Best Of Both Worlds

Jika anda penggemar musik rock-progresif yang old-school, mungkin nama Marillion cukup familiar di telinga. Mereka adalah salah satu band yang menjadi garda depan prog-rock selain nama-nama besar seperti Genesis, Yes, dan Pink Floyd, to name a few.
Marillion is one of my favorite progressive-rock band. Mereka memiliki dua era, yang ditandai oleh dua vokalis. Vokalis pertama, Fish, yang kemudian mengundurkan diri untuk bersolo karir (dan karya-karya solonya kemudian cukup critically-acclaimed) dan digantikan oleh Steve Hogarth.
Era Fish terjadi di dekade 80-an, sementara era Hogarth dekade 90-an (debut Hogarth bersama Marillion adalah di tahun 1988 kalo gak salah...) sampai sekarang.


Fish (photo taken 1985)


Steve Hogarth (photo taken 1997)

Keduanya memiliki karakter unik masing2, memiliki penggemar masing2, dan Marillion pun jadi memilik dua karakter musik yang berbeda dengan masing2 vokalis tadi. Ketika dengan Fish, musiknya lebih teatrikal, lebih classic-influenced. Sementara di masa Hogarth, musiknya lebih straight-forward, mulai bergeser meninggalkan pengaruh klasik dan teatrikal.
Banyak yang kecewa atas perubahan itu, seperti halnya saat Peter Gabriel mengundurkan diri dari Genesis, dan Phil Collins mengambil alih posisi vokalis, tanpa meninggalkan tugasnya sebagai drummer (but of course, Genesis is another story). Namun tak bisa disangkal pula, seperti yang juga terjadi pada Genesis, Marillion juga berhasil merangkul penggemar2 baru melalui perubahan tersebut.

Tapi, tanpa berusaha memihak salah satu, saya suka keduanya, era Fish maupun Hogarth. Keduanya punya ciri khas, memiliki pengaruh masing-masing terhadap perkembangan artistik dan karir Marillion, dan kedua frontman tadi memiliki kemampuan menulis lirik lagu yang sama2 unik, sama2 puitis. Saya akan kutipkan dua lirik, satu dari masing2 vokalis tadi, sehingga anda mungkin dapat melihat keunikan atau perbedaannya. And maybe you should go hunting for their albums too... :)
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WHEN I MEET GOD
(from the album Anoraknophobia, 1999, the Hogarth era)

And if the bottle's no solution...
Why does it feel so warm?
And if that girl is no solution...
Why did she feel so warm?

And if to feel is no solution...
Why do I feel....
Why do I feel so tired?
Why do I feel so broken?
Why do I feel so outside?
Why do I seem so blind?

I'm so sick of feeling
It's ruined my life

If living rough is no solution...
Why does it ease my mind?
If looking back is no solution...
Why are we all...
Nothing but children...
Children inside?

Why do the Gods...
Sit back and watch
So many lost...
What kind of mother...
Leaves a child in the traffic
Turning tricks in the dark
What kind of God?

I crawled around inside myself
It was a long way down
It was a mine and it was mine
And in the darkness
I saw a perfect mirror
Floating in space

When I meet God, I'm going to ask her...
What makes her cry...
What makes her laugh...
Is she just stars and indigo gas...
Does she know why, Love has no end...
But it's dark-angel friend
Tearing women and men
Slowly apart...

And if the bottle's no solution...
Why does it feel so warm?
And if looking back is no solution...
Why are we all just children inside?

And if to feel is no solution...
Why does the whole damn world feel so broken
So outside and out-of-sorts?

A perfect mirror
Floating in space
Waves and numbers
But oh, such beautiful numbers
And oh, such waves..
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SCRIPT FOR A JESTER'S TEARS
(from the album Script for A Jester's Tears, 1983, the Fish era)

So here I am once more in the playground of the broken hearts
One more experience, one more entry in a diary, self-penned
Yet another emotional suicide overdosed on sentiment and pride
Too late to say I love you, too late to re-stage the play
Abandoning the relics in my playground of yesterday

I'm losing on the swings, I'm losing on the roundabouts
I'm losing on the swings, I'm losing on the roundabouts
Too much, too soon, too far to go, too late to play, the game is over
The game is over

I act the role in classic style of a martyr carved with twisted smile
To bleed the lyric for this song to write the rites to right my wrongs
An epitaph to a broken dream to exorcise this silent scream
A scream that's borne from sorrow

I never did write that love song, the words just never seemed to flow
Now sad in reflection did I gaze through perfection
And examine the shadows on the other side of the morning
And examine the shadows on the other side of mourning
Promised wedding now a wake

The fool escaped from paradise will look over his shoulder and cry
Sit and chew on daffodils and struggle to answer why?
As you grow up and leave the playground
Where you kissed your prince and found your frog
Remember the jester that showed you tears, the script for tears
So I'll hold our peace forever when you wear your bridal gown
In the silence of my shame the mute that sang the sirens' song

Has gone solo in the game, I've gone solo in the game
But the game is over
Can you still say you love me?