Genesis - The Album by Album Thread

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

  1. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    (chuckles to self)
     
  2. abzach

    abzach Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    It's Tony hitting the wrong key one time at the end of Supper's Ready, it never bothered me in 35 years until it was pointed out. I agree with you.
     
  3. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    Listen to the low droning note at around 14:10... on the original mix, this note slid down slightly in pitch to connect with the next section, which was flatter. In the remix the following section was sped up slightly so the pitch matches and the long note doesn’t have to bend.

    No, the “speed issue” is the section above. Did they also fix Tony’s bum note?
     
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  4. abzach

    abzach Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    I thought it was the same thing.
     
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  5. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    I don't know, man. Just hopped on Youtube to compare the two versions a 14:10 and I just don't hear what you're describing. Either the video labelled as the "new mix" is mis-titled (and is actually the original) or the difference is so subtle that its nothing I'd ever take issue with anyway. I'm leaning toward the latter.
     
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  6. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    Not sure... but what I’m talking about isn’t at the end, and it isn’t about Tony hitting the wrong note.
     
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  7. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I’m misremembering actually... I thought I’d heard someone say they deliberately bent that note so it would match the pitch of the acoustic guitars that came next, but i think what happened was they spliced two sections together and they weren’t quite in tune with each other... in any case, on the original mix when that low note hits it sounds flat compared to the note that preceded it, like the tape has slowed down slightly, while on the remix it doesn’t.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2018
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  8. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    ...but the public knew what they liked.
     
  9. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    I don't remember the actual logo, but I remember the anti-taping crusade. It's a shame how all those people taping records in the 1960s and 1970s caused the death of popular music. (Sarcasm alert).

    This is why whenever I read these predictions about streaming services, iTunes, Spotify etc killing music, I tend to roll my eyes and think "We have been here before".
     
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  10. tmwlng

    tmwlng Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    For a long time, Foxtrot was my favorite Genesis album. I suppose this is the album where the classic lineup really gels from start to finish. Watcher of the Skies with its booming Mellotron opening and busy rhythm (I am still working on being able to play the ending right) with its complex time signature and the sci-fi lyrics sets the pace with an astonishing sound. Following this with the more standard 4/4 Time Table seems a bit strange, but it offers relief and evens the flow of the album. The piano on this song is very tastefully played, reminds me of early 1900's classical music. Somehow I feel this song would not have been out of place on their 1976-1978 albums. It is one hundred percent Banks as far as I recall. Get 'Em Out by Friday was another huge favorite of mine when first getting into the group, again an eccentric sci-fi story set to busy music with especially Phil's drumming (and the drumming sound in general on this album) really shining through. An exceptionally percussive track where Gabriel cements his role as a multi-faceted storyteller. Can-Utility and the Coastliners uses a heroic musical theme that fits the lyrics quite well. Guitar, organ and drums on this track compliments each other perfectly.

    Acoustic guitar pieces seem to be a popular ingredient in progressive rock. Mood for a Day and Clap by Yes, for example, both serve as openers to grandiose group tracks. Horizons is no exception. It is really a soothing piece of music, and also the first actual solo showcase for Hackett. Following that with what is perhaps the group's biggest song, and one of the all-time milestones within progressive rock is another mean feat. From beginning to end, Supper's Ready was the first long Genesis song I took to immediately. I must have heard it hundreds of times. For a long time it was my commute music, and I also listened to it constantly when I was at home. The guitar pieces along with the organ are absolutely brilliant on this track. And again I must stress that Phil was orbiting close to brilliance in terms of drumming on this album. Such a crispy, yet deeply percussive sound. Supper's Ready opens gently with a beautiful, mystical piece of acoustic-based music, and from the main themes you are taken through a busy, serious organ-based piece and into the dumps with dissonance, relinquished all the gloom with the eccentric and kooky humour of Willow Farm and taken into a battlefield with epic force by the time you reach Apocalypse in 9/8. As the song finishes with a triumphant march through the opening themes in a repeated, refreshed fashion you are left with a sense of awe and a feeling that on this album, it cannot get any better than this.
     
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  11. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    Ain't that cute?
     
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  12. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    Re Horizons: I've heard comments to the effect that some people erroneously thought that Supper's ready occupied the whole of the second side, with Horizons just being the first movement of the suite. Sometimes I think that's how it should have been designated on the track listing, because the opening of Supper sounds quite abrupt without that preceding instrumental; they seem to go together naturally.
     
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  13. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic

    What I’ve always noticed on the original version is that the droning mellotron/guitar(?) starts to fade out, and then the chiming guitars of the next section come in, but it sounds like a quarter-tone out of key compared to the ‘tron. Jarring, but part of the original’s charm, I guess!
     
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  14. Banks mentions this section (the pitch bend part) of "Supper's Ready" on the DVD of the 2007 interview bit. Cue it up to 12:30 and he mentions it at 12:45 - 13:00 .

    It's on YouTube : genesis foxtrot 2007 interviews. -- I don't how to do links (sorry!).
     
  15. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Timetable
    This is an intriguing song. It's in a similar vain to Seven Stones, being piano driven, with an excellent melody and a very gripping chorus section that lifts it somewhat.
    Lyrically this is quite a song also. A reflection on when we feel people were more dignified, and valiant ... it somewhat reflects of the days of Knights and Queens and Kings, but it seems to be looking at them from "the end" so to speak, perhaps tying in with the theme of suppers ready. A very poignant line that stands out to me is the observation "Why, why do we suffer each race to believe, That no race has been grander" ... Whether we look at this as race in terms of colour, or location, it speaks to the same thing. There is always a tendency from all humans to feel that their point of perspective is better, more accurate "grander" ... Amongst so many ear catching songs I guess it is easy to overlook a song like this, but it really is well worth having a decent look/listen to this song. Also reflecting on our nature to wear a mask, so as to hide the things we may not want others to see. Also, again the tendency for people to be so similar to each other over the centuries "though names may change, each face retains the mask it wore" .... this is a very thoughtful song ....
    I personally think, although not one of the Genesis rockers, this song has a fantastic melodic structure, and a chord sequencing so smooth and effective it may be slipping past folks how good it actually is ...
    Anyhow,
     
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  16. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    "Time Table" is a fantastic song.

    Apologies in advance to anyone who is bored by reading about other people's dreams:

    I once had a dream in which the music of this song was playing as a backdrop. I was walking in a semi-rural setting through a series of gardens. It was a very English scene; the gardens were not wild but were organised, though not to the point of being manicured. Each garden was visually separated from its neighbours by some kind of hedging, and each had its own character, so that I would be in one garden with lots of trees and dense growth, and walk from there into the next one which had lawns and low shrubs, and so on. At one point I walked into a large open garden with long tables (time tables?) set out as if for some kind of large open air feast. I was hearing the music and thinking "This music fits the setting perfectly."

    Clearly the dream was inspired by the song and by images such as the cover of the Selling England album - but it's rare for me to recall music from my dreams, or even to recall dreams themselves in such detail.
     
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  17. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    Often with the best music it's the little things, details you may not even notice on the first few listenings, but which form part of the soundscape and add to the listening experience.

    For example: in this song, there is what sounds like a single low piano note played right after Gabriel sings "through time and space". It brings the melody back to earth as it were; the note serves as the base for the chords immediately following. Exactly this same effect is used again in "Ripples", on the word "last" in "It's the last time you'll feel like today". It's effective precisely because it's so unexpected.
     
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  18. mx20

    mx20 Enthusiast

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC
    Time Table is all Banks, unencumbered by the band telling him "no, you can't!." In the political environment of band democracy, I can only imagine he had to make some concessions on other songs to get such an all-Tony song on the LP, but I'm merely speculating. It could be that they didn't have, or didn't have to time to work up, one more band song (I guess Wooden Mask, Going Out To Get You v2, or Twilight Alehouse weren't considered?).

    It's an ok song, with some great moments. I don't love the lyric. It's a very LOGICAL arrangement, which has Tony's fingerprints all over it.

    Never performed live, is that correct?
     
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  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Yea i believe it was never played live
     
  20. SurrealCereal

    SurrealCereal Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Time Table
    I really like this song, it’s actually one of my favorite Gabriel-era Genesis songs. I love the keyboards in it, and Peter Gabriel’s vocals are particularly good here. The dramatic chorus was the first thing that hooked me on it, and I’ve come to really like all the other sections too.
     
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  21. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    I love Time Table so much. I like the lyric, the chorus, the trinkling piano, the bass line, the rhythmic pauses, the spook... I love it all.
     
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  22. Eleventh Earl of Mar

    Eleventh Earl of Mar Somehow got them all this far.

    Location:
    New York
    This one got played a ton early on however I find it one of the weakest Gabriel era tracks - with that said, I do love the story. "Though names may change each face retains the mask it wore" he's not lying with that.
     
  23. Godbluff

    Godbluff Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    When Genesis first came onto my radar Nursery Cryme was the current album, so Foxtrot was the first I bought as a new release. Got it on the day it came out and was completely blown away, played side one through for the first time and it was so good as soon as it finished I put it on again and then again after that before I flipped it over to try side two, which was, if anything, even better. I can't remember another album ever having an effect on me like that, before or since. I saw them live for the first time a few weeks later, only a short 45 minute set opening for Lindisfarne, but it still remains the best gig I ever saw them do. Was never big on the costumes and this was right at the start of that, before it all got a bit over the top for me.

    I've always seen Foxtrot as the culmination of a trilogy of great albums, for me they never bettered that run. Up to that point they could do no wrong, I don't think I'd change a thing about any of them, except possibly finding room for Twilight Alehouse, which remains probably my favourite track of theirs. Having got passed over for three successive albums when it did finally see the light of day it was hidden away on a flexi disc and then a b-side.
     
  24. akmonday

    akmonday Forum Resident

    Location:
    berkeley, ca
    Huh, and I always thought that pitch shift was intentional. I like it.
     
  25. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    Not a lot to say about Timetable. Its a pleasant enough track though a bit unremarkable. Which is fine, I don't need every song to be a prog classic, I've just never had much of a connection with this particular one. Thus begins what I consider to be one of Genesis' weaker album sides. Not bad by any means, just lesser than their other early recordings. Except maybe Happy The Man, but that's just a single, albeit forgettable and cringeworthy one.
     
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