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Classic Album Art

Cover Front

Genesis - Nursery Cryme

Hey! Hello! What about this?

Classic Album Art

release - 1971
album art - Paul Whitehead


cover front

Cover Back

The album's sleeve was designed and illustrated by Paul Whitehead and depicts characters and scenes from The Musical Box (track 1) and Coxhill, the manor house with a croquet lawn, which is based on the building Peter Gabriel grew up in.

The story of Henry and Cynthia Jane provided the inspiration for the superb artwork which stretched across the front and back cover: A Victorian girl standing on a croquet lawn littered with severed heads, the mallet held in readiness to strike again.

The title of the album is a pun on Nursery Rhyme (a children's rhyme / song) and Crime. It also refers to the The Musical Box, where in the first verse the text of the traditional nursery rhyme Old King Cole is quoted


musical box

The Musical Box (track 1)is a succesfull attemp to twist upper middle class clichés into surreal and sinister scenarios. The meaning of the song is only half-suggested by the lyrics, and needed introductory narration which is printed inside the gatefold sleeve:

'While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet-smiling Cynthia raised her mallet high and gracefully removed Henry's head. Two weeks later, in Henry's nursery, she discovered his treasured musical box. Eagerly she opened it and as "Old King Cole" began to play, a small spirit-figure appeared. Henry had returned - but not for long, for as he stood in the room his body began ageing rapidly, leaving a child's mind inside. A lifetime's desires surged through him. Unfortunately the attempt to persuade Cynthia Jane to fulfill his romantic desire led his nurse to the nursery to investigate the noise. Instinctively Nanny hurled the musical box at the bearded child, destroying both.'


artist

Artist

Genesis are an English rock band formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey in 1967. The most commercially successful line-up includes keyboardist Tony Banks, guitarist Mike Rutherford and drummer/singer Phil Collins. Other important members were singer Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett.

The band underwent many changes in musical style over its career, from folk music to progressive rock in the 1970s, before moving towards pop at the end of the decade.

Their discography includes fifteen studio and six live albums, six of which topped the UK chart. They have won numerous awards and nominations. They have sold 21.5 million RIAA-certified albums in the US and an estimated 130 million worldwide.


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