Genesis - Cul-de-Sac

Genesis started life as a progressive rock band, in the manner of Yes and King Crimson, before a series of membership changes brought about a transformation in their sound, into one of the most successful pop/rock bands of the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, the group has provided a launching pad for the superstardom of members Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, and star solo careers for members Tony Banks, Michael Rutherford, and Steve Hackett. Their roots go back to 1965 and a pair of rival groups, the Garden Wall and the Anon, formed by students at the Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey. They merged, with the result that 15-year-olds Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, and Michael Rutherford joined with 14-year-old Anthony Phillips, calling themselves the New Anon and recording a six-song demo featuring songs primarily written by Rutherford and Phillips.
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Wake up now, this is the time you've waited for.

Far below, where shadows fester as they grow,
An army thousands strong, obsessed by right and wrong,
They sense their time is coming near.
So they turn towards the light from their region of the night,
Marching on and on,
They near the air, it won't be long.

You know you're on the way out,
It's just a matter of time.
You thought you'd rule the world forever,
Long live the king, and don't spare the loser.

After all, you're not what you thought you were at all.
You're just a natural fact, another cul-de-sac
On nature's hard unfeeling trail.
Now all those dreams of old will be stories left untold,
Cut off in your prime, extinct until the end of time.

You know you're on the way out,
It's just a matter of time.
You thought you'd rule the world forever,
Long live the king, but don't spare the loser now...

Now the host emerges, and a shadow starts to fall.
Not one knows what hit them, none can see at all.
Even as the end approaches still they're not aware,
How can you fight a foe so deadly
When you don't even know it's there?
And now that the job is almost done
Maybe some escape, no, not even one.

You know they're on the way out,
It's just a matter of time.
You thought you'd rule the world forever,
Long live the king, and don't spare the loser.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Genesis
• Cul-de-Sac
• Duke
• original
• studio
• version
• with
• lyrics
• high
• quality

[MrColin12151]

I have always loved the lyrics in this song. When I was young, when something was on my mind, I'd put on this tape( cassette, back then) and headphones, and crank up this album. By the time I'd get to the last track "Duke's Travel's" whatever was bothering me was gone.

[NS9144]

Amazingly, Genesis never did this song nor "Heathaze" live during the 1980 "Duke" Tour............. and I personally think "Cul-de-sac" would have been a strong addition to the set.

[popomatic1970]

This album reminds me of Summer, 1980. I bought this album from a local record store with some allowance money, on a Saturday afternoon after my weekly piano lesson. I played it over and over and over again. "Wake up now... this is the time you've waited for..." Wow... just wow... The sound is so warm.

[mimefan]

@fucktardickis Yeah that's probably right, it's just my over-imaginative mind just thinking of an intertwining story between the three.

[fucktardickis]

@mimefan wow talk about literal translation, i always thought it was about how the music industry was changing and prog-rock was generally becoming less mainstream and pop rock was taking it's place. This song describes the other bands that would stay prog-rockish and in that way die out ;)

[btom22259]

i think i was phils album, because he was that time devoce from his first wife?!

[GeraInna]

OOPS... SORRY...  in my comment below there are spaces in that URL that must be removed in order for it to work!

[GeraInna]

Tony, if you by chance read this, then please see if my interpretation of the lyrics is close - i think there is no better meaning than the one that occured to me. Thank you for writing this song, and everything else - you're a giant! Your/Genesis' fan, Gera

songmeanings. net/songs/view/1663/#730160887­87

[btom22259]

Dramatic from 3:53. Thats the way i like genesis.

[btom22259]

Music great, words maybe stupid.

[mimefan]

@mimefan So after the Aliens begrudgingly accept the old King's quest, they set up on a journey, the old King sends a DVD telling this song to the New King, the New King sends in his elite armies, who at the start of the song kill off everyone who knows them, then after going after the alien army, the 3:00 mark details how the aliens have killed off all the army, then the Old King kills off the new king before being impaled through the back by the aliens then they become the new rulers.

[mimefan]

@Marcuskristicus Whereas I thought that this, Heathaze and Man Of Our Times told a intertwining story in which a king gets kicked out of his land by a media landslide caused by his opponent, whereas his opponent is even more barbaric then him, so he gets kicked out the land (Man Of Our Times referring to the new king), Heathaze details the King going to an alien country to propose an alliance between him and the aliens, the previous rulers of the country. (I'll continue the rest down below.)