The Genesis Thread

[bjorn_skurj]

Hey, don't forget Nursery Cryme. HOGWEED!

[mountain bed]

I have finally gotten around to seriously listening to Gabriel era Genesis after I read the thread in JAF that compared Muzzle of Bees to Stagnation. I am vaguely familiar with the Collins era radio hits, and "You Have Your Own Special Way" was on a lot of my Dad's mix tapes, but other than that I really didn't know a lot about their music.

 

So I picked up Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound, Trespass, and well it's all I've listened to in the last week. I've always dug Gabriel's solo stuff, and these albums are really incredible. I like just about everything about them, and I've been kicking myself for over looking them for so long. Ah, well, you can't be on top of everything. I have a feeling this is going to be the beginning of a massive prog-rock kick for me. As if I needed another fairly anti-social musical genre to get obsessed with.

 

--Mike

Oh, you NEED to get obsessed with this stuff, Mike. You can trust me.

[hardwood floor]

your own special way is the most boring song genesis ever wrote

 

i know what i like is close

[remphish1]

your own special way is the most boring song genesis ever wrote

 

i know what i like is close

 

I know what I like is one of my favorite Gabriel era Genesis songs..But I only have Lamb and the 3 disc Genesis set so I don't have to much from that era..still I know What I like

[mpolak21]

Oh, you NEED to get obsessed with this stuff, Mike. You can trust me.

 

. My neighbors are becoming intimately familiar with the phrase "I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I am on my way."

 

--Mike

[Wild Frank]

I love some 'Prog' but it can be really unsociable. I love going into pubs and sticking 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' on the Jukebox. A bit of Floyd can really change the atmosphere in a busy pub on a friday night. My neighbours have bad taste in music but I'm sure they don't appreciate 'Home By The Sea' pounding through their walls for fifteen minutes or being woken up by 'Back in NYC' and 'The Knife'!!

[mountain bed]

I love some 'Prog' but it can be really unsociable. I love going into pubs and sticking 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' on the Jukebox. A bit of Floyd can really change the atmosphere in a busy pub on a friday night. My neighbours have bad taste in music but I'm sure they don't appreciate 'Home By The Sea' pounding through their walls for fifteen minutes or being woken up by 'Back in NYC' and 'The Knife'!!

Oh man, I LOVE "The Knife"! That's one of the fiercest, most hard rockin thing they ever recorded.

 

I would love for these yahoos next door to wake me up with stuff like that.

[Wild Frank]

I finally treated myself to the Genesis 1970-1975 box set and it is amazing. Well worth every penny. Each disk has about forty minutes of interviews and some of the extra stuff is really good. What struck me however, as someone who was too young to catch them back in the day, is just how weird they were. There is footage of 'Watcher' off a Belgium TV show and there is something about Peter Gabriel in the Bat-Wings and face paint that is quite disturbing. His stage presence and mvements are really unsettling. There are also clips of the Old Man stuff from Musical Box and the Fox Head/Red Dress stuff. Really really far out stuff. I forced the wife to watch it and she was quite shocked at some of their antics, certainly not the Genesis she is familar with!!. As mentioned above aswell, the Knife is a seroiusly heavy piece of work. I always imagined someone like metalica or Iron Maiden covering some old Genesis tracks which might oper them up to a whole new generation of fans who just percieve the band based on 'Invisible Touch' (which I do like and think is a great 'Pop' record).

 

I always had respect for Genesis for radically changing their sound rather than peddle the same seventies prog sound that they were less interested in. Their tastes changed and whilst the later period is not nearly as rewarding for me, I still respect them for it.

[Wild Frank]

.....And 'Suppers Ready' sounds great in SACD 5:1 sound. "A Flower!!!" The last five minutes of the song can still really move me even twenty-five years after first hearing it. Its a classic piece of work.

[hardwood floor]

.....And 'Suppers Ready' sounds great in SACD 5:1 sound. "A Flower!!!" The last five minutes of the song can still really move me even twenty-five years after first hearing it. Its a classic piece of work.

 

the closing segments of musical box and supper's ready are as moving as any pop music i've ever heard

 

banks was all about dynamics in those early years

 

i need to get the box set

[bigideas]

I bought a used Genesis hits album after getting "That's All" stuck in my head from a crappy adult cont station I had to listen to at work. It was one of the few bright spots on that radio station (the other being Springsteen's "I'm on Fire").

 

Recently I had to get it out again and have probably listened to "I Can't Dance" 50 times in the last few days.

 

That 'snare' sound that kicks in after "perfect body with a perfect face. mmm hmm" kills me.

 

That hits compilation doesn't really show their prog side at all so when I was looking at their discography I was surprised at how much pre-80's stuff they had done.

[hardwood floor]

listened to "I Can't Dance" 50 times in the last few days.

 

do not pass go

 

please proceed immediately to:

 

cinema show

musical box

supper's ready

the knife

in the cage

dancing with the moonlit knight

firth of fifth

 

and toss that i can't dance stuff in the garbage!!!

[Wild Frank]

do not pass go

 

please proceed immediately to:

 

cinema show

musical box

supper's ready

the knife

in the cage

dancing with the moonlit knight

firth of fifth

 

and toss that i can't dance stuff in the garbage!!!

No not proceed to those first as the transistion between 'I Can't Dance' and 'The Knife' is too big a step and may be dangerous. Please proceed to the following first before venturing further onto 'Hardwood Floor's' recommendations.

 

Los Endos;

One For The Vine;

Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers...In That Quiet Earth;

Burning Rope;

Dukes Travel's/Dukes End;

Blood On the Rooftops;

Home By The Sea;

Domino;

 

Those should ease the transistion but I would like to re-iterate what my Genesis-based collegue has said: "Please stop listening to I Can't Dance"

[Vacant Horizon]

No not proceed to those first as the transistion between 'I Can't Dance' and 'The Knife' is too big a step and may be dangerous. Please proceed to the following first before venturing further onto 'Hardwood Floor's' recommendations.

 

Los Endos;

One For The Vine;

Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers...In That Quiet Earth;

Burning Rope;

Dukes Travel's/Dukes End;

Blood On the Rooftops;

Home By The Sea;

Domino;

 

Those should ease the transistion but I would like to re-iterate what my Genesis-based collegue has said: "Please stop listening to I Can't Dance"

 

 

firth of fifth is probably one of my top 5 favorite songs of all time. unbroken chain by the dead is in there as is you and i by yes. los endos kills me everytime too.

now, i need to revisit domino.

[hardwood floor]

wild frank is a wise man

 

small steps ... check out trick of the tail & wind and wuthering - first two non-PG records, both fantastic - and only then move back to the classics

 

i don't listen to a ton of genesis these days but once in a while, it's perfect

 

had a long drive yesterday and plopped on a 1978 live show (chicago i think) with the --> in the cage > cinema show > slipperman > afterglow, and this is just genesis at the height of its live game

 

mind-blowing

[Vacant Horizon]

a buddy of mine just got the gabriel era box set we watched the performances. very cool. gabriel was able (still is) to be theatrical without being ironic at all. we listened to part of lamb too via DVD. it has the slides that were played in the background of the performances as well as some live shots. very cool.

[mountain bed]

wild frank is a wise man

 

small steps ... check out trick of the tail & wind and wuthering - first two non-PG records, both fantastic - and only then move back to the classics

 

i don't listen to a ton of genesis these days but once in a while, it's perfect

 

had a long drive yesterday and plopped on a 1978 live show (chicago i think) with the --> in the cage > cinema show > slipperman > afterglow, and this is just genesis at the height of its live game

 

mind-blowing

Nice selection of tunes in that medley! I've always thought Afterglow was one of the best "love song"" tunes in the catalog. Just beautiful.

[hardwood floor]

Nice selection of tunes in that medley! I've always thought Afterglow was one of the best "love song"" tunes in the catalog. Just beautiful.

 

live afterglow ... jesus christ, what a mighty thing

 

when they go to the coda and phil jumps behind the kit and joins chester ... holy crap

 

i guess it's a love song in a way ... from somebody who has died to somebody who hasn't?

 

 

 

 

 

Like the dust that settles all around me,

I must find a new home.

The ways and holes that used to give me shelter,

Are all as one to me now.

But I, I would search everywhere

Just to hear your call,

And walk upon stranger roads than this one

In a world I used to know before.

I miss you more.

 

Than the sun reflecting off my pillow,

Bringing the warmth of new life.

And the sounds that echoed all around me,

I caught a glimpse of in the night.

But now, now I've lost everything,

I give to you my soul.

The meaning of all that I believed before

Escapes me in this world of none, no thing, no one.

 

And I would search everywhere

Just to hear your call,

And walk upon stranger roads than this one

In a world I used to know before.

For now I've lost everything,

I give to you my soul.

The meaning of all that I believed before

Escapes me in this world of none,

I miss you more.

[mountain bed]

Yeah, that's how I always saw it, too.

[hardwood floor]

i hate key changes 99 percent of the time

 

but the key change in afterglow is brilliant

 

banks is a god

[Wild Frank]

i hate key changes 99 percent of the time

 

but the key change in afterglow is brilliant

 

banks is a god

Banks Was a God. Watching the 'Rome' DVD it is amazing how disinterested Banks seems by the whole proceedings. I have a theory that the whole shift in Genesis was more down to Banks than Collins. Phil always had an interest in the soul/pop side of things. For whatever reason Banks seemed to lie down and let Phil take the reigns. Watching the interviews on the box sets it is apparent that Banks is one stubborn monkey so why this shift occurs we'll never know.

[hardwood floor]

Banks Was a God. Watching the 'Rome' DVD it is amazing how disinterested Banks seems by the whole proceedings. I have a theory that the whole shift in Genesis was more down to Banks than Collins. Phil always had an interest in the soul/pop side of things. For whatever reason Banks seemed to lie down and let Phil take the reigns. Watching the interviews on the box sets it is apparent that Banks is one stubborn monkey so why this shift occurs we'll never know.

 

ahhh, ya know, banks always looked disinterested

 

he could be playing the insane 9/8 solo in supper's ready and look bored out of his mind

 

but yeah, banks has said in many interviews that he believed strongly in the pop direction genesis took. i think they saw how much success phil's solo stuff was having, and phil and tony both wanted to do poppier stuff, and it was just a natural way to go

 

i remember a banks interview in which he said he thought the bridge in invisible touch was one of the best musical things he had ever done

 

i mean, this is the guy that wrote firth of fifth and the cinema show solo and in the cage and one for the fucking vine, etc.

 

very strange

[mountain bed]

Well, after the epic-ness of stuff like "Supper's Ready"...I mean, where do you go after something like that? All of those great Prog bands started to get more concise and 'radio-friendly' as the '70s became the '80s. Much to my chagrin.

 

There's really nothing wrong with a nice, well constructed 3-4 minute song but I'm such a fan of the multi-part album-side length tunes.

[hardwood floor]

Well, after the epic-ness of stuff like "Supper's Ready"...I mean, where do you go after something like that? All of those great Prog bands started to get more concise and 'radio-friendly' as the '70s became the '80s. Much to my chagrin.

 

yeah, it's amazing, ain't it? every single arena-level prog band fell into that trap - yes, elp, genesis, even gentle giant, renaissance, camel, the mighty starcastle ... i guess king crimson didn't

 

i do like some of the poppy prog stuff, but love beach? we can't dance? giant for a day? really sad what some of these bands cranked out!

[mountain bed]

Yeah, Crimson didn't really "go commercial" I guess. They managed (with the 80s lineup) to get more concise, but even stranger than they were before! Kind of unique in that regard.

 

Hey Hardwood, speaking of, did you ever see any Genesis shows when Bruford was with the band? He is without a doubt my favorite drummer in Rock music ever. I've caught him many times, but not with Genesis.