Posts by Dr. John

    The song in question had a very nice country cover done by Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. You can find a video of it on Youtube (won't post it to avoid the spoiler).

    Now that we are not worried about spoilers on this thread, here is the video of Alison Krauss and Vince Gill doing an acoustic country version of That's All. I doubt we'll hear a version quite this country, but it is nice to hear how Genesis songs can be reinvented.


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    Taylor Swift started out primarily as a country singer-songwriter and then expanded more generally into pop.


    The song in question had a very nice country cover done by Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. You can find a video of it on Youtube (won't post it to avoid the spoiler).

    This is a fairly tough question. Most of their albums had great opening songs and songs that opened the albums in different ways. Sometimes the songs would slam right in; sometimes they would gradually build.


    If I had to pick just one, I will have to go with TLLDOB. It is such a great piano part by that itself takes us a bit of a journey before building to the point where the band kicks in. The ritard that happens just before the band kicks in adds some extra dramatic tension. And having the singing start with the refrain is unusual for Genesis - it hooks you in right away.

    I think there are often two somewhat diverging agendas that are both understandable. Fans like a band for a certain reason and often want to keep getting the same stuff they enjoy. Artists primarily enjoy creating new things, not simply doing the same thing over and over (that's what a cover band does). So it seems inevitable that many artists will diverge from at least some of their early fan base.

    Musically and lyrically the section "And it's hey babe..." is a link into the final section. As noted, it is a reprise of Lover's Leap. So it could have been titled as it's own section, perhaps as "Lover's Leap (reprise)". But I can understand not wanting to title such a short snippet, so adding that bit to the end of Apocalypse is the simplest solution.


    Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but ASAEIE is also a reprise, this time of Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man. And that dit-dit-dit-diiit part is Mike high up on the 12 string if I'm not mistaken.

    I've been a huge Beatles fan since I was a young teen. I learned how to play guitar by learning most of the Beatles catalogue.


    I saw A Hard Day's Night in the theatre in the early 80s. What I remember distinctly was a whole bunch of screaming female teens who repeatedly ran up front to the screen, attempting to touch the images of the Fab Four. Some of them semi-swooned. They all must have been born after The Beatles broke up.

    Many Too Many is possible - I seem to recall at least some members had spoken about it as a consideration previously.


    If they drop the numbers that really featured Phil's drumming, that would eliminate many live staples: Cinema Show instrumental, Firth of Fifth instrumental, 2nd Home By the Sea, Los Endos. It also makes the Fading Lights instrumental less likely.


    If they are dropping some longstanding features of their setlists, In the Cage makes sense as they have played it for most tours since 1978 except the We Can't Dance tour.

    Yes, I was thinking of digitizing my tapes. I have a converter that I can plug my turntable or my tapedeck into. However, I also need to set aside the time to work on this.


    I also have mixed feelings about streaming in terms of compensation to the artist. So I try to own music I want to listen to. I will use YouTube to preview music that I might end up purchasing, trying to use the artist's own channel if it exists.


    I also still have an attachment to the physical item for music. I've gone completely digital in so many other ways: photos, videos, documents. But I like my CDs and albums. Plus, I'm not sure how I would get an artist to autograph my digital download.

    Mostly CDs at home, with some vinyl. I have a large cassette collection, but worry they will disintegrate when I next play them as they are all at least 30 years old.


    For travelling, whenever that happens again, we bring along my very old 160G iPod which has pretty much our entire CD collection loaded on it.


    At work, it is mainly YouTube.


    In the car, it is mainly the radio although I actually have a CD player in the car which we use for shorter trips.

    Solsbury Hill

    Humdrum

    Here Comes The Flood

    My picks also. Even though Solsbury Hill is played a lot, I never tire of it. Humdrum is a great little track. Here Comes the Flood is one of my favourite Gabriel songs. However, I do find this version a bit too bombastic and over the top. I prefer the one on Fripp's Exposure or the solo piano version he plays on that Kate Bush special.

    Periodically we go through this discussion about Genesis "going pop/selling out". A lot of good points have been made above and I want to echo some of that and add a few points.


    Genesis has always tried to write songs that would be popular. As mentioned, The Silent Sun is a pretty blatant attempt at a single in the style of its era. Happy the Man and IKWIL are examples from the early 70s. However their attempts at pop didn't really connect with a larger audience until probably Follow You, Follow Me. And then they just kept connecting more and more successfully. At the same time they also kept creating more challenging songs that were not going to be played on pop radio.


    I think it is actually quite hard to write a pop song that really becomes a big hit. There are always people trying to write pop hits and most fail to be successful. Writing a simple song might sometimes be simple, but writing a simple song that lots of people like is not so simple. And it is a particular talent to do this repeatedly.


    And I'll say again that writing music to make money does not have to compromise the quality of the music. Some of the greatest music of all time was written to order, on commission with specific expectations. Many of the songs that stand the test of time were written very deliberately to be hits. The quality of the music has more to do with the artist than whether or not there was an objective to make money.

    I'm less concerned about setlist spoilers. I am more interested in how the songs will be performed this time around, anticipating some modifications and changes.


    While there is definitely an adrenaline rush with being surprised as I recognize a song I was not expecting, there are also pleasures from anticipating a song I know will be performed and being able to fully pay attention to how they bring it across this time.

    How every AC/DC song is built:

    Monster riff starting with Angus, then bolstered by Malcolm. Add steady backbeat and bass to complete the groove. Add a throat-shredding vocal about doing something uncouth, illegal, or sexual. Add a chorus that is suitable for drunken screaming in a bar or at a concert. Add a wicked guitar solo. Finish with more scream-along choruses and perhaps another guitar solo.


    How every Rolling Stones song is built:

    Start with a slightly sloppy guitar riff that borrows equally from Chuck Berry and country. Add a great backbeat that always sounds like it is about to slow down. Add a slightly slurred, lascivious vocal singing lyrics that, when decipherable, are some cynical take on personal relationships or social-political issues. Add off-key harmonies, except when done by fabulous back-up singers.

    It was dropped after New Zealand and never got played on the Australian leg. There is a recording of that last performance and you can hear Phil's poor voice breaking a number of times in Apocalypse and ASAEIE. He clearly gets rattled in Apocalypse as he completely messes up the words also:

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    That must have been incredible to see, Dr. John.

    It was really cool. I was 18 and it was my first Genesis concert. I bought a cheap seat at the back end of CNE stadium and then "migrated" in the stands to a spot much closer by the time of this medley. There was an interesting reaction from the crowd when they started Apocalypse. There was a smaller roar of recognition and excited gestures from some. There was also puzzlement and some heading for the bathrooms/concession stands (which had already started during In the Cage). For me, I was filled with both energy and awe. By the time Phil hit the final "Jerusaleeeeeem!!" I felt elevated up by the music. I was probably still basking in the afterglow when they next went into Invisible Touch, which I frankly don't remember at all.

    Two of my picks are fairly obvious: On the Air and DIY. Although I like the significantly different live versions of these songs, I also like the studio versions. On the Air has that strained, aggressive vocal and fuzzed up guitar. DIY is a bit more subdued, with the laid-back verses and more intimate production sound. I also picked Indigo, which I think is a lovely song that gets a bit neglected.

    The musicianship on the IT tour was great and the above Abacab performance is a good example. Not that the musicianship was ever poor on a Genesis tour, but the energy and further elaborations they did on instrumental passages were excellent. I agree it was on the fast side, but that was fine by me. They also had great energy performing Domino.


    I also agree that Phil's range was slipping a bit on the high notes compared to the Mama tour. He was always pushing himself hard through this period and I wonder if he had been a bit more careful with his voice, he might have gotten through this better.


    I was lucky enough to see this tour on the earlier leg, when they hit Toronto. So I got the ITC-full ITQE-Apocalypse/ASAEIE medley. I was thrilled when I realized they were heading into the full ITQE and then had to pick my jaw off the floor when it then went into Apocalypse.

    I guess I was just wondering why. Is there a reason why he would choose to play it on a guitar, and then use effects to drop the tone, as opposed to just playing it on a bass? I'm neither a guitarist nor bassist, so while I'm sure there's a reason for it, I don't know what it is. It was just something that I was curious about when watching the video. And then while I don't know that there's a way to know for sure, but do we think he was just doing that for the live performance, but used a bass for the studio recording? Or do we think he did the same thing; played the bass line on a guitar, going through an effects setup?

    My guess is this is how the arrangement developed in jamming and developing the song. Mike then continued to play this line, perhaps because he enjoyed it more. He might have added the other guitar part later and then Daryl took that on live.