Posts by BassAnd12Man

Quote from Backdrifter

I wouldn't pin the blame on social media for making people like that. Plenty of people were already pretty unsavoury and/or self-appointed experts, and social media gave them a much broader publicly accessible platform on which to flaunt their ghastliness.

Quote from thewatcher

Thanks for the advice and sharing your own experience. It's definitely something I'm working on although the hurdles are insane. I need something called a Conrad waiver, of which there are 30 per year for my state. Of those, 20 are for workers in underserved areas, for which I don't qualify. So I need to get one of these ten waivers, after which I can switch to a different visa for three years, after which I can apply for a green card and then work on citizenship.

Or I could just go home!I

I feel your pain watcher.... I was lucky to do all of this pre-9/11. I know that it's a lot harder now.. Hang in there and just take one small step at a time wherever you can. I know immigration is a pain in the butt. I wish the US had a points based system like the country I came from (Canada). Take care.

Quote from thewatcher

I was alerted via Twitter of a young politician running for office in Pennsylvania I believe. Alexandra Hunt. She's a public health researcher of some sort and appears to be a good apple. Some scrote from New York post wrote an article on her leading with a headline about how she was a stripper. One of her t-shirts had the funny (to me) political message "elect hoes" on it. I went to buy one (partly to support her, and partly to add to my "make America rake again" funny/political t-shirt I have from when that stupid shit trump and his cadre of stupid sycophants tried to have a press conference at the four seasons and ended up outside the four seasons landscaping instead) only to realize I shouldn't/couldn't. I'm not a citizen and don't have a green card, and there was a list of conditions I should meet to buy the T-shirt and those were on it. I was on the verge of buying it anyway but stopped. I'm about to renew my visa and what if this fucked it up?

Which led me to many random thoughts. I didn't land here last week. I moved here 8 years ago and two of my kids are American. At what point should a person be allowed to have a say in the kind of place they live? And this would be politician stripped in college to get by, why do we make it so hard for young people to make their way? It's not like they're scrabbling for shelter or food on a barren African plain thirty thousand years ago, but we make them feel like that as if they'll learn from the experience. Maybe these are all American problems, maybe not.

Having been in your boat watcher, I would strongly encourage you to get on the "citizenship path" if you truly want to make a difference in this country. I also started on a work visa (not for 8 years though), got a green card and eventually US citizenship. A visa is a really "tentative" status (though I admittedly don't know what class of visa you have). I also reached a point many years ago (I've been a US citizen since 1999) where I wanted to have a greater voice in the ins and outs of the US, hence my move towards acquiring citizenship. And yes, the US is extremely polarized right now. I've actually taken the "humane" opposite approach and tried to listen to all sides of a debate, even though I may vehemently disagree with one argument. That's how people used to be before social media turned 75% of the planet into a bunch of louts and "experts" (on all ends of the political spectrum). Peace.

The '70s were brutal to bands in regard to all the crap that people threw on stage. In particular, in North America, fireworks were often lobbed at the stage which is insane. And I don't mean little fire crackers - think cherry bombs. I remember seeing Aerosmith in the '70s and someone lobbed said cherry bomb towards Steven Tyler. Even in his obvious altered state of consciousness, he went berserk on the person. What also didn't help back then is that the "floor" was often general standing admission. On a positive note, people were way friendlier and mellow (cough, cough) at gigs back then and bras were rarely worn lol (sorry if this offends anyone). Different times....

Quote from Backdrifter

What do we think of this notion it was the first ever progressive rock album? Does that stand up?

I've heard some say that accolade goes to Sgt Pepper but that seems to be based on it having the vague remnant of a concept that never got fully developed.

Well, if you're talking about the prog that we all know and love, with the sweeping mellotron, odd time signatures, weird lyrics, and neo-classical influences, it's hard not to treat that first Crimson album as patient zero. Though the Moodie Blues and Beatles (heck, and the Stones) had used a mellotron, they were in the realm of pop and/or psychedelia. Yes also comes to mind with their first album but nowhere near as much as King Crimson's debut.

Yes, I also remember the "fan request" component. Curiously, Roger Waters did the same thing on his Radio Kaos tour in '88? I was there and I remember a phone booth where people would go in and talk to him on stage. I also remember some stoner asking him why he wasn't reuniting with Pink Floyd and that set him off quite significantly. I had the "pleasure" of doing a group interview of RW on Sirius XM about 10 years (?) ago in NYC and he was definitely an odd character. All politics when he was on air and then he would crack jokes once the red light went off (i.e. during breaks). That made me think that this was all one big act (his left wing politics) - his diamond encrusted Rolex also seemed to clash with the Marxism lol. Anyway, sorry for the tangent.

Quote from thefarmer

Interesting what you say about the Sound and Vision tour. I saw that show with former Mrs Farmer who's also I give Bowie fan at Maine Rd ( football stadium) . First time seeing him ( o had been a major fan since I was 11) and a major disappointment. The tour was intended for him to do his best known songs then put them behind him, so he could move on and concentrate on new material. So we believed it was out first and last chance to see the great man do his classics. The stage show was minimal and Bowie seemed bored. I don't think the show you went to was bad because just the stadium was half full. I suspect the whole tour was like that. I've read about it recently and we were not the only ones to feel like that although others did love it . He made up for it though, Glastonbury 2000 and Reality were great

Interesting comment regarding Sound + Vision... Yes, it was meant to be a farewell tour of sorts, I remember that. And he and the band were most definitely rushing through the setlist with very little chatter. It was so different than '87 or any other previous show that I saw. Given his propensity to "transform" every couple of years, he may have been really fed up with the '70s material at this point and just wanted to put it to rest. Anyway, incredible performer and also a shrewd businessman (he made his money from buying publishing catalogues). RIP.

I had the pleasure of seeing Bowie 4 times: (1) Isolar II (the "Heroes" tour) in May '78; (2) Serious Moonlight in September 1983; (3) Glass Spider in August 1987 and (4) Sound + Vision in July '90. All were drastically different shows. I would have given my left nut to see Station to Station at the Montreal Forum in '76 but I was a tad bit too young. I always really liked that whole Berlin period so the first show was awesome in that regard. It was very casual and Bowie seemed quite content actually (as my then 15 year old brain can remember). Moonlight was the huge commercial tour and in fact I saw him in a stadium in Syracuse, NY. It was really a "greatest hits" tour though I wish that SRV had stayed around. It was fun but diametrically opposed to the previous tour. Glass Spider was "Diamond Dogs Part II" so again, drastically different (incredible visuals on that one). Peter Frampton on guitar was a nice touch as they were apparently schoolmates growing up. I remember Bowie being overwhelmed by the crowd's response and promising to "definitely come back to Ottawa" (it was at Landsdowne Park or Frank Claire Stadium). Sound and Vision was a disaster.... The crowd was very small (no more than 5000 in a 10,000 seat arena) which did not go over well with Bowie. He seemed generally annoyed and they rushed through the setlist - wham, bang, thank you 'mam!". I never saw him post 1990 but have fond memories of each of the 4 shows I saw, despite the last one.

Quote from thewatcher

Quite enjoyed that, thanks. It's a song I'm very partial to, and an example of one I really wish they'd thrown in live once or twice.

I was curious what the picture on the video is that looks like the IT cover but it's a solid brown hand over an old picture of people.

You're welcome. I can't speak to the cover, unfortunately. However, the more I listen to the song, then more it sounds like it could have been on W&W or ATTWT - heck, it even has shades of Mad Man Moon. It kind of made me realize, as one who was not a great fan of their 3-man era output (generally speaking), that some of their '80s compositions certainly had a strong '70s vibe to them (especially the Banks stuff), which is highlighted by slight retweaks (in this case - a mellotron part added). Interesting, even though it's all academic 40+ years later :).

Not exactly high quality filming but it does hold sentimental value for me as I was at the Ottawa show in early December, 1981. IN fact, somewhere at the end of Afterglow, my hands are clapping as I was on the floor (general admission) at the Civic Centre. Anyway, you can see the use of varilights during that first tour. As others have said, our mouths dropped when Dodo started as we had never seen anything like this before. Enjoy....

Quote from MoonlitKnight

Wow. I haven’t heard Heathaze in a while. It’s always been a favorite of mine and the mellotron makes it even more moving. Truth be told tears welled up in my eyes while listening to this.

It's always been my favorite (by a long shot) off of Duke. Adding mellotron brings it up to a completely different level. My biggest beef with Banks is/was his obsession with the "newest" synths and keyboards though I can't really blame him when it comes to the mellotron. I moved one once and they were a beast - not as bad as the B3 I moved (what we do at age 19) but still a massive unit. Now, any $1000 synth has decent mellotron string and choir patches but the first synths in the '80s were terrible when it came to reproducing these classic sounds. There's nothing that sound like a mellotron, owing to the tape banks and the weird technique one has to use to play it before the tape runs out lol! But that weird technique gave birth to things like Watcher of the Skies, so no complaints here..... Cheers, Andre.

Sounds fantastic..... You can't miss it...

Quote from Schrottrocker

Thinking about what makes the 'typical' Genesis sound throughout the years, I would say first of all both Peter and Phil have unusual voices as they always tended to sing in a higher register but their voices are nothing like falsetto singers such as Jon Anderson or Roger Hodgson. Nor do they have the lower register sound such as an Ian Anderson. They are not even like any of the Beatles' voices or any singer who tries to sound like that, and they are not rock singers either. They are pretty unique, then again they are quite similar. That's the first reason CAS sticks out so much.

On top of that, Tony's chords always stand out, even in a pop song like Jesus He Knows Me he couldn't hide it's Tony Banks who is playing. In the 70's era they keyboard sounds stood out too very much - a hammond as played on Twilight Alehouse was yet pretty standard, later on though Tony's way of supplying the synth with that spheric hammond became unique, that said his way of employing the ARP Pro Soloist is unique as well - later on this got lost mostly but not entirely. Invisible Touch is the one album that sounds most atypical for having Tony Banks as a keyboardist imho.

Finally, the 70's were also the time that Steve added his particular guitar playing, both in playing as well as in sound he is remarkably different from other guitarists of that era; and Mike's 12-string and maybe even more his bass playing add the topping. All of this got lost to a good deal later on but never entirely. Even CAS has traces of Mike's 12-string.

So.... as most atypical albums I would name FGTR, Abacab, Invisible Touch and CAS, probably no surprise. The most atypical song is harder to define...

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Agree. Having played much of Genesis' catalogue from the '70s, I can attest to the fact that their chord and arpeggio structures are bizarre, not to mention all the alternate tunings that Rutherford used during that period. And I mean weird.... Also, Banks' chords are certainly not "traditional" by any stretch (I'm not a keyboardist but I certainly remember our keyboardist scratching his head on occasion). And though the music became much more streamlined in the '80s, some of that weirdness persisted (e.g.: Turn it on Again is in altered tuning). That greatly differentiated Genesis form other prog bands of that era. The only other musicians I can think of that did a lot of this were Joni Mitchell and David Crosby.

Was this some sort of warm-up gig prior to the SEBTP tour starting? Hogweed is thrown in, which was not part of the standard SEBTP setlist, hence the question.

Submarine. Sounds like Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/828803137655959120/

Quote from Sredni

Santa?

(I promise I'll think of a question eventually.)

Ding ding ding.... We have a winner! Peter Gabriel wore a Santa Claus outfit at the Roxy in LA in December of 1973 in lieu of the white costume at the end of Supper's Ready.

Easy one... Peter Gabriel wore this costume only ONCE and only during ONE song. What was the costume and what was the song? What was the venue? Yes, it was in the Genesis days....

Quote from foxfeeder

Exactly! Politest vandals I've ever heard of.

Reminds me of my first trip to London in 1982 as a 19 year old (I was living in Ottawa).... I was walking in Islington or somewhere in North London (which, at that time, looked like utter shit) and before I even realized it, I had 5 skinheads circling me. Did I mention that I had shoulder length hair and was wearing a Jethro Tull t-shirt lol? They asked for money (of course). One guy had Made in Scotland" tattooed on his forehead, another one "Violence is My Drug". I felt the right move was to hand over my money lol, let alone the 5:1 ratio. The weirdest part is that they proceeded to invite me for a beer!!!! Ah, no, so sorry but I have an appointment I need to get to! Ah, the joys of youth....

Could I possibly have included more typographical errors in my post? Post Christmas drag lol.

Quote from MoonlitKnight

Ah the 80s: electric drums, synth horns, those ridiculous looking mini-guitars (I don’t care how good they may or may not sound, they look ridiculous), and Tony and Mike in their Miami Vice suits while Phil sports the business casual look onstage in his cotton Dockers and white dress shirt. Embarrassing.

Those "mini" guitars (sorry, that made me laugh) were Steinberger guitars and were quite pricey back on the day (made out of graphite). I never liked them also but they seemed so fitting given how sucky the '80s were generally, not just fashion. We could have along chat about that, As far as the '70s go, I'll take my bell bottom jeans and platform shoes any day over those hideous Sergio Valente jeans and upper jackets lol.