Posts by MoonlitKnight

  • Are political threads allowed?

    Quote from Backdrifter

    Lizzie? 🤢


    Your 2nd comment there is the pertinent one. I'm sure there are people manufacturing optimism for the sake of it and at the moment who could blame them. But deep down most know she'll be ineffectual. She's no less a shape-shifting creep than Johnson. As for his exit speech it was every bit the blustering self-aggrandising stream of tone-deaf fantasy bollocks any reasonable person expected.

    Ah, he channeled his inner Donald Trump.

  • The Genesis Show

    This is a tough call for me. I think I've seen them every time they've played the Keswick (and a couple shows in NJ as well). Still, as I noted before the Duke tour was not my favorite setlist and it's a 6 hour roundtrip from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Also, I'd have to sell Ms. MoonlitKnight on it. The fact they won't be playing Supper's Ready will make it a tough sell for her. But she does love Duchess and Afterglow. Ah, decisions, decisions . . . .

  • Lack of Archival Releases or expanded editions

    Quote from KeithC

    It (slightly) makes up for the paucity of official releases.

    Personally I’m perfectly fine with the live stuff available for free on YouTube. Maybe it’s an age thing. Not sure how old you are, but I’ll be 61 at the end of the month. I grew up listening to crappy bootlegs and was happy to hear the music, despite the substandard sound quality (for example, the bootleg album I owned of the 1982 reunion show). Now, much of the bootleg material on YouTube is far superior to any unofficial live stuff I was able to get my hands on “back in the day.”

  • While my guitar gently weeps!

    Quote from Backdrifter

    What I still like, particularly about the earlier Genesis stuff, is that where others of that time - eg Steve Howe - would do "look how many notes I can pack in" solos Hackett played clean, elegant lines. In particular the Salmacis solo is a turning point, the real start of a specific Genesis Sound - that melodic flow over those mellotron chords. Of course we all think of FoF and I'd add in The Lamia - his work on these exemplify his approach, making the guitar almost like a voice that tells us a story rather than just trying to be virtuosic.


    He could also be quite spiky and jagged too. These approaches continued into his solo work. The albums tailed off in quality and interest for me but the whole body of work stands as testament to how good he is.

    For me, many Yes songs are plagued by the “look how many notes I can fit in” syndrome. As a band they seemed obsessed with individual virtuosity, whereas Genesis’ prog style was more oriented toward melody.

  • Lack of Archival Releases or expanded editions

    Quote from Backdrifter

    I have to confess, when I saw this thread bumped up my heart sank a little. But I was relieved and pleased to see your pragmatic comments.


    Most fans like us on this board would love to see various bits and pieces released, such as bootlegs, rehersals etc. I certainly would. But I think some here forget who this band is, or act almost like they don't really know who they are and what their stance is. Or they do know, but somehow think that now they're retired they will undergo a miraculous transformation and decide to clear out their archives of every scrap of material. Or that they will actually read fans' comments on boards like this, or under youtube videos, and think "oh well we'd better get all this stuff out of the cellar and put it out there. Just look at these fan comments!"


    The occasional snippet finding its way out through other means is the most we'll get. It's blatantly obvious that the band and their management are NOT going to be the source of any such releases.

    Very true. And I do think that as fans of the band we should be grateful that unlike certain other artists Genesis has never been obsessed with blocking either studio recordings or bootlegs on YouTube. I just listened to the Detroit 1977 show over the weekend and it sounded great.

  • Your favorite tracks on ... "US"

    Quote from FeelItComing

    I also love Steam but It's just a bit too similar to the mighty Sledgehammer. As for Kiss That Frog I don't think it's meant to be taken that seriously.

    I agree about the similarities between Sledgehammer and Steam. And for that matter I lump Kiss That Frog into the same category of those two songs—uptempo with a heavy wink toward sexual innuendos. My take is that PG was trying to recapture the musical—and commercial—magic of Sledgehammer.

  • Cheesiest song of all time?

    The Carpenters: “Top of the World.” The lyrics and music are syrupy. Plus the multi-tracking they did on the vocals on all their songs was cheesy, and totally unnecessary. I included The Carpenters’ song “Superstar” on my list of favorite female performances, but that was based on live versions of the song that I’ve seen on YouTube. Karen’s voice live was sublime.

  • Your favorite tracks on ... "III" (Melt)

    Quote from Witchwood

    When I saw him perform in 2012, he introduced the song by saying it was inspired by a book entitled "An Assassin's Diary." He didn't mention any names but if you Google the title, it is a book co-authored by Arthur Bremer.

    I took it as common knowledge at the time. I had previously heard or read interviews where he cited that book as the source of his inspiration, but I don't have any links to old interviews where he shared that bit of info.

    As I mentioned a few days ago, after watching the film “A Clockwork Orange” last weekend I read “An Assassin’s Diary.” If you google the title and scroll the results you can find a free pdf copy from Hood College, a small school in Maryland. The whole thing takes maybe 3 hours to read. Bremer mentions in his diary at one point that he enjoyed that film. Honestly though what I gleaned most from reading it was how pathetic and bumbling he was. While stalking Richard Nixon (his first target before he changed his mind and stalked Wallace) he: a) accidentally fired his gun in his hotel room; b) hid a gun so deeply under the hood of his car before crossing the Canadian border that he was unable to retrieve it after crossing the border; and c) left his gun on a plane after exiting. He was in the airport bathroom when he heard his name called over the airport PA system. When he reported back to the gate where he deplaned the pilot, never having opened the bag to see what was inside, was waiting to hand him the bag containing the gun. All in all he was an angry, maladjusted loner who was obsessed with becoming famous. He seemed particularly obsessed with becoming as famous as Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert Kennedy. In short, he was a lonely, insecure young man who had grown up in a broken home.

  • Your favorite tracks on ... "UP"

    Quote from Christian

    More Than This was high on my list in the beginning - but then I couldn’t stand it anymore. Sky Blue is the eine track that has always fascinated me. Probably because it’s a track where you can feel they had an idea and couldn’t make it work … until that day.

    I love Sky Blue. A little part of me thinks Peter “cheated” a bit by taking the vocals from the song Cloudless on the Rabbit Proof Fence soundtrack and adding them to the end of Sky Blue, but that feeling is overwhelmed by the vocals from the Blind Boys of Alabama. They are so beautiful and powerful they sometimes bring tears to my eyes.