Started responding to several comments in a previous post, and it got kind of long, so here's a whole separate post! You'll take it and like it!
Zelmo chimed in on the Genesis discussion, trying to distract Nick and my disagreement on the value of latter day Genesis:
And I now have a better appreciation for Ray Wilson. I actually liked Congo and Shipwrecked.Cool. Another convert to 5th generation Genesis. Now, Zelmo, ya gotta help me get Nick's head 'right' about abacab. the poor fellow just has a bias against it, and we need to help him see the light. Forget all that political bs, this is important!
Although I do have to admit, Nick, that as an album, it lacks coherence. Abacab and dodo signify a new direction for the band, a new vitality that's really based on nothing more than... Genesis. There's not much else like it, although I will say that there were some bits in Jean Luc Ponty's show at the Oriental back in 84...
But I digress. Then there are bits like Whodunnit, which sounds a bit from left field, but really kind of harkens back to 'Wot Gorilla?' off W&W. and mixed in with that are these unabashed pop songs (one of which should have the blatting horns removed with extreme prejudice). Good pop songs, to be sure, but kind of out of place amongst the more developed textural pieces. [Another Record is my personal favorite among the poppy songs]
I think this lack of coherence, maybe focus, took them a while to get back. Genesis was a bit better in this sense, although I don't think Invisible Touch really got them anyplace (except video play because of the 'cute' puppet show); We Can't Dance was a better step in the right direction, that album reminds me of “...and then there were three” in a lot of ways...
And I really think that coherence was back in full force on “Calling All Stations” although I have been particularly harsh on the relatively safe selection as a new vocalist. I really wish they had gone further afield - I always though Aimee Mann would have been an inspired choice (and she may have a bit of prog leaning, she did guest vox on that Rush song) or someone like Barbara Manning - I think a female would have been a brilliant move! How great an opportunity to re-imagine all of the old catalog, just think! But I guess in the end, just a little too much of the English Boy's School to overcome. And of course it was just an idiot's move to NOT fully incorporate Stuermer and Thompson into the band as full time members.
Bunch of Old Farts.
So anyways, yeah, I admit that Abacab has some flaws, it's not perfect by any means, but as an exploration, a way station, a place to jump off from, It is remarkable. It's a headphone album.
Just picked up Genesis - The Video Show. Wow, A Trick of the Tale, Ripples, Mama, Turn It On Again, and even Carpet Crawlers in glorious 5.1 surround sound!I am just waiting for the happy little guy to deliver that also. We just upgraded to a 5.1 system (waiting on the HDTV) and to my dismay, I discovered that my Wembley disc is the wrong farging region! So I had to order one, and of course, there were some nice suggestions from my best friends at Amazon, so the video disc is coming too... But WHERE are the 5.1 remixes?!?! It's gotta be Rumsfeld. Or maybe Cheney.
Nick:
Just re-listened to Duke straight through for the first time in a long time. I tend to shuffle play most times, so I had forgotten how good the songs sound together. Great album.Agreed. The album is made for listening in one sitting, again, preferably on headphones. Often, when something from Duke comes up on the iPod in random play, I have to stop and set it to play the whole album, cuz that's just right. At the same time, it's a testament to the songwriting that so many of those pieces stand up so well on their own as straightforward pop songs. Regrettably enough, the album was written just after Collin's marriage broke up, so much of it was likely the pretty direct result of personal trauma.
I think it helps to consider Genesis more of a family than a band, they have grown and changed together, people coming and going, as lives and interests have changed. That first album came out in 1968! The things they did as kids are different from what they did as they got older, and the need to keep challenging, exploring, ends up with different results. I guess it's not surprising that some parts of their career appeal more than others; but personally, I find a lot that I like, in very different ways, about almost all of the work.
First a confession-- I have never listened to Calling All Stations, and I only listened to all of We Can't Dance a handful of times. To use tc's family analogy, I guess we just grew in different directions. Much-- nay most-- of my interest in Genesis waned when Phil went off into Easy Lover land.
ReplyDeletePerhaps part of my "bias" against Abacab comes from the fact that it was the first Genesis I ever heard. A friend introduced me to it shortly after it came out-- so I would've been around 12. I liked it a lot-- so I made an effort to find other albums by the band. And I liked those more.
Abacab will always have a fond place in my heart, because it introduced me to one of my favorite bands. Kind of like the first girl you kissed-- a fond memory, but not necessarily the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with.
Or something. That analogy may be too tortured to count for much. Anyway-- so yes, I suppose I'm biased. None of the "new direction for the band" stuff meant anything to me, since it was the first Genesis I had heard.
Much-- nay most-- of my interest in Genesis waned when Phil went off into Easy Lover land.
ReplyDeletePreaching to the choir, here, brother.
I lost interest at the time of Invisible Touch, but for different reasons. I was getting into a lot of other types of music, punk, new wave, power pop, that had little place for prog. I saw the IT tour, it was good, but so much of the longer older stuff was being relegated to the "old medley". and Collins MOR leanings were wearing thin. So I largely ignored "We Can't Dance", and felt justified when I heard the titular single.
But what happened here was I picked up the live disc "The Longs" which included "Driving The Last Spike" and "Fading Lights" both of which are quite worthy songs and made me re-evaluate the album. I even started to appreciate "I can't dance" which is, best as I can make out, about a drunken afternoon playing pool.
If you don't care for abacab much, you probably won't like "Calling All Stations" which takes that sparser instrumentation that I like so much from Abacab, Dodo, and Home By The Sea and extends it over all the songs on the album. As I said, it all hangs together much better, and there's no Phil pap breaking it up.
But I really like it (and incidentally have gotten into Ray Wilson independently) and was kind of pissed that they decided to cancel the tour because it wasn't as popular as prior albums. Wusses.
Point of order, yer Honor! I have never said I "don't care that much for Abacab." I like it just fine-- but I like most of their other albums better.
ReplyDeleteI should probably give We Can't Dance another shot-- I remember liking Driving the Last Spike quite a bit. And I think the title song is aimed more at commercials and the absurdity they represent. The model wearing the jeans can't dance or sing, but because of his jeans and walk, he's cool. And only in commercials do so many hot women play pool-- trust me, I've shot a lot of pool in bars, and most women, hot or not, couldn't care less.
Oh, and for the record, my favorite Genesis albums are Duke, Lamb, and Trick of the Tail in that order. At least today. A few years ago it probably would've been Lamb, TotT, and Wind and Wuthering.
My first introduction to Genesis was from a friend in college, John McCarthy. John was similar to tc; what I like to call a music maven. He had all the cool albums of bands I had never heard of. He was the one who introduced me to The Clash, Ramones, Gang of Four, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello. And although I knew Genesis from the radio airplay of Misunderstanding and Turn It On Again, he would play Trick of the Tale and Lamb. He gave me a tape of Seconds Out that I listened to all summer.
ReplyDeleteAt about the same time, Abacab was released. Although the jazz lover in me liked the proggy musicianship of early Genesis, I was drawn more to the pop direction the band was heading in under the lead of Phil. The single Abacab was getting a lot of airplay, and I loved the combination of a simple tight pop structure (A-B-A-C-A-B) with a progressive feel in the length and instrumental section. It soon became the song I could play air guitar and air keyboards on and hit every note. The good association of that song and the album was cemented in my brain when I took a college crush to see them at Poplar Creek in Chicago in August 1982. I still have the tour t-shirt.
I eventually fell for the entire album, and being a jazz trumpet player, my favorite track became the EW&F horn section on No Reply At All. Inevitably, I became a huge fan of Phil’s solo work, again drawn to his (overuse?) of the horn section. I didn’t sour on him until But Seriously and the awful radio over-play of his lame ballads. I stuck with Genesis however, going in two directions. I re-explored the early work at the same time I kept up with the new stuff. To me, I could appreciate the band on both levels; there was simply Pre-Phil Collins, and Post-Peter Gabriel.
And then Calling All Stations was released. By that time I was beyond Genesis, and knowing Phil had departed I had no interest whatsoever. Until now, and Genesis - The Video Show has intrigued me further.