Supper's Ready

As Peter Gabriel has said, it's "a personal journey which ends up walking through scenes from Revelations in The Bible."

"Supper's Ready" is a seven-part song by the seminal progressive rock band Genesis, appearing on their 1972 album Foxtrot. At 23 minutes long, it takes up one side of the original vinyl release (apart from a brief unrelated instrumental entitled "Horizons") and is Genesis' first real Rock Opera (if "The Musical Box" doesn't count, anyway). Alongside The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, It's one of the major contributors to Genesis' lasting reputation and influence on progressive rock, and it's exactly how a surrealist prog-rock opera should be done.

The song is divided into:

 * 1) "Lover's Leap"
 * 2) "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man"
 * 3) "Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men"
 * 4) "How Dare I Be So Beautiful?"
 * 5) "Willow Farm"
 * 6) "Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)"
 * 7) "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)"

"Supper's Ready" contains examples of:

 * As the Good Book Says...: The supper in the title is the "great supper of God" during the Second Coming in Revelation 19. The song later paraphrases that passage.
 * Cover Drop: "like the fox on the rocks..."
 * Continuity Nod: "...and the Musical Box".
 * Epic Rocking: teases throughout, until Apocalypse in 9/8, when they never look back.
 * Gratuitous Panning: All throughout the song, but especially in "Willow Farm", in which the vocals very obviously pan from left to right during one line, and back to the left in the next.
 * Meaningful Echo: Twice in "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs":
 * The lyric "And it's hello babe, with your guardian eyes so blue... hey, my baby, don't you know our love is true?" recalls "Lover's Leap".
 * The melody of the section is the same as that for "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man".
 * Mind Screw
 * Narcissist: "How Dare I Be So Beautiful?".
 * Subdued Section: Between "Apocalypse in 9/8" and "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs". All of the instruments drop out, the flute comes in, then church bells, then a drum roll, then quieting under Peter's vocals, followed by full instrumnetation returning via a drum break.
 * The Walrus Was Paul: Gabriel's descriptions of the song do little to increase its comprehensibility. His way of announcing it at concerts was telling a completely unrelated story (involving eartworms) ending on the punchline Supper's Ready.
 * "Gabble Ratchet" apparently refers to the Hounds of Hell. Either that, or squawking geese.
 * Winston Churchill: In "Willow Farm", he's dressed in drag and used to be a British flag.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic
 * Word Salad Lyrics: "Willow Farm"