I've posted a video or two of Marillion in the past, but I decided to feature them today. Born in the neo-prog era of the mid-1980's in Great Britain, they started out very much being a Genesis-style band. Their early releases - Fugazi, Script For A Jester's Tear, Misplaced Childhood - were hits in Britain, but they failed to get serious radio play in the US. The first single off Childhood,
"Kayleigh", got some airtime, and moderate rotation on MTV, but they never really broke here.
In the late spring of 1991, I was in a pizzeria in Washington, DC and heard an interesting song that someone told me was called "Incommunicado" by Marillion. They showed me the CD, Clutching at Straws. I went out and bought it that evening. The following song, not "Incommunicado", is part of an opening trilogy of songs, the observations of a very drunk man sitting at a bar watching the people around him, and the people outside as he looks out the window. It's called "Warm Wet Circles".
The original lead singer for the group, whose stage name was Fish, and whose real name was Derek Dik (which is why he went by Fish), left as the band was working on their follow-up to Clutching at Straws. The band put everything on hold, finally hiring Steve Hogarth. Now, I think Fish is a clever lyricist, and Hogarth isn't as good a poet. But, he's been with the band for 20 years, and produced some of the most amazing music, different to be sure from their earlier efforts, but no less brilliant for all that. Their best recording, in my opinion, was the CD Brave, a concept album that muses on why someone would commit suicide. The closing song on the CD is a bit of a cop-out, because it ends on a happy note, but the song is so beautiful I tolerate it. It's called "Made Again".
The spent two years making their CD Marbles, an exercise in self-indulgence really quite unprecedented. They filmed a concert on their subsequent tour, released in 2005. The following song means more to me than I really want to say, because it describes me. About the way a person who lives inside his own head finds someone who actually gives him the freedom to keep doing that, and goes there with him. It's called "Fantastic Place".
