Taking Sides: Genesis 1970-1977 Vs. Genesis 1978-91

"they lost me when I got to about Nursery Cryme"

you only have to go back one album after that! two I guess if you really want to

Re: Mike Rutherford basslines, I've learned to love his mod noodling on the Fountain of Salmacis.

FWIW, as far as prog goes Genesis I think is among the most ... sensitive? That is, as dude-y as prog is, imo it's a far cry from more macho stuff like King Crimson or Van Der Graaf Generator or even fussy stuff like Yes, let alone the cock-prog of ELP. Genesis has all that folk/pastoral stuff, and of course, again, actual ballads. At least pre-1980 Genesis. After that, yeah, even the ballads are sort of neutered AOR generic, as much as I love them.

"Paperlate" is such an overlooked/forgotten gem. Until last week I thought that "Inside Out" was another forgotten Genesis-with-horns gem, but then I remembered it was on "No Jacket Required."

Sure you're not thinking of "Inside and Out"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyeUizLp1rk

Yeah ToTT and W&W are the two best Genesis albums for me. Banks was in his prime as a songwriter and Collins' vocals are just perfect.

yes these two are fantastic. a recent relisten through the whole Genesis catalogue really boosted those two in my mind while revealing some of the early stuff I had previously liked as being a bit spottier than I remembered. the supposed double that W&W could've been which included some of Hackett's material and the tracks from Spot the Pigeon (how did those get cut??) would've been incredible.

IMO the later stuff goes Abacab > Genesis > Invisible Touch, even though Abacab really does go to shit on the last couple tracks. "Dodo/Lurker" is exactly what New Wave prog was meant to sound like.

otm

i find w& w so dreary, though i love the instrumentals. but blood on the rooftops is too too bleak - maybe being english i'm too close to it - and all in a mouse's night is just twee rubbish.

selling england by the £ still their most solid one for me.

xpost No, this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-IpCQp5Wdw

This is the only Hackett (Rutherford co-write) solo track that came really close to getting on a Genesis album, no?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SEgJtq2JjU

Though obviously Phil and Mike are on the album.

yeah, as far as I know that was written for foxtrot or something and didn't make it.

It's interesting how closely PC/PG/Genesis careers evolved in tandem, as though they were permanently yoked to each other. PC/PG's 1980-81 gated-drum breakthroughs (with matching stark album covers), their 1986 commercial peak, the early '90s New Jerseys (Can't Dance/Us) that were moderate hits but signalled career declines.

Not to mention that their voices could sound a lot more dissimilar.

Collins on the Melt album definitely helped that along

Though Gabriel had a decent simulacrum in Jerry Marotta.

I'm as guilty of missing this as anyone, but Collins only plays drums on 2 tracks on Peter Gabriel III.

oh really - I actually thought it was all drum machines, under Phil's direction

Huh? Nope. Mostly Marotta. I think only Games Without Frontiers has drum machine? The crazy end of that, supposedly, is the sound of Marotta throwing his drums around the studio, which Lillywhite then sped up.

BTW, that's Jerry Marotta, second from left!
http://expose.org/assets/img/features/783/orleans-waking-and-dreaming-1976.jpg

Foxtrot and A Trick of the Tail are the only LP's I can really listen to in full these days. I like at least one track from each of their LP's, though.

right on. been a long time since I pulled out PG3 - will have to rectify

"Dance on a Volcano" is the shit

In which I discuss one of the worst songs recorded.

Get this stat: every Genesis album through We Can’t Dance outsold its predecessor in England, an unsurpassed record.

whoa, I didn't know that. that's what, 14 straight albums?

I thought I was getting bored of this band earlier this year, but Duke and particularly Invisible Touch sounded phenomenal last time I heard 'em.

Even parts of And Then There Were Three. "Many Too Many" has the misty fall atmosphere of Wind & Wuthering.

still my fave genesis song. from my fave genesis album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdJkOMYzVFE&list=RDTzL-up4ZKgI&index=2

There's a dude at the bar that looks like a super tanned Mike Rutherford.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3qmYlsTbC9CD9SGoVmaEDa?si=KBxsIwV0RV2WfJMWvsv7jA

Tonight Tonigjt Tonigt is almost 9 minutes long. Settle in

I have no idea what year it's from and I'm not looking it up but I've had That's All in my head for well over a month now and I think I'm going to lose it soon.

TBF it's a solid jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzyn60Zns-E

For a while I hated it but now I think I like it again. I still think it sounds like something from The Muppet Show.

I like it a lot. It has a jaunty late beatles whiff to it and I dig the subtle liquified guitar chords daubed in here and there

I love the drums. Sounds like it might be all Simmons pads, but some of his fills are super tight and fluid, especially for rudimentary electric drums of the era.

there's been an awful lot of phil about lately. maybe because of his tour, but I seem to hear him out and about more often than I have in years, including this song, which I heard in a walgreens yesterday (and I love that song)

1976-1986, say.

you didn't

totally agree that the gabriel years are in this day and age over-hyped and under-rewarding. they just never pulled together SONGS the way yes, floyd, and crimson did imho. otoh "turn it on again" is one of the best "rock" songs ever and phil's transfiguration from drummer to better-than-gabriel as a solo artist is one of the most compelling trajectories in pop history . . . until he started to really suck and give elton a run for his schmaltz money

A silent tear of blood is dribbling down my cheek :(

He wasn't better than Gabriel solo, just better at making moderately exciting and modestly ahead of its time pop music.

"take me home" > any gabriel solo jam

i've been a prisoner all my life too

favorite/best genesis solo album of all is voyage of the acolyte though

Phil in very good voice doing "Follow You Follow Me" live with Mike Rutherford. This was the among first Genesis tunes I heard -- I bought the 7", I don't think I was older than 11. Loved it & got "Seconds Out." A backwards path at the time -- I copped "Nursery Cryme" & "Foxtrot" used after that, and had to try to figure out for myself how the band could have become so different over time -- this was all pre-Abacab times.

Anyway this is lovely.

https://youtu.be/KiHdG4zSx1w

truly outstanding caption from the uploader btw

I think "Still not dead yet" is the name of the tour? LOLs if not tho

Duke and Invisible Touch are two of the very best records this band ever made, and as much as I love Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot and A Trick of the Tail, I'd have to go for 1978-1991 era.

I saw this tour at the Royal Albert Hall last year, not my choice but my wife used to work with his manager and they gave us freebies and for a bit of a jape put us in a box with one of Phil's childhood friends and Eric Cl@pton and his daughters, it was totally surreal.

Obviously, he still has his physical problems, but he's looking a hell of a lot better in that video than some of the footage that was doing the 'rounds last year, where he looked medicated up to the eyeballs. It's good to see him doing something, though - this guy has had some unnecessary shit flung his way over the years. I've come to appreciate him as one of the greats in recent years - not a stance I always had, particularly regarding his solo work!

Follow is such a pretty song.

Amazing live footage from 1976 (shot in 2:35:1! Bill Bruford on second drum kit!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrK2WwHwmHY

that's fantastic