Your favourite songs they never played live

1st Official Post

    What are your favourite songs that the band never played on stage?


    For me, there are three that I really would have loved to have heard live:


    • Many too Many
    • Blood on the Rooftops
    • Man of our Times.


    As I understand it, Many too Many would've been tough for Phil to have sung night after night.


    On the excellent Tabletop Genesis podcast, Steve was quizzed about why Blood on the Rooftops was never played by Genesis and he just said that it wasn't considered at the time. A true shame I think.


    Man of our Times is probably the weakest song of the three but I just think the crash of the drums and the pulse of bass would've sounded great in their early 80s sets.


    (Apologies if this discussion has been had before!)

    Absolutely agree with you about Blood on the Rooftops. It might have been a challenge (vocally) to play live but I'd have liked to have seen them try. For me this is one of the best songs they ever produced, yet it receives little mention.


    Similarly, I think Man of Our Times would have worked well on the Duke tour.


    Actually those two are pretty much it for me.

    BOTR is absolutely in this discussion. I don't know whether I'm imagining this, but it feels like it has grown in popularity as the years have gone by. It seems to be regarded as a classic now (quite rightly!). In fact, BOTR would be top of my list.


    I don't think Mad Man Moon was ever played was it? Shame, as nearly everything else on TOTT was.


    I reckon Please Don't Ask could have sounded great too. I've grown to love that song.


    And yes, MTM, of course.

    Quote from Trick of the Wuthering
    • Many too Many
    • Blood on the Rooftops
    • Man of our Times
    Quote from Trick of the Wuthering

    Undertow

    Agree with the above - MOOT and Undertow aren't among my favourites though I like them a lot and would've been very interested to hear them played by Genesis on stage. The other two absolutely are top 10 ones for me.


    Non-album tracks were extremely rare on stage but You Might Recall, Naminanu, Submarine and Neurotic would be on my wish list.

    Abandon all reason

    Quote from Backdrifter

    Agree with the above - MOOT and Undertow aren't among my favourites though I like them a lot and would've been very interested to hear them played by Genesis on stage. The other two absolutely are top 10 ones for me.


    Non-album tracks were extremely rare on stage but You Might Recall, Naminanu, Submarine and Neurotic would be on my wish list.

    Oh yes, forgot You Might Recall, one of my favourites from that era.

    For Absent Friends - a beautiful little piece that is short and simple, could have easily fit in for the final tour!


    A Trick Of The Tail - Always thought it was odd the title track to the album was never done live. I think it would have come off well and would have fit nicely into an acoustic set.


    Blood on the Rooftops - Needs no explanation!


    Just A Job To Do - A great rockin' track that should have been performed over the awful Illegal Alien.


    Living Forever - This track is so underrated and while they did rehearse it, the song never made it to the live set. The beginning is funky and upbeat, and the instrumental is brilliant stuff - would have been a nice showcase for Phil's drumming.

    I guess it's also for technical reasons that they never performed Blood on the Rooftops live. Steve would never have been able to perform the intro properly on a nylon acoustic guitar (remember they had to install custom-designed electric pickups for their 12-string acoustic guitars). Magnetic pickups don't work with nylon-string guitar because, well, it's nylon, not steel (i.e. metal).

    Nowadays we have piezo pickups, but I don't knowif they were available at the time, and as efficient as today...

    And putting a regular microphone in front of the guitar, with the high volume they were used to playing, would have caused feedback.

    Playing the intro on an electric would have been necessary. Was Steve ready to do that ?


    - Mad Man Moon

    - Blood on the rooftops (well, if possible)

    - Snowbound (I love this song)

    - Man of our times

    - Cul-de-sac

    - Living forever

    Living Forever is the most underrated track they ever did, along with Heathaze.

    Cul-de-sac - Such a great song, and has a lot of classic Genesis energy, drama, and mood shifts. I guess it got overshadowed by the Duke Suite on the Duke Tour, then just fell by the wayside afterward.


    Living Forever - Seems like it was written specifically to be performed, right down to the gap after the vocals to give Phil time to walk back to the drums...


    Just a Job to Do - Another great song that seems like it was destined to be a big stage song...only it wasn't.

    Quote from thewatcher

    It would have been fun if Anything She Does had gotten an airing or two on the IT tour. A real shot of energy!

    Agreed! I recall Tony (I think) saying that they didn't play it because it was a hard song, which always struck me as a bit odd, but I wonder if it was just too high for Phil to sing reliably and they were still a ways off from budging on lowering the key of a song to make it easier.

    Quote from thewatcher

    It would have been fun if Anything She Does had gotten an airing or two on the IT tour. A real shot of energy!

    While it's never been one I like much it has its place on the album and would have fit well in the set. But obviously if, as per Winston's post, it was problematic for them that suggests they tried and abandoned it. Of course it did have a place on that tour in that it was the intro video (well at least at the London shows it was, I assume it was used throughout the tour).

    Abandon all reason