Posts by StillCan'tDance

Quote from slowdancer

Who dunnit seems to be more nonsense, than anything else, which doesn`t fit to the regular seriousness of the band, especially Tony.

The first half of The Waiting Room sounds drug induced like a song Syd Barrett would have done.

Who Dunnit is nonsense! That's the point. As you say, the band were perceived as being serious (an ill-informed perception because this was the band who brought us All In A Mouse's Night, Harold The Barrel and The Colony Of Slippermen); Abacab was all about challenging those perceptions.

Quote from genesis1964

I would agree with the first part of The Waiting Room - does not fit anywhere at all

Have you ever tried listening to it in the dark on headphones? It's an experience, I can tell you. Only Frankie Teardrop by Suicide compares.

Quote from NoSonOfVine

Me And Virgil is a good example of a non-typical Genesis song. I'm not really sure what genre to assign to it. It just doesn't fit anywhere within in their music in my opinion. I used to like MAV but nowadays I can kind of see why the band thought little of it, and so I'm not big on it anymore.

And yeah, the appalling Who Dunnit? is another good choice. What. Were. They. Thinking.

The story is that when they were whittling down the songs to fit onto the album, they had a choice between You Might Recall and Who Dunnit. While the former was beautiful, the latter was ugly. They'd done songs like You Might Recall before but Who Dunnit was a real one-off so, as they were aiming to divorce themselves from their weighty past and try things they'd ever done before, they went for Who Dunnit.

You Might Recall was the safe bet and in 1981 Genesis were not making safe bets. If You Might Recall had been on the album, everyone would have loved it. Who Dunnit, though, really divides opinion. And for that reason alone, I think Genesis made the right choice.

Quote from NoSonOfVine

I disagree, I think MFM fits very nicely on SEBTP. A lovely acoustic love song to add a relaxation spot within the four giant tracks of the album.

Quite often it's all about the sequencing. For Absent Friends isn't the band's greatest moment, for example, but its placement between two heavy-hitting songs provides some much needed relief.

I've always loved More Fool Me. It adds some diversity to the album along with I Know What I Like.

Quote from foxfeeder

Agreed. A true definitive release would be a 2 disc set, the 2007 remix AND the 1994 remaster. For me, the only 2007 that is best is Foxtrot, because the original mix was truly dull in every sense of the word. As for worst version: THe original CD release (Mastered by Sanyo) of Wind..... bad beyond belief!

The Nick Davis remix of Foxtrot was the first time when the wrong note as Willow Farm segues into Apocalypse In 9/8 has been fixed so, really, the remix of Foxtrot (or certainly Supper's Ready) is the only one worth listening to.

Quote from The_Genesis_Archive

The Stereo mixes are never going to be the best representation of the material Genesis have written / recorded, I find such conversations redundant especially when they start going on about compression / mastering etc.

Well said; this is a Genesis forum, not the Steve Hoffman forum.

And the winner is...Christian!

I saw him on three consecutive tours: The Serious Tour, Both Sides Tour and Trip Into The Light. I remember the venues but the dates are a bit tricky (well, it was a long time ago).

For The Serious Tour it was one of the dates at the NEC in 1990. I remember Chester Thompson's son, Peter, joining them to play percussion on Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore. Phil was in excellent form that night, joking that Peter fitted well into the band because he only had one eye (English humour).

For the Both Sides Tour it was the show at the G-Mex on November 29 1994. At the time it was public knowledge that his marriage was on the rocks so there was an unpleasant, gossipy vibe amongst some of the more casual fans before the show. His monologue before I Wish It Would Rain Down seemed to be a comment on what was going on in his life and, as a way of addressing the elephant in the room, it went down very well. There was a lot of humour in the band introductions, too.

The last show of Phil's that I saw was at Earl's Court in 1997. I'm not sure of the date but I'm thinking it was towards the end of the year. Anyway, I thought it was fantastic. A new stage production saw him performing in the round and the band walked through the crowd to get to the stage, opening with the most amazing version of Hand In Hand I'd ever heard.

Quote from DecomposingMan

So, no FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION, no CALLING ALL STATIONS... and no AND THEN THERE WERE THREE??

That's what I wrote.

Quote from Ericm

I don't think an era has to be defined by who the leader or star/stars were. To me it's the time a person was in a band, In a show or on a particular team .

There was most certainly a Hackett era IMO, and it's simply the years he was in the band, and ended when he left, plus the Seconds Out album

Well, there's nothing to say that our opinions have to make any sense. To me, naming an era after a member of the band who wrote so little is the least sensical opinion I've come across in many a moon.

Oh, I loved the Division Bell album and tour. I remember the BBC screening one of the shows 'live' and a bunch of friends and I made it a big social occasion and watched it (one of our friends was actually there so it was quite something to be watching it, knowing he was in the crowd somewhere). If you haven't already, check out this site: http://yeeshkul.com/forum/forum.php they've got a lot of bootlegs from the Division Bell tour; maybe you'll find one that changes your mind.

Sorry, I don't "do" Facebook.

Quote from genesis1964

I have no problem with someone making negative comments about music I like etc.......it often makes for good conversation

I try to sandwich the negative within positive comments - which is what I hope to have done with my opinions on Topographic. If I don't like something at all and don't think it has any redeeming qualities then I don't think it helps the people who do like it for me to start shouting my mouth off with pure negativity.

Hackett era? There was no Hackett era. He was in the band from 1971 to 1977, of course, but during that time Peter and then Tony were the chief writers and the musical direction of the band had already been decided upon before Steve joined (he famously played them three pieces when he auditioned to which they said "We like that one, we're not sure about the other two!"). Instrumentally, the core of the band was Phil, Tony and Mike. Steve was more of a contributor, less of a participant (remember, this is the fella who was unsure of Supper's Ready and was openly critical of The Lamb, even admitting that the album happened "despite of" and not "because of" him. And how can we forget him going off to record a solo album after Peter left the band? "I thought this could be the beginning of my solo career whether I liked it or not" he said, betraying a serious lack of dedication to the band that had given him his first big break.).

I often look back on Steve's time with the band and wish there was more involvement from him on the songs. The years 1971 - 1977 feel to me like "Genesis starring Steve Hackett" but I suppose some musicians are more group players than others, which is why the band, when reduced to Tony, Mike and Phil, lasted so long and were so successful.

Yes, I think that access to The Farm made a vital difference to the book (although some bootlegs have since entered the community that are not reviewed in Play Me My Song - from memory, I believe they're from The Lamb tour). Of course, Phil has always claimed to have everything they ever did (onstage and in the studio) on tape. None of that has ever seen the light of day, though, which is a huge shame.

Interestingly, Phil said that he was reminded of CS&N when he first heard Trespass (I don't know what his opinion is of FGTR).

The Brazilian is a good choice. It was built around a sample that Tony made of Mike and Phil jamming in the studio. Of all their instrumentals, it's the most "logical". Abacab and Dodo/Lurker are also songs that I would say buck the trend of what is generally expected of Genesis. Abacab was really the first time they sounded like three guys jamming. The drums provide a solid backbeat while Tony's staccato phrasing and Mike's Stonesy guitar playing create some real distance with the past. And then you have the lyrics which are just pure nonsense!

As for Dodo, then that has a style all its own: industrial funk over a reggae beat.

I think all three of those pieces could be by entirely different bands, such is their diversity.

Ah, I see what you mean. My apologies. I agree, that middling period from More to Atom Heart Mother does rank as the least appreciated era of the band. And I'm guilty of that lack of appreciation because I don't really like those albums at all!

Quote from CyanideWand

I like to divide this way:

1. From Genesis to Revelation through Selling England By the Pound

2. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway through Three Sides Live

3. Genesis through Live Over Europe 2007

Well, that's one of the more curious divisions I've seen but to each his own!

Spot on, Mark. Paul Russell wrote about his favourite era of the band which is fair enough. It's a shame that a writer of his calibre has not picked up where he left off.

Not only does Play Me My Song serve as a fitting testament to one particular era of the band's performing career it's also a helpful guide to anyone who is interested in collecting Genesis bootlegs from that time.

I never did get to listen to the early years box set but I do love the Barrett era of Floyd. I don't think those early years are so much underappreciated as overlooked. Or maybe people just prefer to avoid listening to music made by a man whose mental health is clearly in steady decline.

I find the Barrett era of Floyd (and the albums he made afterwards) to be magical, funny, scary and, ultimately, quite upsetting. We had Dark Globe on in the car the other day and my wife and I just looked at each other, gave a heavy sigh and cried a little.

As for Nick, though, personally I'm just happy to see the Floyd men still active.