Grendel by Marillion

Album: B'Sides Themselves (1982)

License This Song

lyrics

artistfacts

Songfacts®:

This started out as a 21-minute instrumental piece called "The Tower." When Fish joined Marillion, he was presented with the current set and asked to provide lyrics. At the time, he had been reading a book called Grendel by John Gardner, which examined the Beowulf legend from the monsters point of view. As the lyric took shape, they began to reflect Fish's views on what he calls "The hypocrisy of religion in dealing with murder and war."
The recorded version of the song is 17:40 long, while the live versions regularly ran to over 20 minutes. Often when it was played live, Fish, wearing a tattered cloak and Anglo-Saxon mask, would during the climax pull a member of the audience onto the stage and mime out his dismemberment. This was captured on the video EP featuring "Grendel" and "The Web." The song has not been played live since the band opened with it at the 1983 Reading Festival (recorded by Radio 1 and available on various bootlegs). >>>
Suggestion credit:
Jim - Mansfield, England, for above 2

Comments: 2

Chris from Great YarmouthThe song was actually played live on two consecutive nights at the Fish Convention 2012 on Leamington Spa.
Steve from Torrance, CaThis also appeared on the 1988 b-side compilation disc, "B'Sides Themselves". It was only available in the United States as an import CD.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Puttin' On the RitzTaco

The original, 1930s version of "Puttin' On the Ritz" has lyrics about Lenox Avenue in Harlem, not Park Avenue.

Until December 5, 1998, a song had to be issued as a single to make the Hot 100. Aaliyah's "Try Again" was the first tune to top the chart based on airplay alone, without any sales figures being included.

St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)John Parr

"St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" was not written for the movie, but for Rick Hanson, a wheelchair athlete whose 1985 "Man In Motion" tour logged 24,856 miles on his wheelchair in 34 countries while raising $26 million for spinal cord research.

Black Hole SunSoundgarden

It has long been speculated that the Soundgarden song "Black Hole Sun" came from the name of a sculpture in Seattle, but according to their frontman Chris Cornell the title came from a phrase he misheard on the news. The band's name did come from a sculpture.

I Fought The LawThe Bobby Fuller Four

"I Fought The Law" was a hit for The Bobby Fuller Four in 1965. The Clash released their version in 1979, changing the lyrics "I left my baby" to "I killed my baby."

Old ManRedlight King

Neil Young rarely allows his songs to be sampled, but he let the Canadian group Redlight King use "Old Man" in their 2011 song, also called "Old Man."