cole called for his pipe, his bowl and his fiddlers. Then comes the break, the next cliffhanger. I’m headbanging in my room and I forget the entire world around me. The musical box is played and the guitar player comes in. I was 14.Īfter the first 3 odd minutes the atmosphere changes and it all becomes menacing. It was about 3 years after the release of the Genesis Live album that I was that first listener and by God, it smashed me against the wall of my own ingenuity. The fact that the song is full of cliffhangers is unknown to the first listener. Starts off so innocently, a few Anthony Phillips-like guitar chords and the vocal sets in with a weird story, but pleasantly sung. It’s such a delight to be able to share them with you. 10 songs which I regard as even better than this one, which is already loaded with praise. “Ritual” now finally made it almost to the Top10, there has always been some unresolved hesitation about granting it such a high place on the list. The finale is incomprehensibly beautiful. Thinking back on that moment, some years later, I realized I had seen my own divinity in that sacred moment. At almost 17 minutes exactly the noise subsides and the listener emerges rejuvenated, singing an absolutely gorgeous love song for both the divine and the profane, the deity and the person.įor me, 34 years ago now, there was a moment when it was the person in which I saw the divine. The song is another suite of many colors, with a breathtaking intro, then taking up speed and chanting to the skies, wandering off in meditation, narrative and a short break before it goes rocking along the celestial highway, culminating in a huge and wild ritual, with all sorts of drums and percussion. She took on the amazing task to seduce the punker to understand the esoteric meaning to the album and the song and eventually reported success. Once she listened to “Tales From Topographic Oceans”, especially “Ritual”, she was gripped by the music and the philosophy. Once upon a time there was a hippie girl who shared a flat with a punker, a nerdy student and a travel addict who was never around. Nous sommes du soleil, we love when we play. “Ritual” (click on pick to listen) revolves around this motto: we are of the sun, we can see. Hence the title of this blog: the universe is generous, as long as we keep sending back the energy it gave us. “ We receive all we venture to give” (!) – the key verse from this song, from this album, from basically any writings, thoughts or principles.
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