Supper's Ready
Okay. Here we go. Just finished a head to head comparison of Supper's Ready from the original Gabriel vinyl version on Foxtrot vs Collin's vinyl version on Seconds Out. First, both are amazing. Collin's version wins the live performance aspect obviously. Gabriel's version just has that raw, young person's angst to it. It really can't be redone. I tried to make the Collin's version compare and it just ain't there. Granted, if you never heard the Gabriel version you would think the Collin's version was the cat's pajamas. My 2 inane cents.
If you get a chance, go see "The Musical Box" a cover band that does the PG era stuff. They bought the costumes and props from Genesis, IIRC, and I've seen shows in small theaters where they choreographed every move off old Genesis film. It's like a time machine to Selling England By the Pound tour, etc. Really fun. Cheers, Spencer |
As I previously mentioned, prog had a huge revival starting in the early mid 90’s. Bands in the 80’s, Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon, and all the "neo prog" bands, were good. But to me, they were kind of watered down. They tended to have the surface veneer of prog, but the deeper structure of the music, was just not as complex, creative, lacked the musical theory as most of the 70’s bands, and overall, the musicianship was not at the same high level of the 70’s bands. Something happened in the 90’s, up through the present, where many of the new prog bands, were much more like those of the 70’s, not in that they were all retro-prog, but the level of musicianship, complexity, music theory, etc reached the same levels of the 70’s bands. I can recommend many new prog bands, but my tastes are not always in the symphonic style (Genesis, YES, King Crimson, etc). I like a lot of avant-prog and Zeuhl prog, so, YMMV. Bands like: Anglagrad (Sweden) / complex, symphonic prog, with king Crimson, Genesis, Schicke, Fuhrs and Froeling influences. Deus ex Machina (Italy) / jaw dropping musicianship, intense prog, that sometimes straddles the line between prog and fusion. Lead vocalist has a 5 octave range. Tipographica (Japan) / avant-prog in the Henry Cow vein Höyry-Kone (Finland) / more avant-prog, with some Crimson influences Aranis (Belgium) / more avant-prog, with incredible musicianship. Not quite as thorny sounding as some avant-prog bands Echolyn (USA) / great US band. Early on, they has some Gentle Giant influences in their complex vocal parts and constant time changes. Lately, they are a bit more song oriented Miriodor (Canada) / kind of a mix of Canterbury scene prog, and avant-prog. Koenji Hyakkei (Japan) / Magma influenced Zeuhl prog. Corima (USA) / more Magma influenced prog D.F.A. (Italy) / great band that sort of straddles the line between prog and fusion Forgas Band Phenomena (France) / another prog / fusion line straddler Mike Keneally and Beer for Dolphins / complex, quirky prog with Zappa influences 5UU’s (USA) / avant-prog Isuldar’s Bane (Sweden) / really good, complex, symphonic. They have a couple recent albums, one with Steve Hogarth from Marillion on vocals, and one with Peter Hammill on vocals. After Crying (Hungary) / started out being a chamber-prog band, later became more symphonic, with some ELP influences. Really good band. They did a great live album with John Wetton on vocals. Finisterre (Italy) / very good, classical sounding Italian prog Transatlantic (International members) - really good, classic sounding prog. Other bands of various subgenres of prog: Univers Zero (Belgium), Setna (France), Riverside (Poland), Discus (Indonesia), All Traps on Earth (Sweden), Manna/Mirage (USA), I could go one for pages. Once again, some of these bands will not be in the; washes of Mellotron, Hackett like guitar playing, Hammond organ, Squire bass playing type of prog. They will be a bit more 'thorny' sounding, with use of atonality and dissonance, and very complex arrangements. Some might even say, they may take a bit of work to get into (it did me), but the rewards are high.
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Having never seen Genesis with Peter Gabriel, seeing the Musical Box, was my “prayer capsule” back to Supper’s Ready. As SBANK mentioned, they’re definitely worth seeing if you have the chance. As to all the various incarnations of Genesis, I have a soft spot for each one, but I never picked up, “Calling All Stations”, where they enlisted Ray Wilson as their frontman. Not sure what was going on there.
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@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.... |
I've seen Musical Box every time they've been to LA. I saw Genesis do the Lamb at the Shrine Auditorium back in 1975, and the Musical Box performance was a pretty good reproduction. So were their other shows of other albums. My problem is every time I see a cover band, no matter how good they are, I can't help thinking about all the great, modern, original prog bands (in all prog subgenres), playing new, original music, that I'd rather see. |
