Hearts of Fire may have been Phil's. I say that because I'm pretty sure Phil wanted it on the album and Tony hated it, and likewise, Tony wanted Shoreline on the album but Phil hated it. We did a few posts on the old forum trying to figure out the lyrics writers for each song from Trespass to Calling All Stations, that was fun.
Phil hated On The Shoreline? And yet he seems so enthused by it on the video for the extras on the box set.
Tell Me Why - MR
HOMH - TB
Way of the world - PC
Tell Me Why was Phil's lyric. Hold On My Heart was Phil's lyric. Way Of The World was Mike's lyric.
Tell Me Why was Phil's lyric. Hold On My Heart was Phil's lyric. Way Of The World was Mike's lyric.
Can you reference me these? According to Interviews - HOMH is a TB lyric and Way of the world was PC's response to MR's Tell Me Why.
Can you reference me these? According to Interviews - HOMH is a TB lyric and Way of the world was PC's response to MR's Tell Me Why.
Certainly. Genesis gave an interview with Gary Davies on his afternoon show on Radio One in 1991 just before the album's release where Phil said he wrote Tell Me Why and Hold On My Heart and Mike said he wrote the lyrics to Way of The World.
During the interview, Phil said Tell Me Why was written in response to the aftermath of the Gulf War, which left the Kurds stranded on top of a mountain while no-one seemed to be doing anything to help them. He said that he and the other members of Genesis are often labelled as living in a bit of a bubble, but that they watch the tv just as everyone else does and they are equally moved by what they see.
Way Of The World was indeed written in response to Tell Me Why, Mike saying that whilst it's nice that we try and help situations like the one Phil mentioned, there should be a balance. "Phil's the caring one and I'm the uncaring one!" he said.
The chord progression for Hold On My Heart is Tony trying to write music in the style of Burt Bacharach (the song's working title was Burt), maybe that's why you're getting confused as to who wrote the lyrics.
Later that week, the band were interviewed by Johnny Walker, also on Radio One, where much of what was said in the Gary Davies interview was repeated.
I hope that helps.
Why did I think Living Forever was Mike rather than Tony? It is my second favourite track on the album after DTLS.
Why did I think Living Forever was Mike rather than Tony? It is my second favourite track on the album after DTLS.
The cynicism in the lyrics and the unusual chord changes has Tony's name all over them!
Phil hated On The Shoreline? And yet he seems so enthused by it on the video for the extras on the box set.
Oh ok, I must have got that wrong. One one of the documentaries on YouTube like First Night or something I swear there was some reference to Phil hating one of Tony's songs and Tony hating one of Phil's songs for the WCD sessions. I just assumed they were talking about Shoreline and Hearts on Fire.
Oh ok, I must have got that wrong. One one of the documentaries on YouTube like First Night or something I swear there was some reference to Phil hating one of Tony's songs and Tony hating one of Phil's songs for the WCD sessions. I just assumed they were talking about Shoreline and Hearts on Fire.
I don't know. Certainly Phil has criticised Tony's lyrics in the past because he's the poor sucker who has to sing them! I know Tony doesn't like Phil's version of A Groovy Kind Of Love...but then again nether does Phil!
As for WCD, maybe you're right in that Phil didn't like the song at the time they recorded it. The only time I've seen him mention it is on the Extras DVD which obviously was made some time after.
The cynicism in the lyrics and the unusual chord changes has Tony's name all over them!
Maybe I think of it as akin to Land Of Confusion, which is Mike's song. Because the guitar riff is so prominent you tend to think that Mike must have written it. I'm glad to be set straight on this.
Maybe I think of it as akin to Land Of Confusion, which is Mike's song. Because the guitar riff is so prominent you tend to think that Mike must have written it. I'm glad to be set straight on this.
I remember buying the No Son Of Mine single on CD (the digipack was lovely) and, apart from being completely blown away by the song (still one of the strongest tunes they've ever written in my opinion), I thought Living Forever was a positive indicator of what to expect on the album. Not only were the lyrics a pertinent comment on the trend of the media and so-called experts telling us what to eat and how to live our lives, but the extended instrumental was something that only Genesis could do and I love it when they are unashamedly themselves.
I remember buying the No Son Of Mine single on CD (the digipack was lovely) and, apart from being completely blown away by the song (still one of the strongest tunes they've ever written in my opinion), I thought Living Forever was a positive indicator of what to expect on the album. Not only were the lyrics a pertinent comment on the trend of the media and so-called experts telling us what to eat and how to live our lives, but the extended instrumental was something that only Genesis could do and I love it when they are unashamedly themselves.
Very well said - "Living Forever" is one of my favorite songs on WCD for precisely the reasons you spelled out.
I remember in fall of '91: I was only 12 years old then, and I went to a big warehouse where you could listen to cd's they sold. When I put on the headphones there and the cd started playing, I was blown away by especially the No Son of Mine. I strongly remember the moment when the drums came in. Due the time I had to listen (I think 15 minuten, passing the time waiting for my parents), I very quickly skipped Jesus He Knows Me, but had just the time to listen to the whole Driving The Last Spike. Then I had to leave, without having listened to the rest of the album. But, hey, I would go home with in my head those two fantastic tracks.
By the time it was Christmas I got a copy of the cd on (a pair of two C60) cassettes. It was only until the summer that I bought the cd, just before I went to see them in Rotterdam on 28th of July 1992...
Nowadays, I still like WCD very much...
I don't know. Certainly Phil has criticised Tony's lyrics in the past because he's the poor sucker who has to sing them! I know Tony doesn't like Phil's version of A Groovy Kind Of Love...but then again nether does Phil!
As for WCD, maybe you're right in that Phil didn't like the song at the time they recorded it. The only time I've seen him mention it is on the Extras DVD which obviously was made some time after.
I remember that comment by Phil too. I think he specifically mentioned cul de sac, which does have terrible lyrics.
Big fan of wcd. It's quite a rich album. NSOM is one of their strongest songs ever. And I love DWYS.
I remember that comment by Phil too. I think he specifically mentioned cul de sac, which does have terrible lyrics.
Big fan of wcd. It's quite a rich album. NSOM is one of their strongest songs ever. And I love DWYS.
Actually may have been burning rope. I can't remember where I saw it so I can't check
I remember that comment by Phil too. I think he specifically mentioned cul de sac, which does have terrible lyrics.
Big fan of wcd. It's quite a rich album. NSOM is one of their strongest songs ever. And I love DWYS.
I was neutral on Cul de Sac until someone here said it was about the extinction of the dinosaurs and others backed that up. Until then I'd thought it was generally about someone or a group of people not realising they're being usurped, the idea of not knowing until too late you've allowed yourself to die out. If it's specifically about the dinosaurs dying out it's a stupid lyric. So I decided to stick with my interpretation!
Banks wrote some terrible overcooked lyrics, often laden with cod philosophy, or irritatingly twee. On the same album he gave us the daft bombast of Burning Rope, yet also the gentle simplicity of Many Too Many. I love Undertow musically and Collins does a great job of handling a silly melodramatic lyric. Some of Banks's lyrics must've been a real trial for PC to get his mouth around. I remember him saying Banks obviously never thought about what it's physically like to sing words such as undinal, breadbin, nylon sheets & blankets and double glazing!
No Son took a long time to percolate in my mind, literally years. It's a bold song to use as lead single and open an album and a gig.
I much preferred the live Dreaming. I felt they gave it more atmosphere and the lighting added to that, but the substandard animation that played on the screen detracted from it.
I remember that comment by Phil too. I think he specifically mentioned cul de sac, which does have terrible lyrics.
Big fan of wcd. It's quite a rich album. NSOM is one of their strongest songs ever. And I love DWYS.
Actually may have been burning rope. I can't remember where I saw it so I can't check
I remember the same thing: it's "Cul-de-Sac". That is mentioned, I think, in the "Chapter and Verse" book, or either an interview with Phil on TSL video, one of the interviews on the boxset DVDs, or the extras on "When In Rome". Of course, it could be somewhere else - I'm having trouble remembering exactly where too! 
I know I've read that Phil had a hard time with the lyrics for both Cul-de Sac and Burning Rope, as well as a buch of other stuff that Tony wrote. What's undeniable is that he loves the guy. I think that the musical chemistry between them, with Tony' predilection for off-the-wall subject matter and unorthodox lyrics combined with Phil's more straight-ahead approach to both, was one of the strongest apsects of the three-man lineup. That Phil could sing lines such as "sheets of double glazing" with the same level of conviction as, say, "she seems to have an invisible touch" says an awful lot about his talents.
That Phil could sing lines such as "sheets of double glazing" with the same level of conviction as, say, "she seems to have an invisible touch" says an awful lot about his talents.
Indeed. It really underlines how being a singer is a lot about interpretation and it's a very particular skill. In a way, PC's versatility as a singer is in parallel with his incredible adaptability as a drummer.
I should say, I didn't want to sound too widely damning of TB as a lyricist. As I said, while producing some overly ornate and ungainly stuff, he could also create the lyrical equivalent of clean straight lines and yet still tell a story, Afterglow being a prime example, or convey a feeling or concept, such as Fading Lights, taking us back to WCD.
I think that cumbersome aspect of his lyrics fell away with time.
