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

"the fact that they were singles"

Okay, listening to And Then There Were Three now, and totally flipping my goddamn lid. "Ballad of Big". I don't care anymore if people make fun of me. I bought a bunch of late 70's/early 80's records by this band today. I mean LP's! I'm going to rip them all in .wav format and put them on my iPod. I got that Three Sides Live thing too! :) :)

All this week, I kept getting this feeling I was going to flip my lid over this stuff. When I heard the first song on Duke "Behind The Lines" the other day, I knew I was about the flip my lid. And also playing "Paperlate" at the gym. I kept getting the feeling I was going to flip. And now I have. And let me tell you here is the reason why: I adore Peter Gabriel, he is a god among musicians in this world and I want him in a Top 5 musicians with me on a desert island, even as fallible as he is. And Collins filled the shoes so well on And Then There Were Three... I mean I really think he pulled it off pretty well.

But the first moment tonight when I realized I had finally well and truly flipped was when I heard "Taking It All Too Hard" for the first time again in a billion years. That's the moment when I knew.

I have Abacab on vinyl now!!!! Good quality vinyl! :) :)

I really love Duke... i think the two albums before it are kind of halfway houses between the Gabriel era and the Collins era, it seems with Duke they sort of got a grip of what the group would be for the albums that followed.

"Wind And Wuthering" is awesome and nothing like "And Then There Were Three" at all. Although I kind of like the latter too, as a pop album with prog elements. "Duke" also has lots of atmosphere, but like "And Then...." lacks the lengthy complex tracks that "Wind And Wuthering" did still have in "Eleventh Earl Of Mar" and the glorious "One For The Vine". Also "Wind And Wuthering" still had Steve Hackett's wonderful guitar playing in there. I see 1976-78 as just as important a musical watershed in their music as 1974-76 is.

geir, how do you rate "ripple" on trick of a tail in light of "eleventh earl of mar" and "one for the vine"?

i don't doubt its importance, i just don't really like those albums much.

I'm not Geir but: "Ripples" has its moments but it's not one of my fave tracks on TofT and I certainly don't consider it a match for either of the Wind and Wuthering biggies. "Ripples" doesn't change it up enough and it feels more of a long, drawn out ballad than an epic. It's plenty good in its own way tho, some of Phil's best singing maybe.

"Robbery, Assault and Battery" is the "oh god no" clunker on that album btw. Why are Genesis crime songs invariably horrible?

That reminds me, I've never seen Buster.

"Robbery, Assault and ?Battery" has awesome instrumental breaks, but is a shitty, shitty tune.

what about "uncertain weather" and ray wilson? adam lambert and queen?

steve hogarth and marillion?

I don't have Wind & Wuthering! I don't have Trick of The Tail! May god strike me down I can only take so many Genesis albums at once, man. Give me some time. Really. Give me a break.

As long as Peter Gabriel makes it to the desert island with me, I'll listen to anything you want. That guy is going with me on my own personal lifeboat. Sorry.

phil collins abandoning kit for mic cleared the way for the drum machine 80s

Never wanted to hear the Wilson Genesis album. Never really wanted to hear post-Fish Marillion.

I have the Wilson Genesis album. I got it for free. I've listened to it maybe twice? There are a few numbers that would be OK if they played them w/some sense of urgency, but it's all very half-assed.

Have pity on me, what are you guys talking about? Wilson Genesis? Who is Wilson?

He was in Stiltskin. He did an album with Genesis when Phil lollins left.

The singer from stiltskin. he appeared on the very last Genesis studio album "calling all stations" Do not pay money for it.

I doubt it lived up to his glory days in Stiltskin.

That hit single they had actually sounded better when it was an advert tune, without vocals!

^^^ See also: Babylon Zoo

But where has Duke been all my life? Where?

Wilson absolutely didn't fit into Genesis at all as a singer, but some of the songs on that album are actually quite good. It is the sound of Tony Banks partly taking back the artistic control after Phil left.

i have the opposite feeling; he would have been okay if the songs had been better. the songs are mostly crap, the drums are really crap, his voice is pretty good actually.

Oh man this Abacab album, jesus H. I love the way just right when you're innocently in the middle of it, suddenly the drop a reggae touch ("Dodo"). That is the DOPE.

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Back to Gabriel era Genesis
Dancing With The Moonlit Knight (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnZFwYAZ0aE

Paperlate is definitely an odd one. I like it a lot - it appears to be a Collins song stitched on top of Banks song, which makes for a pretty strange mix of soul with weird prog chords here and there.

That Gabriel clip has me in tears. I'm in tears over that. Thanks for writing Keith. This one's for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AdIS932zyw

Do love "Paperlate", It feels like Collins's chorus and Banks's verses but it's a great song whatever, better than most of Phil's solo material I reckon.

Noodle! so nice to have your opinion. I've been wondering if I should investigate Collin's solo LP Face Value. There's a lot of embarassment in admitting this, but hell.

"Face Value" is great

Is this where we talk about my love for "Keep It Dark?" I love how the fairly straight-up "Me and Sarah Jane" clears the room for this weird extrusion of science fiction and sound effects and time signatures.

oh yeah, and holy cree, I will never tire of "Paperlate." Should be playing in the background of all CNN financial meltdown montages.

I kinda like "Me And Sarah Jane", but feel like that one and "Dodo" are the only tracks on the "Abacab" that are really up there with old Genesis.

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My internet connection is dying. I may not even be able to connect with you folks, soon. Bimble is suffering in an internetless wilderneses. But I went all the way downtown to get the CD of Selling England By The Pound. It was the only store who had it. But because I'm on Windows 98 right now, I don't even think I can download a decent version of iTunes to add it to my iPod.

Peter Gabriel, goddamnit. Also I bought a Smokey Robinson CD, too.

Holy Mother of God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W35wtfcByIY

You think music gets better than that? Really?

these videos are all on the remix/remastered versions of these albums that just came out, btw

Thanks. I have a friend who's got grey hair now, he came from Japan. He says he remembers when Selling England By The Pound came out. He remembers when it was new and everything. He says he has a bootleg DVD. We're supposed to meet at the end of this month.

He said that there's some kind of Genesis tribute band called Musical Box.

I want to talk about Genesis a lot. I have put a lot of their albums on my iPod and have listened to a lot of albums.

Here is my top ten songs right now (not necessarily in order, but roughly):

1. You Might Recall
2. Paperlate
3. Keep It Dark
4. Turn It On Again
5. Dancing In The Moonlit Knight
6. The Musical Box
7. Abacab
8. Me And Sarah Jane
9. Dodo/Lurker (the one with the REGGAE PART!! WOOHOO!)
10. Harold The Barrel

But to be honest, the "And Then There Were Three" album impresses me so much that I'm deliberately keeping that separate from my top ten here (even "Follow You Follow Me"). It leads me to believe that if I were to purchase Wind & Wuthering and Trick of the Tail that I might be made quite happy indeed.

I am truly sorry there is not more of the prog Peter Gabriel stuff in my list. I have listened to a number of the albums with him on it, and I get the feeling if I played it all a lot of times, I would come to love a lot of it, but that would take a lot of time and right now the Collins vocal stuff, at least prior to 1983, is so much more immediate for me.

Also "Illegal Alien" deserves every ounce of its bad reputation. I remember having a friend when I was about 12 years old who liked it and I thought she was freaking off her rocker to like that song.

Thanks and good day/night.

Honorable mention to "Return of The Giant Hogweed", though, don't get me wrong.

Can I just say, that song "Mama" though...I mean that is just some major psychotic shit. Because I heard that this week for the first time in eons and I realized that yes, I really do remember hearing that on the radio in 1983 or whatever but it's like...what in the living fuck? What is he talking about in that song? It's kindof scary! But I love the heavy percussion and the echo, I mean don't get me wrong. It's totally cool.

I guess I'm just saying that even though I remember that song from way back when, I can't possibly understand how my young mind might have even interpreted or processed a song like that at the time. I can only see it from the vantage point of who I am now. So it's totally wicked and like...maybe it belongs in a haunted house. Yeah, that's it.

I think they said it didn't do well in America despite better success in the UK. Don't really wanna be bothered to look up the details, though.

Genesis OP10 (or 20....)

See there you go! I sorta halfheartedly looked for a "Genesis POX" thread, and came up with nothing.

In the meantime, I've taken to playing "Harold The Barrel" repeatedly, and I decided I liked "The Cinema Show" right away - despite its length and everything, I think that is a really beautiful Gabriel-era track.

despite its length and everything, I think that is a really beautiful Gabriel-era track.

almost all the songs from this era are this long! what do you think of Supper's Ready???

Cinema Show was written by Banks, btw, I think.

I know Supper's Ready has this HUGE reputation, so I've tried to get into it, but I think Foxtrot is something I'm only going to be able to properly digest with a lot more time. I played Watcher Of The Skies twice already, but it didn't stick yet. Give me time.

i've seen Hackett a few times and that is a great show, band is phenomenal and if you like his guitar you will get a whole shitload of it, and it will sound great.