How are you finding On Sunset? I'm a long-time lover of Weller, and have always liked his solo stuff more than his Jam stuff. Still, last one that I got into properly was Saturn's Pattern.
Posts by TheIncorrigibleSaxon
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To each his own I guess but Behind the Lines is one of the best openers they've ever had, albums and gigs too. Banks called it ''arresting'', I agree. Without debating the merits of the song itself, Misunderstanding sounds really ill-suited for the job.
I can see where you're coming from on that, and certainly as an introduction to the suite, I love Behind the Lines. I certainly think that Misunderstanding is a nice statement of intent for an alternate Duke, but I'm sympathetic to the idea that you could put the Suite on Side One, and then the rest on Side Two - the only issue for me there is that you then run into the problem of having Travel's/End on Side One, when that's a fantastic closer. It would feel wrong for me to go from Travel's/End into something else.
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I've a few that I've done over the years, mostly post-*Wind and Wuthering*. I've also popped up a thread on a similar theme, about arranging solo tracks into pseudo-Genesis albums.
As for my recompositions:
Duke (1980)
Side One
1. Misunderstanding
2. Man Of Our Times
3. Cul-De-Sac4. Heathaze
5. Evidence of Autumn
6. Open Door
Side Two
1. Behind the Lines
2. Duchess
3. Guide Vocal
4. Turn it on Again
5. Duke's Travels
6. Duke's End
Abacab (1981)
Side One
1. Abacab
2. No Reply At All
3. Me and Sarah Jane
4. Keep It Dark
5. You Might Recall
Side Two
1. Man on the Corner
2 Naminanu
3. Dodo/Lurker
4. Submarine
Invisible Touch (1986)
Side One
1. Land of Confusion
2. Domino
3. Feeding the Fire
4. Do the Neurotic
Side Two
1. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
2. Invisible Touch
3. In Too Deep
4. The Brazilian -
So I've been on a little bit of a kick of rearranging albums, playing around with song orders, including b-sides, all of that sort of thing - great fun, and I've managed to come up with an interesting new order for everything And Then There Were Three... - can't find much fault with the ordering of the earlier stuff, admittedly!
I've been wondering in light of this whether or not it would be possible to construct a kind of faux Genesis album out of the solo output of the guys. Basically, as a fan of (most of!) the solo catalogues to varying extents, it's interesting to consider what it would have been like had the guys stayed together, through the medium of their solo works. I've managed to come up with two broad "types" of album that you could cobble together; either something much more progressive, which focuses heavily on the work of Hackett and Phillips (think "what if Tony left, and the five-man lineup was Gabriel, Phillips, Hackett, Collins, and Rutherford?"), and something set a little bit later, in the late 70s and 80s, which excludes Steve and Ant's work, but which includes stuff from Peter, Phil, Tony, and (maybe even?) Mike. Have a look at what I've put together, and post your own track listings - we might even come up with something listenable.
Which Way the Wind Blows (1977)
Side One
1. The Geese and the Ghost
2. Silver Song
3. Which Way the Wind Blows4. Solsbury Hill
Side Two
5. Moribund the Burgermeister
6. Star of Sirius
7. Shadow of the Hierophant
8. Wind-Tales
This is very much a more progressive album, and focuses largely on stuff produced by Ant and Steve in the mid to late 70s, with some Peter stuff thrown in there for good measure. I actually think that this makes for quite a good listen - it starts out very pastoral with The Geese and the Ghost (which Mike plays on!), tracks through a Side One carried by acoustic guitars, and which focuses on moments of reflection and consideration of the past, then moves into a heavier, more fantastical Side Two, culminating in the crescendo of Shadow of the Hierophant , and the light relief of Wind-Tales. Phil and Peter are sharing vocal duties here, and all five of the guys are credited as writers, except Phil.
Genesis (1985)
Side One
1. Wallflower
2. Take Me Home
3. Hand in Hand
4. At the Edge of Night
Side Two
1. Start
2. I Don't Remember
3. Thirty-Three's
4. Intruder
5. In The Air Tonight
And here, later, is something more akin to Genesis (1984). All of the tracks were released 1980 to 1985 in our timeline, and this takes on a more "pop with progressive elements" feel to it. I'm not entirely happy with the middle section, Hand in Hand to I Don't Remember, but the run of Thirty-Three's to In The Air Tonight is actually fairly tight, and works together as a kind of mini-suite - I think that it's the gated reverb that you've got in Intruder and In The Air, which follows on nicely from the drum machine underpinning in Thirty-Three's. The only one getting short changed here is Mike, but I couldn't find a way to get a Mechanics track in without it unbalancing the album with its aggressive poppiness and distinctly un-Genesis vocals.
