Supper's Ready

Genesis was my favorite band for a long time; I first saw them in my college gym in Rochester, NY, in 1973 on the 'Foxtrot' tour, and yeah, they did a brilliant 'Supper's Ready' - I wish there was a way for me to insert photos, because I got some good ones from that show (and later shows, and PG solo).

I remained a fan after Peter Gabriel left; after all, most of my favorite music of their's was composed by Tony Banks, and I remained a fan after Steve Hackett left - I quite liked 'Duke' and 'Abacab', and even 'Genesis', but kind of lost interest after that.... 

I'd recommend that anybody who loves stuff like 'Get 'em Out By Friday' try to find an album called '9 Parts to the Wind' by a band called Strange Days, from 1975. 6 songs, four of them epic story/songs that could have come right off of a mid-period Genesis album, musically, vocally, and lyrically. 

@simonmoon - Holy cow - you actually know of Strange Days??? 😳  That's great, Simon! Are you in the UK? I was hoping that when Peter left Genesis, they'd get hold of Graham Ward of Strange Days - he's got it going on with songwriting, singing style, and is a fine guitarist to boot. But they put out that one brilliant album of 6 songs and then seemingly disappeared from the face of the Earth. 

I've not heard of those other bands; I used to be into Euro prog back in the 70's, with PFM and bands like that. Also like IQ, The Enid, etc, but these days (actually the last couple decades), my main man for prog is Steven Wilson and all his various projects.... 

@paulg1966 - good post! To me and many others, Steven Wilson is kind of the King of 21st Century prog rock - just check out the massive amount of music he's put out both under his own name and with his band Porcupine Tree. Great with sound as well, hence those Tull remasters you mentioned; he first got big in the re-master thing with King Crimson; he's re-mastered a great many of their albums. 

I like Phil Collins as a singer - he does singing with Peter on a number of Genesis songs, and their voices blend in so nicely together. But Phil was one of the greatest drummers ever - shame most of his fans probably don't know he played drums! And as I was saying earlier in the thread, I suggest you check out '9 Parts to the Wind' by Strange Days, if you haven't already! 

And speaking of the darker side of prog rock, any fans here of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator?? 

@paulg1966 - Yes indeed, I do like my prog right along with my metal, punk, post-punk, and reggae!

People who like long, complex pieces should enjoy 'Plague of Lighthouse Keepers' if it doesn't scare them off. I love Peter Hammill, but I laughed when I saw him described as sounding like 'David Bowie on bad acid'.

Are you a fan of Marillion and/or Fish at all? That lot were putting out great stuff in the 80's!

@simonmoon - that is very cool! I'm familiar with Moby Disc, though we didn't have that up here in San Francisco, where I've lived since '73. In the '74-'76 era, one of the big stations in San Jose, KOME, was all prog, all the time - it was brilliant!! I picked up on so many wonderful bands through them - one who they really championed was Man, from Wales, but also Camel, Caravan & the Canterbury sound, etc - they mostly stuck with British, though they'd get some Continental stuff and 'Krautrock' as well. I didn't hear about Strange Days from them, though - a real prog junkie friend of mine turned me on to that amazing album. 

Do you like Marillion and/or Fish at all? Early stuff especially was very Genesis-influenced, as were Fish's vocals then. The first time I'd ever heard of Steven Wilson was when Fish's 'Sunsets On Empires' came out, and I saw this guy produced it and co-wrote a lot of it.... I hung out with Fish and the lads when they were here in SF on the 'Clutching At Straws' tour.... 

@sbank - Yeah, Musical Box are great! I've seen them do 'The Lamb' and also the set from the 'Foxtrot' tour, which was a treat for me as I saw Genesis on that tour in 1973! Deja vu all over again, as the Yoge said....