Posts by Schrottrocker

I would pick the whole side 2 as my favourite. Yes, Steve's best for me, though VOTA comes close and Spectral Mornings isn't bad either.

If I didn't get everything wrong Peter constantly rewrote and rearranged the story during the making of the album until his bandmates urged him to get it finished so the version as it is printed in the album was not so much a final version, rather an umptieth draft of which there was no time left to re-change it.

What I miss most in that story is Rael is kind of a blank slate: who were his parents? How did they raise him, which values or lack thereof coined his actions? Where did he want to get in life? What did he try to avoid? Every writer of a novel or a film asks these questions about their character to give them directions and obstacled that motivate their actions. I can't see any of that in Rael. None of his deeper wishes and fears are ever revealed except for his overboarding sexuality. Even his brother John seems to a projection of himself, he has no lover, no friends, no enemies, no teacher or mentor, nobody who puts him in a certain direction.

This confirms everything why I don't care about today's charts music. They even stole the In The Air Tonight drum riff, how cheap is that.

Wow, I have never seen this video, I didn't even know there was one. I remember the song was played on some radio stations, but I never saw that video been broadcast on MTV and VIVA, unlike Congo which was in regular rotation. Who created that video? The imagery is quite interesting, I was surprised about the ocean/coast scenery and the baby in the beginning. Then again, what would you come up with to a song with these lyrics? The song should have deserved more success. It was Genesis's last hit single up to date.

Quite late, I guess I am in the majority of Genesis fans who already got this book in English. I hope the German translation will be of quality. I have Mike's and Phil's books in German and they are full of typos.

Signed.

We could as well discuss in how far Phil's upbringing as a British middle-class kid might make him more partial to uncontrolled outbursts of anger... it's pointless. Such generalisations are never helpful.

The word "it" appears in all three lyrics?

I've seen a statement somewhere (can't remember where it was from) that Tony was the one who ironically asked the other three guys if he was supposed to do a solo album too. It was a reference of everybody being busy with side projects - Steve having done Acolyte with Mike and Phil's involvement, Mike having recorded for The Geese And The Ghost with Ant, and Phil having recorded two Brand X albums. Tony supposedly had the first drafts for Mad Man Moon and Robbery, and he wanted to keep Genesis alive and do his songs with the band. So he became the one who convinced the others to give Genesis without Peter a chance.

Thanks for all your replies, nice to see it's not just me who is lost here And yes, I completely didn't make the connection of Coastliners and "Ghostliners".

I've been re-reading Richard MacPhail's book; in the end it includes an interview with Steve which has a passage with Steve talking about songs that Genesis played live but never recorded:

Quote

Steve: "(...) I'd be quite happy if someone criticised 'Ghostliners' because we never did it with the band. We did it three times in Italy, we only played it live."

Richard: "It's such a good song."

Steve: "It goes places. There are two schools of thought. I know in Phil's book he criticises that and says that about songs like 'Across The River' but it's missing the point. It's a song that goes through many changes. It's prototype prog and we didn't know that what we were doing was prototype prog because there hadn't been a blueprint for it. It was a long tune. (...)"

What are these songs Steve is talking about? This interview with Steve is interesting but quite unstructured and I can't follow everything Steve says; right before the quoted passage he talks about his difficult relationship with Tony and Mike in the quartet period and how they would reject his ideas; after this passage he goes on to talk about King Crimson and how they used to link bits of songs in live versions. I'm not sure what period of time he is referring here to: still the quartet period, or did he jump back to the earlier years when he just arrived in the band?

By any means, I have never heard any other mention of songs called "Ghostliners" and "Across The River". Genesis performing unrecorded songs sounds rather like the earlier years, like when they would perform 'The Light', 'Twilight Alehouse' before its recording, 'Going Out To Get You' in its entirely changed-over live version or the pre-version of Can-Utility that was entitled 'Bye Bye Johnny' for some time. So maybe there was more of those obscure songs they performed but never recorded? Both Steve and Richard seem to have a clear memory of "Ghostliners", they don't even feel a need to clarify among themselves what they are referring to.

Also, I have no clue what passage in Phil's book Steve refers to. "Across The RIver"? I have been reading Phil's book at least twice and I cannot recall Phil mentioning a song named like this at all. Do I just have zero memory, or does Steve think Phil's book says something it doesn't? Can anyone clarify?

Love this album! It's a shame you can only listen to this album via youtube or illegal download sites, if you're not lucky to find an extant vinyl somewhere. It really deserves to be reissued.

Funny conversation today. A friend of mine who is only 21 years old said something like "strange kind of weather, there's lots of snow, the sun is shining and still it is cold". I jokingly replied he is not old enough to know what winter is.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... Winter Wonderland right now.

According to Phil's book this must have been in the period when Phil, under the influence of medication and alcohol, would act like he wasn't himself. He was mean against people around him and had zero memory of these episodes afterwards. This story sounds like another one of these incidents. Maybe Phil doesn't even know why Chester cut contact with him; then again this is now more than 10 years ago, enough time to get something like this sorted out.

I've been in a Queen fan forum and got out after a short time because the snobbery was impertinent. "Queen II is the only ever Queen album worth mentioning" etc. I found this Genesis forum resp. its preceding forums much more mature and respectful.

Fascinating interview. I spent a couple hours listening to all the youtube vids in the text, I'm not even half through but the change from all the American music to Genesis is really like another universe, no wonder Chester needed to adapt. Also I'm glad I got hear some really interesting Zappa stuff, I used to avoid Zappa because I thought he does nothing for me, I saw him as pretentious, now hearing and seeing these videos changed my mind.

Why not bring back the Turn It On Again medley and spice it up with some contemporary chart hits they think the audience wants, as they did back in the 80's? I can't wait to hear Genesis perform Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky'

I've been wondering about that "naat naaow" part too.

When it comes to "the siren's cry" bit, there's this howling wind sound. In all live versions Steve or Daryl would always do a slide on the guitar. What is that wind sound in the studio version, did Steve do it with some effects unit or is it Tony's synth?

I would love to get to hear all the bonus discs of the recent box sets. However I got all the albums I wanted shortly before the first box set was released so I wasn't motivated too much to buy them all again...

Old Queen fan here, these days I don't listen to them too often but whenever I do I get really excited.

Well yeah, tastes differ etc., but the bashing in some (not all) of the comments here says more about people who seem to have a need for picking on great artists for ego reasons.