A Genesis "summer" song?

  • For me the Genesis song that best casts a summer-like feeling is

    'In Too Deep'.


    The following one is 'On the Shoreline' (curiously 'No Son of Mine' has a winter mood).


    Then next one, 'Throwing It All Away' and then, without any particular order, 'Invisible Touch', 'Paperlate', 'You Might Recall' and 'Way Of The World'.


    And I also think 'Domino' has a Midsummer evocation, I always play it every 23rd June.


    Other songs with summery vibes are:

    'Anything She Does', 'Follow You, Follow Me', 'Home By The Sea', 'I Can't Dance', 'Illegal Alien', 'Jesus He Knows Me', 'Land of Confusion', 'Mama', 'Squonk', 'Taking It All Too Hard' and 'Vancouver'.

  • Why those? I think I get what you mean by the others apart from JHKM & HBTS which I mentioned earlier.

  • Snowbound & Evidence Of Autumn!

  • Now that I've thought about it, Undertow always seemed wintry to me. And had some of Banks' more direct lyrics, related to a separate thread. Many too many has a chilly, bleak weather kind of vibe too. He must have been channeling something around that time.


    As for a more general comment about summer and Genesis, CAS has to have been one of the most out-of-season releases. As in it was released in summer but doesn't sound anything like a summery record. This is not to say it would have met with any more success or praise if it had been released in November but who knows!

  • Good topic.


    I would say the most 'summer feeling' Genesis songs-for me at least-have always been Mama and I Can't Dance (mostly cos of the lyrics).


    That said, I've always felt that Tonight Tonight Tonight, Domino and Hold On My Heart had a very "hazy summer nights" kind of feeling for me. Especially HOMH, which for some reason I always pictured spending warm summer nights hanging out with my high school girlfriend.


    I know it risks veering off-topic, but in response to some posts above; I've always felt certain Genesis songs had a very specific seasonal feel. Some of them obvious, some not. Here are the most obvious ones for me:


    White Mountain: Winter

    Stagnation: Spring

    One for the Vine: Autumn

    Match of the Day: Autumn

    Undertow: Winter

    Snowbound: Winter (obviously)

    Heathaze: Autumn

    Mama: Summer

    Just a Job to Do: Summer

    Tonight Tonight Tonight: Summer

    I Can't Dance: Summer

    Hold on My Heart: Summer

  • I guess it ís just me, but just because a lyric mentions 'summer' or 'sun' doesn't make it emblematic of summer, particularly in the case of Driving the Last Spike.

    I could see why some associate 'Driving the Last Spike' with summer. It sounds like a piece for a number of an opening ceremony of the Olympics. As the Games usually take place in the Northern Hemisphere summer, hence the connection.

  • As I said before, for many folks the 3rd melodic part of 'Jesus He Knows Me' has a beach mood.

    It has a vaguely reggae feel about it. That does not make the whole of JHKM a 'summer song'. Don't the lyrics matter? Don't the lyrics for Driving The Last Spike matter (I'm not going to quote that reply too)?

  • Because the sound of 'Land of Confussion', ''Squonk' and 'Taking It All Too Hard' suggest hot tropical weather.

    Leaving aside how daft that suggestion of a suggestion is, on a tangent I wish they actually had called it Land Of Confussion.

    As I said before, for many folks the 3rd melodic part of 'Jesus He Knows Me' has a beach mood.

    How many 'folks' apart from you?!

    I could see why some associate 'Driving the Last Spike' with summer. It sounds like a piece for a number of an opening ceremony of the Olympics. As the Games usually take place in the Northern Hemisphere summer, hence the connection.

    "hence the connection". HENCE! :D Oh man that is hilarious.

    Abandon all reason

  • I always felt on a very general line the whole Trespass to Duke era (and maybe a little beyond hither and thither) has a late summery to autumnal feeling, a nostalgic, slightly melancholic feeling of slowly fading beauty that leaves you with sorrowful memories of bygone blissful times. That's a very general note though.


    I kind of have a hard time to identify any Genesis song as what is usually associated with summer hits that try to evoke a beach party mood in what is supposedly your time of your life when you're young. Such as Macarena.