I have a bootleg of them playing this set at the Keswick back in 2004. Great show. Blimey that's 20 years ago already.
Sadly the wrong side of the Atlantic for me but we'll be going to the Hammersmith show.
Posts by Micklemus
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Almost identical comment from me as from TheLawnmower. I used to really like this track when I was younger, particularly live, but now it's just annoying. It's another of those songs that Phil might describe as 'of its time' - a cheesy lyrical tale - but it hasn't aged well like their true epics. The lyrics are somewhat fromage-laden but the part the really grates on me is the instrumental section at the end. The musicianship might be great but the sound they produce is not, and that steadily climbing piano scale amongst the melee makes me wince. Perhaps its just because my hearing has changed with age, I don't know, but once upon a time this would have been about 13 for me and now I can't listen to it at all, so I'll average it out and say 7.
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I would agree. Having said that, it is by far my favorite song on that album.
Phil and Tony have very, very different writing styles. Phil’s is much more popular. I like Tony’s much better.
Same here. As per my original post on this thread, the band was really magical to me when Steve was in it, which also happened to be when Tony spread his wings more. Phil had a point though, and I think Phil’s ability to arrange and tighten songs, to avoid the cringey bits, is not fully appreciated. That’s maybe for another thread though.
But Tony wasn’t always the best lyricist. Great with mood, scale and complexity but his lyrics weren’t always the greatest. Could be original though, I mean there can’t be many songs featuring a bread bin but he managed to tick that box as well!
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Well I never knew that. I knew of his many references to “sheets of double glazing” and “undinal songs” but not this one. However he did sound bored when singing it, particularly live, and he does have a point. I mean, “snowflake drifting on the breath of a breeze” belongs more to a Keats poetry book than a rock album.
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Yes the Volcano/Endos medley from Knebworth really rocked.
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Lucky you for having the opportunity to see this.
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I never really 'got' this track, whether the album version or live. Despite the title, it leaves me feeling pretty low and it just drones on without any particular plus points, and I’m really underwhelmed if I listen in full to Side 2 of the eponymous album with this at the end of it. It's also awash with Tony's 80s synth sounds and not much else; the very arrangement that turns me away from quite a lot of their 'pop era' material. It's not a tooth-grinder of a three piece Genesis track for me, not like Living Forever or Since I Lost You, or as tragic as anything on Calling All Stations (aka Burning All Credibility) but it is some distance from making it to my Genesis all time playlist.
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They're alright but the ones I have are no better than the boots available for free on the Genesis Movement torrent site. If I were you, I'd save my money and go there, subject to two exceptions: The Shrine 1975 and LA Forum 1986, which until now were only ever available in MP3 streaming format online.
The Amazon CD version of the Shrine is the full show without the truly awful overdubs that resulted in the official release some years back, and as a full show it beats the numerous radio broadcast versions of The Shrine which only ran to about 45 mins. That said, the full unedited show is pretty rough round the edges in terms of performance and I can see why the band didn't release it like that. I've listened to dozens of Lamb shows and their performances were frequently patchy until the latter stages of the tour.
The LA Forum CD is a soundboard recording from a different night to the King Biscuit Flower Hour version that was used for many bootleg releases. It's good for completists but for me the early IT shows were all about the In The Cage medley that included final third of Supper's Ready, and this version of the medley isn't quite as good as the KBFH version (to my ears anyway). So it's a nice to have but I've only listened to it once.
Elsewhere I bought the Amazon CD versions of Nassau 81 (the Three Sides Live material), Chicago 78, Pittsburgh 76 (or was it Cleveland, I'd need to check) and (I think) Zurich 77. The best bootleg versions of these shows are as good as or better than the paid versions, so I would take some convincing to spend out on more.
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The Cinema Show is one of my Top 5 Genesis tracks. It’s quite a good example for the prog style of the early Genesis era. They Rarely sounded heavy, technical, they always had this loose atmosphere, they sounded fresh and accessible, no matter how complicated the tracks were.
15 points
Well put and I fully agree. Other prog bands went for complexity and the music got lost in the process. Genesis retained balance and their material was stronger for it.
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Great track, one of the Genesis classics for most fans I should think. It worked better live than in the studio, to my ears anyway, and the Seconds Out version is outstanding. Great as a medley piece as well. I only wish Tony could have properly emulated the Mellotron choir on later tours, but that’s personal bias because I loved what the ‘tron brought to the band’s music.
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No worries! Also I think few would find themselves troubled by a particular Gabriel song intro. 🤣
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Found it. It's The Roxy, 17 December 1973, late show. I've answered my own thread.
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Mid 1980s and a friend gave me a cassette with some Genesis bootleg bits [cue my bootleg query thread, which it looks like I won't get an answer to here] plus Spectral Mornings on it. I really loved that track, it instantly made me think about W&W era Genesis (sorry Steve) so I picked up some other Hackett albums and singles from there.
To be honest I generally preferred his acoustic material, it kind of stops him from throwing 10,000 clashing ideas into a 6 minute assault on the senses, and I really enjoyed seeing him live on the Momentum tour.
His more recent stuff doesn't work for me. Now it's 20,000 clashing ideas thrown into 5 minutes with an odd vocal on top. Arrangement is not his forte. For me there was a lot to like up to Defector, there is still a lot to like on the acoustic / classical side (I really enjoyed Under a Mediterranean Sky) but I always felt his talent was in creating atmosphere (Spectral Mornings being a great example) and I wish there was more of that than "look how totally unique and clever I am."
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It's one of his very best albums, quite out of character in it's sound and style, and this track is one of the highlights. 15!
(Worth noting, Mae McKenna, sister/cousin of members of SAHB, was his support act in 1988, and her 2 albums from that era, Nightfallers and Mirage & Reality (the latter featuring Steve) are very good. She was a backing singer for many SAW acts, and did a lot of the heavy lifting in chorus's for some of their acts).
Blimey there’s a memory. She supported SH on his 1988 acoustic tour and was great. Saw them at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on that tour and met Steve afterwards. Mae had a fabulous voice. I was also of an age when her attire was quite persuasive too. Anyway…
To this song, it’s not my cup of tea I’m afraid.
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This is a very random request.
Back in the 80s a friend gave me a compilation tape of various Genesis bootlegs and on it was a Gabriel "green trouser suit" story involving laughing gas, the end of which went like this:
Phil [through tons of tape hiss] "...and said....."
Pete "Stop that it's disgusting." [in squeaky laughing gas voice]
"Must fly, Firth of Fifth"
I can't find the tape. I don't remember finding a bootleg on The Genesis Movement with this story on it. Is there anyone out there who can point to which bootleg this is? By a process of elimination it's obviously from the Selling England tour, and there weren't many shows involving laughing gas. And just to be clear, it's not the Roxy show on 19 December 1973 that I'm talking about, although that story is very similar to the one I'm thinking of. I know it's not that Roxy show because there's no interjection from Phil with, "....and said" on that recording.
Would love to track down the show that had this story. If someone can solve this conundrum for me, I'd be grateful.
Apologies for making such an odd request.
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Or Iron Maiden for whom Genesis are one of their biggest influences.
Yep, Steve Harris was a major fan of the 1970s Genesis material.
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I've never seen this before. I really enjoyed it. Great performance and an excellent band as well. Thank you for sharing.
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I had a tongue-in-cheek go about this album on another thread and this song is a prime example of what I was on about. It could be the mystery ingredient in a deep pan four cheese pizza, it's so dripping with fromage. Guitars, umm, are there any?! Mountains of 80s keyboards under an avalanche of cliched lyrics. And why oh why would you have a soul singer fronting up this 'rock' track?
It's wrong on so many levels. Sorry Mr Rutherford, but I've never understood why someone capable of producing some incredibly strong material can really plunge the depths as well.
Mr Babbage says no.
Needless to add, IMHO of course. Each to their own, comme ci comme ca and all that.
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I absolutely LOVE that song. Always in my Genesis all time top 5 and I never tire of hearing it. Excellent lyrics, beautiful playing and all wrapped in a concise package. 15.
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For me that added layer of atmosphere left when Steve Hackett left the band. I am the same as you in that it's that magical 'something' that drew me to the band and kept me a lifelong fan. Steve's very individual style and unique sound really helped to bring that out. Admittedly it wasn't just Steve though, as this period was also when most fans would view Genesis as "truly prog" and it was also when Tony used softer keyboard sounds, but if you compare the guitar playing on TOTT through to Seconds Out with the period from Duke to Three Sides, the difference is huge. Related to this and focusing on the live sound, Daryl is a fantastic guitarist and probably more technically proficient but Steve could create and hold notes which you felt deep inside whereas Daryl would put more in (Firth of Fifth being the classic example) and do it with less, or colder, effects.
Another example: try to imagine what ATTWT would have sounded like with Steve. Down and Out, Ballad of Big, Burning Rope, Deep in The Motherlode, The Lady Lies; all songs which could have easily had more of a W&W feel if Steve had a hand in those recording sessions.
To to my ears, if you ignore the obvious fact that the band consciously moved (progressed) in a slightly different direction from 1978 onwards, which often meant songs were more immediate than about telling stories, Steve's departure made the biggest difference.
