Heard this one on the radio yesterday for the first time in years. Talk about a classic 
The cynical side of me has always wondered if some of the things the band points to as representing changes to their approach to writing songs (e.g. showing up with no material written and counting on good stuff flowing from jamming in the studio; the use of drum machines to lay down basic beats) was more the product of the band members being stretched thin creatively by their various solo projects than it was an artistic commitment to adopting new creative strategies.
In its own way I always thought that Calling All Stations was a rather sad album. So many of the lyrics seem to focus on loss/being lost, which if true is interesting given where the band was at then.
Mate, no offence taken and no need to apologise but thanks anyway. I'm being moany in my own way.
The irony is not lost . . . . But hey, it’s great that you own it and give a nod to the nes75. One thing I love about this board is that folks disagree without being disagreeable.
I’m not quite sure what is meant by “technically” in this case. Does it refer to the quality of playing or the quality of production?
As with quite a few of their fade-outs I do find it frustrating and do think they should've returned to the verse backing track but brought that to an ending rather than fading it.
I can dig that.
Is anyone else bothered by the fade out on the chorus at the end of Silver Rainbow? To me it would have sounded better if they had transitioned back to chugging, churning music of the verses and faded out on that.
Another awesome show from the Encore Tour ‘82
Great Band!.....
Indeed they are! I didn’t realize until after I hit reply with the link to the song that whoever uploaded it to YouTube had misspelled the band’s name lol
I LOVE that song! 
Thanks OneForTheVine for the detailed review. It sounds like an awesome show. I’m extremely excited for the show in Milton at the end of the month!
Re Domino, I actually thought it had the flattest start to any of the songs on this tour.
Maybe it was key changes, it just didn't Pop enough in felt at the start.
I had the same reaction. To me the first part was significantly lacking this tour. In my mind for whatever reason I’ve always compared Domino and HBTS/SHBTS, and have always strongly preferred the latter, both studio and live.
Heard this one by Renaissance on the car radio on my way to work this morning.
I read that they felt it was the first entirely co-written album. I read somewhere they felt Abacab had been equal, in the sense that all tracks were group written, apart from one each from Banks, Collins and Rutherford, so a third each. But 'Genesis' was the first where all titles were by Banks, Collins, Rutherford.
I agree Mama would be a better title, but I suspect that at the marketing stage they had lost some interest/were busy with other things. Certainly the state of the album cover would suggest that....
Right on about the album cover. After the abstract artsy cover for Abacab (which I love), the cover for the self-titled album was a real letdown for me. I remember when I bought the album thinking that it looked like they had just taken plastic pieces from a child’s game and photographed them. The whole album had a rushed feel to it. Physically the album I bought wobbled like crazy and scratched almost immediately. Also the fact that there were no leftover songs from the recording sessions would seem to indicate perhaps that the band was in a rush to get something out. Having said all of that the first side of the album featured very good songs.
Display MoreHello everyone!
I am a Canadian musician and I have written a short-ish piece on what it was like to grow up as a Genesis fanatic and how their music shaped me as a musician.
I have attached it as a PDF with this thread.
Please have a read and let me know what you think!
I’m sure it’s a fascinating piece. I look forward to reading it when I have a few minutes
... that or a complete version of Tonight, Tonight, Tonight - but I assume the second part is beyond Phil's ability these days.
That would have been excellent. Unfortunately as you say Phil’s voice probably couldn’t handle it these days, which is a shame given the strength of the instrument section and closing section on TTT.
I love Mad Man Moon, but as always it’s a matter of personal taste. It could be that Tony was running on fumes in terms of his lyrical creativity by the IT album. The lyrics on Domino may indeed have come naturally, but still sounded awkward and stilted to me. in fact, going further back TB has admitted that he feels he dropped the lyrical ball on All in a Mouse’s Night, and is embarrassed by his lyrics on The Day the Lights Went Out. He also has said that the lyrics to Scenes from a Night’s Dream were so bad that he handed them over to Phil to salvage. You can then jump forward to Silver Rainbow, with the silly line about a bear coming in the room. The only thing worse would have been if they had kept the line “Rabbits live in trees” in the intro to Silver Rainbow. I guess the lesson I take from all of this is that TB’s lyrics were a mixed bag of success and failure after the ATOTT album.
they never were such a band. Would have been something, no question!
About the article: I agree to most of the author's comments. But I must say I can't stand "Domino" any more. Not sure why ...
I'm lukewarm on Domino. Musically it suffered from the godawful mid-80s electric drums and some of the lyrics seem a bit forced to me (e.g. "sheets of double-glazing," "nylon sheets and blankets')--as if Tony is almost trying too hard to write something non-commercial for the album. Honestly I could have done without it on the most recent tour, especially if they would have performed instead something appealing that hadn't been played live for a while ("Abacab"?).
To me it’s pretty clear that the line-up with Ray had such a short shelf life because Tony and Mike had gotten used to commercial success, especially in America. They were no doubt disappointed that the album bombed in the US and the scheduled tour wasn’t selling tickets. Multiple members of the band have pointed out in interviews that they tried for years to write at least a few hit songs, but that didn’t occur (at least in America) until FYFM. If you think about Genesis and its main solo offshoots (PG and PC) there is a similar pattern: they achieved commercial popularity only to see it wane after a while. Once the album sales drop and new singles aren’t being played much on the radio the motivation for writing new material dries up. Witness Gabriel: we’ve been waiting for 20 years now for the true follow-up to Up, which didn’t chart as well or achieve nearly the playtime on the radio as So and Us.
It's just that IT could have been The Fugitive 2 without Phil. Yes, the tour would have been Tuesday night at the Odeon instead of 3 nights at Wembley Stadium!
Hmm, The Fugitive is just about my favorite TB solo album. I’d gladly have taken more elements of that incorporated on to the IT album.
