You know that ‘wise and foolish virgins’ parable?
Mathew 25, verses 1-13?
Well this post isn’t about that.
Although, here’s a bit of wisdom to be going on with.
Do you have any premium bonds?
I have a fistful of them.
Some were bought for me as a Christening present, and I’ve added to them when I felt wealthy.
And yet I’ve never won a bean on any of then.
Have you on yours?
I saw a statistic a couple of weeks ago, that broke down the earning potential of premium bonds in to an easily understandable fact.
The overwhelming odds are that if you bought £50,000 of premium bonds at the completion of the Stonehenge circle, by now you would have won a £10,000 jackpot.
Once.
Makes you think, huh?
Right.
Back to those wise and foolish virgins.
1974 was a year in which the musical tectonic plates of the planet shifted, broke up, drew apart and, amidst the cataclysmic breakup, brought a new and wonderous thing.
The breakup was of possibly the finest prog rock band ever to come out of the UK.
And the new and wonderous thing was the last studio album which that band gave us, on the eve of their breakup.
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.
Which contains the following phrase that my mind keeps wandering back to, at odd periods of time, in a track called Carpet Crawlers:
Mild mannered supermen are held in kryptonite
And the wise and foolish virgins giggle with their bodies glowing bright
(If you would like to read another person break that album down in to a summary format, you could try this link)
And straight away people will say that Genesis didn’t break up in 1974, and that the band went on to continue receiving critical and sales success with other albums and stadium performances for many years.
And those people will be wrong.
Genesis died the day that Peter Gabriel left.
They went on to become an AOR band, then a pop band, and then a dad band.
I’m not sneering.
There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, and nothing wrong with Genesis being any/all of them.
It’s just that while Genesis changed course, and became those things, they stopped being the prog rock band that Genesis used to be.
I often wonder where Genesis would have gone if the band had kept the faith with their original drummer, the very amiable Chris Stewart, and not allowed Jonathan King to bring in Phil Collins.
Anyway, back to those wise and foolish virgins.
Sortov.
Later this year Sam and I will be going to see Elbow.
They acknowledge that the early Genesis played a significant part in influencing the way Elbow developed their art.
So like a wise (not foolish) virgin, I am being calm about the long-awaited visit to Elbowland.
And keeping my lamp trimmed.
Managing my own expectations.
But still looking forward to the gig.
Meanwhile, here’s some Elbow:
Can’t comment on Genesis, but I do own few premium bonds, which I’ve had since the late seventies. Won a total of fifty quid on them.
So far.