Your Own Special Way

  • How do you feel about "Your Own Special Way"? 25

    1. I like it a lot (14) 56%
    2. I don't particularly like or dislike it (8) 32%
    3. I don't like it (3) 12%

    This is the second poll about what I would call "Genesis's Most Hated Songs." (The first was for "Misunderstanding.")


    There seems to be a lot of bad feeling toward this particular song. I like it myself, though. I think it fits the mood of W&W nicely. I don't think it's a particularly commercial song; its alternating between 3/4 & 4/4 pretty much takes care of that. And I think the lyrics are nicely poetic and not trite at all.


    How do you feel about it?

    Little known fact: Before the crowbar was invented...


    ...crows simply drank at home.

  • I like this one better than Misunderstanding, but think it's the weakest song on the album. That being said, I typically don't skip it when spinning W&W. Almost seems out of place on the album. Perhaps would have benefited from being on a different album, but I have no idea which one.

  • It's not too bad, but not great. It probably works better within the context of Wind & Wuthering, the song by itself is kind of a snoozer, or maybe I'm experiencing Genesis fatigue recently. Also, I didn't know it was about a mermaid until someone brought it up in the infamous "Songs I'm Afraid[...]" thread. I figured it was about Rutherford's experience with his significant other while working with Genesis (for 7 years at that point in time, so it fits in with the lyrics). Wot Gorilla is worse.

  • Although I definitely like every other track on Wind and Wuthering more, I still like this track a lot. I can see why it's too sappy and pedestrian for many though!

    Was it you or was it me? Or was it he, or she?

  • As with a few others here, I never understood the hate for this song. Now, don't get me wrong - it's also not among their very best either.


    The one bit that always bothered me about it is the initial transition from verse to chorus. The verses in the song are beautiful classically-inspired waltz-y music; the chorus, however, is very country. The shift from the classical sound to the country sound always grated on my ears at first - I'm more tolerant of it now. Now the shift back from the chorus to the verse always seemed fine, as well as the second transition from verse to chorus - it was the first transition that always bothered me at first.


    Now, it's just a nice song on my favorite album. (For songs on W&W where I might have preferred something else would be like a Genesis-band version of "Please Don't Touch" (like Steve wanted) instead of "Wot Gorilla", or "Inside and Out" instead of "All In A Mouse's Night" (the music is very good, but the lyrical subject matter...meh).)

    Stepping out the back way, hoping nobody sees...

  • I like it.

    Yes, it's a sweet song and in my books that doesn't necessarily make it a bad song, even within the context of a progressive rock album.


    It's just another of those songs like "More Fool Me" that seem to trigger a curious reaction amongst a certain segment of fans - sudden ire in the midst of what for them might be an otherwise enjoyable album.

  • - sudden ire in the midst of what for them might be an otherwise enjoyable album.

    Ha ha! There’s a lot of this in Genesis. Their innovation and refusal to stand still is what marks them out from their contemporaries. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. C’est la vie! I remember PC saying how he completely understood how their prog fans felt betrayed by the new direction they took in the 80s as this was exactly how he felt about the bands he used to like when they suddenly became popular.

    ~ My talents may not be obvious but they are always...always...delicious! ~

  • The one bit that always bothered me about it is the initial transition from verse to chorus. The shift from the classical sound to the country sound always grated on my ears at first - I'm more tolerant of it now. Now the shift back from the chorus to the verse always seemed fine, as well as the second transition from verse to chorus - it was the first transition that always bothered me at first.

    That, apart from the cheesiness would be another problem; it sounds a bit stitched together and not very smoothly. The verses and chorus, as you said, sound awkward together and I would add the solo which is quite uncharacteristic of Tony, I wonder if Mike wrote it. It is delicate and reminiscent of some Vangelis stuff but again, it sounds quite divorced from both verses and chorus and at the end of the solo , when the verse resumes, there is no feeling of a smooth transition.

  • I like it. It's one of those that I could shave seen being a hit had someone like Robbie Williams covered it and edited it down a bit in the late 90s.

    It was a radio hit for Steve Hackett with Paul Carrack when he covered it on Genesis Revisited in 1995. By radio hit, I mean it was on "heavy rotation on BBC Radio 2, the most listened to station in the UK.

    Fair enough, Steve's version is vastly superior.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • It was a radio hit for Steve Hackett with Paul Carrack when he covered it on Genesis Revisited in 1995. By radio hit, I mean it was on "heavy rotation on BBC Radio 2, the most listened to station in the UK.

    Fair enough, Steve's version is vastly superior.

    Steve's version is interesting because it changes the song so much. The verses are changed from 3/4 to 4/4, so that the transition between time signatures is eliminated, and there is no quiet solo section.


    I don't know if I would have thought of this if someone else hadn't pointed it out, but Steve seems to have deliberately made it sound like a Mike + The Mechanics song!

    Little known fact: Before the crowbar was invented...


    ...crows simply drank at home.

  • It was a radio hit for Steve Hackett with Paul Carrack when he covered it on Genesis Revisited in 1995. By radio hit, I mean it was on "heavy rotation on BBC Radio 2, the most listened to station in the UK.

    Fair enough, Steve's version is vastly superior.

    I agree, it is a better version, at the same time though, the schmaltz factor is increased exponentially. Also, Paul Carrack delivers it much better than Phil who at the time was still a bit 'green' as a singer.

  • Steve's version is interesting because it changes the song so much. The verses are changed from 3/4 to 4/4, so that the transition between time signatures is eliminated, and there is no quiet solo section.


    I don't know if I would have thought of this if someone else hadn't pointed it out, but Steve seems to have deliberately made it sound like a Mike + The Mechanics song!


    It IS hugely changed, for the better IMO, and the UK single edit (It was the UK single! :huh:) omitted the quiet solo section (If memory serves).


    Off-topic: I just noticed your avatar is a 3 wheel car viewed from above. I've been seeing it as a zeppelin-type airship viewed from below! ?(

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • Off-topic: I just noticed your avatar is a 3 wheel car viewed from above. I've been seeing it as a zeppelin-type airship viewed from below! ?(

    LOL. That's a contemporary drawing of a rather obscure French car, the 1947 Aérocarène 700. I always thought it was wonderfully odd-looking, and at some point started using the picture as sort of a private signature. I've only seen one photo of the actual car, and it appears to be considerably less slick-looking than the drawing implies.

    Little known fact: Before the crowbar was invented...


    ...crows simply drank at home.