Posts by Duke of Earl of Mar

Difficult to say which one is my favourite. The "Bright" one is... brighter, at least in the first part : more clarity, a bit more top end, each instrument apart from the orchestra seems to be more discernible (e.g. the damper noises of the piano), and the voice cuts more through the overall mix (less reverb). Perfect for today's standard (radio promo and so on).

The "Dark" one is more about the overall balance between everyone, even if the strings and the horns are more present. Also in the final part, the drums are a lot more present in this mix (especially in the low end), and there's few details in the string part there, that I can barely hear in the "Bright" one (listen at 5:13, there are some high notes in the Dark mix).

Wait, he has never heard The Knife but he has a Spot The Pigeon poster ?

That's funny.

Of course everyone has some albums and songs, considered as "classic ones" that we have not heard yet (personally I know Yes, and their Tormato and 90125 albums, and a few other well-known songs, but I know I still have to listen to Tales From Topographic Ocean, Close To The Edge, etc, because I don't know them. Same for the Beatles or the Stones, I still don't know all of their songs.)

I saw this thread yesterday and since, I've kept trying to find a Genesis song that I really don't like... but I can't find any.

Everything between 1970 and 1980 is top notch for me.

Of course, there are songs that I like less than others : for example between Alone Tonight and Who Dunnit, I would choose the first. Even then, I still kind of like Who Dunnit... and if I didn't like it, I don't think it would be one of those songs you would be afraid to admit you don't like.

I think the album that contains most of the songs I would skip is CAS. Something like Small Talk for example.

But I think the main reason would be the sounds used in it, not the song itself if it makes any sense. Small Talk with different sounds and arrangement would be better than it actually is.

I found this on Youtube. Quite funny to me, but I think it's only because the synthetic voice-over adds something quirky.

This guy is a fan. He also posted some time ago another video based on the same concept, pointing out "the" Rutherford riff...

Very sad news...

I am also a Neil Young fan, so Crosby Stills and Nash (and Young) is also something important in my musical life.

CSN's first album and CSNY's Deja Vu are milestones in rock n' roll history.

A documentary was shot a few years ago about his life. He knew he would die soon...

After a minute of joy and excitement ("God ! Something new !), I have to admit my enthusiasm fell quite down ("what a mess this is !").

I mean, compared to what someone like Neil Young or the Prince (the Artist) Estate have done (and are still doing) with their respective archives, this is a bit deceiving.

Why on earth did they cut the complete concerts (1978...) down to only a few songs ?

Surprising, but good. To me there is some lineage with songs like Harold The Barrel, Counting Out Time... Those "funny" songs, you know.

And I really like Phil's voice at the time.

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How about a digitally-recreated John Mayhew joining Phillips, Banks, Rutherford and PG for a Trespass showcase gig?

My God I hope not. Having ABBA doing that is weird enough.

As Tony told Phil at the time : "Hahaha, come on... We have songs. Songs need to be sung."

I love instrumental passages too, but I think it would be too weird to have instrumental passages only, as often, they sort of illustrate what the lyrics are about.

Still, Ray Wilson could be a part of the band for a tour with the others and with Nic on drums ; since now Phil is retired, having his son in the band would give a sense of continuity... If only, this time, they chose the songs carefully, as opposed to the CAS Tour, where some of the 80's songs didn't work too much (to my ears of course).

Anyway, dreams...

No keyboard player apart from Peter ? David Sancious is not going on tour with them ?

I'm saying that because lots of Peter's songs rely on keyboard parts... meaning that Peter would always stand behind one.

Unless there are new "stripped down" arrangements...

Interesting anyway...

Quote from Backdrifter

The LoC midsection is indeed different in character from the rest of the song but as FeelItComing says, that's the idea. The song paints a negative picture of tension and conflict so the 'long ago' part serves to contrast that with wistful reflection on better times, before urgently returning to the stark present, like a reminiscing person jolted back to harsh reality.

I like it and think it works really well, and I especially like Banks's rising-falling line after 'so long ago...' In fact the whole section sounds Banksy to me. Who knows, maybe it was a lone fragment that found a home there but however it ended up in LoC it sounds just right.

That's funny, to me it sounds more Rutherfordesque... Brutal key change and very different mood, like the bridges in Your Own Special Way (the Fender Rhodes part), Deep In The Motherlode ("All along the wagons...") Alone Tonight ("When the morning comes the sun is out and warms me up again").

You see what I mean ?

You're right, the pedal unit is from a Moog Taurus II, but it's just the controller, plugged to a Moog Source (sound generator).

Moog Taurus II

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Moog source :

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He used the same setup live during the WCD tour. I don't know why he chose this solution since he had the regular Taurus I (just next to him in the documentary). Maybe to get particular sounds, but since, to my ears, he only played "classic sounding" bass pedal, the mystery is still there.

So when Tony Smith said "clean up the archives", is this what he was talking about ?

I'm glad to hear such news, but I would also do something more "basic". Something like :

- Genesis Live 1981 - Abacab Tour - The complete 2-hour-performance - Audio remastered from the original multitracks and video digitally enhanced in HD.

- Genesis Live 1984 - Mama Tour - Same thing

- Genesis Live in Wembley 1987 - Same thing

Then the Lyceum Theatre show.

I don't know if they have the rights on the 1976 and 1977 video live performances. If they have, please work on them also...

It's a little off-topic but I think there is a fourth guitarist, who plays some noodling/solo. Was Anthony Drennan already there ?

EDIT : I'm talking about the NASA performance.

Quote from Backdrifter

Really? What did he do?

I checked on Youtube.

He did some extra tapping, and an intense use of his Whammy pedal, along with some fast playing (think of Daryl in Firth of Fifth).

If you're attached to the studio version, you may find it surprising.

Los Endos is heavily modified too, with Snippets from his solo stuff ("Clocks")

Same with IKWIL.

Personally I don't mind some experiment.

I think this is the one. But it's made on purpose, so it doesn't count...

Maybe on Duke's Travels (album version). What about the intro, before the drums fade in ?

CSNY - Our House

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Neil Young fan (and so, CSN/Y), and I love this album - a classic - and this song. But I think it's cheesy. The "La La La" part is...

Same with In Too Deep from our favourite band. For me, the cheesiest song they ever produced (with the fake strings, and the infamous DX7 electric piano during the choruses...).

But I like cheesy songs...

Quote from Dr. John

Now this is truly interesting. I have the original VHS. I had been a fan since 1999 and the Purple Rain tour was once of my first concerts (preceded only by Rush and Yes I think). I then bought the Purple Rain deluxe version to get CD versions of extra tracks like Erotic City, the full length Let's Go Crazy, Irresistible Bitch, etc., plus the concert on DVD. How much better is this DVD version?

Much, much better than what existed before. They recently found the original audio multi-track tapes of the concert in the Vault. That's why they decided to release a new version of it.

The 2017 version was just a basic transfer from a VHS (or Laserdisc ?) to a DVD. So both the image and the sound had some limitations compared to what we should expect from a proper DVD, in fact the mix is the same as your original VHS (so, almost no low frequencies for example).

They first did a remaster of the audio in 2020, to stream the concert on Youtube to support research/hospital against the Covid pandemic. But the source was the stereo master tape. I guess it was only re-equalised and remastered, but it was already a vast improvement.

But this version is a proper remix (same as what Nick Davis did with the Genesis albums in 2007-2009), from the multi-track tapes. So they checked everything : relative volume for each instrument, EQ...

The overall sound is way better, more balanced, every detail is perceivable.

They improved the video too. It's not a proper "restoration", because there is no "real film", only a VHS source. They tried to improve the image with some algorithmic software (similar as what the Genesis Museum did with the Bataclan Concert). Honestly, it looks great. No perfect, but great.

Still, the most important thing is the sound, and they really did an amazing job.

You can watch some extracts on Youtube on the official Prince channel.