Just the bones is a great track, would've been happy if it were on the album. I have digitized it if you need a copy.
Thanks for the offer. However, I've had a digital copy for years (along with many other odds and ends by various artists that were never released digitally). I just find it odd that Steve never gave it a proper digital release himself.
Well, if we want to go there, Peter has already started toying with that on PG3&4.
Well, I wouldn't claim that FACES was the first rock foray into "world music," just that it preceded the much-publicized GRACELAND.
I recall hearing part of a GRACELAND song (I wouldn't know which one), and it sounded almost exactly like part of "Matilda."
Thoughts in response to the review:
Till We Have Faces is frequently described as Hackett’s weakest album, worse even than Cured.
I've never understood the unpopularity of this album. I first heard it when it was new and fell in love with it right away.
The cover artwork by Kim Poor resembles images of dead souls being ferried across the Styx to Hades, the realm of the dead, though it was, in fact, based on the Genesis song Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats
I've always thought that the album, the cover and the title didn't really fit with each other.
A Doll That Made In Japan 7´ (backed with: Doll instrumental) and 12´ (backed with: Just The Bones)
I think "Just The Bones" and the instrumental version of "Doll" (or the extended 12" version which adds the instrumental version to the end of the album version) are the only Steve tracks to be released on vinyl but never on CD (well, besides that one WOLFLIGHT bonus track).
Original release / CD releases from 1994 onwards
The review doesn't mention one key difference between the original and later versions: the first part of "Matilda" has been heavily modified on the later version. I have both the original and later versions of the album on CD, but I only listen to the original version. However, I did include the modified "Matilda" in a custom "miscellaneous Steve tracks" collection I put together.
What’s My Name is definitely a highlight on the album and a great opening song.
I agree that WMN is a good song but I don't think it belongs as an opening track. The percussion intro is interesting and the chorus is great but Steve's vocals are substandard on the verses.
Let Me Count The Ways
My favorite track on the album. I especially like the drumming.
The Gulf - Compare this to the version on Feedback 86 / Stadiums Of The Damned
The FACES version of "Gulf" differs from the FEEDBACK version as follows: (1) FACES version is missing a brief acoustic guitar intro heard in the FEEDBACK version; (2) FACES version is faded about 45 seconds earlier than FEEDBACK version; (3) FACES adds choral vocals to the "maybe it's the will of the Lord" parts. In my book a perfect version of the song would have the intro, the longer fade and the choral vocals. (I could put that together with audio editing software if I really wanted to!)
I don't think there's any recognizable difference in "Stadiums" between FACES & FEEDBACK, so I just listen to it on the latter album. However, the FACES version of "Gulf" has a place on my "miscellaneous Steve tracks" collection.
We should, perhaps, take it as a first... foray into the area of world music.
I remember how Paul Simon's GRACELAND got credit for being a "pioneering" foray into world music -- four two years after Steve had done something similar with FACES.
(1) On "Corycian Fire" from WOLFLIGHT: The ending seems to have a lot of people singing, mostly female with some male voices that don't sound particularly like Steve. Yet no one is credited with vocals on the track except Steve. I guess someone forgot to credit all the other singers?
(2) On "Inca Terra" from THE NIGHT SIREN: It took me several listens to realize that the male vocals at the beginning don't sound like Steve. Sure enough, the credits say Nad Sylvan does vocals on the track. Typically, the credits don't differentiate between lead and backing vocals, but I guess the lead vocals on this track are by Nad (and Amanda) rather than Steve.
A TRICK OF THE TAIL is an outstanding album, arguably the group's best. In the wake of Peter's departure the remaining four really showed what they could do.
There's hardly a song on it that I can imagine being sung by Peter, or by anyone else other than Phil.
"Squonk" may not be the best that the album has to offer, but I've always liked it -- especially the way it comes crashing in after "Entangled."
I have to say, Phil's lead vocal on "Squonk" does sound a bit unpracticed, as one might expect since it's his first shot at being Genesis' new lead singer.
I don't get any hint of it on the studio original (at least on the 08 reissue which is all I have).
Maybe a little off-topic, but... that's one more indication of why I wouldn't bother with any Genesis reissue after the Definitive Edition Remasters.
I thought Peter also sang the line on the 1972 "Belgium TV" video. Could be wrong-haven't watched that one in years.
I've never heard a live performance of the song with Peter singing. It would be interesting to know if he did sing that line in any of them.
In Steve's version of the song, he follows the line "forever to be joined as one" by singing "one flesh." I always thought that was something he added to the song (along with an acoustic guitar intro and various brief instrumental bits). However, I just noticed last night (some 40 years after first hearing the song) that Peter seems to sing the same thing in the original version! Just not very loudly. Anyone else ever notice this? Am I hearing things?
(For the record, I have an early CD copy of the album, predating the Definitive Edition Remaster. Maybe the line is more audible on later reissues?)
This album still remains in my top 6 of Genesis music
FGTR is definitely in my top 15 Genesis studio albums!
Not quite true, the string arrangement differs. The album version's arrangement is a tiny little less obnoxious.
I don't hear any difference. If there is any, it must be too subtle to be meaningful.
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.
As far as I'm concerned, "Prairie Angel" and "Freedom" together are really just one long song, and it's the best one on BEYOND THE SHROUDED HORIZON. I even like the chorus. (If you want to point to a Steve song with a really bad "chorus problem," look no further than "Catwalk" on the same album.)
Here's an odd bit: In "Congo" there are the sampled voices (also heard in live versions) singing "Congo Hey Congo." After that phrase they also say something I've never been able to understand; it sounds kind of like "we hear it."
Does anyone know what that's saying? (I also wonder who the voices are, but that's another story.)
"Working title: unknown"
We know, from the Jackson Tapes, that the intro to "Fountain" was already in existence by 1969. While there may not have been a working title for "Fountain" per se, I found in an interview with Steve that the intro had previously been part of something called "Ketch." Whether that title preceded or followed the Jackson Tapes, I don't know.
Was the single release not a different recording to the album version? (don't think I've heard the single)
The "single version" frequently used as an FGTR bonus track (with a title of "The Silent Sun") is identical to the album version (titled simply "Silent Sun"), except that the former is in mono.
The liner notes of the particular release of FGTR I have, written by Chris Welch in 2005, claim that all 13 album tracks were recorded on the same day
Which is a questionable claim right off the bat since one of the 13, "Silent Sun," was recorded long before the others.
A couple of additional random thoughts on the song:
(1) The part at the end where the guys go "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-AAAHHH-ahh!" (after "unearthly calm" and "both had given") is one of my favorite Genesis "backing vocals" moments.
(2) This is one of the few post-FGTR Genesis songs where I really don't know who wrote the lyrics. On an old message board someone claimed that Mike wrote them, but someone else later said this was not the case.
Like many Gabriel-era tracks this one didn't click with me right away, but now I love it. A strangely emotional finish to one of my favorite early Genesis albums.
I don't care much for Steve's GENESIS REVISITED version, although I'll admit he does a pretty good job with what sounds like a difficult song to sing.
I also don't care much for Phil's take on it from "FOUR" SIDES LIVE.
we don't know of any recordings of him with the band?
My understanding is that there are no known recordings of Mick Barnard with Genesis. If there were any, I'd be interested in hearing them just for historical interest.
Of course, his brief tenure, and the brief "no guitar" phase, are about the only phases of Genesis not represented by any recordings. Not too bad, really.
(Compare that to Renaissance, who had some 8 unrecorded lineups between 1970 & 1973.)
So anyway, that Mick Barnard, eh?
Not that any of us have ever actually heard him...
