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Album Tracks: B-Sides: |
Script for a Jester's Tear
Upon its release, many commentators chose to talk about its Genesis-a-like properties. This is largely untrue and based on the simple fact that Marillion chose to work with expansive pieces that sometimes had distinct movements, and the folly that is Grendel. The music was universally much harder and darker than Genesis and the lyrics were firmly based in present day, even Script for a Jester's Tear. Nevertheless, it is still the sound of a band finding its musical feet and the first time that they had had to write songs in the studio. Originally Fish had wanted to open the album with a spoken-word piece but the band were not happy with this and the piece later became the basis of Incubus on the next album Fugazi. All the songs on this album have explanations. Cover notes: The cover for Script was painted by Mark Wilkinson. It features many elements that would go on to help define the band's Fish era image. According to Clive Gifford's The Script, the famous Fish-era logo was not designed by Wilkinson, but by a designer and graphic artist called Jo Mirowski who was responsible for the art direction and design of the early covers. Wilkinson and Mirowski both receive credits in the cover art. If you look under the table there is a washing up liquid bottle with a lurid green 'Jo' upon it and also a can. In the style of Coca Cola's 'Coke' logo, the name 'Mark' scripts elegantly up the can. Mick Wall's 'Market Square Heroes' mysteriously states that it is the Marillion logo across the can. The records on the floor are Pink Floyd's Saucerful of Secrets (Not Meddle as claimed by Gifford), Bill Nelson's Do you dream in colour and of course the band's two singles; Market Square Heroes and He Knows, You Know. Promo posters for the Marillion singles are also on the rear wall. In the violin case are some lyrics from the Beatles' Yesterday. In the cupboard behind the jester is a theatre mask which has echoes of the mask from Market Square Heroes. The papers on the bed are Sounds (a now defunct bi-weekly paper in the same vein as NME and Melody Maker), Kerrang!, the hard rock/ metal weekly magazine that is still around and the Daily Mirror (a left wing tabloid). The music which the jester is trying to write is not a Marillion song, or indeed a song at all. The EMI lawyers apparently hired someone to try and play the piece to ensure they were not infringing anyone's copy write!
This is the 'famous one' on the right. It's called Ophelia (strangely enough) and is by Sir John Millias, one of the foremost painters in the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite tradition. I am hoping that this is the correct one; Ophelia was a very popular subject with the Pre-Raphaelites! Finally, there is a chameleon on the back of the chair and a Punch character on the television. These refer to song lyrics that were already written but didn't surface until the next album, Fugazi.
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Introduction:
Script for a Jester's Tear was the first Marillion album and
the only one to feature Mick Pointer on drums. Many people have commented
upon the naivety of the sound and this can be largely traced to the
inadequacy of Pointer's drumming. Rothery's guitar is probably at its most
cutting on the album and Pete Trewavas' bass playing displays a slight
reggae feel which disappeared on later albums. 
Above
the empty fire place is a picture of a flame-haired girl in the style of the
Pre-Raphaelite school. Gifford claims the picture is Sir John Milias' La
Fiancee and is meant to represent Ophelia who appears in Chelsea
Monday. Wall's book quotes Fish saying, 'We wanted the original Ophelia
painting in there first of all but we couldn't get permission to reproduce
it. She's a real girl; she was the model for the original Ophelia painting.'