TotW 04/29/2024 - 05/05/2024: GENESIS - Time Table

Excellent track off Foxtrot. I love Peter’s inflection on the word ‘why’ throughout the song. And the themes about mortality that run through at least a few of their songs, another example being Burning Rope. Time Table has always been one of my favorite early Genesis songs.

I've never been a big fan. I've always thought of it as a somewhat lightweight, throwaway track lacking inspiration compared to Watcher, Can Utility and SR. It never seemed to have anything to make it stand out, to me. That said, having just listened to it via the link above, it's a little less uninspired than I recall (I debated going with "more pleasant" but I'm not sure which phrasing damns it more). 8 on a crankier day. 10 today.

A must-skip for me. I don't feel the album needs this on there. They've done worse songs but on an album with some heft it's a superfluous bit of fluff.

I rarely like that reverse-adjective thing eg "goblets gold" and "arbors cool" 😖 I get why it's used but I find it quite twee and a bit cringey.

As for -

Quote from thewatcher

uninspired

- I find "a carved oak table tells a tale" a very limp opening line. But I suppose in that sense it starts as it means to go on.

Rutherford's playing is worth a mention here.

As for the song itself, it's ok, I like it, but lost between all the other tracks that are all more remarkable. I have a soft spot for the calm Genesis piano songs though. The instrumental part between the verses (and the ending), with the piano melody that goes up is my favourite part. Cleverly composed.

Not an outstanding track in my opinion but not terrible either. The lyrics are fairly evocative and the music isn't bad. My main complaint is that the "why-y-y-y"s sound kind of awkward.

Not the strongest track on Foxtrot - 9/15 is okay, though.

Quote from DecomposingMan

Not an outstanding track in my opinion but not terrible either. The lyrics are fairly evocative and the music isn't bad. My main complaint is that the "why-y-y-y"s sound kind of awkward.

The why part is the best part of the song for me, but I can understand how it could be grating for some.

It’s like Seven Stones on Nursery Cryme, it’s a perfectly decent song but it lacks the ambition of the rest of the record and kind of gets left behind. On its own I quite like it but compared to the rest of the album it’s easily forgotten

Quote from Rigsby

It’s like Seven Stones on Nursery Cryme, it’s a perfectly decent song but it lacks the ambition of the rest of the record and kind of gets left behind. On its own I quite like it but compared to the rest of the album it’s easily forgotten

Give me seven stones any day.

Quote from Rigsby

It’s like Seven Stones on Nursery Cryme, it’s a perfectly decent song but it lacks the ambition of the rest of the record and kind of gets left behind. On its own I quite like it but compared to the rest of the album it’s easily forgotten

Would you put Harlequin in the same category? I really love the song, it reminds me of a Crosby Stills Nash and Young type song, with its harmonies. But it’s one of those pretty little songs that only hardcore Genesis fans know… I guess like all of us.

As Foxtrot was the first studio album I submerged myself in I have a fondness for everything on the album which seems to override any shortcomings. So, on an academic level I know this is a lightweight song with pleasant but naive lyrics but I still love it. I like the fact that it’s on the same record as Supper’s Ready by way of contrast. I also really liked it when Steve did it recently. In terms of short songs they did much better later on, as a band and as solo artists, but it has a charm that still repays a listen from time to time (no pun intended).

Quote from Liquid Len

Would you put Harlequin in the same category? I really love the song, it reminds me of a Crosby Stills Nash and Young type song, with its harmonies. But it’s one of those pretty little songs that only hardcore Genesis fans know… I guess like all of us.

Agreed, like For Absent Friends I think Harlequin is a lovely little interlude. A bit like what Yes were doing with Fragile and The Yes Album, dropping shorter prettier moments in amongst the epic tracks. As you say there are great harmonies there too.

Quote from Rigsby

It’s like Seven Stones on Nursery Cryme, it’s a perfectly decent song but it lacks the ambition of the rest of the record and kind of gets left behind. On its own I quite like it but compared to the rest of the album it’s easily forgotten

For me Stones is more a Can Utility in that it's a good song I like but never achieved the profile of the 'bigger' more well-known tracks on its album. I think there's also partly an element of it being never or very rarely played live.

Time Table is an odd one in that for their 70s period I can't think of an analogous track that's similarly such inconsequential filler and largely superfluous.

One of my all-time Genesis favourites. A calm, shorter song between the wildness of Watcher and Get 'em out by Friday, still intriguing atmosphere, beautiful interplay of piano and guitar, the bass adding the cherry on the cake, interesting chord changes that go through of keys but avoid getting forced, a little playing around with time signatures, a baroque piano intro and nice lyrics about old times and the ever-changing flow of time. All in all: lovely.

It’s OK but a bit cringe for me. Definitely bottom of the list of Foxtrot tracks. For me it has a strange olde worlde vibe and feels like it could have been played on a harpsichord. Lyrically this wasn’t one of Peter’s finest moments. It’s five young men experimenting, perhaps to transport you to the days of yore after the science fiction of track 1 and before the social commentary of track 3. It feels like it could have almost been on Trespass but here’s the rub for me: I would gravitate towards any track on Trespass over this one.

Just not quite to my taste. Close but no cigar. Or less delicately, the runt of the Foxtrot litter. 10, just about, on a good day with the wind blowing in the right direction.

Quote from Micklemus

It’s OK but a bit cringe for me. Definitely bottom of the list of Foxtrot tracks. For me it has a strange olde worlde vibe and feels like it could have been played on a harpsichord. Lyrically this wasn’t one of Peter’s finest moments.

I think it's a Tony Banks lyric.

I really like the song. It's not an epic like a lot of their early songs, but I feel like it's really well executed for what it is. Love the countermelody during the instrumental. Fairly simple and straight forward, but effective.

Quote from Henry Hamilton-Smythe

I think it's a Tony Banks lyric.

That's my understanding too. The style is very TB.

I do like the point by Micklemus that it contrasts starkly with the jagged futurescape of Watcher. It illustrates one of the things I love about them, the variation in their work. I just find the whole "a time of honour" thing off-putting.

Not really a classic, but it's okay and something like a hidden gem on the record. 9 pts are ok I think!

Underrated song that doesn't try to be something it's not, nicely capturing the reality of entropy. Better then most of the rest of the album bar the 2 obvious. 11.