Posts by Backdrifter

  • TotW 09/25/2023 - 10/01/2023: GENESIS - Fly On A Windshield

    Quote from Schrottrocker

    It is one of the good moments on this album, though the downside is it is one these incomplete tracks - when regarded on its own, without Broadway Melody of 1974 - that The Lamb has a number of. You just started, it gets going really strong, and you're already in another song. In this case the transition works well but I still wished they would have gone for more complete songs.

    I get that, but for me and I assume others it's not incomplete. It's exactly what it needs to be, nothing more. If they'd run it any longer it wouldn't make sense and would be overstretched. This being a long complex story album it's appropriate to have the structure it does.


    One of the many things I love about this, my absolute favourite Genesis album by some distance, is the different approach it necessitated which led to them using strong fragments as whole songs where they'd normally have joined them into longer multi-sectioned songs. But I understand why that wouldn't sit well with some fans.

  • TotW 09/25/2023 - 10/01/2023: GENESIS - Fly On A Windshield

    I agree it's a standout. It's the whole band in top-notch form and for me it's especially Banks at his best, his inimitably slightly skewed lines conveying the sense of Rael entering this weird universe. When it breaks it creates a sense of menace they (frustratingly) rarely had. It showcases Hackett's supreme sense of economy, coaxing maximum effect from sparse lines, which comes across even more strongly on the Archive 1 set. Other rock guitarists would be noodling away over Banks's chords to show how many notes they could cram in, but not Hackett - he was the master of keeping it simple. Ditto Rutherford and Collins whose rhythm section work is unfussy while maintaining the dark brooding feel.


    As to the query over whether it had a working title, isn't the first section what they referred to as 'Pharaohs' while developing it?

    Quote from Mozo

    I suppose it's one of Steve's obvious absolute standout moments on the album, although his guitar playing is great on the whole thing.

    He used to say he felt rather sidelined on this album and that it was a step back from SEBTP, but I agree with you. His brilliant subtlety on the album is masterful and really demonstrates the colour he'd bring to Genesis.

  • RIP Thread!!

    Quote from Witchwood

    Hadn't seen Doctor In The House or any of the other Doctor series on TV in decades (it aired here on public television in the 1970s and '80s) but I revisited several episodes of the first series on YouTube a few months ago.

    On a tangent: as you may know, early 70s the Python team were on location and stayed in a hotel where Cleese was mesmerised by the manager's rudeness and apparent universal dislike for the residents. He turned this experience into one of the Doctor episodes in its early days when he and Graham Chapman were writers on the show - the TV company drawing on Chapman's experience as a qualified doctor. Cleese wrote the hotel episode solo, I think it might be called No Ill Feeling and it's on youtube. It's essentially the blueprint for Fawlty Towers. Sadly it isn't very good.

  • RIP Thread!!

    Sad to learn of the death of Geoffrey Davies, the suave Dick Stuart-Clark in the various versions of the 'Doctor' sitcom - Doctor In The House, Doctor On The Go, etc which those of us of a certain vintage will remember. Those series occupied most of the 70s for him and he's understandably well-remembered for them but he had an active career either side of that, mainly on TV and on stage.

  • RIP Thread!!

    Gayle Hunnicut, actor from Texas. Early in her career when she realised she was being groomed by Hollywood based on her looks, she moved to England where she enjoyed a broader range of screen work and particularly lots of theatre. She reportedly turned down the Bond girl role in Live & Let Die, Roger Moore's first 007 film, due to a theatre commitment in Surrey. She generally avoided the more cliched roles but did briefly return to the US to appear in Dallas as an ex-girlfriend of villain JR Ewing.

  • new interview for "Foxtrot At Fifty"

    Quote from Schrottrocker

    Steve: "John Lennon said Genesis were the true sons of the Beatles."

    There's other instances when Steve would say John Lennon said Genesis were the most interesting new band from England, and similar claims. Not to rain on Steve's parade but it would be interesting to find other sources confirm this. Some youtuber that I can't remember had a video in which he claimed he searched thoroughly but could not make out any sources for these statements of John Lennon's, except Steve himself who has seemingly repeated citing John Lennon from the early 70s onwards. Steve doesn't come across as if he is making things up but he appears to be the only person that can remember John Lennon say these things about Genesis.

    I'm beginning to think this too. First, I'd see this frequently repeated claim that in a WNEW NY interview Lennon cited SEBTP as his current favourite album. And when I say frequently repeated, I mean by Hackett. I hadn't heard of this supposed "true sons of the Beatles" comment until seeing the above post. Having just looked it up, all the references to it come from SH saying it in interviews in the last couple of years. In one he attributes it to a DJ based in Norfolk in east England who says he has an interview tape of Lennon saying it, describing Genesis and ELO in this way.


    It seems unlikely given that every molecule of Beatles-related media material is usually splashed around everywhere. Unless of course anyone knows of this alleged Norfolk interview and is aware of it being accessible somewhere. But even the WNEW interview has been described as debatable. At the moment it seems to me these Lennon attributions are solely in Hackett's head but I hope I'm wrong.

  • The Thread Of Complete Randomness

    I've just seen reports from 2 years ago about a supermarket in Denmark that won't let shoppers in unless they smile at it. Its entrance is supposedly triggered by recognising a face smiling. All the reactions to this I've seen are positive, saying "I love this!" and "What a great idea!"


    If it's real and still going, I think it's bloody terrible. What a stupid system. And I'm not just saying that as someone who, while generally positive and optimistic, has a default scowling expression that has to be torturously coaxed into a smile, although it's partly that.

  • When Fountain of Salmacis Went Trance

    Quote from panopticom

    I think the chord progression is pretty obvious (C#m - G#m - AMaj7), even the rhythm of the progression is basically the same, it's just missing the melody on top of it.


    At 7:30 in this video it's quite well demonstrated, although it could be a re-recording of the chord progression?

    OK thanks that helped, got it now. But yes, I reckon a re-record rather than a sample.


    The sources I saw citing samples at specific points in the song are misleading.

  • When Fountain of Salmacis Went Trance

    Quote from panopticom

    The chord progression throughout the tune is taken from DWTMK.

    I'm officially confused. I've seen different sources saying there are samples "at 00.07, 00.15 and throughout" and that the sample occurs at 01.30. I can't hear either the alleged samples or the chord progression, which I've not seen referred to anywhere. I didn't know the track but quite like it as I have other stuff of theirs. Very nice horn section.


    I like trance and the Salmacis one is OK although it seems a bit of a shotgun marriage. Not keen on rap but the Firth sample is used quite well in that one.


    Not the same thing but these at least nudge towards my desire to hear unusual full-on covers of Genesis, not just tribute acts or proggy wannabes but unexpected takes. I still yearn to hear eg a brutal industrial electro version of Ripples or whatever.

  • STEVE HACKETT will play Lamb-Songs during new show in 2024 - UK dates announced!

    Quote from Thelawnmower

    Nad has got a lot stronger in terms of vocals as the tours have progressed. His flamboyance is kept in check in the sense that Steve is very much centre stage and I have really enjoyed Nad’s performance on the last few tours- having felt he was a little bit the weak link at the start. As for the mission creep of the guitar- apart from the end of Supper’s Ready, which I’ve enjoyed, I haven’t noticed it on any other songs. If anything it’s the sax/clarinet/flute parts that have been expanded. I would expect a prolonged Waiting Room jam to mop this up but I think Steve’s class will shine through in restraining himself on other songs.

    It's not NS's vocals that have been my main problem, I've always found them kind of okay if a bit colourless which doesn't help when interpreting songs originally sung by such distinctive vocalists. It's his overall presence I don't much like. I've never found him particularly flamboyant and it probably wouldn't bother me if I did. In some ways I might prefer if he were to be more so.


    The sax/flute stuff can be a problem for me. The flute was used horribly on I&O on the W&W 40th tour and killed one of my favourite songs, as I've previously whinged about. That show was what put an end to my seeing these SH shows. On balance I'll probably stick to that policy.