4. Eleventh Earl Of Mar (Wind And Wuthering, 1976)
The opening track on "Wind and Wuthering" begins with an ethereal Steve Hackett lead that hinted at his coming solo material, this being his final album with the band. A Rutherford/Hackett/Banks composition "Eleventh Earl of Mar" seems to continue the grand tradition of epic story telling but in this instance they miss Gabriel's lyrical clarity and it's not very apparent what exactly the song is all about. Mike Rutherford has been quoted as saying that its subject is a real Scottish historical figure who led a failed rebellion against the English but there is little in the lyric in terms of a narrative. The track's strength is its fantastic music, melody and composition rather than its lyric. "Wind and Wuthering" was the band's second release after the departure of Peter Gabriel and while it received favourable reviews the general concensus was that the release was not quite as strong as its predecessor, "Trick of the Tail".