Posts by Schrottrocker

The recent discussion about Burning Rope and Phil's comments on that song has got me thinking how vastly different the Genesis members' styles are in terms of lyric writing.

Who would you pick as your top 3 of best Genesis lyricists? I allowed 3 votes because I don't want one person to win with flying colours, I am really curious who will make it as #2 and #3. You can count in lyrics from solo work too, imho this makes sense since some Genesis members have left quite few lyrics within Genesis work.

I read the Foxtrot book in German and it is incredible, I was overwhelmed by all the detailed work that went into it. The only little thing that bothered me slightly was some awkward wordings that I believed to be coming through translation from English - due to the author's name I had believed him to be British, it took me a little time to realize he is German. Anyways, the book was worth every word, it is really a unique insight into the band and everything around them at this specific time.

Leiden?

As I said in the German forum, I love this version you created! I am excited to hear more from you guys

It was when I started looking on progarchives for Genesis members' solo releases, the player had Star of Sirius as the only track which was a good start as it sounds a lot like classic Genesis. Then I found Voyage of the Acolyte and Spectral Mornings in a second-hand vinyl store, got them and loved them right away.

Well yea, the list I compiled is by no means complete, I was partly led by what I have in my collection - which means those that were easily available in record stores -, partly by what appears to be official or half-official, partly by what seems to make a good compilation in my opinion. Lots of the ones to be found on discogs do not meet any of these criteria for me. Disguising an entire album with some more or less randomly added bonus tracks as a "compilation" is a bit too cheap for me.

There are indeed a few compilations listed on discogs that stood out for me as so bizarre I was tempted to include them just for the sake of hilariousness. I'd have to search the discogs list again - one of them starts with More Fool Me out of all Genesis songs, another one puts two FGTR tracks and jumps right to Illegal Alien, etc..

Anyways, a particularly interesting one I could not find again was compiled by our German Genesis fan club who runs this forum, it has Genesis tracks as well as solo tracks and picks only the most unusual choices. I guess Christian can help here.

Everything looks cleaned up now. I cannot pinpoint what is different but it looks more tidy.

Re Duchess: Turn it on again Tour Edition, The Platinum Collection and The Last Domino have all different versions of Duchess. The TIOA Tour Edition has the single version - very short intro, early fade-out. The Platinum Collection has the album version with complete intro, the fade-out is the same as in the single version. The Last Domino has the album version and fades out later, it makes you wait for Guide Vocal to enter at any second.

Sounds like a job for an AI.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Let's start with Rock Theatre.

https://www.discogs.com/de/mas…6234-Genesis-Rock-Theatre

This was released as early as in 1975 on vinyl, so naturally it covers only songs from the Gabriel era. Later it came out on CD too, the track selection remained unchanged. I had to get it on CD just for the sake of collecting.

I do enjoy listening to this one but admittedly it is quite odd: Its cover shows a photo from the Lamb shows (Peter as Slipperman), yet it does not include a single song off The Lamb. Instead it starts with I Know What Like - the only song off Selling England - concludes with Harold The Barrel and Harlequin, inserts Watcher of the Skies Single Version (!), and ends side A with Fountain of Salmacis. Side B entirely belongs to Supper's Ready. That's it. Judging by a number of comments, several people were tricked into believing this to be a live album, which would been pretty cool regarding the only official live album at that time was 'Genesis Live'. 'Rock Theatre' seems to pick particularly those songs that were missing on 'Genesis Live'. Except for WOTS which oddly appears in its rare single version... No matter what the selection seems somewhat random.

By any means, this remains the only ever compilation to include WOTS single version, also Harold The Barrel, Harlequin and Fountain are all quite rare choices you will hardly ever find on any Genesis compilation.

The Story of Genesis.

https://www.discogs.com/de/mas…esis-The-Story-Of-Genesis

This is the only one in the list I do not own, I included it because it looks to me as one of the best compilations listed on discogs.

Released in 1978, it covers all the albums from Trespass to And Then There Were Three. However, it was released exclusively in Japan and only on vinyl.

It goes chronologically through all the 70's albums and picks one track minimum, three tracks maximum off each album. Interestingly, it includes some rare choices: Dance On A Volcano, Eleventh Earl, and Burning Rope are all rarely found on other compilations.

Turn It On Again - Best of '81 - '83.

https://www.discogs.com/de/mas…It-On-Again-Best-Of-81-83

This was put out by Vertigo who owned the rights for Abacab, Three Sides Live and Genesis (Shapes). So these are the only albums that songs could be picked of. We get a number of Shapes songs: Mama, Home By The Sea (fading out before seguing into Second Home!), Illegal Alien, and oddly, Taking It All Too Hard; also Paperlate plus No Reply At All and Man On The Corner. Nice selection from that era so far but it really gets interesting when we get to the live tracks that follow: Misunderstanding, Follow You Follow Me, and Abacab are all live versions off Three Sides Live; the CD ends with two live versions that were only released on B-sides: the Turn It On Again Medley, and - the jewel on this one - a 1983 live version of Firth of Fifth.

Some people seem to have purchased this only for that Firth version. I like this compilation, it has its own oddness though with this selection. The live tracks make it much more interesting than other compilations. Also, this one is rare for including Taking It All Too Hard, also for fading out Home By The Sea, and even for juxtaposing Paperlate to No Reply At All. It's up to you what you make of this... Even more, this one is rare particularly for excluding I Know What I Like. IKWIL is the one song that appears on pretty much every compilation.

Turn It On Again (The Hits).

https://www.discogs.com/de/mas…Turn-It-On-Again-The-Hits

Released in 1999, this was the first ever compilation that could cover the band's entire career. Its concept is simple: hit singles only. With that, it relies heavily on the pop period of the band. It does include I Know What I Like though, plus Congo, plus Carpet Crawlers 1999. Overall it is a nice listen, with no surprises though. Notably, it does not include Tell Me Why.

Platinum Collection.

https://www.discogs.com/de/mas…nesis-Platinum-Collection

The first ever official compilation that covers the whole career of the band. 3 CDs including 40 tracks, it still appears to hold the record for most tracks on any Genesis compilation. It goes backwards-chronologically, picking between one and five songs off every album (except FGTR). Paperlate is the only non-album track; Calling All Stations is the only track clearly placed out of chronological order. Some rare picks on this one are: Behind The Lines, Undertow, In That Quiet Earth, Los Endos.

Turn It On Again (The Hits) - The Tour Edition.

https://www.discogs.com/de/rel…The-Hits-The-Tour-Edition

This seems to be generally regarded as a "version" of the 1999 Hits compilation, I always saw this as a compilation in its own right though.

Just like the 1999 compilation, this one too starts with Turn It On Again and closes its CD1 with Carpet Crawlers 1999 (also being the only other compilation to include CC1999 at all); just like the Platinum Collection it goes backwards-chronologically (with a few liberties) through the entire career. Rather than hits it focuses on single releases. Notably, this one does include Tell Me Why, also it includes Pigeons and Inside And Out - but omits Match Of The Day -, also Happy The Man and The Knife part 1. With five non-album tracks it has the highest number of non-album tracks on any compilation, also the highest number of Abacab album tracks (four). What's more, I'm pretty sure Afterglow wasn't a single release. Finally, just like on the Platinum Collection, the one CAS song (Congo) is placed completely out of chronology.

14 From Our Past.

https://www.discogs.com/de/rel…-Genesis-14-From-Our-Past

Since this has only been available in American Starbucks stores I could not get hold of it yet. Imports are quite expensive, otherwise I would have got it just for the sake of collecting.

Quite a simple compilation: 1 CD and it picks 1 song off each album (FGTR excepted) in forwards-chronological order.

Notably, it picks Happy The Man in place for Nursery Cryme, making Nursery Cryme effectively the only album left out; also it picks Squonk over Ripples or A Trick Of The Tail, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway over Carpet Crawlers, and it includes Watcher Of The Skies which is a rare pick on most compilations.

R-Kive.

https://www.discogs.com/de/master/762988-Genesis-R-Kive

This one confused the hell out of fans both for its name and for its cover art.

As a Genesis compilation, this one is unique for including three solo tracks for each of the five core members, making up 15 non-Genesis songs. That aside, it covers 3 CDs and goes strictly chronologically (forwards) through the entire career, picking one to three songs off every album - FGTR left out as usual. This means its opening songs (The Knife, The Musical Box, Supper's Ready, The Cinema Show) alone make the first hour of listening. Compared to the Platinum Collection it has few surprises; it is notably though that it includes Back in NYC and the full album version of Tonight Tonight Tonight.

The Last Domino?

https://www.discogs.com/de/mas…9-Genesis-The-Last-Domino

Out of all the official career-spanning compilations this has to be the messiest of them all. It tries to replicate the live set list of the Last Domino tour by giving the full album versions of what was parts of medleys or at least live versions that differ a lot to the studio versions. The result is the most uneven track selection you could think of, even though the songs are great. It picks up to six (!) songs off each album, however it ignores anything pre-Selling England as well as A Trick Of The Tail. It favours on Selling England as well as Invisible Touch and it includes some very rare picks: Fading Lights, Domino, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight - all as full album versions - and Duke's End which ironically is the opener. Also, for a non-chronological compilation, it rows up to four tracks from one album: Domino, Throwing It All Away, Tonight Tonight Tonight (album version) plus Invisible Touch appear in this order while the four Selling England tracks are scattered all over the place.

It includes three songs that did not make it to the live set list: Jesus He Knows Me, In Too Deep and Abacab (single version!). Abacab is the only single version opposed to an entire collection of albums versions, adding just another oddity to this compilation. Other possible songs that didn't make it to the tour set list were not included: Blood On The Rooftops, Supper's Ready (for Apocalypse 9/8) should have been included. On top, Behind The Lines should technically have been included for Duke's Intro. Whatever... The Last Domino remains one of the weirdest compilations, official or unofficial.

I have been comparing various Genesis compilations lately. It might be a bit nerdy but I actually like to muse about song selections and track orders. Also, Genesis is the only band I became a collector of compilations of, probably due to the fact I have long been familiar with all of their material and there's no new albums going to be made.

A few general words on compilations: compilations are definitely not targeting the fans who already know everything. In contrast, they are aiming at the casual consumers who do not want to bother themselves with entire albums. A compilation will give you a condensed overview over an artist's hit singles or what is arguably the best of their entire career. I guess I am not the typical consumer as I always avoided purchasing compilations of bands I wasn't familiar with; however if I'm already familiar I will still get a compilation if it gives me songs in a different order that works well. For example: I got Queen's 'Greatest Hits' (I) just for the nice selection. I got the Pet Shop Boys' 'Pop Art' for the excellent selection and for a number of non-album tracks and differing single versions that I don't have on my albums. I could list more examples of other bands, anyhow Genesis still remains the only band I have a whole bunch of compilations of.

For this poll, I picked those compilations that used to be easily accessible in stores, so chances should be high somebody purchased some of them at some time. It's a random selection though - discogs lists dozens of official and unofficial compilations, most of which I never saw or heard of, some of them with quite weird track selections:

https://www.discogs.com/de/art…es&subFilter=Compilations

https://www.discogs.com/de/art…al&subFilter=Compilations

...

The votings for this track of the week are remarkable. 79% voted for "outstanding", the one person who gave only 13 points ("very good -") has the honour of being the miserable jerk who actively dislikes the song.

Sad.

The "It is my sad duty to inform you" bit is interesting, in the album version Peter does sing it but in live versions he spoke it.

Turn it on again has that "one two three four" part in the intro.

Peter seems to have been more partial to switch into speaking while singing, Phil didn't do this too often. Those parts in Robbery, Assault and Battery appear to me as if Phil was trying to imitate Peter.

It just occurred to me that Peter's spoken intro/outro in I Know What I Like is one of the rare spoken lyrics in a Genesis song:

"It's one o'clock and time for lunch" etc.

What other spoken lyrics did they have? From the top of my head these come to mind:

"Ok boys, fire over their heads" - John Anthony in The Knife

"They're gonna change you into a human being!" - Phil chattering in Willow Farm

"The soil! The soil!" - the whole band also in Willow Farm

"Understand Rael, this is the end of your tail!" - Phil in Colony of Slippermen

some of Peter's lyrics in Broadway Melody of 1974 are spoken too

and of course: "A flower?"

I can't seem to find any spoken lyric lines in later songs unless Phil's laughing in Mama qualifies. What did I miss?

Some other bands use spoken lyrics a lot more often. I'm not sure though why Spinal Tap's 'Stonehenge' is the first that comes to my mind...

Interesting, 'I Can't Dance' doesn't appear in the list at all. It was a huge hit back then but maybe its popularity faded.

Genesis in 1971. Having just performed their ultimate crowd-pleaser 'The Musical Box' to a cheering audience, extravagant singer Peter Gabriel, who has once more changed his appearance by slipping into his well-known flower costume, tries to tell the tale of the monstrous giant hogweed plants - when he finds, to his mild surprise, his microphone being grabbed by the lead guitarist of the band. Black-clad Stephen Hackett, a timid smile hidden behind his moustache, makes an announcement: John Lennon, yes the John Lennon is here tonight! Nobody else but Hackett has spotted the ex-Beatle in the middle of the audience, indeed Lennon's presence goes entirely unwitnessed. Not even the press paparazzi can confirm the man himself has boarded a transatlantic flight only to see his favourite band live, the true sons of the Beatles as he used to call them (according to some). So barely noticeable is his presence that some question Hackett's vivid imagination: is John Lennon there at all? What has Steve Hackett seen? A few seconds of puzzling silence pass, then singer Peter Gabriel professionally handles the unexpected interruption. Gently ignoring his band mate's unplanned announcement, the singer patiently takes back his place by the microphone and proceeds to announce the next song. Thus endeth a lead guitarist's greatest moment, a dream come true he still tells of.

Quote from Trick of the Wuthering

Such a tough question as I personally think they nailed it on every album.

IT is the only one I would potentially switch but what for? LoC is the only real candidate unless you go rogue and open up with the Do the Neurotic?

TTT should have been the opener. It has everything a Genesis album opener needs.