Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, / Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, / All the King's horses and all the King's men, / Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Their mistake was, of course, letting the horses have the first go. 
Posts by foxfeeder
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I am not a huge David Bowie fan. I have a few greatest hits albums and that's enough for me!...
. So don't own any of his classic albums. 
Sort of the same here, my wife has Heathen, and the double singles collection, and that's enough for me.
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Mixed feelings on this. I too would like to get back to Hackett material tours, but I think we'll have to accept those days are gone. I don't blame Steve for chasing the lucrative path, he has every right, but as it seems to be making his solo work suffer, I'd rather he didn't.
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One of the best tracks on arguably their best album. Almost a genre on it's own.
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Featuring Steve Hackett's old Mellotron?
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Abandoned DanceHall Dreams - Tim Bowness
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No subject is a guarantee of a good song.
Well, that's me told. Again! By the master of argument. Perhaps you missed the word "surely"?
Read up on Ted and Sylvia's life story, and I think you'll find most half decent songwriters could come up with something interesting, lyrically. Then listen to the song in question, pretty much a chronological statement of the facts. Maybe you could think before posting "Am I adding something useful, or just getting people's backs up?"
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Love that track
Me too! Apparently, she turned it down 8 years earlier.
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I don't have a problem with Steve's vocals for the most part.
As for Jim Diamond... frankly, I'd rather listen to Steve sing.
I like Jim, but I can see he would not be to everyone's taste. Perhaps no-one is? I've always thought Elvis was over-rated. (I have the first Ph.D album, had it since 1982, great album, has similarities to ATTWT (Only one track with guitar!) Jim is the D in Ph.D)
Annie Lennox was mentioned, she brings up an interesting point: she's OK, indeed, at times, very good, on Eurythmic records, where Dave Stewart is steering the ship and guiding her. Her solo efforts, however! No More I love You's (a cover) is awful, and she murdered A Whiter Shade of Pale. Point is, a Producer, or sometimes an artist who has a handle on the direction they wish to go, can make or break a record. Steve has, IMO, made a number of very fine albums which have hit the target (artistically) despite some arguable weaknesses. He has made one or two turkeys too, Cured is weak, Blues with a Feeling has some good moments, but as a Blues album, it's not quite there. As Graeme Edge of the Moody Blues put it: "We'd never even seen a bale of cotton, let alone picked one". He also hasn't made a good album since GR2, which may or may not be related, (I think it is, he had chart success and is trying to keep it up. Artistically, he has let the ball drop).
As another example, Nanci Griffith has made some beautiful records with various producers. For Hearts in Mind, she did it herself with band member LeAnn Etheridge. She hadn't got a clue. She said she was amazed she could "scat" - She can't! She included a song by LeAnn about Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, surely a guarantee of a good song, given the subject matter. A more prosaic, pedestrian song I can't imagine. I Love This Town is supposedly a satire of suburban life, by an English songwriter, but is just humourless and bitter. A producer would have got a good album out of her. A missed opportunity.
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I've never really had an issue with Steve's vocals, apart from bits of Cured. Certainly, there are much better singers, and Steve himself would agree, I'm sure (He has alluded to it himself at gigs) but vocalists cost money, and there have been times that the cash was a touch short.
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, since his voice is not no. 1 attraction to his music, and it's not his prime reason for making the albums. Also, he has achieved some nice touches on occasions. To a Close is one example, using multi=tracking and studio effects, he gets a really nice, effective sound that fits the song well.
If you really want to criticize vocals, I've just heard the worst culprit on the radio: Shania Twain. She's a singer! That's her main appeal, yet she has a dreadful voice, uses Autotune to extremes, and can't even decide what genre she wants to be.
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One of Steve's best, IMO. Loved it first time I heard it, now well over 30 years ago.
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Someone will be along shortly to criticize the chorus!
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I've stared at that one to the extent of even trying to see if parts of any of the words count as body parts, and wondering ridiculous things like, could 'sound' be a body part (as you said) or 'superior'??? But I admit defeat. As I did with the earlier 'Cherry Pie'. I mean, it's just spoiling the whole thing for everyone!
I kind of wish I hadn't started it now. We've got more eyes than several truckloads of potatoes.
I've deleted the offending (and boy, do you seem offended. Unnecessarily so, it has to be said!) post. Please accept my indifference!
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So, the body part is "sound" or the entirety of Elton John?
BOT:
"Goldfinger" - Shirley Bassey
Hmmm! Why is this here, and not in "What Are I Listening To Now"?
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^ Some interesting points there. And surprising ones too; not that I can claim to know your tastes especially well, but I instinctively thought you'd like at least the first Apple Venus album. There are a couple of beautiful songs on it - Easter Theatre, Harvest Festival, I Can't Own Her, and some of their most complex, layered work. It might be my favourite album of theirs.
Pop to 'prog'.... I'm not sure about that. What of their later work feels proggy to you? I remember Moulding saying he had Genesis in mind when he wrote The Smartest Monkeys and wanted a Wakeman-esque solo from Gregory, himself a bit of a progger who now plays with a Swindon-based band The Tin Spirits who include Genesis and Crimson songs in their set. Partridge also said he wanted Nick Davis to produce that album as he loved the sound he brought to We Can't Dance.
You are absolutely right, DG was vital in their arrangements. Also, while I do like the Andrews era, I prefer the later stuff and thought DG's arrival improved their overall sound. Black Sea is still a huge album for me.
Re Another Satellite (a great song) - yes he did end up with the subject of that track, Erica something?, who was also the girl with him on the cold grey November beach in Seagulls Screaming, his record of a secret tryst.
There's certainly some quality in Apple Venus, River or Orchids and I Can't Own Her are good, but it never quite hits the spot, overall. Most of the later stuff sounds proggy to me, there's more to prog than 10 minute songs. Black Sea, and in particular Towers of London, via the TV docu "XTC at the manor" are what got me and a friend into XTC in the first place.
Seagulls Screaming, one of my XTC top ten, and topical, as I'm currently on holiday in Tenby!
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Steve Hackett - Genesis Revisited
the first one, apparently. Besides some wonderful vocals by Paul Carrack, I always thought that Steve's version of Firth Of Fifth could be the definite one.
It's sad he wasn't as brave on GR2. GR had much more creativity.
I agree with this entirely, GR2 is a missed opportunity, and sadly, Steve hasn't made a great album since (Squacket preceded it as a recording) FoF is definitely a better version on GR.
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I know there are others who like them here, too. I'm sure Counting Out Time has mentioned them before. While Andy is the songwriting heavyweight in the band, it's worth pointing out that Colin, in any other band, might have been the key men. While they were, indeed, never punk, the Barry Andrews era doesn't really interest me much. Dave Gregory has, to my mind, similarities to Steve Hackett. Never a songwriter AT ALL, he influenced the bands sound and provided arrangements that proved key in their artistic success, if not commercial. His leaving made them poorer too, the 2 Apple Venus album's have never really held my attention much either.
It's worth mentioning, they went the opposite way to Genesis, starting as pop and becoming prog!
Another Satellite, from 1984's Skylarking, is a song telling a woman who was, it appeared, an obsessed fan to quit it. Eventually, it turned out Partridges wife was controlling him with the drugs he was prescribed for his anxiety issues, and he is now (still?) married to the subject of the song.
Of course, as this photo of me in Pompeii last year shows, I'm not JUST an XTC fan:
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