Posts by raelway siding

Quote from foxfeeder

I bought music on cassette from about 1973 to 1982, when I got a turntable. None of the albums up to Abacab ever came out on Chrome. Many, as happened in those days, had tracks shuffled to even out side lengths, Silent Sorrow was on "side 2" (ie/ the second half of side 1) of the tape, somewhere near counting out time, as I recall.

Just found this on Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/Genesis-Foxtrot/release/12822562

So it looks like Foxtrot at least was reissued on chrome tape, in 1986. Surely wasn't the only one? Might make it my mission to collect any/all Genesis chrome cassettes!

Was just wondering if there are others like me who first encountered Genesis on cassette? In the early 90s when I was a young teenager it was the most popular format, and tapes were easy and cheap to get second hand. I had most of the Genesis albums (except Duke for some reason) on tape at that time, and for many years that's the only way I heard them. FGTR, Live and Seconds Out I had on LP.

I recently got myself a decent cassette deck again and am quite tempted to get all the old Genesis tapes again for nostalgic reasons (i got rid of them over 15 years ago). Does anyone know if any of the early albums were ever reissued on chrome tape? I know Genesis, IT and WCD were on chrome. Would be nice to get the others if they exist.

Quote from boredatwork

I’ve always liked this affectionate - & hummable - evocation of a young Phil!

I'd never come across this idea before, but reading the lyrics it does add up! Has anyone in the band verified it? Makes me like the song even more!

A lovely song, but I agree that the studio version is a little bit restrained. I don't recall ever thinking very much about it until I heard the live version on the Secret World DVD.

I always wonder if the line "seeing things that were not there" is a kind of veiled reference to Supper's Ready, which was supposedly based on a vision he and his wife had (if I recall correctly?). Probably not, but I do like the idea!

Nothing beats the atmosphere of this song - dank, misty, sinister, ancient. The dynamics on display are outstanding, even if the young Genesis are still a bit rough round the edges.

I also like the way the first and last tracks on Nursery Cryme are linked by themes of sexuality gone horribly wrong. A psychoanalyst would have had a field day with these repressed public school boys singing about sexually mature man-children, and hideously conjoined lovers!

Quote from chema

supper's ready is very cohesive. the duke suite and the dodo suite would have been more like kate bush's the ninth wave: a set of songs thematically linked, each one of which merge into the next one.

unquiet slumbers for the sleepers / in that quiet earth / afterglow can be regarded as a little suite, as well. even the two previous songs, all in a mouse's night and blood on the rooftops could be added. the story that links them all could be something like this: a young couple who lives happily and their worst problem is a mouse hanging aroung from time to time, are watching the tv news. then a catastrophe starts to happen, an earthquake perhaps. and finally, the narrator regrets having lost their house and everything...

Reminds me strongly of the lyrics to Domino, funnily enough!

All the Genesis albums from Trespass through to CAS are shortly to be reissued on vinyl.

https://www.loudersound.com/ne…ums-set-for-vinyl-reissue

It looks like these are going to be the 2007 remixes, so this doesn't interest me that much. I do desperately need a copy of TLLDOB on vinyl, but I think I'll wait till a reasonably priced original comes my way, or they release audiophile, fully analogue reissues of the original mixes.

Quote from Witchwood

Agreed. To my ears, Lizard has a cacophonous and occasional carnival-like quality that I certainly don't hear in SEBTP.

It is arguably the most divisive album among KC fans. Some hail Lizard as a complex work of genius. Others think it's one of their weakest or worst albums.

I'm firmly in the latter camp, though I'll concede there are a few fleeting bits on it I do like.

Lizard is one of my most cherished albums (it reminds me a lot more of Foxtrot by the way). It isn't perfect - the Lizard suite doesn't build up to anything much after the wonderful bolero section, and Cirkus is no match for 21st Century Schizoid Man - but overall I love the feel of it - so strange, wonderful and dreamy.

Also wanted to stick up for Man of Our Times (which I think is generally not well liked, so perhaps doesn't fit this discussion anyway).

Phil's performance is incredible. It's the first time on record he matches the strident power of Gabriel for me. The repetitive/hypnotic/head-banging synthesizer riff also makes me think of Back in NYC. I think it's classy art-rock, and I wouldn't have Duke without it.

Quote from Dr. John

One for the Vine is a song that many seem to view as one of Tony's better compositions. I just can't get into it. The lyric/story for me is kind of obvious

Maybe I'm a bit slow, but it honestly took me 20 odd years to understand the story properly - that at the end of the song the protagonist is supposed to be viewing himself disappearing, becoming everything he is running away from. Like in an endless loop. I think it's quite clever, certainly one of their best fantasy lyrics. Was interested to read that Tony was inspired by a Michael Moorcock novel - and it certainly feels very Moorcockian.

Still have no idea why it's called One for the Vine though! Anybody?

Blimey, there's three choices I wouldn't have expected. Can kind of understand Get 'em Out, it is a quirky story-song like Battle of Epping Forest - not to everyone's taste. But I find the lyrics quite amusing, and quite affecting - they feel like the beginning of Peter's concern for human rights. Certainly 10x better than the embarrassing lyrics to Time Table.

And Dance on a Volcano?? That opening riff? It's peerless. No other 70s band could pull off something that strange and that brilliant, and still be so strongly melodic. Not even Yes or King Crimson.

The Knife and Stagnation - well, you are allowed to like both you know! I think most people like The Knife because it's a powerful, dramatic proto-metal tune. I know people who like this song by Genesis, and this song only! I love Ant Phillips' playing on this - beautifully instinctive and untutored. Naive but powerfully expressive.

hmm, well apart from Mad Man Moon I actually largely agree.

Open Door in particular is pretty weak. No discernible tune. Chamber I mostly like, it's just the "I'd rather trust a country man..." bits that feel a bit corny to me. Many too Many is pleasant but Undertow is much, much better.

Mad Man Moon though... what the hell is wrong with you??

My choice would be Home by the Sea. I like the instrumental part, but the lyrics really let it down for me. It's supposed to be this spooky ghost story, but it just seems like someone describing a visit to an old people's home (by the sea) where the inmates bore the narrator by showing him old photos and talking about their lives all day.

It might sound strange - for a band that have been a massive part of my life - but I can't for the life of me remember what the first Genesis I heard was! I know it must have been around the time of the release of the No Son of Mine single - I had it on cassette single (remember them!), but really can't recall if I had heard anything before that. I remember I wasn't a huge fan of the song - I just liked it - but I loved the B-side Living Forever. I was 13/14 and already really into 70s stuff like Queen and Led Zep, as well as metal like Maiden and Sabbath. So I think I was aware that Genesis were another band that had been around for a long time, and that their earlier stuff was full of long songs and instrumental sections. I'd already decided this was what I liked so I quickly got myself some second hand Genesis albums on tape.

It might well have been Foxtrot first - I wish I could remember! - but I do remember that I loved every album I got. Unlike other bands I liked (Queen, Pink Floyd) there didn't seem to be any dud albums, no below-par songs, everything was so solid, as well as being deliciously strange and beautifully melodic.

I do know that the album that made me a FAN was Three Sides Live. It just confirmed to me that here was a band with a long, interesting history who couldn't seem to write a bad song. I just loved it all, from Me and Sarah Jane to Fountain of Salmacis. The whole album is so atmospheric, and takes me back to summer 1992 every time I hear it. I also remember that Duke was one of the last albums I got because I thought I already had most of the songs on 3SL. It's now one of my favourite G albums...

Always find this a bit tricky - basically everything between Trespass and Duke inclusive could be at the top of my list on any given day. I love them all, for different reasons and in different ways. It just depends on my mood.

For the rest, it would probably go something like this:

10. Abacab

11. From Genesis to Revelation

12. Invisible Touch

13. We Can't Dance

14. Genesis

15. Calling All Stations

I must add that I do love numbers 10 to 14 almost as much as the top tier, I just consider them to have stronger flaws. And I know technically FGTR is weaker than the albums below it, but I've always loved the simple charm of it, as well as Peter's singing.

CAS I only like a handful of the songs (and a couple of the B-sides) and find it significantly below par. Plus I just don't like Ray Wilson's voice.

I put together a shortened version of We Can't Dance, as if it had been released in the LP era. I think it works quite well:

No Son of Mine

Driving the Last Spike

Never a Time

Living Forever

Hold on my Heart

Way of the World

On the Shoreline

Fading Lights

It can't really be called WCD any more because it doesn't contain the ICD monstrosity. I call it "Fading Lights"

I've said this before, but Looking for Someone always stands out for me.

Lyrically it reminds me strongly of Peter Gabriel's solo work - an introspective, personal song without characters, which doesn't tell a story, is not fantastical, and is in the first person. I can't think of another Gabriel-era Genesis song quite like it. Musically as well, it really stands out for me. Obviously the instrumentation means it fits in with the early Genesis sound, but the composition... I don't know, it makes me think more of some of the other early prog bands that were around at the same time - like Rare Bird, or something. Weirdly enough, it also reminds me of some of Tony Banks' solo work - not sure why that is. But it just doesn't sound like Genesis to me!

Quote from Merryman

Do you have a source for this? Who sat down Noel Gallagher and played him "The Conqueror", of all things?

Here you go -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H619sdxUe8A

Quite bizarre really.