TotW 02/12/2024 - 02/18/2024: GENESIS - The Lady Lies

  • It's a Tony's song and I'm supposed to like it

    That made me chuckle. I absolutely get what you mean though.


    I love that the same writer could produce something as ponderous as Rope, oddly unsatisfying as Lady, musically luscious yet lyrically stuffy as Undertow, and beautifully rendered in every sense and concise as Many, all on the same generally frustrating album.

    Abandon all reason

  • The part the really grates on me is the instrumental section at the end. The musicianship might be great but the sound they produce is not, and that steadily climbing piano scale amongst the melee makes me wince.

    Funny enough, it's my favourite part of the song (that bass !), which I've always liked anyway. 12 points.

    Oddly enough, I would say that I understand the critics on it (the sound, the theme, etc...), because that's also true.

    Same thing regarding the overall sound they had at the time (let's say, From Trick to Duke, that "polished", "evened" sound). Almost 25 years after I discovered them, it's still the sound I have in mind when I think about the band, yet I understand why a lot of fans don't like it.

  • Same thing regarding the overall sound they had at the time (let's say, From Trick to Duke, that "polished", "evened" sound). Almost 25 years after I discovered them, it's still the sound I have in mind when I think about the band, yet I understand why a lot of fans don't like it.

    It's not really a metter of not liking it, at least not for me, ir's rather a case of too much of the good thing, by ATTW3 the formula was getting old and bland for me and this song sort of epitomizes that.

  • Something I mentioned in another thread a couple of years back: in the instrumental run-out, about 05.25-05.30, there sounds like an 'aaaaaaaaaah' vocalisation ending with what sounds like 'eyes' or 'lies', it's quite mixed back. Other members bafflingly heard this as "you can't resist me". I wondered if it was a muffled "Aaaaaaaah, the lady lies". It's definitely not "you can't resist me" though. I think it was MoonlitKnight who said that whatever it is it's swamped by David Hentschel's "syrupy pudding production".

    Abandon all reason

  • Other members bafflingly heard this as "you can't resist me"... It's definitely not "you can't resist me" though.

    I never heard it this way until someone pointed it out to me, and it's clear enough to me now that I really don't have any doubt about it. I can understand why someone couldn't hear it even after having it pointed out, though. The voice is echoey and mixed low, and the syllables are drawn out and don't necessarily fall where you'd expect them to.


    Listening to the "official audio" of the song on YouTube, I hear a long "Yooooooooouuu" starting at about 5:21, then "can't resist" at 5:26-5:27 and "me" at 5:28. I don't know what the notes are but it's basically "You" (high) "can't" (middle) "re" (high) "sist me" (low).

  • I can now hear it. For decades I heard it as an "aaaaahhhhh - something (lies?)" I'm wondering if it's one of those post-07 changes such as moving "Isn't it" in Lovers Leap, deadening the flute in IKWIL and the petulant 'hmmmph' thing at the end of Trick, etc.


    On another tangent on this one: I recently came across reference to a 1982 green flexidisc of this track live, given away with Flexipop magazine. The label has "Genesis Live" in the 3SL 'scribbled' style.

    Abandon all reason

  • one of those post-07 changes such as moving "Isn't it" in Lovers Leap, deadening the flute in IKWIL and the petulant 'hmmmph' thing at the end of Trick, etc.

    Wow, all of those things have gotten lost? This is why I'm not interested in the later mixes.


    See my comments about another "lost in the mix" thing here and in the posts that follow.


    Anyway, I'm glad you can hear it now!