Thoughts on Spot the Pigeon?

  • I would like to know your (anyone's) honest thoughts about the songs on the Spot the Pigeon EP:


    Match of the Day

    Pigeons

    Inside and Out


    I'll save my opinions for now but suffice it to say, these songs confuse me.


    Thank you

  • I like all three. Match of the Day is pretty daft but there's something I like about it, so innocent sounding. Pigeons is better, equally daft, but I really like that riff. I like the Beatles vibe of those two songs. Inside and Out always strikes me as Genesis "doing" Yes. It's good, and I love the instrumental ending, but it's overrated and the lyrics seem unclear. I often wonder how those tracks could be inserted into an extended W&W, but I can't seem to make them fit satisfactorily in the flow of the album.

  • To me, these songs belonged on their own and not on a proper album. They aren't bad songs necessarily but not really good enough to sit on W&W in my opinion.


    Match of the Day - a fun song, always liked the bass line. Kind of a silly song that sometimes gets stuck in my head for hours. But to me not really more than a fun little diddy to lighten the mood.


    Pigeons -this is the one I've listened to least of all. It never really catches me and sounds pretty far away from their normal sound. Just can't get into this one.


    Inside and Out - the best of the bunch on my opinion. The beginning is fine, the choruses are a little bland, but the good stuff comes in the second half. A big instrumental with a synth solo and Phil going for it on drums! If the first half was a little better I would want this on W&W in place of Mouses night.

  • Match of the day - catchy little number, very untypical of Genesis at the time, sounds dated now, not least given the price paid for the player! ;)


    Pigeons - dull, repetitive, monotonous, though the lyrics are quite good, in a satirical way.


    Inside and Out - Far better than the other 2, still far from their best though.


    That said, I'd swap Match or Inside for YOSW, although the lyrics Match would stick out like a sore thumb on that album.


    I have the 3 inch CD single of this.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • I enjoy all three, although Pigeons is clearly third. Match is slight, silly, and catchy. Good for a little fun. Inside and Out is a nice story song, but where it really excels is the outro instrumental - great keyboard solo and some tasteful work by Steve.


    I have the 3-inch CD single too and don't have a player that will play it anymore, so I'm glad these songs are on the box set or I wouldn't be able to play them.

  • Just right as it is to be on a separate EP.. W,&W probably my second favourite album ever and these are not amongst my favourite Genesis songs. Having said that they're decent songs. Pigeons is the best , I always enjoy listening to it. I like the quirky vibe of both lyric and the repeated riff.. Match of the Day like almost all football songs doesn't quite work . I don't think they're into football there is no football vibe going on at all .For such a song to work it needed a harder edge. It's listenable to for me maybe simply for it's oddness. it's something out of place which makes it interesting. A lot people here praise Inside and Out to the hilt but it's the weakest of the three ofand I wouldn't put it on any album . I get bored with it. It's feels just to weedy. I agree with Dr John , that the outro is it's best part but in terms of instrumental sections it still doesn't match AIAMN ( one of the best ever Genesis instrumental pieces but a song I know many of you are not keen on) nor does come near to WG or unquiet slumbers..... So ok but i listen only for interest or suddenly in the car when I pod is on random . Though only IAO and Pigeons . I have vinyl 12" ,it's only way o can hear MOTD. Genesis seem to have disowned it.

  • I like it. Match of the Day is a bit embarrassing - you wouldn’t want it to be someone’s introduction to Genesis, but I suppose is a reminder of simpler times- although it was very lightweight even then. The drumming is great on all three tracks. Pigeons is a nice little ditty and a bit of a change for them. Inside out is very strong. Maybe not quite right for the album as it might have made it a bit dark overall had it replaced a lighter track. But it’s good enough in terms of quality to have made the cut. My main feeling is that I’m glad it was the vinyl era. In CD times they might have put them all on Wind and Wuthering and diluted one of their best albums. I think of that when I listen to We Can’t Dance, which as a vinyl album could have been one of their best, but to me is too long and has too much filler. I’d have like it to be a shorter album with an EP of the lighter songs, very much like Spot The Pigoen.

  • Match of the Day and Pigeons are fine, nothing more nothing less really. However, Inside and Out is a tour de force from the beautiful first half to the rousing second half.


    I really think it should have been on W&W, at the expense of All in a Mouse's Night or even Wot Gorilla?


    Would Hackett have stayed for another album if Inside and Out was on W&W?

  • MOTD I like least - musically quite nice and catchy but lyrically bad, and the one-sided 'banter' on the run-out is cringe-inducing. By the way I don't get this idea of this or any song being 'fun' as some here are saying.


    I've always really liked Pigeons. Banks said he'd long wanted to do a song with one note running all the way through and I find it very appealing a band like them would do that. The slightly bizarre obsessive lyric is amusing and full marks for 'knockatize' (file alongside 'unifaun' and 'undinal').


    I&O is one of my top 10 favourite Genesis songs. The first half has a gentle shimmering quality but with a slight tension, and one of their storytelling lyrics (by Collins, according to Hackett and not by himself as I've read). The second half has a great surging dynamism and seems an unusual instrumental for them. The keyboard work has been called a solo by others here but to me it doesn't feel like that at all, it seems more an integral part of the overall sound in a way that differs from say FoF, Cinema Show or Fading Lights. I'm not sure that makes any sense or that I can explain it properly but I was slightly surprised seeing it described as a solo. The run-out with its shift in tempo, cascading sparkly keyboards and ringing guitar discords is a personal favourite Genesis moment. I think it outdoes everything on its would-be parent album.


    But then as I've said, W&W is down there with ATTWT as my least-liked album of theirs. This is interesting:

    My main feeling is that I’m glad it was the vinyl era. In CD times they might have put them all on Wind and Wuthering and diluted one of their best albums.

    I always like seeing how a bunch of Genesis nuts like us differ in our outlooks - to me W&W is already quite dilute and I'd have loved Pigeons and I&O to have gone on and shaken things up a bit as the album badly needed that. Pigeons as a refreshing sorbet straight after the stodgy long-windedness of Vine would have worked for me, but I accept not for many (if any) others here. I'd have stuck Gorilla, Mouse's, MOTD and YOSW on an EP and run the album thus.


    But I do agree about CD length killing off good editing sense and yes WCD is a prime example.


    In all, I like the EP for the very reason it's an EP - the songs don't fit. They're odd ones for them and I'm drawn to that. ATOTT-W&W-ATTWT form a sort of shiny tinselly sequence that's my least favourite phase and it appeals to me these 3 songs stand out from that.

    Abandon all reason

  • I like it. Match of the Day is a bit embarrassing - you wouldn’t want it to be someone’s introduction to Genesis, but I suppose is a reminder of simpler times- although it was very lightweight even then. The drumming is great on all three tracks. Pigeons is a nice little ditty and a bit of a change for them. Inside out is very strong. Maybe not quite right for the album as it might have made it a bit dark overall had it replaced a lighter track. But it’s good enough in terms of quality to have made the cut. My main feeling is that I’m glad it was the vinyl era. In CD times they might have put them all on Wind and Wuthering and diluted one of their best albums. I think of that when I listen to We Can’t Dance, which as a vinyl album could have been one of their best, but to me is too long and has too much filler. I’d have like it to be a shorter album with an EP of the lighter songs, very much like Spot The Pigoen.

    I agree with much of what you say especially the good reason not to have any of these on W&W and your thoughts on WCD. Check out Backdrifters thread on rearranging Genesis albums.

  • The slightly bizarre obsessive lyric is amusing and full marks for 'knockatize' (file alongside 'unifaun' and 'undinal').


    storytelling lyrics (by Collins, according to Hackett and not by himself as I've read).

    It turns out that the word written as "knockatize" in the printed lyrics is supposed to be "narcotize."


    I was surprised when Hackett said Collins wrote the I&O lyrics, as I'd heard they were by Mike. I still think they sound more like Mike's style of writing than Phil's.

    • Official Post

    It's quite a nice EP and only Inside And Out would have fitted on W&W. Match Of The Day is just funny, a nice detour from their more serious stuff at the time.

    cheers

    Christian


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  • 😂


    Excellent. I'm glad it's a misprint, and a good one too. You still instinctively understand the meaning! I never questioned it.

    I remember looking it up in the dictionary as a 13 year old - pre internet obviously! - I assumed it was some obscure technical term. Genesis always seemed so worldly to me - they seemed to know everything - even the various ways to dispose of pigeons

  • I’ve always liked Match of the Day. It’s a fun and quirky song, and as an American its “Britishness” reminds me of Gabriel-era stuff. Spot the Pigeon is a catchy ditty. Inside and Out is overrated in my opinion. The first part is You’re Own Special Way with different lyrics; the second half is a standard Yes-style “ain’t you impressed with how fast I can play” prog keyboard solo and lacks the passion of Tony’s best solos (Apocalypse in 9/8 and Cinema Show).