In Between Nursery Cryme And Foxtrot we get a single. Happy The Man Released as a single in 1972 with Seven Stones on the b-side. This song is a bit of fun, it is nicely written, but resembles more a folk rock band or a pop band, than the Genesis we listened to on Nursery Cryme. Apparently Peter was very into Cat Stevens (even playing flute on Mona Bone Jakon). When listening to this you can kind of here Peter aping Cat Stevens in his vocal delivery. This is not a song I am super familiar with, so that's all I have really.
A bit of commentary for collectors, there are several different versions and releases of this single, which can be found here: Happy The Man I personally own the top version. Likely the rarest piece of Genesis vinyl I own (or one of them). I personally enjoy Happy the Man for what it is. Not the greatest Genesis non-album track by any stretch, but a nice novelty. I always thought nobody ever heard this single (even prog band Happy the Man, huge Genesis fans, never even knew the song existed), but I hear there's a live recording of this song where Peter messes up the lyrics and someone in the crowd heckles him for it. Guess I was wrong. ANYWAY On to Nursery Cryme. Don't know what I can say that hasn't been said, and we're about to move on to an album that's much more important to me, so I'll keep it brief. We open with The Musical Box, which yes is brilliant and the best song on the album. I didn't always think this however. In fact. upon initial listen to the album, I only really liked Fountain of Salmacis. Coming from Foxtrot, I was off-put by the way the guitars were mixed or something, but I didn't find Musical Box or Hogweed interesting in the least. And the other tracks? All worthless to me. Well, upon giving Genesis Live a few listens, I realized I was wrong, and grew to at least love Hogweed. I didn't start to love Musical Box until I started trying to learn all the parts on guitar (I don't really play guitar so it didn't go that well). I think that was one of those instances where when you really dissect a song and everything going on, you realize how incredible it is. Especially the ending and instrumental jam in the middle, absolutely incredible parts from everyone in the band. I especially love the triplet part of Tony's solo. And of course the ending is one of the most emotionally conflicting parts in all of prog, on one hand triumphant for the victory of Henry raping Cynthia, but, well, yeah. Definitely one of Peter's best vocal moments in the band's history, and Steve's solo at the end is one of his most emotional yet. And on one final note, I'd like to point out Tony's playing during this entire section and how perfect it is without being in the foreground. For Absent Friends is nice. I used to hate it, but now I really enjoy it quite a bit. I love the chord progression at the chorus. Honestly, I think it's probably better than More Fool Me as far as early Collins songs go. And of course Hogweed is brilliant, jumping from one incredibly weird, incredibly awesome melody to the next, from the rolling arpeggios in the beginning of the song to the awesome syncopated instrumental part underscoring Peter's awesome vocals. On the "long ago" parts, I think the dynamics really make this part, with a great use of crescendo and decrescendo, along with the brief unison in the middle between Peter and Tony, emphasizing the evil creature stirring and all that jazz. On that last "long ago" section, Steve's awesome divebombs lead us into one of my favorite moments on the album, the unison between flute and guitar(?) over the form of the verse, going into Tony's piano arpeggios underscoring what develops into more great Hackett soloing. And of course the final section is absolutely brilliant. especially in the way that it makes you think the series of chords at the end is over on one of the resolutions, and then proceeds to go back into some more menacing chord sequences, before finally ending with a series of chords that doesn't seem to resolve at first, and then does and OMG THIS SONG IS SO AWESOME! (excuse my fake technical talk, but I feel the quality of these songs rest on how cleverly the band uses these technical things, even if I'm just basing my thoughts off of a drummer's limited music theory knowledge). Seven Stones is bleh, at least to me right now. I personally find all aspects of the melody to be cheesy and churchy sounding, and none of the lyrics catch on for me at all. The mellotron sounds cool, but it's still playing a dumb melody. This song sounds like "Genesis fakes In the Wake of Poseidon". Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that was what they were going for with this track. Quite a disappointment. Harold the Barrel on the other hand is awesome in how it jumps from one uncomfortable but awesome melody to the next, never resting on one melody quite long enough, so that the listener feels the tension building and the sheer insanity of the situation. Another thing I love is Tony's piano sound, and how he only uses piano in this song. A great, fun song. Harlequin is pleasant, never anything I look forward to, but I suppose it's a good rest in between the craziness of Harold the Barrel and Fountain of Salmacis. Which used to be my favorite song on the album. The mellotrons in the beginning blow me away everytime I listen to the song, once again expert use of dynamics. The verse melody isn't my favorite but, it's alright and does a great job of setting up the awesome chorus melody. And I love the "shimmering lake" verse section, great use of falsetto from Peter. And from another chorus we are transported back into the soundscapes of Tony's mellotron, organ, and Hackett's beautiful guitar playing. After another verse/chorus section, we get an awesome instrumental break, using some arpeggios to lead into the intense and incredible finale of the entire album. The band is truly firing on all cylinders here, we get a sick bass line, amazing organ support from Tony, more fantastic guitar from Hackett, flute from Peter, and we get some of the best vocal parts of the album before being brought to the incredible fast-paced reprise of the beginning organ line. After more beautiful mellotrons and another verse, we have perhaps the best part of the album, the "both had given everything they had" section. This section shows the best the band had to offer at the time, Tony's best use of his mellotron, some of Hackett's most emotional playing ever, bombastic yet incredible drumming from Phil, and Peter's best vocal line of the entire song, supported by some great "ah's" from the band. Overall, this is a very good album. I would never rank it among my favorite Genesis albums, but it's certainly an improvement over Trespass, and a good taste of things to come. I would probably give this album an 8/10. The great pieces (the big three) are absolutely brilliant, most of the filler pieces are good, and Seven Stones sucks. (Excuse my likely uninteresting and poor writing style, I'm a little pressed for time to write my "review" of this album).
I understand all that completely. When I first heard this album, I was hardly a huge fan. I really liked The Musical Box, and If not for that song, I may never have delved deeper. I am getting the distinct impression that Genesis is a band that you need to dig deeper and listen more, to be rewarded. I have always liked the band, but only since starting this thread and really having some deeper listens to some albums have I really come to appreciate them. I liked Foxtrot, but it certainly wasn't a go to album for me. Now having given it many more rotations than it has previously enjoyed, I can say it is up amongst my favourites now. I like Selling England, but have always been bewildered that it appears to generally be the Genesis fan album of choice, but again, that album is about to get the immersive, repeat listens, so perhaps I will adjust my thinking there.
Foxtrot Studio album by Genesis Released 6 October 1972 Recorded August–September 1972[1] Studio Island Studios, London, England Genre Progressive rock Length 51:08 Label Charisma Producer Dave Hitchcock Genesis Genesis chronology Nursery Cryme (1971) Foxtrot (1972) Genesis Live (1973) Foxtrot is the fourth studio album by the English progressive rock band Genesis, released in October 1972 on Charisma Records. It was their first album to chart in the UK, reaching No. 12, and featured the 23-minute track "Supper's Ready". The album was recorded following the tour in support of their previous album, Nursery Cryme (1971), which saw them gain popularity, including a well-received slot at the Lincoln Great Western Festival. The album was written over the summer of 1972, and combined songs that had already been performed live with new material worked out in jam sessions. Recording began in August with John Anthony, but sessions were prone to tension and disagreements. After a short Italian tour, sessions resumed with Dave Hitchcock taking over production duties. The cover was the final Genesis work to be designed by Paul Whitehead, featuring a fox wearing a red dress. Frontman Peter Gabriel wore the dress and a fox's head on stage for the following tour, which gathered press attention and greatly improved the group's profile. Foxtrot was the first Genesis album to chart in the UK, and received largely positive reviews. A non-album single, "Happy The Man" was released at the same time. The album has continued to attract critical praise, and was reissued with a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix as part of their 2008 Genesis 1970–1975 box set. By the end of 1971, Genesis consisted of frontman and singer Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist and guitarist Mike Rutherford, guitarist Steve Hackett and drummer Phil Collins. They had played around 400 gigs in the UK, but had yet to achieve commercial success. However, they had begun to become popular abroad; their 1970 album Trespass had reached No. 1 in Belgium, while 1971's Nursery Cryme had reached No. 4 in Italy. The Italian leg of the tour in April saw Genesis play to large and enthusiastic crowds, which gave the band new ideas about what audiences could be expected from a successful touring band.[2] The tour concluded in May that saw Genesis perform a set at the Great Western Festival in Lincoln.[3] Gabriel appeared wearing a jewelled Egyptian collar, black eye-make up, and had shaved the front of his head, which drew attention from the press.[4] Upon returning home the group dedicated time to write and rehearse new material for a new studio album.[3] Hackett considered leaving the band after feeling "fairly shattered" from the lengthy tour, but his band mates persuaded him to stay and reassured they had liked his playing.[5] Initial rehearsals were held in a rehearsal space at Blackheath in London before they relocated underneath the Una Billings School of Dance in Shepherd's Bush.[3][4] Some of Hackett's material that was used for his first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte, was in fact rehearsed by the band during the Foxtrot sessions but was not developed further.[6] Material that became "Watcher of the Skies" and "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" was performed live before recording of Foxtrot started.[4][7] Genesis recorded Foxtrot in August and September 1972 in London at Island Studios.[1] They were set to record with producer John Anthony, who had worked with them on their new song "Happy the Man" earlier in the year, but escalating costs due to the slow progress of completing it caused disagreements among Anthony and Charisma Records, the group's label, so they looked for a new producer.[8]Banks recalled Charisma were anxious for the group to make a hit recording. The group's first choice for producer was Bob Potter, who had worked with Charisma labelmates Lindisfarne with Bob Johnston engineering.[7] The band did not get on with Potter as he disliked their music; he compared Banks's Mellotron opening to "Watcher of the Skies" to the soundtrack to the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey and felt the song was better without it.[3][7] Around this time, the band put an end to these unproductive sessions and undertook an Italian tour in August 1972 before resuming work on the album the following month.[7] The group tried out Tony Platt as a producer, but this was abandoned owing to personality clashes.[9] Genesis then settled with co-producer Dave Hitchcock and John Burns as engineer,[9][10] who would continue to work with Genesis on their next three albums. Banks felt Hitchcock was not the best replacement for the job and disagreed with him over the album's sound.[11] During the album's sessions, Genesis recorded the live favourite "Twilight Alehouse", which had been performed when founding member and guitarist Anthony Phillips was in the band. It remained unreleased until it was put out as a limited single by ZigZag magazine and the band's fan club in 1973.[12] A piece devised by Rutherford and rehearsed by the band in a 3/4 time signature was not used, but it was adapted by Hackett into "Shadow of the Hierophant" on Voyage of the Acolyte.[12] The group tried an early take of the Banks-penned "Firth of Fifth" but it failed to inspire the band's interest. Banks worked on it over the course of the following year and it was released on their next album, Selling England by the Pound.[13] When Charisma's owner Tony Stratton-Smith heard the album for the first time upon completion, he said to the band's friend and roadie Richard Macphail: "This is the one that makes their career".[14] Stratton-Smith added: "I had to wipe a tear from my eye. Everything that one had believed about the band had come through".[1] Banks was particularly pleased with Foxtrot which he thought contained no weak tracks.[15] side one "Watcher of the Skies" takes its title from a line of the 1817 sonnet On First Looking into Chapman's Homer by John Keats.[16] The song begins with a solo played on a Mellotron that the band had bought from King Crimson.[17][18] Banks was "searching for chords that actually sounded good ... because of its tuning problems" and settled on the opening two chords "that sounded great ... There was an atmosphere about them".[18] Banks and Rutherford wrote the music during band rehearsals at a gig at the Palasaport, Reggio Emilia in April 1972 during their first Italian tour. The lyrics were written in Naples a week later.[8] They wondered what an empty Earth would look like if surveyed by an alien visitor. Banks described them as "a sort of sci-fi fantasy" loosely based on the novel Childhood's End (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke and the Watcher race of extraterrestrials featured in the Marvel Comics.[19][18] Rutherford thought they were "interesting words but they didn't sing very well".[20] Collins felt the need to bring in "some tricky arrangements" into the song's rhythm from seeing Yes perform live.[21] "Time Table" features a romantic theme that yearns for tradition, decency, and an age of kings and queens that is banished by war and conflict.[22][23] Written by Banks, he presented the song as a complete piece and had the band perform it.[24] Melody Maker's Chris Welch described the track as light relief and a "gentle but stirring pop song" after the "pounding excitement" of "Watcher of the Skies".[23] Gabriel biographer Daryl Easlea considered the song the most overlooked from the Gabriel-era of the band's history with its "sweet and touching" flavour and its resemblance to Genesis songs of the late 1970s.[25] "Get 'Em Out by Friday" involved relocating tenants from London to Harlow New Town. "Get 'Em Out by Friday" is a song described as a "comic opera" that Gabriel described as "part social comment, part prophetic".[22][26] It was partly inspired by Gabriel's own landlord problems he was having with his flat (apartment) on Campden Hill Road,[25] and a television documentary he had seen about housing in the borough of Islington.[27] Similar to "Harold the Barrel" and "The Fountain of Salmacis" from Nursery Cryme, the song features characters with Gabriel adopting a different vocal style for each one. The track features four characters: John Pebble, a business man of Styx Enterprises; Mark Hall (aka The Winkler) an employee of Styx who evicts tenants; Mrs. Barrow, a tenant of a house owned by Pebble; and Joe Everybody, a customer in a pub.[28] The song starts with Hall informing Mrs. Barrow that her property has been purchased and must be evicted, but she refuses to leave, leaving Pebble to raise her rent. Hall then offers Mrs. Barrow £400 to move to a new property in Harlow New Town, which she does, before Pebble raises her rent again. After an instrumental section, the date is 18 September 2012 and Genetic Control announce on a Dial-A-Program television service its decision to shorten the height of all humans to 4 ft. Joe reasons this so housing blocks will be able to accommodate twice as many people.[28] Rutherford and Collins singled out "Get 'Em Out by Friday" as one of the early Genesis songs that suffered from Gabriel's dense lyrics which made the track busy and crowded.[29] Collins reasoned this as a downfall to the band's typical method of song writing whereby a track recorded instrumentally with the vocals written and recorded afterwards.[30] Nevertheless, Rutherford considered the lyrics to be among Gabriel's best.[31] "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" was one of the first songs written for the album, and played during the Italian tour. It is based on King Canute and his inability to hold back the incoming tide.[32] Welch theorised that the song may be in fact about Gabriel and the idea of a singer growing wary of his role and his flattering admirers.[33] Side two begins with "Horizons", a short guitar instrumental performed by Hackett that was recorded in the short time that Potter was the album's producer.[34] It was written in the course of a year,[35] and took musical inspiration from the Prelude of Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007 for cello by Bach. He presented the piece to the group at a rehearsal on an electric guitar, though he had written it on a steel-string acoustic. Despite his nerves in playing it through, he initially thought the band would reject it.[35] Hackett remembered Collins saying that there should be applause added to the end of the piece, and felt surprised when the band agreed to include it on the album.[36] Hackett wrote it with English composers of the Tudor period in mind, including William Byrd, who often composed very short pieces, and a piece by Julian Bream.[35] He pointed out the common mistake adopted by some listeners that "Horizons" was an opening to "Supper's Ready", but it did not bother him.[36][35] The rest of the second side contains "Supper's Ready", a 22-minute track formed of seven parts and the longest the band recorded. Gabriel believed the band's growing support as a live act gave them the confidence to start writing extended pieces.[37] The song and its theme of good versus evil was inspired by an experience Gabriel and his then-wife Jill had with Anthony at Kensington Palace, when she reportedly entered a trance state as the room's windows suddenly blew open. Gabriel compared the ordeal to a scene from "a Hammer Horror film".[38] Initially, the song took form as an acoustic track similar to "Stagnation" from Trespass or "The Musical Box" from Nursery Cryme, something the band wished to avoid repeating. To develop the piece further, Gabriel pitched his idea for what became the song's fifth section, titled "Willow Farm", on the piano.[39][40] Banks noted the change from the song's more romantic introduction into "Willow Farm", with its "ugly chord sequence", worked as it took the song "into another dimension".[41] Genesis went to the street and picked eight children to record vocals for the song and paid them ten pounds each.[31] "Apocalypse in 9/8" was improvised by Banks, Rutherford and Collins.[42] It is a mostly instrumental performed in a 9/8 time signature that began with Rutherford playing his bass pedals which Collins recalled as "totally abstract with no time signature" and incorporated a drum pattern to it.[43][40] Banks assumed his organ solo would have no vocals, but after Gabriel proceeded to record lyrics over it,[40] something that he disagreed with initially, he said, "it only took about ten seconds to think 'This sounds fantastic, it's so strong'".[44] Banks picked "Apocalypse in 9/8" and "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs" as "the best piece of composition" Genesis recorded during Gabriel's tenure as lead singer,[41] but thought Gabriel had written the lyrics too quickly.[45] Collins supported this view, who recalled Gabriel rushing to get them written while the backing tracks were being recorded.[43] The album's cover was the last of three Genesis releases designed by Paul Whitehead, following Trespass and Nursery Cryme. He was a former art director for the London-based magazine Time Out and gained inspiration from the lyrics to "Supper's Ready" which included references to the apocalypse. Whitehead wanted to present the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in an original way but it turned into something "a little more whimsical",[46] with two horse riders being a monkey and an alien.[47] The cover for Nursery Cryme had depicted croquet which represented the English upper class which Whitehead repeated on Foxtrot with the depiction of fox hunting.[46] The croquet scene is also repeated, placed in the background which has the Victorian manor now replaced with a hole in the ground.[47] Whitehead devised the album's title, which he had done for Trespass and Nursery Cryme as he recalled the group were stuck for ideas.[48] He had heard the word "foxy", an American slang term for an attractive woman, during a visit in the United States, and "Foxy Lady" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which he used as inspiration to draw a female with a fox head.[46] Whitehead's original illustrations for the three albums were stolen from the Charisma archives when it was sold to Virgin Records in 1983. Whitehead claimed that Charisma staff got wind of the imminent sale and proceeded to loot its office.[49] The cover was not well received by the band at the time. Gabriel felt less pleased with the design than Whitehead's previous works.[50] Hackett felt "unsure" about the cover when he saw it for the first time, calling it a "strange" design that has made more sense to him over time.[51] Banks thought it was the weakest cover Whitehead designed for Genesis.[52] Rutherford felt the design was a decline in quality following the "lovely atmosphere" of the Trespass and Nursery Cryme covers, to Foxtrot which was "a little bit weak".[53] Collins thought it was not "particularly special" and lacked a professional look.[54] Foxtrot was released in October 1972.[3][55][11] A non-album single, "Happy The Man" was issued as a single at the same time.[42] "Watcher of the Skies" was edited for a single, but then scrapped. It was eventually released on the Genesis Archive 1967–75 box set in 1998.[56] It became the band's highest charting album at the time of its release, peaking at No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart during a seven-week residency on the chart.[1][42] Like their previous three albums, Foxtrotfailed to chart in the United States.[57] It reached No. 1 in Italy, signifying their growth in popularity in Europe after Trespass had topped the charts in Belgium.[42] Foxtrot is certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 60,000 units.[58] In his review for Sounds magazine, Jerry Gilbert thought Genesis "almost achieved the perfect album". At times he noticed "the overall sound does lack the required vitality" and moments where the band "are trying just that little bit too hard", but such moments "are sporadic",[63] and considered it more interesting than Trespass and Nursery Cryme.[31] Welch thought Foxtrot was "a milestone in the groups career", "an important point of development in British group music", and that the band had reached "a creative peak".[64] A short critical review from Rich Aregood in the Philadelphia Daily News read: "Genesis still has trouble putting songs together, but they play and sing beautifully. Jade Warrior simply has a record that's much better than anything else they've done".[65] Retrospective reviews of the album have been largely positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine said Foxtrot was "the first time that Genesis attacked like a rock band."[59] The website's François Couture described "Supper's Ready" as the band's "undisputed masterpiece".[66] BBC Music gave a mixed review, liking the production but feeling the lyrics had dated.[60] The album ranked #14 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time.[67] XTC guitarist Dave Gregory said: "To this day Foxtrot is a magical album. "Supper's Ready" became like an addiction. It had such a great sound, and enough mystery to make you want to hear it over and over again ... To this day, I will never tire of it".[25] Foxtrot was re-released in 1994 as a digitally remastered CD issued by Virgin. As part of the band's box set Genesis 1970–1975 released in 2008, Foxtrot was reissued as a hybrid CD/Super Audio CD with a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix with a DVD of previously unreleased bonus material. The reissue includes sleeve notes written by Queen drummer Roger Taylor.[68] At the end of September 1972, Genesis played a warm-up gig at the National Stadium, Dublin. During the last song, "The Musical Box", Gabriel disappeared during the instrumental section, and re-appeared wearing his wife's red dress and a fox's head, mimicking Foxtrot's front cover. He had deliberately avoided telling the band he would do this, but it resulted in him appearing on the front cover of Melody Maker and significantly raised the band's profile.[69] The tour covered Europe and North America between September 1972 and August 1973. It opened with a UK leg with Lindisfarne as co-headliners.[70][31] The group played their first US shows during the tour, including a warm up show at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts followed by a gig at Philharmonic Hall in New York City with String Driven Thing in December 1972. The latter was in benefit for the United Cerebral Palsy Fund. Despite the band's critical opinion of the concert due to a lack of rehearsal time, technical problems, and a perceived unenthusiastic audience, it went down well with the crowd that requested more Genesis songs be played on local radio stations, thus increasing their exposure.[55][70] Genesis Tony Banks – Hammond organ, Mellotron, electric and acoustic pianos, 12-string guitar, backing vocals Steve Hackett – electric guitar, nylon guitar, 12-string guitar Phil Collins – drums, backing vocals, assorted percussion Peter Gabriel – lead vocals, flute, bass drum, tambourine, oboe Michael Rutherford – bass guitar, bass pedals, cello, 12-string guitar, backing vocals Production David Hitchcock – production John Burns – engineer Richard Macphail – technician, stage sound (sound friend) Paul Whitehead – sleeve design Armando Gallo – photography Barry Wentzell – photography Geoff Terrill – photography Martin Nunn – photography Side one 1. "Watcher of the Skies" 7:21 2. "Time Table" 4:47 3. "Get 'Em Out by Friday" 8:35 4. "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" 5:45 Side two 1. "Horizons" 1:39 2. "Supper's Ready" a. "Lover's Leap" b. "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" c. "Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men" d. "How Dare I Be So Beautiful?" e. "Willow Farm" f. "Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)" g. "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)" 22:57 ---------------------------------------------------------------- So yes, this is another magnificent album. Still maintaining a certain amount of the pastoral, gentle side that they always kept with them to some degree, this album raises the rock stakes again, to my ears. I can see how many consider it there best album, though (and probably for sentimental reasons) Nursery Cryme still edges it for me. It contains at least three classic Genesis songs, and as with the previous albums, the other songs are quite brilliant in their own way. I think the production here is a little better than the previous albums and we see this trend continue pretty much through the rest of their career. I think the album is very well assembled, put together with a nice flow and certainly some attention grabbing sections all through it. My first time hearing this in reality was when I bought the sacd/dvd boxes, that have really become one of my favourite purchases over the years. Being a big fan of 5.1, I enjoy the mixes. When I first bought them, I was really just looking for certain albums in each box, but feel fortunate to have very much enjoyed almost all the albums, and certainly every album had things on there that interested and entertained. So anyhow ... I know there is some song information in the opening there, but for now, lets just focus on the album, as we will move through the songs as we have been doing. What does this albums mean to you? When did you first discover it? How has it influenced you musically, or in terms of listening to music? Give us any information about the album that you feel is interesting or relevant and we'll move into the first song in the morning. Cheers, Mark
Hey Mark, too much! Leave something for the rest of us to talk about! Most of the things I was going to say about this album, you have already said in this description. Most times The Lamb is my favourite Genesis album, but sometimes it's Foxtrot and sometimes it's Selling England. As Tony says, there are really no weak tracks. A few observations: This album follows a similar pattern to the previous one, in that loud fast long songs alternate with shorter quiet pieces, at much the same points in the track sequence. This is not a criticism. Clearly someone realised that this worked well; the quiet songs tend to break up the intensity of the "epics", which might otherwise sound a bit ovewhelming. I'll comment on the songs as we get to each one, but I'd like to talk about this cover. I always loved this cover art, and I have been surprised to learn that many of the Genesis fans don't like it. I find it attractive simply as a piece of art, but the more you scan the design the more things you find in it. Notice how the croquet pitch from the Nursery Cryme cover is recycled on the Foxtrot cover? You have to search for it; it's easy to miss. The large apartment block in the background could be the housing development from Get 'Em Out by Friday; the six saintly shrouded men from Supper's Ready, the seventh holding a cross, can be seen further up the beach. Other elements are more difficult to relate to the songs. Why a fox? Why is he/she standing on what looks like a small iceberg? And is that a surfacing submarine over to the right? They later did a song called Submarine, which may or may not be coincidence. And on the inside of the gatefold, we see the... horizons!
This album means a lot to me, because it has been my first Genesis record. All started here A classmate recommended it to me and I bought it. I think I was 14 or 15. It took a bit to understand this (then) strange music, with long songs and instrumental parts. But it was worth the effort!
Foxtrot! Yet another masterpiece. Basic listen to everyone who likes progressive rock. Contains one of the best musical pieces ever made; Supper's Ready. Bought it in the 70's along with Trespass. Best CD edition is also here the non remastered picture CD, although if it wasn't for the noise reduction, the 1994 DE remaster would be nice as well.
Foxtrot is for me all about the opener and especially the closer. But my view's always been skewed because I came to this album so late. And my connection to the album is weird. When I got it on vinyl I had a lot of issues with bad distortion on Can Utility's closing bits, so going through several copies left me feeling a bit bitter about the whole affair. (Looking back, it was probably my relatively low rent turntable.) Plus I was so accustomed to Phil's interpretation of Supper's Ready on Seconds Out, I had to adjust to Pete's. Though of course I eventually did and its become my "go to" version. So Foxtrot and I got off on the wrong foot. While I appreciate it now, perhaps even love it, I don't have quite the connection with it that I do with other 70s era Genesis albums. And I never had a gatefold like I had with Nursery Cryme and its amazing illustrations. Funny how something so seemingly insignificant can have such an impact on one's impression of the material. I love it, especially Supper's Ready, but its not quite at Nursery Cryme levels.
The band didn't like it either, that's why they parted ways with Paul Whitehead. Some other tips. The man on the bicycle, on the beach, is a reference to Peter himself, who used to bike to the recording studio but was not very balanced on it. The four horsemen are a hint to the Apocalypse, one has some shining marks around his head and is supposed to draw your attention. One of the horses has an erection: it's a reaction to the fox's beauty but also a joke, to see how many would spot it. The horsemen are also dressed as fox hunters (again, another lovely victorian pastime!), even though I can't remember if some song refers to old times (possibly Time Table?) and the Fox just escaped them, both by transforming into a woman and by floating away on the ice. The fox gave inspiration for the album's title, not the other way around. There was an interview out there where Whitehead gave a breakdown of the painting but I don't think I saved it. We could take the opportunity to spot more references when we go through the songs again. EDIT Cover Story - "Foxtrot", by Paul Whitehead Can't read it now and I don't know if it's the one I remember, but It seems to shine some light. EDIT 2. The inner gatefold, that I don't like at all. Curious that there's a picture of Richard MacPhail and he's also mentioned in the credits. That bit of information completely disappeared from my V/C CD! (Or the remaster, for all that matters)
Well, I cried so many of my teenage tears on Supper's Ready that I could have watered a garden a full summer. Maybe two.
BTW. I once read online an interpretation of the album as a concept: starting with the creation and ending with the Apocalypse and the new life after it. (FGTR revisited!!) Unofficial, but intriguing if you like this stuff.
Foxtrot has grown on me over the years. I eventually got my hands on the 2013 Japanese shm cd, and I love the sound of that after years of rather muffled sounding US LP pressings. I also have that late 70s double LP reissue with the black cover that couples it with Nursery Cryme - I haven't listened to that yet, but I bought it after reading favorable talk about it on this very forum. CATCHING UP: Side 2 of Trespass is some of my favorite Genesis- especially "Dusk", which is one of many quieter songs I love by them. The band were so good at the mellow songs like this and Harlequin (perhaps my favorite Genesis song). Nursery Cryme is my favorite Genesis record. Not a moment wasted and everything fits together so nicely and the overall concept of the album appeals greatly to me since I first listened some 20+ years ago. Thanks to this thread I've listened to "The Fountain Of Salmacis" 6 or 7 times today
The first superlative album by Genesis, IMO. Similar to how Musical Box starts out Nursery Cryme with the final Anthony Philips contribution to the band and, in some ways, put the final stamp on the Trespass-style music of the band, the long organ intro to Watcher of the Skies is the final moment for Genesis of the "creaky-churchy" organ sound that filled Trespass and Nursery Cryme. Banks' keyboards are used in a more kinetic than contemplative manner on this album. I agree with Gabriel that the organ intro probably should have been dropped insofar as how the song works in a vacuum, but looked at more as kind of a farewell to an earlier style, I think it fits in nicely on the album. With 'Watcher' Genesis continues to exhibit how sometimes an inability to do things properly can still end up working. As was mentioned by the band in the interviews for the album on the 5.1 DVD release (I think it was Phil Collins) the verses to 'Watcher' are amateurishly clunky; people who know how to really write songs would never write one this way. Yet - likely due to the staccato nature of the music itself - the vocals in the verses do complement the music in way that many might nevertheless find appealing. Watcher would end up being one of the classic tracks of the Gabriel era. The other great stuff on the album is, IMO, Can-Utility (a really nice refinement of how to do an epic-feel track) and of course Supper's Ready (though I've never cared for the Willow-Farm section). Get 'Em Out By Friday isn't up to the greatness of the others, but is still basically good. I see it as a sister track to Giant Hogweed. The story/social commentary fits in with the band's aesthetic well enough. The only really clunker on the album is Time Table. It's utter garbage, IMO, but at least is mercifully short. Further evidence that Tony Banks absolutely cannot be left to make anything completely on his own, it plods along with a gait and subject matter that are both ridiculous, cliched and appalling; it is a ballad of the sort that might have been written for the Spinal Tap film as a parody. One of the only Gabriel-era songs that I always skip. In sum, though, Foxtrot had a lot of great material on it, IMO. I see it as an improvement over Nursery Cryme, which itself was an improvement over Trespass, and it's not surprising to me at all that Foxtrot was the album that finally put Genesis on the map, so to speak, and made the engaged audience with a taste for the experimental and progressive aware that there was another alternative out there to the better-known Yes, ELP and Jethro Tull.
That's no organ. (Not completely anyway.) That's the unmistakable sound of the majestic (yet cumbersome and clunky) Mellotron. To be fair, it is said that Tony played an organ with his left hand and the Mellotron with his right on Watcher. A brief explanation of the Mellotron (for anyone unaware):
No they did not. They eventually broke up. Their music IMO sounded too close to Genesis. A great band to emulate but still you had to come up with something more original back then.
Ah Foxtrot, this has that lovely little interlude, Horizons and the magnificent (IMHO) Supper's Ready!
The first song I fell in love with was Can-Utility And The Coastliners. The keyboard work by Tony made me crazy. Watcher Of The Skies, after the long organ introduction, surprised me with that enormous strength and sumptuousness. Horizons sounded to me like a refreshing interlude before the longest song I had ever heard at that time: Supper's Ready... The final section, Apocalypse in 9/8, still leaves me breathless. A great, wonderful album!
I think it’s actually Mike, who helped write them, who talks about how awkward they are. But Phil would complain over the years about Tony's tendency to write lyrics that he found unsingable, his favourite examples being the “bread bin” line from “All In a Mouse’s Night” and “sheets of double glazing” from “Domino.”
