Going back to the bobka, I like when they spot the other one and are told it's cinnamon, their reactions are hilarious. Elaine gasps and Jerry says in a tone of mystified intrigue, "...another bobka?" as though it's the most amazing thing he's ever heard.
The assistant's explanation is simply "Well, there's the chocolate, and there's the cinnamon" as though that sheds any light on things! Although there's probably not much more she could say, I suppose.
Jerry’s racial harmony cookie!!!
Yeah, well, the jerk store called…
Alton Benes: Which one's supposed to be the funny guy?
George Costanza: Oh, he's the comedian.
Jerry Seinfeld: I'm just a regular person.
George Costanza: No, no. He's just being modest.
Alton Benes: We had a funny guy with us in Korea. A tailgunner. They blew his brains out all over the Pacific. There's nothing funny about that!
“I’m off hot water!”—-Kramer.
good stuff! Hey Art, how are you?
I’m ok, brother. Just had some health issues hit me this week. Neuroma in my foot with cortisone shots, got strep, and got my results back from an at-home sleep study that revealed I have something in my central nervous system that affects my insomnia. That was a bit of a blow. Now I have to do an in-lab sleep study! 🤦♂️ Not happy.
Happy 4th of July! We have our fireworks all ready to roll!
Sorry to derail this thread. It’s an infringement on these fine posters’ civil rights! It’s outrageous, egregious, preposterous, salacious, outrageous!! (Said in Jackie voice!)
Yeah I’m not a fan of “sold out” in that musicians have the right to write and perform whatever they please and should follow what brings them joy.
While I like their pop, it’s parsecs from their other-worldly epic prog. I do think $$$$ played a big part, and I’m sure on the $$$$ end Steve Hackett face palms when he thinks about what he left, but then again I can’t picture Steve strumming along to Thats All and Land of Confusion.
Peter’s the one who had his cake and ate it, too. His music remained experimental, kept its edge, retained its dark but beautiful sheen, all the while being $$$$ lucrative.
Genesis aren’t sell-outs, I just happen to be in that oddball minority of fans who prefer to see a Genesis with giants phalluses, fox masks, capes, old man masks, guitarists sitting on benches, sudden outbursts of “A FLOWER!?” etc. 😜😜😜 rather than holding your girlfriend tight swaying to and fro to Hold On My Heart 😂. What can I say? I’m a nerd!
I don’t know why it tickles me so much, but there’s this part where Mr. Peterman finally returns from exile after a year to run his company again. While he was gone, Elaine hired Jerry’s dad, Morty, to work on their team. He goes on and on about selling trench coats while Peterman has this “WTF!!?” look on his face. After his long-winded opinion, Peterman says, “Who…….are you!?” 🤦♂️😂😂😂😂
One of my all-time Seinfeld exchanges
George: Excuse me, I'm expecting a call. Costanza?
Bruce: Yeah, I just got a call. I yell 'Cartwright! Cartwright!', just like
that. Nobody came up, I hang up.
George: Well, was it for Costanza or...
Bruce: Yes, yes, that's it. Nobody answered.
George: Well was it a woman?
Bruce: Yeah, yeah. I tell her you not here, she said curse word, I hang up.
(George comes over to Jerry and Elaine, stunned)
George: She called. He yelled Cartwright. I missed her.
Jerry: Who's Cartwright?
George: I'm Cartwright!
Jerry: You're not Cartwri-
George: Of course I'm not Cartwright!!!!🤬😂😂😂 Look, why don't you two just go to the
movies all by yourselves, I'm not in the mood.
I agree with the band (and BD) on this one. They always tried to write pop songs, the only difference in their later career is that they got much better at it. The songs you list are pop obviously, but so were Silent Sun, IKWIL, and Your Own Special Way. Equally, Home By the Sea, Domino, Driving the Last Spike etc were epics with an updated sound.
I bet if they could have, they'd have had hit pop singles in the 70s, they just didn't have the tools. By this metric they didn't 'go' pop, they were always pop, they just weren't very good at it in the early days. Fortunately they were brilliant at other stuff 😃
I’m not buying that they didn’t have the tools. I totally don’t buy either the fact that a group of brilliant musicians go a decade secretly yearning to write pop tunes, but due to some sort of mutual or mental constraints or bad prog influences on each other, they ‘settle’ into masterpieces like Lamb, Selling England, Foxtrot until such time as they could become Fleetwood Mac. I know Tony tried to claim the “We always wished we could write hits” claim, but I’m not buying it. Without Peter’s depth and Steve’s passion for prog, they were left with three. The three found pop I think more to cope, adapt, and stay relevant as prog was becoming a hated and mocked genre. Disco, pop, punk was the cool deal in the late 70’s, and when you discover Phil has a real penchant for pop tunes, you’d be crazy not to capitalize!
I can listen to pop “hits” Genesis. It’s good. I did the other day. Turn it on Again and Throwing it All Away are great songs! But, oh man, Firth of Fifth or Cinema Show or Moonlit Knight come on, I have an ear to ear smile a mile wide.
Display MoreI've never bought into the idea "they went pop". I always thought they retained the same musical integrity and sensibilities, they just applied them differently. Pop bands don't do stuff like Dodo, Mama, Home By The Sea, Domino, The Brazilian or Fading Lights. That those songs sat alongside No Reply, Keep It Dark, That's All, Throwing and Jesus makes them the very definition of well-rounded.
No band worth their salt should ever get nostalgic for their past. I never thought Genesis lost any esteem for their older material, and I've never picked up on any negative feeling from them regarding it, in fact they've generally spoken with some pride about it. But at the same time, like any creative band wanting to move ever forward their focus was on the now.
The reasons why such a band would naturally prefer to weight gigs to their newer material have been picked over ad infinitum. I do think it's a shame though that even the best newer stuff, such as the stupendous Duchess, would get ruthlessly ditched early on.
I occasionally hear dismay voiced regarding Banks's comment "I like having hits". Let's not forget this band started as schoolkids raised on 60s pop, and wanting to be a collective who wrote hits for other people. TB was just voicing his pleasure at having achieved the hits part of that, and quite right too.
Comparisons with other prog bands are meaningless. Those bands are those bands, and Genesis aren't. Their being in the same broad category doesn't place some sort of standardised expectation on them all to act in a certain way. I'm not a huge prog fan but what I do like is underpinned by pleasure in the breadth of the genre from the darker scarier extremes of Crimson and VDGG to the brighter sunnier touches of Yes and Genesis via the thoughtful metal of Rush. It's a mistake to think of them all as a line-up of athletes you expect to run in the same direction on neighbouring tracks and hop, skip and jump in the same manner.
I disagree with much of this. For one thing, “Rush” and “metal” in the same sentence is odd. Secondly, you’re characterizing me as seeing these bands through eyes I’m not seeing. I dont expect Genesis to behave a certain way. Actually I gave examples of different bands handling things differently? I’m merely stating that Genesis has an unusual history and I wish they had a more complete show where the prog era was concerned.
I will stick by my statement that they went pop. It’s a no-brainer. Invisible Touch, Thats All, Follow You, Hold on my Heart, In Too Deep, Tonight, Throwing it All Away, etc….did I miss something? Are those prog songs? I could go on and on listing pop tunes. Do I hate those songs? Nah. Are they pop? Uh, yeah….
If you listen to the interviews of the band on the reissues, they often times were very critical and negative toward the classics and most interviews from the guys are far more glowing and rosy where “the hits” are concerned.
Tell him to have a plum!—-Jerrys Dad
My only complaint about Genesis is that they have a very well-defined three periods of the band. You have the early days where they were trying to figure out who they were, the second phase where they were the five guys doing prog rock at an insanely glorious, wonderful level that I adore, then you have the departure of Hackett and they go pop(ish).
I know I've said this before, what bugs me is that by the 1980's, the past seemed to lose esteem in the hearts of the band. They'd throw in a medley and bits and pieces of this and that from the golden age, but in general it was pop and hits.
Usually that isn't the way things progress. You have the ping-pong effect with bands like Yes where they were prog for over a decade and then went pop, but they played plenty of prog at their shows even in the pop era, then they went prog again and the pop is only a seasoning on the shows. Jon Anderson came and went a bit. Then you have bands like Marillion where the lead singer leaves and they go a bit more mainstream but stick with a lot of prog stuff in their shows. Then you have bands like Rush (God bless them) who stayed together 100% all the way through without quarrelsome drama.
When I hear the band talk about Foxtrot or Selling England or Lamb, etc. it always seems more negative. I think part of it is the humble nature of the guys being openly self-critical, but it usually feels negative and not as nostalgic and happy as it should be. When they talk about the "hits" as Tony calls them, it's usually overwhelmingly positive.
I just wish they had been more well-rounded from 1980 onward, so to speak. I adore them. And I'm not a hater of their pop stuff. I know some people see Invisible Touch as pure blasphemous sludge. I don't at all. I just wish there had been more of a balance through the years and at least a return to their roots occasionally.
I also like Banya. "This is gold, Jerry. Gold!"
I love it when Banya says, "I've been working out, Jerry. You know, you really should work out!"
Jerry: "Why?"
Banya just stares off clueless as to how to respond LOL!!!
One of my favorite lines is from The Alternate Side Episode, when the paramedics come to help Elaine’s much older boyfriend who was having a stroke. The group tried to feed him cookies, and the paramedics say “Who put cookies in his mouth? You’re not supposed to do that!”
And then the song Elaine sang to him while feeding him at the end of the episode. "Yankee beans, Yankee beans, I love my Yankee beans!" LOL Something stupid like that. Oh man, my kids and I just laugh at that every time!
“Yeah, that's going to be a problem. It's gonna be a problem for them. This a clear violation of your rights as a consumer. It's an infringement on your constitutional rights. It's outrageous, egregious, preposterous.”
— Jackie Chiles
Watched the docuseries called Wild Wild Country on Netflix. Boy was that something else!
Currently watching Unforgotten on Amazon Prime, a British series with Nicola Walker. VERY GOOD. I love British shows, but my wife needs the subtitles. She doesn't understand "English" English LOL
This is not one of my favorite Peter albums, but for me the 3 stand-out songs are
Games without Frontiers (one of my all-time PG faves!)
I Don't Remember
No Self Control
The rest are decent, but don't grab me. I'm probably the only guy in here who completely skips Biko, and I know PG fans usually adore that song! I'm weird LOL
From where I'm sitting, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was the zenith of Genesis' greatness just like I see Yes's greatest peak at Close to the Edge.
I think by the time they had hit Lamb, they had gone where no man had gone before. Foxtrot and Selling England are insanely mesmerizing and the musicianship is at a ridiculous level! Same with Nursery Cryme.
When they delved into Lamb, they explored territory they had never hit before. It wasn't the charming pastoral themes and very English-sounding Genesis, but something more experimental, dark at times, a very motley and charming yet disturbing album. Lamb encapsulates everything that is good and breathtaking about Genesis for me. It has the humor in Counting out Time, the weirdness in Colony of Slippermen and mystery and awe in Anyway and Chamber of 32 Doors and Carpet Crawlers. It has this absolute badass punk sound in the opening track and Back in NYC. It has an unprecedented almost Kashmir blaring rocking sound in Fly on a Windshield. The album is a tapestry of perfection.
After this album, I very very much enjoy Wind & Wuthering as well as Trick o Tail, but for me after Peter departed, something wasn't there that I absolutely adored....the mysterious traveler! That element of mysticism, the unknown, the crackle in the voice, the weird mixture of beauty and angst.
And then there were Three, Duke, all that stuff for me was a massive downturn. I'm not one of those guys who hates Genesis in their more pop era, but for me songs like Duchess and Duke's Travels lose me. I think "Turn it On Again" is the best song on Duke by a mile, but in comparison to the glory of the mid 1970's, doesn't hold a candle. I listen to the pop era of Genesis regularly, especially songs like Abacab, etc. but for me the grandeur of who they were, the peak was the Peter era and the Lamb.
It's so sad they parted ways.....
Their history is so different from that of Yes, my other favorite band. There was no going back like there was with Yes. Yes was profoundly progressive like mad, then broke up, went pop in the 1980's with 90125, etc. but they then went back to their roots with albums like Magnification and Fly From Here, etc. Even Union was proggy at times. Yes went full circle back to their prog roots and in concert today they showcase almost none of the 80's pop.
Genesis is the opposite. They haven't returned to the prog days, just a medley of songs and bits and pieces amidst a primarily pop sound.
Sorry for my lack of brevity
Lamb----the heights of perfection
Next interview—-Peter Gabriel!! And, Christian, get an autograph To Scott for me while you’re at it! 
I agree with Witchwood, it’s nice to hear a musician hint at the monetary success of his work. After all, while these are highly artistic and creative individuals, this is also they’re livelihood, and they watch their bottom line just like all of us.
Can you imagine how much dough Steve would’ve had if he had stuck with Genesis as they went through the 80’s pop-rock era!? My goodness the guy would blow his nose with hundred dollar bills!
I’m not suggesting he should’ve done so, but I have to think somewhere in the back of his mind (and with Ant, etc) the wealth Genesis and Peter amassed from around 1978 onward....HUGE!!
