Mama, hbts and it's gonna get better.
If I had to choose half of hbts it would be the first half. The last chorus has a kind of mobius strip quality like the instrumental part of firth of fifth... It can cycle around endlessly. Mama is a masterpiece. And I love the vibe off its gonna get better.
It's an odd album though. I think TA is one of my favorite pop songs of theirs, and silver rainbow/just a job to do are very enjoyable. Illegal alien is definitely a relic of it's time.
So reading through these comments about IT I now know there are of versions of Mama and IGGB I never knew about and don't own. Off to e bay for me now. More money I have to get rid of. Anywau changing the subject I like IT. TIAA has grown more and more on me over the years..Domino and Brazilian are my others.
Genesis are a great band for finding nooks and crannies!
I love the Brazilian. It's such a unique, expansive creation. However, unlike you, I've never been able to see past TIAA as a mechanics flavor ballad that she's not excite me. The studio version isn't the worst tbh but I can never not skip it on the live shows with that extended back and forth with the crowd.
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
As in...
'Agh! You hit me directly in the rabbit you asshole!'
Or
'its serious. The doctor said I had to have my rabbit removed'
Great tune btw. Reminds me of The Game.
TheCameraEye - Billy Corgan
I think a lot of albums are labeled concept because they have a consistent atmosphere and have recurring themes. I'm thinking particularly of work like Pornography by The Cure. It's all bleak and desolate with references to disease and sickness. It even seems to flow in an organized way. But is it a concept album? Depends how strictly you want to define the term but I would say no. Maybe I'm wrong but I think of the term as being defined by albums with a narrative of some sort. The Wall and The Lamb to name two obvious ones.
There's an unfinished concept album I'd like to hear if the artist ever gets around to it. Machina by the smashing pumpkins was conceived as a double concept album but because of pressure from the record company not to release a behemoth, songs were cut and the remaining ones were reordered to make a single album. In protest the band released the remaining songs as a double album for free (which was very unusual back then. Remember when Radiohead did it years later and it was a big deal). Anyway, so the songs are all out there and the story is mostly known, but no one knows what order the tracks are "supposed" to be in. There are many fan attempts at ordering them to fit the story. Billy Corgan has been talking for years about releasing it in the way it was intended but as yet it hasn't happened.
I listened to the album for the first time in a while after posting on this thread. Dusk is a great song, would swap it for visions of angels in my top 3.
Threnody to the victims of Hiroshima - Krzysztof Penderecki
Looking for someone, visions of angels, stagnation.
Terrific album with a very distinct atmosphere. They seemed to rapidly become comfortable with ambition in terms of songwriting around this time. I think the members who departed after did a great job.
Bit much to dismiss it as a load of shite. I have a similar thing in that my favourite Genesis album is Lamb, followed by Abacab, then a 'rotation' as you put it of Duke, SEBTP and NC. After that it's a bit of an amorphous mass except I can say that ATTWT and W&W are my least-liked albums, yet from those two 'bottom-placed' albums come 4 of my favourite Genesis tracks, probably all top 10. Those 2 albums are back-to-back so they were obviously, for me, creatively in a dip but still did 4 tracks across that period that are among my very favourites.
So I've sort of got 3 tiers of album preferences but I find it an interesting oddity that the two lowest albums yield 4 of my favourite tracks, rather than thinking it condemns my scheme of preferences as shite!
That's funny you have a similar thing going. I guess genesis is that sort of band where fans have material they love, material they like and material that's more in the 'lukewarm' category... and one fans preferences are totally different to another's. Maybe that's part of why they're so interesting.
Display MoreIt's actually not that difficult. First step is to get yourself an editing program. A free one like Audacity will do.
The source for my edit was the Nick Davis remix, Ray Wilson's Live With The Berlin Symphony In Poland and one of the bootlegs from the Calling All Stations tour (either Poland or Mannheim, I'm not sure). Luckily, the 'live' performances were at the same tempo as the studio version, although the version on Ray's album was in a different key (changing the key wasn't a problem as I wasn't using a section with vocals in it).
Ray's version of the song has the guitar solo occur immediately after the bridge and I thought that worked well so I followed suit. So, it's bridge, solo from the Ray album and then solo from the Genesis concert and then back into the studio version.
Getting the solo to the point where it integrated seamlessly with the sound of the studio cut involved a lot of fiddling with EQ, compression and all that jazz but I didn't mind. My fan-edits are a labour of love for me (not for my wife, though; she hates them! "Can't we just listen to the album as it was intended?" she will often say.) and I'll work on them for as long as it takes. Many's the time when I've committed something to disc only to decide, after a few listens, that I need to go back and do it again.
Thanks for the details. Sounds like a fun hobby!
Listening recently to some of the performances of Congo from the tour shows how a great song could have been taken to an even greater level, what with the guitar solo and everything. In fact, it caused me to revisit my own remix of the album and with a little studio jiggery pokery of my own, I've integrated the guitar solo into the song and I lke the result very much.
What was your process for integrating the live solo to the studio song and what version did you use? Have not the inclination, skills or tools to try anything like that myself but I am curious about it.
Randomly, I vividly remember princess Diana died the weekend of the album's release. It was the kind of event that swamped all other news at the time and Elton John's song became the only relevant thing in music for about two weeks. Felt like the little bit of momentum from the pre-release PR campaign for CAS was killed stone dead. Also the video for Congo cost over a million quid.
I'll defend my love for CAS to the death. I wouldn't remove it from my 4 'tier one' Genesis albums for anything. Hmmm... TOTT, Abacab, Duke, CAS. Couldn't have a traditional top 5 as the last spot would rotate between a 'tier two' list of NC, SEBTP, Trespass, Lamb, W&W and WCD. Everything else is great but is 'tier three'. All of which said, songs from tier three albums like home by the sea, mama and tonight tonight tonight are in my top ten Genesis songs so the whole construct is a load of shite.
No no no, this can't go on - One For The Vine
You may have perceived a tone in my message that was entirely unintended. You'd pre-emptively apologised in case the RS piece had been discussed in another thread, my reply was saying that we do have a media thread but no the article wasn't mentioned there. I wasn't having a crack at you for a lack of media-thread-checking competence!
Its all good I was having a crack at myself! I am extraordinarily lazy and didn't snoop around before posting.
That explains why Jon Favreau referred to a scene in one of the Star Wars films as a "deep cut" in a recent documentary I watched. Who comes up with these idioms? I'd love to know so I can smack them upside the head as a reminder that the language was working perfectly well before they started dicking about with it.
It works perfectly well after they started dicking about with it too. Ever notice how we don't speak or write exactly like they did in the 1600s? Language isn't static unless it's dead. Apart from that I don't remember a time that I didn't know what a deep cut was, ie I don't see how it could be a controversial thing. I dislike buzzwords (precision medicine, actualize, move the needle and the absolute, most grievous of all, PARADIGM SHIFT 🤮. Also, do not circle back to me, never 'loop me in' and stay the hell away from my radar). But I don't think deep cuts is buzzy at all.
Also, I didn't know about the media thread. Clearly, because I didn't bother my arse looking carefully enough. Sorry bout that mr moderator man!
Feeding the fire anyone? Love that middle bit with Phil doing melodic scat singing before it all comes crashing down.
Forgive me if there's another thread discussing this RS article; I've seen it before and came across it again recently prompting me to post. I think they chose some deep cuts I'd definitely have if I made a playlist of twenty Genesis songs. Feeding the fire, you might recall, evidence of Autumn, the Brazilian ... very unusual to see these songs discussed outside of a fan forum!
Not sure about On The Shoreline however.
I fucking love this album.
Calling all stations, dividing line and there must be some other way.
I became a Genesis fan with We Can't Dance so this is the only studio album for which I was able to experience the release as an established, massive fan. It will always hold a special place for me if for no reason other than that.
However, I also love the music on it anyway. The title track is one of those rare tunes that sounds cold and fiery at the same time. The vocal performance is awesome. Congo is a great dark pop song. Uncertain weather is a classic Banks ballad with the same kind of yearning as Heathaze. Banjo Man is a cool song too, and Run Out of Time is a bit overwrought but what a great, smoky sound. I really wish they had pushed on from this album.
Music Like Sex - Suede
Scatman's World - Scatman
Heaven - Lamb
Haven't heard or thought about that band in 15 years! Have some rediscovering to do now.
Bat Out of Hell - Meat Loaf
I wanted to lamp the pillock. I'm not exactly the greatest prog fan apart from about 5 or 6 bands and rarely ever like any modern prog I'm directed to. But this notion of prog being the great embarrassing unmentionable genre, only to be referred to in a mocking/dismissive way, really pisses me off. It's a recognised and perfectly legitimate genre. This stupid sheepish apologetic tone some adopt about their prog fandom only adds to it.
Well said. I think prog gets the same kind of rep as science fiction. Uncool or nerdy or something. I'm sure these stereotypes have been promulgated countless times in popular culture, social media, school corridors etc. I know I was not cool for liking Genesis in school (it was the 90s. Kurt Cobain was God). No one should feel embarrassed to admit enjoying these things. But... some people (let's call them assholes) can be very judgemental and others (asshole enablers?) can be very self conscious. If I ever give a high school graduation speech I'm certain to conclude with 'don't enable the assholes, kids'. Or something to that effect.
