Marillion...again...

It's  been 27 days since my last entry about Marillion, and to be honest, that's a bit long...At that time I had just experienced them live for the first time in my life, and I was probably rambling more than I was making sense. I'll try to be a bit more kept together today, as this will be one of those entries that practically writes itself.

On my way to Uni this morning I started thinking... bombshell ;-) "I let the Genie Out Of The Box", literally ;-) (and you should totally check out the live version of the title I just mentioned, it's a little pearl with references to Charlotte Brontë's, Jane Eyre and Edgar Allan Poe's, The Fall Of The House Of Usher... or at least I choose to believe so).

What is it really about Marillion that makes them so incredibly incredible?
How come I feel so different listening to their music than I ever did with any other music I encountered? These are actually big questions, but I think I found the answers. The answers won't, at this point, be empiric (promised a friend I'd use that word more in conversation). It will be my personal view, a view I'm proud of, and yeah... I'm just totally right :-)
All the bands I mention has at one point been important in my life, some of them still are. And this is a significant part of my answer. 

When you listen to Separated Out, from Anoraknophobia...you have to be deaf, dead even, not to get the reference to The Doors with the song's brilliant keyboard solo... Go! Mark Kelly. When I was in High School I fell in love with the mysterious Jim Morrison. I went on a journey of Indian culture, mysteries, poetry and (being young and naïve, I was appalled by) drugs.  

The live version of No One Can (from Tumbling Down The Years)... Makes me think of The Police, only this song is a proper lovesong and not a song about stalking. To be honest, when I first heard this song, I thought it was about the love you feel for your children the moment they come into this world...so for me this will always be a voicing of the deep emotions I have for my son. And that is OK. But if I do get married again... I will sing this in our wedding :-) OK, It's a bit creepy... "No one can take you away from me now..." But it's really a beautiful song. And with the Voice Of Light singing it, it's love personified. "Soppy and Romantic!"

All the lengthy progressive songs sometimes makes me think about Pink Floyd.

Now, Pink Floyd are brilliant. And I've even been to a Pink Floyd concert. The feeling I had when they played Run Like Hell, I'll never forget. The concert experience is right up there, top two... But they have no chance against Marillion. And when Marillion played Neverland time stopped. It felt so, so close, so honest, so brilliant. And... Well they are the only Marillion :-)
I also have lent my ears to Muse. Top three concerts... And I can see a link to Marillion through their pure musicality, their strong lyrics and them being marvelous musicians. But again, Marillion wins. Because, where Muse are introvert... Marillion just keeps coming and sharing, loving and performing. And Marillion's songs are stronger. True Story!

Hogarth uses his voice as a true rocker, and could easily sing Foo Fighters to the ground. He showed me this at the Oslo concert. He was feeling a bit under the weather, and still he rocked on. They rocked on with plenty of feel good music, stadium anthem quality... 

Their social commitment equals that of U2 and The Boss... Only they have the sense to remain true rockers, use the word "fuck" every now and then, and manage to bring a song to the table that will make fans weep with joy, just because it is sooo bloody cool.
The original version of Cover My Eyes is a homage or quote or a "Yeah, they can do it, but we do it better" - kind of version of U2's Where The Streets Have No Name. The guitar in the beginning, anyway.
And Power from their new album Sounds That Can't Be Made is just that. That song is a display of Power and musicality, and listening makes me weep and cry... Sounds That Can't Be Made? A pretentious and quite daring title... But they pull it off. The title song, Sounds That Can't Be Made is magnificent. But my favorite songs are Gaza and Sky Above The Rain. Gaza because it speaks the truth, it's practically an album in itself, and The Sky Above The Rain because it's just heartbreakingly beautiful.
No one else can :-)
So what is it really about Marillion that makes them so incredibly incredible?
Well, they have incorporated everything I love about music and poetry, and made a concept that reaches beyond any of the music I ever listened to. In short... they have it all.
To allow music of this quality to penetrate the shield of closed down emotions, is like finding religion.

The photos I've used, are at the courtesy of my dear friend, Sue Hippychick Phillips.