Genesis - The Album by Album Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Oct 15, 2018.

  1. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    @mark_winstanley: Is it too late to consider renaming the thread? Many seem to assume it's about the Genesis self-titled album. The OP explains the purpose of the thread in detail, but as always, most people do not even read the OP, much less any subsequent posts. Maybe "Genesis: album by album"?
     
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  2. Hollow Horse

    Hollow Horse To pretend to be happy could only be idiocy

    I think this can only be done by gort request? I know that in advanced options I don't find the capability to rename the thread title.
     
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  3. Denim Chicken

    Denim Chicken Dayman, fighter of the Nightman

    Location:
    Bakersfield, CA
    Thanks for starting this thread. I've been lacking posting on the forum lately since i'm right in the middle of the semester but I'll chime in when I can.

    Simply put, Genesis is my FAVORITE musical group. As far as discovering them the first song that I remeber catching my attention was That's All. After that I got the Hits album. Years later I'm at a friends house looking through his parents CD collection and I see Selling England. Knowing about early Genesis with Peter, but never hearing it, I threw on the CD. I browsed the first couple tracks until I heard the start of Firth of Fifth and BAM - I was hooked instantly.

    Funny enough, I learned about the Hoffman Forum on the Turn It On Again Forum.
     
  4. squonkduke

    squonkduke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Roma, Italy
    On the very interesting recent '50 Years Ago' digital release there's an incredibly sonically improved version of One-Eyed Hound, labelled on the original reels box with its full title 'On the Trail of the One Eyed Hound' which is a new stereo mix.
    The instrumentation now is really clear and the distortion is not there anymore.
     
  5. peterpyser

    peterpyser Forum Resident

    I've got The Netherlands one...
     
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  6. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    Since we seem to have started on FGTR, the first thing I would say is that I think it's a good album in the context of the time it was made. People who are heavily into the more progressive era of Genesis, or the post-1980 polished pop era of Genesis, are naturally going to hear this album and find it wanting. It lacks the sharp production of a record like Invisible Touch, and has little of the amazing lyrical and melodic meanderings that characterise albums like Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot. FGTR is comparatively simple; it could be described as melodic pop with a touch of progressive consciousness.

    When I play this album I tend not to concentrate on the fact that it's a Genesis album and just judge on on its own terms. Listened to that way, I think it holds up quite well. It's not so different from some of the early Bee Gees albums in this respect - in fact the band has tacitly admitted that some of the tracks intentionally copied the style of the Bee Gees. This was presumably done to impress Jonathan King and to give the group the necessary foot in the door. Not a ground-breaking album, then, but one I think is mostly enjoyable. There are hints of what was to come; for example the instrumental parts of Fireside Song sound almost like a trial run for the intro to Cinema Show.

    Best track? My vote goes to "In Hiding". Not too short, not too long, and a great tune, just a perfect piece of pop.
     
  7. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
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  8. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    "A bunch of kids playing in a recording studio" is how Rutherford defined the album and that pretty much sums up how I see it.

    Personal stuff.
    Genesis were my first music obsession back as a teen, in fact even before I could realize what an obsession is. And in that context I devoured every album I could get my hands upon and... man, in the pre-internet age Italy, this one was hard to find.
    Even when I was in the record shop, there was a dealer telling me "the true first album is Trespass".
    I was able to get a re-press only later but in the meantime I managed to have a copy on cassette from a girl that bought one in France and wouldn't let anyone get their filthy hands on her treasure.
    I listened to that ad nauseam, and got to know the album quite well. But that was basically after I had all their albums to date, and got quite deep into them.
    Apart a couple of listens to the later acquired CD (with a black cover and golden title!) I think I never got back to it.

    About the album
    I had to agree with the dealer's opinion. That was not the Genesis I knew, not yet. You could see them coming but only, I think, on a hindsight. I'm pretty sure that whatever King saw in the band was not what they actually became.
    The amount of naivete in both musical an lyrical department could be passed on only with a benevolent, indulgent smile, the production was so messy and the rudimentary mixing techniques didn't help. Rutherford again tells how the recording engineer miked the guitars very close, giving them a overly metallic and compressed sound, while he tried to move back as soon as he was not watching.

    Yet, there was charm. Maybe the charm of youth itself. Listened to as something on its own, more then as a "Genesis album", made quite a pleasing trip for a while.
    It was enough reason to listen to it then.
    It is not now, anymore. Too many alternatives to chose from the infinite see of the web.
    Maybe one day, when I get nostalgic enough.

    BTW. The band's name, Genesis, was King's idea. As it was the one of a concept album about the history of humanity. Which was obviously too grandiose and out of the guys' reach at the time. They were far from switching towards their later prog direction but maybe it was that experience to put the seed of the possibility of a longer musical discourse in their creative heads.
     
  9. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    Yep, I think one has to ask a gort.
     
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  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I'll run it by a gort
     
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  11. Hollow Horse

    Hollow Horse To pretend to be happy could only be idiocy

    Gort blimey guv'nor - this is a right two an' eight and no mistake!
     
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  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Where The Sour Turns To Sweet
    Starting with some fingers snaps and Peter Gabriel singing "We're waiting for you, come and join us now", like an invitation to some secret party, and perhaps and it can be looked at like that, as it did take a little while for the band to come out of obscurity, slowly through the underground and finally into the world spotlight.
    Then the piano comes in at a good pace, joined by acoustic guitar, and the strings we have been hearing about. I don't feel the strings are problematic. They definitely may end up changing the texture of the song, but it isn't terrible. The horns come in and accent the start of the chorus nicely. This is repeated for another verse and chorus and then the intro is repeated into a fade.
    To me this is a very strong opener and listened to without the legacy of the Genesis catalog sitting on top of it, it's a very enjoyable little tune.
    Personally I would say this is a very worthy song to open the album and works well as an opener, to the band and the album.

    Just for the record all the songs here are written by Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips, and Mike Rutherford.

     
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  13. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    In The Beginning
    Starting with what sounds to me like some guitar with some distortion and delay effects on it, it could be an early synth ....
    This track has a very late sixties sound. The production is quite bizarre but not unbearable.
    Again this song is pretty well written. Certainly more simplistic than much of the music to come, but certainly not short of ideas. The sound is a little muddy, but for a College band in 68/69 one would suggest it's pretty good. This song also bounces along at a good step.
    This song also sounds very different to Genesis the prog band, but it's certainly not an unworthy piece of the catalog.
    I reckon it's good to be honest.
     
  14. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    "Lunatic birthday friend chorus"! Ha! That's great. What a perfect way to describe the chorus vocals on "Am I Very Wrong," also my favorite. :)

    And I agree with you about "Silent Sun." What a trip that would be to see Peter Gabriel do it live now. The funny thing is, that song has some of the most atypical Genesis lyrics ever. "Baby, you feel so close." This is not a band who felt comfortable writing songs about "baby"--certainly not in their early years, when they just wrote about mythology and aliens and such because they were all so uncomfortable writing about love/sex/personal stuff. I always liked the interview on the 2007 And Then There Were Three disc when Tony talks about how he had to convince Phil that, yes he could sing "Oh mama!" in the chorus of "Many Too Many." :D
     
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  15. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    For any of the vinyl addicts out there that really like this album, I just saw that this is available -
    https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Reve...pID=51UBBGh85SL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

    [​IMG]

    Disc: 1
    1. Where the Sour Turns to Sweet (Mono)
    2. In the Beginning (Mono)
    3. Fireside Song (Mono)
    4. The Serpent (Mono)
    5. Am I Very Wrong? (Mono)
    6. In the Wilderness (Mono)
    7. The Conqueror (Mono)
    8. In Hiding (Mono)
    9. One Day (Mono)
    10. Window (Mono)
    11. In Limbo (Mono)
    12. Silent Sun (Mono)
    13. A Place to Call My Own (Mono)

    Disc: 2
    1. Where the Sour Turns to Sweet (Stereo)
    2. In the Beginning (Stereo)
    3. Fireside Song (Stereo)
    4. The Serpent (Stereo)
    5. Am I Very Wrong? (Stereo)
    6. In the Wilderness (Stereo)
    7. The Conqueror (Stereo)
    8. In Hiding (Stereo)
    9. One Day (Stereo)
    10. Window (Stereo)
    11. In Limbo (Stereo)
    12. Silent Sun (Stereo)
    13. A Place to Call My Own (Stereo)

    Disc: 3
    1. Patricia (Demo, 1967)
    2. Try a Little Sadness (Demo, 1967)
    3. She Is Beautiful (Demo, 1967)
    4. Image Blown Out (Demo)
    5. The Silent Sun (Single A-Side, 1968)
    6. That's Me (Single B-Side, 1968)
    7. A Winter's Tale (Single A-Side, 1968)
    8. One-Eyed Hound (Single B-Side, 1968)
    9. Where the Sour Turns to Sweet (Demo, 1968)
    10. In the Beginning (Demo, 1968)
    11. In the Wilderness (Rough Mix W/O Strings, 1968)
    12. One Day (Rough Mix, 1968)
    13. Image Blown Out (Rough Mix, 1968)

    Disc: 4
    1. The Silent Sun
    2. That's Me

    Disc: 5
    1. A Winter's Tale
    2. One-Eyed Hound

    Disc: 6
    1. Where the Sour Turns to Sweet
    2. In Hiding
     
  16. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  20. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    I'll comment on the first six songs as a bunch, to save time and typing later:

    All of them are quite nice, while being nothing special. I do like "Fireside Song" quite a lot. As I said earlier, I think here you hear stirrings of the sound that would be heard a lot more later - instrumental bridges that are almost little songs in themselves.

    One comment about the labelling: I believe the band name was left off because they found out about the existence of another band called Genesis, from the US. They were based in LA I believe, and had a kind of folk/pop sound. That band did not get much notice, and presumably faded away leaving the field open for our boys to claim the name.

    Much later another American band initially named themselves Genesis, not being aware of the existence of the band containing Gabriel, Banks et al. Forced to change their name, the name they adopted was... Van Halen.
     
  21. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    From what a member told me in the anniversary thread, this is supposed to be a rather bad-sounding release. Can't comment on that myself, though.
     
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  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Ahhh, I know nothing about it. I just saw it while looking to see if I would like a copy ... It just surprised me. I had never heard of it.
     
  23. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

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  24. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Heh. I always liked Ant's pith helmet. :)

    Are we doing the individual songs in batches? I'll comment on the two Mark introduced above:

    When the Sour Turns to Sweet: It's silly, but I actually think that "groovy" is a good adjective to describe these first two songs. They have a very distinctive late '60s sound to them. I love the introduction with the finger snapping and Peter's voice. That's a pretty cool way to open up their first album, just like "Looking for Someone" is a strong opening statement on Trespass. The arrangement gets pretty full on this one, but I can still make out the individual performances. They were all good players already. It's always strange to think how young all the great musicians of the '60s and '70s were when they started out. And our boys not even 20.

    In the Beginning: Another good one and one of the rockiest on the album. John Silver wasn't a terrible drummer. I do think it reminds me of early Floyd, with some of that English quirk to it as well. This is one of the most English sounding bands ever, especially during their early years, and that's already in place on FGTR. Again, quite groovy and some cool bass from Mike as well. The band was initially two songwriting partnerships (Mike/Ant and Tony/Peter) and I have to wonder if this song started life as a Mike/Ant piece. That's just a feeling I get from the prominence of the guitars on this one.

    Funny to think that they'd be recording Supper's Ready in just a few years time... :eek:
     
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  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I figured with the songs being quite short (comparatively) on this album I would put up two a day, and when we get into the main catalog we'll just roll the one a day.
    I am open to preferred options, if anyone wants to put their two cents in.
     

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