Posts by Gabble Ratchet

American Pie - Don McClean

Honey, honey - ABBA

Red red wine - UB40

Sweets for my sweet - The Searchers

Quote from Old Miss Mort

10. Can-Utility and the Coastliners

A magical track that never grows old. I don't see it mentioned often.

9. The Musical Box

It wasn't difficult selecting my top five or so tracks, but six through ten are nearly interchangeable.

I can sense you mulling over this as I type. What will #8 be, I wonder?

Ballad of Big - Genesis

Big yellow taxi - Joni Mitchell

Mellow Yellow - Donovan

(And now it’s gone! 😂)

Quote from Blacksword

^^^ I won't bite!

Someone will if we wait long enough. It’s still there. Talk about low hanging fruit 😂

Another brick in the wall - part 1 / Pink Floyd

(Here's a giveaway if ever I knew one!)

Quote from Blacksword

Technicalities aside, Duke could have been one of their strongest albums with a bit of thoughtful track juxtaposition and editing, and the ommission of Misunderstanding and Please Don't Ask, but they were moving on, and if that's what they felt they needed to do, then so be it. Duke was their farewell to prog rock album IMO.

BTW, have you heard the re-working of Heathhaze, with added Mellotron? Very nice.

Couldn't agree more! I find it quite poignant that their farewell to prog took place in the closing months of the decade. The song writing took place Sep- Dec '79 though the album was not released until March 1980. A new decade, with new trends and a new direction to follow as tracks like 'Misuderstanding' and 'Please don't ask' signpost. Incidentally, it's tracks such as these two that have stopped me listening to albums anymore. I'm a confirmed 'playlister' these days whose best friend is the 'shuffle' button.

Heathaze with added Mellotron, eh? I know a lot of people on this forum slate the track but I actually like it and now it's being served with a helping of Mellotron sauce?...ooh, yes please!! Can you post a link?

Great balls of fire - Jerry Lee Lewis

...If only I had the editing skills to fade the song out before this, then the song would make my 'playlist'. Alas, I don't! I'm reminded of Mark Twain's comment about golf: "A good walk, ruined!"

Quote from Blacksword

This is difficult, I could easily choose ten from the Gabriel era, and ten from the Trick to Duke era, but I guess, for my number 8 I'll go with..

8 - Undertow from ATTWT.

The lyrics always moved me with their musing on the precious nature of time, and not taking what you have for granted. The chorus, with it's big drums, bass synth and soaring keys is perfect Genesis from that period.

On my list too! Anthemic choruses give me the goosebumps. Put it there, mate! 🖐

Quote from mdepps

#8 is Many Too Many, a bitter love song from And Then There Were Three.

Hackett having left they abolished the role of lead guitar and did it all with keyboards, squeezing out this, their last great album.

In many ways Hackett's exit is more significant than Gabriel's. The latter they did see coming, and Banks actually described it as a relief.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Duke. Listen to the 'Duke suite' stitched together as it was originally planned and it's prog rock's last grand 'hurrah'! The other songs are their solo stuff, 2 songs from each which clearly signposts where they're heading.

As for Hackett's exit being more significant, you're probably right. His soaring guitar was certainly missed on Attw3. Rutherford stepped up to the mark but in his own words 'only just about managed it.' Apart from his solo on 'Burning Rope', what else is there? And Gabriel was basically a lyricist and personally I'd sacrifice lyrics any day for Hackett in full throttle (and that's saying something coming from a writer) Performance-wise is another matter though. Oh, to have been old enough to see Gabriel prancing around on stage in the early 70s! How I could curse my mum and dad for not getting it off sooner - lol

Here's the 27 min 'Duke suite' as originally intended. Give it another go!

Yes, I’m also pleased that The Little Prince got dropped. As for ‘mouse’s night’, I can take it all except for that ending where the music slows into ghastly pantomime:

“Then comes this monster mouse, he's ten feet tall...

No! no! a thousand times: no!

IT’S TIME TO NAME YOUR #8

Those of you following this GENESIS TOP 10 COUNTDOWN will know that my top 10 fall into 4 distinct groups which I’ve likened to the medals awarded at Chelsea. We’re now in SILVER medal territory so we’ve taken a step up in terms of quality. Here’s my #8

Fountain of Salmacis from the album Nursery Cryme (1971) SILVER

Genesis' Third LP, Nursery Cryme, begins and ends with its two strongest tracks and whilst Salmacis might not match the intensity and drama of The Musical Box, Banks’ swirling mellotron opener creates a magical atmosphere rarely seen outside the pages of a book - and as a fantasy author myself, this is the track I reach for when I’m seeking inspiration.

The lyrics tell the story from Greek mythology of Hermaphroditus and the nymph Salmacis. This is no ‘fumble behind the bike sheds’ song. The posh boys from Charterhouse would need a few more years before they were able to deal with love and romance in an everyday context. (“I was basically repressed,” was how Tony Banks explained it). This is high brow classicism in the form of a musical novella in which Gabriel sings the roles of Narrator, Hermaphroditus and Salmacis with Phil coming in on those lines where a dual vocal was needed. As has become their trademark, the music ebbs and flows with the emotional tide of the song thanks to Tony Banks who creates a rare symbiosis between lyric and music which is in synch with the merging of the song’s two characters in the story.

"The Fountain of Salmacis" was a mainstay of their live set until displaced on the release of ‘Selling England by the Pound.’ It remained as an occasional encore until Gabriel left the band in ‘75.

Both highly cerebral and deeply emotional, "The Fountain of Salmacis" consolidated the use of classicism in lyrics and helped establish prog rock as the ‘thinking man’s music’ aimed at the intellectual elite; something that I, for one, am more than happy to endorse - lol 😜 As a good friend of mine joked, 'Boris Johnson probably loves it!'

The great GIG in the sky - Pink Floyd

Yeah, remember Dreadlock Holiday? Another classic

I’m not in love - 10cc