Posts by Witchwood

Quote from thewatcher

Most random Genesis item I have ever stumbled across in the wild. I was driving around the outskirts of Peterborough, Ontario earlier today, and we passed a large box store called Giant Tiger. I'd never heard of it before, but it's one of those stores that sells stuff very cheaply. I had no interest in it but was compelled to stop by my wife and her sister. I was killing time by browsing through the few band t-shirts they had, which had the usual Pink Floyd, Nirvana etc stuff, and I came across the one below. I've never seen a Genesis t-shirt in any of these type of sections. I grabbed a large for myself (the one pictured is 3XL which I'm thankfully not at quite yet!). I thought it was an unusual find, and also an odd choice for the picture on the front.

I think we have two Giant Tigers in the city where I live in northern Ontario. I've only gone in there occasionally if I'm passing by and recall that we're out of kitty litter or Carnation or some other random item. I've never taken the time to browse through their clothing section and certainly never noticed a collection of rock T-shirts. Next time I think of it, I'll make a point of popping in and checking to see if we have the same merchandise.

Quote from pawciob1

...Mark Batatis is fine. He's terribly principled, but I've never had any problems with him. You always have to weigh your words with him...

I know what you mean.

He came across as someone with a massive ego and extremely short fuse.

But back in the day of snail-mail trades, if you overlooked those qualities and remained respectful and polite with him, he could be a very agreeable and a somewhat enticing trading partner.

For me, lately been listening to a lot of...

Nazareth

The Who/Pete Townshend

Jethro Tull/Ian Anderson

Max Webster

Van Morrison

The track that immediately came to mind when I saw the title of this thread was Snowbound — a gentle, sweetly sung track about children playing with a frozen corpse.

Regardless, it's one my favourite songs on the album so this perceived contrast in tone and content has never bothered me or influenced my feelings for it.

The pop songs I tend to enjoy (I'm thinking of Smokey Robinson, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Elton John) have strong or catchy melodies, interesting arrangements or just something that hooks me and reels me in.

Misunderstanding has about as much swing to it as a metronome.

Most of the time when I put on Duke, I will listen through and won't press skip but it is, for me, by far the lowpoint on what is otherwise a very good album.

I don't mind the last 50 seconds where it tapers off into that solo.

The preceding three minutes, though, I thought was awful.

ATTW3 was my introduction but didn’t get to see them perform until the Duke tour. It was a very magical and exciting time. I think I had all of their studio albums at that point and was just starting to explore some of the solo albums.

Seems very naïve of me looking back, but when the lights came on at the start, I was immediately surprised to see five musicians performing. It was then I recalled a radio advert I had heard earlier that day talking about Genesis’ drummer making a pre-concert appearance at a musical instruments store in downtown Toronto, and me thinking they had Phil’s name completely wrong.

Barring a couple of songs from the first album (which was the first and last one I ever bought), I hadn't heard anything from M&TM that enticed me enough to want to buy more of their music.

But I actually don't mind the few songs I've heard from The Road, including this one - and I quite like the title track from that album.

I think I will likely pick up The Road at some point.

Quote from Backdrifter

Do you have any of those artists whose work you always like when you hear it, yet you never investigate them any further let alone buy any of their stuff? For me, Ride are an example of that. Today I heard Peace Sign on the radio, I think it's a new one. And as usual I thought, oh I like this, who is it? Ahhhhh, Ride, of course... Leading no doubt to my not doing anything about it until I hear another one I like and think the exact same thing.

City Boy

Back in my teens, a couple of friends were going off to see this band I'd never heard of and they played me a couple of their albums. There is a song ("Haymaking Time") off their first album which i absolutely love. I have it as an mp3 in a folder of random songs on my desktop. There was another album of theirs my friends played for me called The Day The Earth Caught Fire which I remember thinking was OK.

But I've never been compelled to go out and buy any of their albums because I suspect most of their music would fall into the realm of bombastic pop (in the vein or Styx or Kansas) which I don't mind but is not really the kind of music I would listen to a lot.

Quote from genesis1964

...For the journey that lasted about an hour she kept on raving about how good MK was totally overshadowed Dylan ... She went there to see Dylan but came away being a fan of MK...

Similar experience when I went to see Eric Clapton when he was touring with Mark Knopfler as his guest second guitarist (1988). At the time, I was a greater fan of Clapton but was more impressed with Knopfler. Decided after that I would begin exploring the music of Dire Straits (didn't have any of their albums at the time).

And I am a great fan of Dylan and I have most of his albums but the one time I saw him live in concert (1989), it was like watching someone doing a comedic caricature of Dylan as the mumbling, indecipherable performer. Except in this instance, it was the real Bob Dylan. Several times during that show, I recall, he’d be halfway through a song before I recognized what he was actually playing. Still a big fan of his studio recordings but never felt the desire to see him in concert ever again after that.

While I generally like the album overall, this track is far from being one of my favourites. In fact, I've always found it quite curious reading the contrasting views of other fans regarding this song.

It has a jarring start, continues with this despondent tone, completely lacking of any melodious hook throughout its course and never rewarding the patient listener with anything I would describe as instrumentally adventurous or interesting.

I find it underwhelming but not unlistenable which is why it gets a 7 from me.

Rush

The Neville Brothers (+ The Meters)

Strawbs

Peter Gabriel

The Beatles (+ George Harrison)

Quote from DecomposingMan

Here's another scenario that doesn't really fit the question, but which the question calls to mind: The greatest number of band members, that I know about, who were all in the same two very different bands.

Four members of Renaissance, from their transitional 1970-1972 period, had all been in The Nashville Teens at different times ...

Four members of Simon Dupree & The Big Sound (the three Shulman brothers and drummer Martin Smith) were among the six who later formed Gentle Giant.

A good song from a great album. I particulary like where it transitions at about 1½ minutes in.

But if I was to rank all the songs on The Lamb, Lilywhite would invariably appear somewhere in the bottom half.

11 points for me.

Quote from foxfeeder

... I guess you know Chas Cronk was briefly Steve Hackett's bass player.

Yes, And if anyone had asked me before I checked moments ago, who was the bass player I saw playing with Steve on the Defector tour, I would have incorrectly stated it was Chas Cronk.

Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert and Brian Willoughby of the Strawbs released an album in 2001 entitled Baroque & Roll, largely comprised of acoustic versions of previously released Strawbs songs. They called themselves Acoustic Strawbs and periodically toured under that name, with Willoughby sometimes being replaced by Chas Cronk (who like Willoughby was an on-again, off-again member of the Strawbs).

Cousins and Willoughby also released a pair of albums as a duo. The first one was released before Willoughby had ever played on a Strawbs album, but the second one was released some years after.

And then Cousins and Rick Wakeman released a studio album together in 2002 entitled Hummingbird, though Wakeman, a former band member, was obviously long-gone from the Strawbs when that album came out.

Quote from Backdrifter

... it's very much in that category of 'Things I Thought Were Good Because You Know, I Was 14' ...

I can relate in the sense that The Knife and Man Of Our Times were my favourite tracks from their respective albums when I first heard them. They're now either least or second-least favourites.

Actually, I find more often than not, my feelings move in the opposite direction where I've grown to appreciate tracks that I didn't care for as a teen.

"Excuse Me" is one from the Genesis camp that immediately comes to mind.

One of my favourite tracks from my favourite album of the three-man era.

A solid 14 for me.

Quote from DecomposingMan

You guys are aware that there is a long studio version, right? ...

I was aware there was a longer studio version but I've never heard it (or if I did, it was probably on some forgotten occasion when I searched it up on YouTube).

But it's not in my collection, so, my only points of reference of the extended version are the various live versions I have.

I like the soothing melody, the adrenaline rush I get from the driving sounds of the synth bass and the quality of Phil's voice combined with this uplifting instilling message of hope conveyed in the lyrics.

It's my favourite song on the album.

And while I prefer the extended live version, I'm not overly put off by the abridged studio version.