TotW 10/30/2023 - 11/05/2023: TONY BANKS - I Wanna Change The Score

It’s not Genesis -and wasn’t meant to be like Genesis- but I like it as a pop song. It’s well performed and deserved more success. I don’t really know why it didn’t do better.

It avoids Tony’s usual complications and clumpy lyrics and Kershaw has a good voice and was a well known figure to have up front. Would have been interesting to see what would have happened if released as a Nik Kershaw single. Despite the pop direction Still is one of my favourite Banks albums

A song for Man U fans this week!

I regard Still as one of Tony’s best solo albums, it has several of my favourite songs by him. But this hookless pop number is just not one of them.

Quite honestly, if I heard this track on the radio and didn’t know it was Tony Banks, I'd be switching the dial before it even got a third of the way through.

I really like this one, as an 80s pop single. And that was it's problem - if it had come out 3 years earlier it probably would have been a top 10 hit. In 1991 it sounded dated.

Still, it remains his best solo pop song IMO. 11 points.

This may be rather simple / "unproggy", but I like that Tony has done with Nik Kershaw (and later with Jack Hues as well) and this song should have been a hit ....

12/15 for this one!

I admire him for trying.

But this was never going to cut it.

It feels to me like an artist trying too hard to be something they're not. It's kind of a strange situation; part of Genesis' pop success was attributable to Tony Banks, but he was in no way a popstar. He was at his best being true to himself... angular, strange songs that had soul, like some of The Fugitive or the second half of Genesis, or going deep in the long form epic, like One for the Vine or Home by the Sea.

This is neither of those and hence it suffers.

Quote from thewatcher

I admire him for trying.

But this was never going to cut it.

It feels to me like an artist trying too hard to be something they're not. It's kind of a strange situation; part of Genesis' pop success was attributable to Tony Banks, but he was in no way a popstar. He was at his best being true to himself... angular, strange songs that had soul, like some of The Fugitive or the second half of Genesis, or going deep in the long form epic, like One for the Vine or Home by the Sea.

This is neither of those and hence it suffers.

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It basically sounds like a Nik K song, I've got both of his 1st 2 albums, and this would fit right on.

Quote from thewatcher

It's kind of a strange situation; part of Genesis' pop success was attributable to Tony Banks, but he was in no way a popstar. He was at his best being true to himself... angular, strange songs that had soul, like some of The Fugitive or the second half of Genesis, or going deep in the long form epic, like One for the Vine or Home by the Sea.

It is an odd one isn't it. He's so firmly at the core of the Genesis sound, from the 5-man through to the hit singles trio mega-success, but he couldn't find the formula under his own name. But also bear in mind that Rutherford isn't exactly Mr Pop Star yet had huge success with his side project band. In the case of M&tM he did find the formula. I think some of that is down to the constancy of it - although personnel changed over the decades, at the peak of their success they had a fairly stable line-up and writing team. TB tried something different each time, which I don't think helped.

As to this song, it's pretty good. Decent tune, but it's about a minute too long in my view. I agree that it sounds slightly behind the times for 1991 and would've fit nicely on one of NK's albums from the 80s (I really liked Radio Musicola, which was the only one of his I ever owned. And the title track is surely the only song to ever contain the phrase 'numasmatical polity').

I hadn't seen this video before, I really enjoyed it. I love that one of the changing background scenes is a match being played at Bedfordshire non-league club Barton Rovers FC. I wonder how they got chosen?!

STILL is my favorite Banks album. I consider "Score" to be roughly an average song for that album, and that's a compliment to it.

BTW, I generally wouldn't think about things like whether a song was "dated" for its time or "should have been a hit."

Quote from The Hogweed

This may be rather simple / "unproggy"

Well, the verses are partially in 7/4. I wouldn't consider that "unproggy."

Quote from DecomposingMan

STILL is my favorite Banks album. I consider "Score" to be roughly an average song for that album, and that's a compliment to it.

BTW, I generally wouldn't think about things like whether a song was "dated" for its time or "should have been a hit."

Well, the verses are partially in 7/4. I wouldn't consider that "unproggy."

Ah, you are right! But still it sounds quite simple. Or maybe just catchy.

Quote from DecomposingMan

the verses are partially in 7/4. I wouldn't consider that "unproggy."

Taking us back to the perennial question of 'what is prog'. Does a verse partially in 7/4 make it proggy or quite proggy or even 'not unproggy'? For me the answer to all those is no, in context of everything else about the song.

Sounds like a straightforward pop song to

me. Not the best example of the form but pleasant, enjoyable and well performed-

which is what good pop songs are in my opinion. The best can provoke thought and challenge and break new ground - much of the Beatles, many Stones and early Who spring to mind but then also a lot of punk and post punk - Specials, Costello etc. Then there are whole spectrums of reggae, ska, metal, soul, disco, electro etc etc. this is at the lightweight end of things and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m sure he’d never claim it’s amongst his best work - although I hope he likes it more than he seems to in the video…

4 and I was being very generous

Quote from Backdrifter

It is an odd one isn't it. He's so firmly at the core of the Genesis sound, from the 5-man through to the hit singles trio mega-success, but he couldn't find the formula under his own name. But also bear in mind that Rutherford isn't exactly Mr Pop Star yet had huge success with his side project band. In the case of M&tM he did find the formula.

I agree, the discrepancy in success between Banks and Rutherford is hard to fully explain. I think one part is that MR's natural talents were in writing songs like Follow You, Follow Me and Living Years whereas Tony's habitat is Silver Rainbow and the like. I personally prefer SR but I can see the more widespread appeal of the other songs. This point is a bit moot if TB was responsible for In Too Deep for example but I'm not sure if he was.

Maybe another factor was Silent Running being such a big hit, to launch M&tM? Is it analogous to In The Air Tonight? After all, Mike's two earlier solo albums did nothing commercially, I believe. I guess he had a good crew with him too. Very much agree Tony's ever changing set up did not help.

Quote from thewatcher

I agree, the discrepancy in success between Banks and Rutherford is hard to fully explain. I think one part is that MR's natural talents were in writing songs like Follow You, Follow Me and Living Years whereas Tony's habitat is Silver Rainbow and the like. I personally prefer SR but I can see the more widespread appeal of the other songs. This point is a bit moot if TB was responsible for In Too Deep for example but I'm not sure if he was.

Maybe another factor was Silent Running being such a big hit, to launch M&tM? Is it analogous to In The Air Tonight? After all, Mike's two earlier solo albums did nothing commercially, I believe. I guess he had a good crew with him too. Very much agree Tony's ever changing set up did not help.

Whilst Rutherford wrote the lyrics to FYFM and the track started with his guitar riff, the music is credited to all 3. A similar point can be applied to the comments regarding Silver Rainbow and In Too Deep.

Also, Smallcreep's Day did rather well in the UK upon release.

Quote from Phil Morris

Whilst Rutherford wrote the lyrics to FYFM and the track started with his guitar riff, the music is credited to all 3. A similar point can be applied to the comments regarding Silver Rainbow and In Too Deep.

Also, Smallcreep's Day did rather well in the UK upon release.

Fair points. I suppose I meant more the type of music they write.

A good track, worth 10 points.

Would have been nice to hear another album, probably a real joint album, from Tony and Nik.

11 - great track on a good album

14 points, I really like this one! That's what's called "sophisticated pop", I guess.