Posts by thewatcher

  • The Genesis Trivia Quiz

    1. IT

    2. WCD

    3. Genesis

    4. Duke

    5. Abacab

    6. CAS

    7. ATTWT

    8. Lamb

    9. TOTT

    10. W&W

    11. SEBTB

    12. Foxtrot

    13. NC

    14. Trespass

    15. FGTR


    So... Not quite in reverse chronological order. BTW I haven't researched this. It's a guess!

  • Selling England By The Pound - 45th Anniversary

    Quote from Backdrifter

    I've always liked MFM. Side 1 is one of the best sequences they ever did, four completely different tracks, slotted together brilliantly well. One of the many reasons I love this band is that few others, if any, would've been capable of programming a side like that. And MFM kind of sums it up for me - two absolutely stonking but very different prog epics and a catchy quirky single, rounded off by a delicate acoustic ballad. It's a bit incongruous, unexpected, but that's why I love it. I completely get why many here dislike it and feel it's out of place but obviously I don't share that view.


    To just qualify my dismissal of Battle: I like some of the wordplay and PG's vocal dexterity and I absolutely love The Reverend. I actually think it's one of the best things they did of that era. I also admire the front to stop the song and insert a distinct segment musically seemingly unrelated to what's gone before, telling a story within the story, then smoothly take us back to the main theme. It stands out quite starkly. But the track as a whole doesn't hang together.

    I really dislike Battle, and can't articulate why as well as you did. It definitely doesn't hang together well but there's something very tedious about it for me, which is massively different to how I feel about pretty much any other long genesis song. It feels very forced to my ears, both music and lyrics including the vocal delivery. Even songs like burning rope that I'm not gone on have some passage or chord change that excite me but Battle is just that.... A battle that the song loses every time.


    It also knocks the album right down my list because it's such a big clunky presence in the middle. Firth of fifth is otherworldly, and after the ordeal is beautiful in the same vein as hairless heart (and a warm place by nine inch nails!), so I find it a shame there isn't a better 12 minute long track in place of Battle on there.

  • Supper's Ready.

    I also enjoyed reading lucky folks' reminiscence of seeing it live, and lament the lack of recordings of it from 1982 and the bit they did in 1986. As for the song itself, it's clearly their epic, and arguably most majestic song. Is it their best? I don't think so, but how would you even define that. It's not my favorite of their songs (gun to my head as I write I'd go for HBTS), but I will echo what everyone else has highlighted as the strengths: the propulsive rhythm and skill on display in apocalypse, which really does sound apocalyptic, the wide screen glory of the last part, and the beauty just preceding apocalypse.


    One interesting tidbit I remember reading in one of those track-by-track books. The writer noted that the song ends kind of abruptly with the needle up against the edge of the vinyl, as if they were running out of space. Any merit to that? I mean, I think the song was done, but it does kind of cut out maybe a bit suddenly.

  • The Thread Of Complete Randomness

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    This guy has become a legend in Ireland. Laugh heartily at the ridiculousness!