with bruford also present, and collins's voice, and a little more weird-noise round the edges of hackett's playing than i generally hear from him… not quite so square?
This is the reaction I had. I like Foxtrot and some bits of The Lamb... but generally don't need much Gabriel-era Genesis in my life. And I like the big singles from the peak Collins era (Duke, Abacab, s/t) but don't need anything after that. The middle period, immediately post-Gabriel but pre-big hits, has never done anything for me. And yet this live footage makes that material much more interesting and makes me want to go back and listen to And Then There Were Three and Seconds Out, to see if I missed something.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:15 (four years ago) link
my Banks-hating theory is that this set represents a moment where he's not in control of the band much
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:18 (four years ago) link
also tbf has banks ever enjoyed anything anywhere ever (even when he was in control)?
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:20 (four years ago) link
obviously in a fairly direct and upfront way collins sounds like gabriel and sings like gabriel: and this was partly a craftman's decisio , which PC was a strong enough musician to pull off and go on to make a (vast) success of
what makes it interesting for me is that voice-wise the divide between "am actively drawn to" and "don't really care for" falls exactly between them (as collins sings here). so yes they're alike: but in some key subtle way, also not. fro memory i don't think the 80s material is designed to bring out this element in PC's singing so much, certainly not on record. and maybe the busy regular activity as a frontman just changed his voice anyway, from : which happens to many singers of course
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:27 (four years ago) link
I find Collins singing Gabriel material less compelling precisely because his voice is so pretty. I understand my opinions are formed by my discovering the mid eighties version of the band instead of being there to listen to the evolution. I just never bought Collins singing about Rael and moonlight knights -- he's too practical or something.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:29 (four years ago) link
fro memory i don't think the 80s material is designed to bring out this element in PC's singing so much, certainly not on record. and maybe the busy regular activity as a frontman just changed his voice anyway, from : which happens to many singers of course
This is true, explaining in part why listening to Collins singing Rutherford lyrics about "my generation WILL PUT IT RIGHT" inspires deep guffawing in my part of Florida.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:36 (four years ago) link
as well as gabriel's village panto stuff that material moonlight-knight was also uninteresting to me, i had certainly read all the same very-english fantasy kidlit as gabriel and (believed that i) knew where it was done better (= in the books). for a while in the 80s i had a very good friend, very funny working-class glasgow chancer who briefly dated my sister then stayed friends, and i vividly remember a long overnight drive with him down from glasgow back to london where he enthused abt yes and genesis and moonlight-knight as just this amazing portal of possibility for someone like him
(it was a good lesson for me in how thin and lazy the usual class reading of prog vs punk is: as he was also someone who had been "inspired by the pistols" to become a musician) (lol he was for a while in a band with pat kane, who he cordially loathed)
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:38 (four years ago) link
s/b moonlight-knight material, my current symptom is apparently being unable to edit my own posts competently
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:39 (four years ago) link
Would be interesting to play the band's LPs from start to finish to someone who hasn't heard them before - pretty likely they would assume there was one singer whose voice mutated completely over a couple of decades.
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:40 (four years ago) link
Selling England took 16 year-old me straight to TS Eliot so cheers to the lads for that tbh
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:42 (four years ago) link
xpost That's a good question, actually. I wonder if the stylistic break at "Duke" would be the most conspicuous point of divergence to a neophyte.
I think, for better or for worse, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel were both really influenced by soul singers (or maybe equally/specifically white soul singers). That's something that really sets them apart from a lot of prog people, imo. For example, I can totally see Gabriel taking inspiration from, say, Steve Winwood. I can also see, for example, someone like Mark Hollis thinking himself a soul singer of sorts as well, never mind his own vocal similarities to Gabriel et al.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:43 (four years ago) link
Jon Anderson was working class himself iirc?xps
― Sund4r, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:43 (four years ago) link
What fantasy lit is "Moonlit Knight" based on?
― Sund4r, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:44 (four years ago) link
not just white soul singers, the nod to the Drifters in The Lamb is v deliberate
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:47 (four years ago) link
For sure.
xpost I also thought that one was kind of a pomo statement on contemporary England.
If we're talking lyrics, I think Gabriel was mostly bored and entertaining himself. That's definitely why he went for the costumes.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:48 (four years ago) link
I think I heard that the song started with the "Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout" joke.
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:48 (four years ago) link
also now listening to seconds out as i edit someone's book abt the incredible string band (another group i have never much warmed to) (book is good tho, hope the fall of all the world doesn't impeded its publication too much)
xp lol i also don't much like steve winwood xxp lots of frontline prog musicians weren't especially posh, a handful definitely werexxxp my kidlit territoriality as a teen was not necessarily fact-based
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:50 (four years ago) link
Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel were both really influenced by soul singers (or maybe equally/specifically white soul singers). That's something that really sets them apart from a lot of prog people, imo. For example, I can totally see Gabriel taking inspiration from, say, Steve Winwood.
Otis Redding, though, right? Someone less inclined to cut Gabriel vocal slack might allude to Steve Winwood as exactly the starched-white white soul better whom Gabriel might sound like.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:51 (four years ago) link
can honestly say as someone who's listened to a lot of Genesis i've never heard a live set as good as the one in the movie unperson shared. Abacab era might be closest, sound and playing-wise
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 13:52 (four years ago) link
Phil singing backup on all those early songs maybe made it hard for him to handle the lead vocals on them. He wasn't yet a confident singer here; he still sings the high notes in falsetto where later he'll push his voice in that strained "soulful" Michael Bolton way he's famous for. Plus yeah, he wasn't so into hogweeds.
Peter Gabriel's appeal was partly the voice, but also this mystery and menace (assuming you bought into the persona). Some of those costumes were frightening — the fox head looks like a dead animal pelt. Seeing him onstage with a triangle shaved into his head, I'm sure some audiences figured he was nuts, which made the music & lyrics more convincing.
― dinnerboat, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:52 (four years ago) link
Hogweeds were real!
"He wasn't yet a confident singer here"
maybe this is exactly what i like! except i'm hearing unconfidence as prettiness (bcz it's so pretty!): can easily see how something so fragile wouldn't survive the professional needs of the regular all-night soulshout
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 13:57 (four years ago) link
I like the intensity of Pete doing the occasional Genesis song in the late '70s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd4aaoLE5co
Some good stuff in here, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FOnmf5NIWY
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:00 (four years ago) link
Discovering this track in 1990 after a decade of Collins shouting in soccer stadiums around the world was a seismic shock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyagd2EvwDU
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:01 (four years ago) link
(listening to seconds out except skipping all the bogus cockney ones ffs)
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:01 (four years ago) link
yeah it's painful when Phil does that, like he's minstreling himself
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:02 (four years ago) link
He definitely plays it up, but isn't he ... cockney? I guess I never understood what that term meant, other than a working class accent.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:04 (four years ago) link
Phil was the Artful Dodger in a big London production of Oliver! when he was a kid. So the cockney-for-laughs runs deep.
― dinnerboat, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:11 (four years ago) link
i.e. .the intro to the "Invisible Touch" video
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:14 (four years ago) link
Born within the sound of Bow bells, mate.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:20 (four years ago) link
I think, for better or for worse, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel were both really influenced by soul singers (or maybe equally/specifically white soul singers). That's something that really sets them apart from a lot of prog people, imo.
I don't that's unusual for musicians of their era. Can't be too many UK musicians who learned their trade in the 60s who didn't play soul, R&B, Motown covers at some point - Geezer Butler hated it, mind you.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:22 (four years ago) link
Probably true, but these two stuck with it ("Can't Hurry Love," "Sledgehammer," etc.). Did Jon Anderson and John Wetton or whomever ever do (or try) any soul stuff?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:43 (four years ago) link
i was regretting the one-offness of 90125 the other day
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:45 (four years ago) link
gabriel tends to kermit it up a bit in the genesis days, there's some vox-and-lead-guitar only stems from "selling england" floating about that aren't particularly flattering to him
before genesis i believe collins did sing lead in flaming youth, who were, honestly, a quite fine band. ultimately the '60s stuff descended into his lugubrious cover of "groovy kind of love" but as r&b/soul-loving white british lads go you could do far worse. gabriel as well... that time hackett showed up at a gabriel solo concert in the '80s and they played "reach out (i'll be there)", a fine moment.
gabriel-era genesis is something i relate really strongly personally to, honestly. it's often dismissed as being the typical prog-renfaire nonsense, but not all schoolboy stories of ancient time are created equal. what story do genesis retell? the story of hermaphrodite. when i look at gabriel era genesis, i see a band with a frontman who, at just about every turn, subverted and defied the expectations of heteronormative male gender presentation. and you best believe he got shit for it.
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:54 (four years ago) link
good reading
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:56 (four years ago) link
revisited in the Slippermen
lovely post, Kate
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:57 (four years ago) link
more lessons in amazing portals of possibility :)
(spotify meanwhile followed seconds out with whiter shade of pale, which makes more sense to me as a source than stevie winwood, at least if i want my interest piqued)
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 15:25 (four years ago) link
tbf I'm really just talking about Winwood's voice
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 15:44 (four years ago) link
yes i'm not disagreeing particularly, just that some routes in leave me (personally) less excited than others
(my entire intervention here has been a very self-indulgent analysis of micro-details of my own evolving taste)
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 15:53 (four years ago) link
(a thing never before encountered before on ilxor.com)
lol this has been the best ilm thread in ages
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 15:54 (four years ago) link
phil is good again :)
― mark s, Friday, 27 March 2020 16:01 (four years ago) link
xposting to myself, memory jogged: duh, I completely forgot that "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is half Motown riff. Still, prog does tend to shy away from soul stuff. Yes covering "America" seems more par for the course. Bartok seems like a another popular reference (see: ELP, King Crimson). Folk and classical, stuff that showcases the frilly and fussy.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 16:27 (four years ago) link
90125 is, like i said, this wonderful anomaly, and it's soul roots are already distorted through T Horn and the burgeoning 80s reinvention. there's a good train of thought about how the trite anti-Prog narrative ignored all of that stuff tho, including the Collins/Gabriel stuff we've poked at on this last convo
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 16:35 (four years ago) link
Was there much of an anti-prog narrative in 1980-whatever, though? If anything, prog kind of won!
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 16:37 (four years ago) link
"Frilly and fussy" = not how I've ever thought of Bartok :P
― Sund4r, Friday, 27 March 2020 16:39 (four years ago) link
there's still a banal kneejerk anti-Prog narrative now, depending where you look. the joy of criticism now is there's no papers of record, maybe.
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 March 2020 16:40 (four years ago) link
xpost OK, not Bartok, lol. Maybe invoked as a signpost of Serious and Complex Thought, then.
It's actually kind of weird how many prog acts not just thrived but hit various commercial peaks in the '80s: Genesis, Gabriel, Yes, King Crimson, Asia, Rush. Marillion? (I've never heard Marillion.)The Police had prog roots, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2020 16:42 (four years ago) link
Might be a North America/UK divide here? Classic rock radio was definitely still beaming Yes, Tull, Rush, and Floyd across this continent in the 80s, while you'd have to look to 'alternative' or even campus outlets to hear much that was punkier than the Cars or Police. I think things went differently on the other side of the Atlantic.
― Sund4r, Friday, 27 March 2020 16:45 (four years ago) link