Question for Genesis fans

I couldn't disagree more. That has some of Gabriel's best wordplay and humor.

Count me among the number of those who have no interest in Genesis post Wind & Wuthering. It has nothing to do with some of the more mainstream pop textures that they used; I just think that the writing wasn't as interesting.

 

That moment is certainly up there.

 

And I'll take almost every song on the first side of the self-titled album over Epping Forest. Horses for courses...

 

And I couldn't agree more with you. I always loved that song, even if a bit wordy.

 

And there is zero correlation between you perceiving the writing as not interesting and the use of "mainstream pop textures"? Do you generally find such things interesting but just not when Genesis does it?

 

Yes, exactly. I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

I guess you probably refer to it as "The Battle of Effing Forest" then.

 

I got into Genesis in 1980 as well and have always much preferred the Gabriel era, though I do also like the first two Collins albums a lot. To me they're nowhere hear the same level as the Gabriel era though. I still don't like any of the stuff from the '80's. It has not improved with age for me. The Gabriel era is timelessly wonderful for me though.

 

Agreed , the Gabriel era is timeless, and for me was the best !
My first concert at Sheffield City Hall cost 60 p for the ticket !!

 

Well, take my wife and I: when it comes to The Beatles, she loves the earlier stuff (With The Beatles being her favourite) and actively derides the Pepper/MMT/White Album material as being "wierd sh-t". Whereas I prefer the later stuff (the '65/'66 era being my favourite, actually). With Genesis, same thing: I've always been more partial to the Gabriel/"Prog" era of the band whereas my missus likes the poppier later stuff (it also helps that she's a bigger Collins fan than a Genesis fan, but whaddya gonna do) But there's room for every era from both bands in our house.

I've never been a big fan of The Lamb but "Fly On A Windshield" gets me every time. Tony might just be spot on with his assessment there.

 

Pop is pop.
It just doesn't last.

 

And yet all the Phil Collins shows at the Royal Albert Hall in June sold out in 15 seconds last Friday.

 

Mainly to the ticket touts to sell on at a huge profit

 

Because there is a market for tickets to see Phil. Great to see as well, Phil's contribution to music became undervalued in my opinion. I hope that his return will cast him in a different light. I do think his last few solo records were weak however overall he has a body of work that's very impressive. Especially when you include Genesis, Brand X and all of the other artists that Phil worked with including Eric Clapton and Robert Plant.

 

I am happy for Phil .
He well deserves to be respected for his work.
My point is, in my opinion,pop has its place, but store bought packaged cupcakes aren't fine dining !

 

Face Value is not pop.

 

I was the opposite...I loved the Collins Genesis until Invisible Touch. I only later began to discover and love the Gabriel Genesis.

 

I didn't like Epping Forest for a long time, but one day it clicked. Now I enjoy it and find it humorous. Same with Harold the Barrel.

 

"Duke" is a great album. In fact, I like it much more than "... And Then There Were Three" (but much less than, say, "Wind and Wuthering"). Being a pop album, "Duke" is still very innovative and progressive. For me, this is the album where "Genesis" ends.

 

Genesis never "ended". They "moved on". Good grief, poor Phil keeps on telling you all the time

Anyway, there's good in every Genesis album.
Maybe the post-prog are not fulfilling as a full album experience but if you cherry pick the best of the 80s-90s album and put them in a playlist, it would be pretty solid.

Lyrics are sometimes a weak point and don't age well, though, that's a fact. Arrangements too they do look too minimal and stiff, at times.
But it's curious how until Duke the best part of the albums is praised, while after Abacab is the worst part of the album to be focused on the time.

 

I got well and truly into Genesis via their early material around 1980. Whether it was Gabriel or Collins who fronted the band, didn't really matter to me: it was the departure of Steve Hackett that marked the first line of demarcation for me. I did have a soft spot for Duke right from the beginning, but And Then There Were Three took considerably longer to gain my acceptance. The albums that were released during my fandom were harder eggs to crack, so to speak. Abacab is still my least favourite Genesis album. I like Three Sides Live, though, and fully understand its appeal: it has all the good stuff from Abacab and the studio tracks are excellent as well.

Over the course of years I have warmed to Genesis and Invisible Touch to a degree, although I must say that I still find their somewhat "clinical" sound rather alienating. Musically, I thought We Can't Dance was a considerable step into the right direction and I kind of liked it; again, I wasn't too enamoured with it sonically, but probably had better accustomed to "modern" by the time it came out. For me, Calling All Stations has always been their best post-Duke album.

As for Collins's solo output, I took immediately to it when I first heard In the Air Tonight and I never even expected it to sound like Genesis. At the time I associated it more closely with the sort of stuff Peter Gabriel was releasing and that seemed perfectly appropriate to me. Phil's second album Hello, I Must Be Going! (which includes I Don't Care Anymore) is - in my opinion - his masterpiece and the one that musically is probably the closest to contemporary Genesis he ever got. It's almost a companion album to Genesis - there's a distinct shade of Do You Know, Do You Care? on Home by the Sea, for instance.

If new Genesis is old Genesis now, what's old Genesis, then - a Revelation?

 

Of their post 1980 work, I loved the tours But the music hang really aged well, though their are some great individual tracks. I rarely listen to anything after Abacab, will occasionally put on WCD and can't think of the last time I put on the two live albums from 1992. Of that era, WCD and CAS are my preferred albums. Abacab is still good. But these are rarely played. Three Sides Live I used to love, but more and more find the lack of subtlety in the interpretations of the songs annoying. Seconds Out in eschewing bombast is more faithful to the likes of Cinema Show that 3SL forgets.

 

I think both the Genesis and Invisible Touch albums are improved hugely by live versions where available.

My Invisible Touch album is as follows (resisting the temptation to swap out any tracks) -

Invisible Touch (Live 1992) - I love that little coda "anything she wants...it's hers..."
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight 12" remix (the definitive version of that track)
Land of Confusion - Live 1987 Wembley
In Too Deep - Live LA Forum 86 - Again I love that little vocal coda
Anything She Does - 2007 remix is a bit longer
Domino - Live 87
Throwing It All Away - Live 92
The Brazilian - Live 87

I could have dropped out Anything she does and replaced with I'd Rather Be You as the kind of light pop track for the album, but as I say I tried to avoid losing tracks. Realise the other 2 b-sides are also fabulous.

The Genesis album is similarly improved by live versions of Home By The Sea and (slightly more contentiously) Mama. Although I have a real soft spot for the tracks often ignored and I don't believe 'side 2' is weaker, Silver Rainbow and It's Gonna Get Better (12" version with extra verse) are both fantastic.

 

Funny, I've always felt the opposite