A Trick Of The Tail - 2004 Remix

This was the first song Genesis released after Peter Gabriel left. It was not, however, the first Genesis song on which Phil Collins sang lead. That was "For Absent Friends" from the album Nursery Cryme in 1971.

This song was written by keyboard player Tony Banks. His lyrics were based on William Golding's 1955 novel, The Inheritors. He recalled: "It's about a race who were on earth before man and it's the story of the last survivor of this race. The very last chapter deals with our reaction to him whereas the rest of the story is his reaction to us. It's about an alien with horns and a tail who appears in a modern city and how people react to him."

English writer Sir William Golding (1911 – 1993) is best known for his debut published novel Lord of the Flies about a group of school boys stranded on a tropical island, who revert back to savagery. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. Other songs inspired by Golding's works include: "Shadows And Tall Trees" by U2 ("Shadows And Tall Trees" is the name of the seventh chapter of Lord of the Flies). "White as Snow" by U2 (Bono came up with the idea of focusing on the soldier's last thoughts as he dies from his wounds in this song after reading Golding's 1956 novel Pincher Martin). "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" by The Offspring (It is possible to read many aspects of Lord of the Flies in this song about the abuse of power. In particular, the line near the end: "Clever alibis. Lord of the Flies," seems to relate to the murder of Simon). "Lord Of The Flies" by Iron Maiden (This was written from the perspective of Jack Merridew, the character in Lord of the Flies who epitomised the worst aspects of human nature when unimpaired by society).