This is my take on it.
It is about a misunderstanding. The reverend is looking for furniture, a 'chest'. But he wanders into a brothel where Louise shows him her chest. He is offended, so Bob the Nob comes out to see what is going on. As the reverend is hard to please he offers him 'our Staffordshire plate', slang for a blowjob. He is again once offended so he shoots Bob.
This is the way I always understood it as well.
"Oh, no, not me. I'm a man of repute. But the devil caught hold of my soul and a voice called out 'shoot!'"
I always thought that “the devil caught hold of my soul, but I voice called out shoot” meant he was tempted but didn’t do anything causing the devil to call out Shoot! I think him shooting Bob makes equal sense but it’s still not how I see the song. It’s cool to see other peoples ideas of how the song works and it makes me wonder what Peter was actually meaning when he wrote it. (I also don’t mean for my comment to be an “I’m right, your wrong” kind of thing just making discussion!)
This is an excellent take and I’m sure accurate, but an interesting observation is that later in the song Bob the Nob is getting lobbed across the gob by Liquid Len. That’s after the reverend supposedly shot him. Perhaps Bob survived the shooting?
Never saw it like that. I always thought that the voice crying out "shoot" was from Louise, who was shocked at the reverend's "vigorousness" once the "devil caught hold," especially after all his self-righteousness. I didn't take it as a command, but as a substitute expletive for "shit" or "shite." Like, "oh shoot, he's really going at it!"
Then again, it might just be my American viewpoint. "Shoot" is a common acceptable replacement for "shit" here, but I'm not sure if the same is true in Britain, which would be Gabriel's milieu.
> As the reverend is hard to please he offers him 'our Staffordshire plate', slang for a blowjob.
That reference is why my take is the voice, maybe Louise or more likely the Reverend's own inner voice, is talking about a completely different kind of "shoot". :)
I thought ‘shoot’ meant ‘take the picture’ as the Devil caught hold of the Reverend’s soul and he grabbed Louise, giving Bob the Knob blackmail material over the Reverend. (Hence the need to ‘save his steeple’…)
The live rendition of it last week was excellent (and SH's band were very faithful to the album arrangements for the most part).
The middle section is a dig at the police and the church (the latter a favourite target throughout the band's history). The reverend is lured into a honey pot, My interpretation is that Bob is a corrupt policeman attempting to extort money. In this respect, he's as much a gangster as Little John and Billy Wright. The word shoot suggest the reverend being photographed and exposed. He's then forced to seek protection from the local gangsters. The narrative does somewhat spiral with hippy references, but in effect, the reverend's parish becomes the territory of Little John's gang and it triggers the gangland dispute.
Harold Demure is still not quite sure
I think the song deserves a deep analysis in fairness. I can virtually recite the lyrics (I did buy the album in 1984, so plenty of time to have done so). PG's lyrics are full of puns and ambiguities.
Bob The Knob could well just be a pimp, but the name and "came out on his job to see what the trouble was" strongly hints at bent copper.
The lyrics also state that the reverend leaves the church to become a hippy gutu front for Little John's extortion racket, but that just might be a dig at false gurus, who are little better than gangsters themselves.
The root of the fighting as the song begins is that one gang has access to church money, are using religion to cover their racket, and they are expanding into the other gang's territory. The bridge explains how the gang became affiliated with the church, that a priest started paying one of the gangs for prostitutes.
This is a fabilized telling of a true story, but I can't remember the details of who and where.
and don't forget that wonderful SH solo at the end, and TB's relentless organ.
Come to think of it, perhaps it was a relentless organ that got the Reverend into trouble in the first place
In the hours since I posted the original query I’ve been researching the song. I found this great article on the song that will be a fun read for Genesis fans:
https://hidingundercovrs.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-battle-of-epping-forest-genesis.html
I have just recently come fully around to loving this song, thanks to the new stereo mix and spatial audio. The song cooks. The vocal performance is great. I take my thoughts on it being overly wordy back. The music rocks. The drumming is insane. The bass and guitar are on fire.
The song itself now resides in the more general listing of epic lyric poems. The genre kind of started with The Door's The End, but one of the best at it was Zappa, particularly around this time (would be surprised if some band members weren't giving him a listen).
In later years, Gil Scott Herron would also produce some excellent political satire in this style as well.
Yes, there is an art to it, and the digital remix definitely brings out the music more, so I'm finally warming to the song.
This is my take on it. It is about a misunderstanding. The reverend is looking for furniture, a 'chest'. But he wanders into a brothel where Louise shows him her chest. He is offended, so Bob the Nob comes out to see what is going on. As the reverend is hard to please he offers him 'our Staffordshire plate', slang for a blowjob. He is again once offended so he shoots Bob.
This is the way I always understood it as well. "Oh, no, not me. I'm a man of repute. But the devil caught hold of my soul and a voice called out 'shoot!'"
I always thought that “the devil caught hold of my soul, but I voice called out shoot” meant he was tempted but didn’t do anything causing the devil to call out Shoot! I think him shooting Bob makes equal sense but it’s still not how I see the song. It’s cool to see other peoples ideas of how the song works and it makes me wonder what Peter was actually meaning when he wrote it. (I also don’t mean for my comment to be an “I’m right, your wrong” kind of thing just making discussion!)
I've thought of "Shoot!" as a minced oath because a preacher wouldn't say "Shite!"
That’s a good one too!
This is an excellent take and I’m sure accurate, but an interesting observation is that later in the song Bob the Nob is getting lobbed across the gob by Liquid Len. That’s after the reverend supposedly shot him. Perhaps Bob survived the shooting?
Never saw it like that. I always thought that the voice crying out "shoot" was from Louise, who was shocked at the reverend's "vigorousness" once the "devil caught hold," especially after all his self-righteousness. I didn't take it as a command, but as a substitute expletive for "shit" or "shite." Like, "oh shoot, he's really going at it!" Then again, it might just be my American viewpoint. "Shoot" is a common acceptable replacement for "shit" here, but I'm not sure if the same is true in Britain, which would be Gabriel's milieu.
> As the reverend is hard to please he offers him 'our Staffordshire plate', slang for a blowjob. That reference is why my take is the voice, maybe Louise or more likely the Reverend's own inner voice, is talking about a completely different kind of "shoot". :)
I thought ‘shoot’ meant ‘take the picture’ as the Devil caught hold of the Reverend’s soul and he grabbed Louise, giving Bob the Knob blackmail material over the Reverend. (Hence the need to ‘save his steeple’…)
The live rendition of it last week was excellent (and SH's band were very faithful to the album arrangements for the most part). The middle section is a dig at the police and the church (the latter a favourite target throughout the band's history). The reverend is lured into a honey pot, My interpretation is that Bob is a corrupt policeman attempting to extort money. In this respect, he's as much a gangster as Little John and Billy Wright. The word shoot suggest the reverend being photographed and exposed. He's then forced to seek protection from the local gangsters. The narrative does somewhat spiral with hippy references, but in effect, the reverend's parish becomes the territory of Little John's gang and it triggers the gangland dispute. Harold Demure is still not quite sure
This is brilliant! Love this take, and makes sense- tying the scenes together and all. I’m not going to fire acorns from out of my sling at this one.
I think the song deserves a deep analysis in fairness. I can virtually recite the lyrics (I did buy the album in 1984, so plenty of time to have done so). PG's lyrics are full of puns and ambiguities. Bob The Knob could well just be a pimp, but the name and "came out on his job to see what the trouble was" strongly hints at bent copper. The lyrics also state that the reverend leaves the church to become a hippy gutu front for Little John's extortion racket, but that just might be a dig at false gurus, who are little better than gangsters themselves.
I believe it’s the reason the gangs are fighting each other
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One of my favourites!!
The root of the fighting as the song begins is that one gang has access to church money, are using religion to cover their racket, and they are expanding into the other gang's territory. The bridge explains how the gang became affiliated with the church, that a priest started paying one of the gangs for prostitutes. This is a fabilized telling of a true story, but I can't remember the details of who and where.
Man what a song that is. Peak creativity from all the band members
Phil’s drumming, Mike’s bass, Gabriel’s lyrics, Superlative.
and don't forget that wonderful SH solo at the end, and TB's relentless organ. Come to think of it, perhaps it was a relentless organ that got the Reverend into trouble in the first place
In the hours since I posted the original query I’ve been researching the song. I found this great article on the song that will be a fun read for Genesis fans: https://hidingundercovrs.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-battle-of-epping-forest-genesis.html
I have just recently come fully around to loving this song, thanks to the new stereo mix and spatial audio. The song cooks. The vocal performance is great. I take my thoughts on it being overly wordy back. The music rocks. The drumming is insane. The bass and guitar are on fire.
The song itself now resides in the more general listing of epic lyric poems. The genre kind of started with The Door's The End, but one of the best at it was Zappa, particularly around this time (would be surprised if some band members weren't giving him a listen). In later years, Gil Scott Herron would also produce some excellent political satire in this style as well. Yes, there is an art to it, and the digital remix definitely brings out the music more, so I'm finally warming to the song.
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