OK, after consuming eleventeen beers last night, I spun a couple of albums I haven't played in ages - Duke, followed by Wind and Wuthering. Duke, despite the poor recording quality, is one of the bands most underated albums....sure it's a little glimpse of things to come as far as Phil Collins' dominating influence, but it's still an incredible album, and probably the last 'real' Genesis work before they became too commercial. What are your top 3 Genesis albums and when was the last time you played one of them?....
Selling England By The Pound is still my favorite, although I latched onto this band around the time of Nursery Crimes. I loved parts of Lamb and the others, but I think this Gabriel era recording holds up with the strongest tracks overall.
I'll never forget the first time I saw Genesis live.
It was during their very first US tour - they played the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, 3rd on the bill to Styx (!!) at an all day concert that featured mainly local bands and has-beens. Little to no pre-publicity - I couldn't believe they were actually going to be in Chi-town. This would have been before SEBTP came out but after Foxtrot. Peter Gabriel was the only band member who stood up to perform - everyone else sat down to play. Only about 30 people in the audience knew who they were and had come to see them...it wasn't pretty at first but they won over most in the drunken crowd with Supper's Ready.
When Genesis came back in support of SEBTP the next year, they naturally played a solo show, which was at Northwestern. By that time I was writing music reviews and was on the guest list. Yay! Chicago eventually became a huge town for the band: the last show Peter ever did with the Genesis was at the Arie Crown Theater in McCormack place during the Lamb tour. It was bittersweet - they encored with Supper's Ready and the entire road crew danced on stage wearing Pete's old costumes (including my favorite, the fox head).
I enjoyed bits of A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering. There were some nice things on them. But I didn't care at all for tthe Phil Collins super-hits era. Yeck.
Gabriel's solo career OTOH soared, if sporadically. He's someone I'll still pay to see - I'm not on many guest lists these days. Peter never disappoints, although he looks alarmingly older these days compared to the beautiful young man he was in 1972 when I first saw him in person.
I've never had the courage to see Musical Box...but now I may do.
Rackon, that's a great period in their history you were able to be involved in. You mentioned their farewell tour at McCormick, there was actually one other show at Milton Keynes in 1982. Gabriel had run into serious money problems promoting his WOMAD project, and the boys rallied for a one-night show in front of about 100,000 wet and muddy Genesis fans. Hackett and Philips were there and it was actually on Mike Rutherfords birthday, Oct 2nd I think. There were a lot of technical problems but it was an incredible show nevertheless. I wish I could find a video somewhere....
Yup, it was fun to there, a very interesting time.
Couldn't get to ole Blighty for the reunion, but was very glad to see the WOMAD and Gabriel tours.
I also saw Roxy Music's first US tour in Chicago same year - I met a future boyfriend at the gig and we got to hang out with Brian Eno a bit (not as glamourous as it sounds, Brian mainly wanted to do laundry...and did). I stayed friends with some of RM members for a time - Andy helped me with a music theory paper one time.
I believe Brian Ferry is in a movie coming out soon -
Anything with Collins fronting the band is marshmallow fluff and virtually unlistenable.
Well, that would definately be a matter of opinion, I happen to like later genesis very much, i haven't heard much of the peter gabriel era genesis, but i am going to check it out, a lot of people on here, speak highly of it.
Seconds Out also gets my vote: the dynamics on Squonk are killer and Dance On A Volcano seems almost surreal as they're finishing up. Their Chicago-Rosemount show ran almost 3 hours; the energy level in the hall was absolutely incredible as the whole place was abuzz. The only show I've ever seen that evoked the audience to even greater involvement was Jean Luc Ponty at the Arie Crown; we had 2nd row seats & he was right in front of us only about 20 feet away. Both of those shows remain unforgettable even today.
I've just picked up the 3CD compilation called Platinum Collection from 2004.
I did this mainly to see how the Nick Davis remixes and remastering sounded. It is tremendous the early material is given a complete revamp. Essential if you are an Audiophile and Genesis fan.
Whilst it can't cover all the bases for serious fans,it is a pretty strong selection that just totally flattens any previous remastering.
It's on EMI (7243 8 63730 2 1)and it's been a while since I've enjoyed my system as much as when I was blasting this old stuff out today.
Sdatch, I saw them in the late Fall of 1974 in Boston at the Music Hall (now the Wang Center). I can remember the show like it was yesterday. No warm up band. The hall darkened and after a couple of minutes to let everyone's eyes adjust to the darkeness, a pair of bright blue eyes glowed appearing completely bodiless and suspended in the air at stage level. It was Gabriel who then announced that despite what we'd heard in the media, on the radio and such..."we're gonna play the whole thing."
He left and came back a couple of minutes. The stage lights came up and he was dressed as Rael. And Tony began to play.
And the Lamb began. And remember, no one had heard it in the States because the album had yet to be released here, much to the band's frustration (I think it was one of the straws that broke the camel's back). The screw up was with their label Atlantic (Atco). And then the three-screen slide show began perfectly synchronized to the music. And it was simply amazing and I know my two close friends and bandmates from high school and I watched and listened slack jawed for the next two hours. I remember the instrumental sections were longer than the studio release; they took more time in the ambient, wierd sections.
They encored with The Musical Box, Gabriel did his flashing light ending, humping the mike stand during the last notes and the death fall backwards just at the end punch and the lights killed.
And their live sound was better than any band I had heard before or have heard since.
You can bet I ran to the record store when it was released here in the winter of '75. And I listened and listened.
I get misty again thinking about that show and the amount of pure talent on that stage that night. I would again get to see them post-Gabriel for Trick of the Tale (over at the Aquarius), but it didn't compare.
Name me one other band that had so much creative talent in five guys. Very few qualify, then or since.
My votes: 1) SEBTP 2) Foxtrot 3) LLDOB 4) ATOTT 5) W&W The worst Genesis album? Without a doubt it has to be "We Know What We Like - The Music Of Genesis" by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Palmer. RCA Red Seal Digital 6242-1-RC. Imagine "I know What I like", "The Knife", "Can Utility and The Coastliners", "Horizons", "Entangled", "Supper's Ready", "Mad Man Moon", "Undertow", "Entangled", "Turn It On Again" and many other great Genesis compositions played in the lamest arrangements most appropriate for a slow elevator ride or the dentist's chair. It reminds me of "The American Symphony" from the end of "Mr. Holland's Opus". Steve Hackett (guitar), Tony Hymas (keyboards) and Ian Anderrson (flute) are listed among the musician credits. The worst thing about the whole affair is Sir George Martin's liner notes, which are almost humorous when read after auditioning this wretched musical mess. I paid a buck for my copy and have gotten more than my money's worth seeing the puzzled and then disgusted looks my Genesis loving friends have on their faces when they hear it. No Genesis collection can be truly complete without this gem. The back of the album mentions another release by the LSO and David Palmer with the music of Jethro Tull and I do know they also went on to completely mangle the music of Yes on yet another LP . If I see these two albums on my travels for a buck apiece, I'll pick them up, as I can always use a good laugh (to think these folks were serious when they recorded this stuff!). Speaking of Sir George, give a listen to any of his mid 1960's releases on United Artists. Judging by these albums I can easily say: if he didn't produce the Fab Four, he'd be long forgotten by now.
Never was a big fan (at least not of the whole catalog), but the 1st Live record (i think the one Mes mentioned) may not have been the cleanest recording (especially the 1st run cd, but it showed that these guys were really into what they were playing and knew how to burn it. Just my stupid opinion, but Seconds Out by comparison seemed slick, rote, bloated, stale... kind of the usual deal for an all star buffet.
This thread brings sure back some memories. I was in high school in Northern New Jersey and had just discovered the band. Fanatacism that is only possible among the high school aged ensued. The first (of many, many) time I saw Genesis was in the gym at Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ in November, 1971. The full costume change/pyrotechnic show in a small community college gym is still the most memorable concert I've ever seen.
I still think this band produced the most melodic, hook rich material of all the progressive rock bands, and that talent remains evident through all the style changes. Those changes make the records difficult to compare, but if forced, I'd probably choose: Foxtrot Trick of The Tail Lamb Lies Down
There's old Genesis and new Genesis. I think the old songs have much more musical imagination, not to mention Gabriel's fascinating voice. Many are more like compostions than songs, too.
"Selling England by the Pound" is my favorite studio LP. Get that one, but also get "Seconds Out", excellent live renditions of many of the greatest ones. Plus, the drumwork by Chester Thompson and Bill Bruford (and Phil, of course) is something to hear.
Best Yes album: Close to the Edge (I couldn't resist).
Tvad, I think the title cut on CTTE was Yes's masterpiece and the entire album was their strongest overall. It's the only Yes album I have on CD! When I was listening to them a lot and playing some of their stuff in a band, CD's hadn't been invented. Same with Genesis.
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