Genesis - Round 10 - Least favorite Studio Album poll

Good point on Mike. Despite taking on lead guitar fairly late in his career, he comes up with solos that have a voice. The live Abacab solo, for example, is more memorable and interesting than any of Daryl's solos.

 

If Chester would have been asked to join them in the studio, it would have been on CAS, after Phil left

 

Trick of the Tail

?: No, I want to hear Phil drumming on the albums.

 

Remember Phil left before their last album and they hired a different drummer rather than Chester

 

Phil left before their last album and they brought in a different drummer rather than Chester

 

This but we all know it will win.

 

Man, keep missing these. I voted Trick, but it was an impossible choice, as I love all three of those albums.

 

If this is indeed true, I'd imagine their reasoning is they thought Phil might come back if the Ray thing didn't work out (which he did for the reunion tour - and hasn't ruled out doing again). So not making Chester a partner would allow everything to go back to normal if/when Phil returned. They didn't make Ray a partner either. He was on salary and on a two album contract, which he says he briefly considered suing them over breaking/reneging on (as apparently it put him in financial trouble - IIRC he lost his house - since he was counting on doing that second contracted album) but decided it probably wouldn't be a wise career move as far as his reputation in the business was concerned. But he's been making a decent living milking his brief association with the band for all its worth in the couple decades since, so...

 

Being a member is not necessarily being a partner. Ray was presented as a member of the band . Ron Wood was presented as a member of the Stones for over a decade before being made a partner. Unlike folks like Darryl Jones, Chuck Leavell, Bobby Keyes who were never presented as members. My understanding was that Chester gave the condition that he wanted to be considered a member to play on the album and tour after Phil left, not that he wanted to be made a member of the legal partnership.

 

Two different drummers played on the album actually, and one of those two drummers did the tour. Of course neither of them (or Ray) were made proper/full band members.

One possibility is they wanted Chester to do the album/tour but he refused after they declined to make him a full/official member (and partner) in the band. Or perhaps they just wanted some new blood/younger players all around to help them redefine themselves as a new band - as without Phil, like it or not - they were a new band.

 

He stated in interviews that he conditioned participation on the album on being a band member, but there was no mention by any if them of his requiring being made a partner. That would have been an unrealistic expectation. But his face in the band photos, being listed as a member on the credits, and an opportunity to be involved in the writing - as Ray got - would have been realistic.

 

Yeah - I have no idea about any specifics of how it went down, as I've never seen/heard a quote from anyone involved. I've only come across the story/claims second hand on the net, so I don't even know if its true that Chester wanted to be "in the band" officially or semi-officially or whatever.

Nor do I know if they actually wanted him to even be on the album at all. They may have preferred a fresh start with a new drummer(s). It would definitely be interesting to find out the reality from Tony/Mike/Chester how that all went down.

 

But my question is not about what happened, but about what folks here would have preferred in terms of who played on the album (Chester) or albums (Darryl).

 

A reluctant vote for Trick.
Chester would have done a good job on CAS

 

Trick. Much easier now it’s down to these three.

 

Trick was my entry into Genesis.

Favorite songs are:

"Dance on a Volcano"
"Mad Man Moon"
"Ripples"
"A Trick of the Tail"

 

A Trick Of The Tail is their best songwriting, their best effort of all their albums. It is their best album, among a couple of excellent excellent albums. Ok, had to get that out of my system.

 

That made me think hard. Voted for Trick because there are not as many memorable moments for me as on the other two - brutal choice.

 

I am already agonising over which way my vote is going to go in the final round. The criterion will be: if it were ordained that I were to give up one of the two, to never hear it again, which one would I forego? That is the nub.

 

Foxtrot

 

Foxtrot - the live versions of Supper's Ready have this one at a big disadvantage, but also the two albums it's fighting simply have more better songs

Anyway, apparently Chester got upset for not getting the studio drummer job - and this is why he didn't tour with them for Calling All Stations. I don't blame him, if I was in your touring band for 20 years and told me "no" when you needed a studio drummer, I'd have to punch Tony and Mike in the face. EDIT - apparently this is anecdotal...

Daryl is okay. He wasn't a problem to not have though. Good guy regardless.

 

It's almost a mantra for people to say "the live version beats the studio version" when the song exists in both forms. When I hear the two versions in question, my thought is usually "No it doesn't".

That's the case with Supper's ready. I don't think Phil's rendition is bad, by any means, but there is something about his delivery that makes me very conscious of the fact that he is standing up in front of an audience. It's something to do with the extra little notes he puts in from time to time, as if to emphasise his emotional connection to the song. That kind of flourish is exactly what is required for a live performance, but I don't need it so much if I am listening to a record.

 

Well, I dearly love both Trick and Selling from start to finish whereas with Foxtrot, I enjoy side 1 and would happily never listen to side 2 again, so Foxtrot gets my vote.

I don't think Genesis needed Chester and Darryl on their studio albums though I agree that Chester was treated rather shabbily over CAS.

 

Trick, by a long way

Chester Thompson is a great drummer, but he doesn't sound like Phil, I think Phil's sound was important to the band's sound.
Daryl was probably technically more proficient than Mike as a guitarist, but I'm not sure if he should have been on the albums.

I think the set up they had worked for all involved. It is remarkable in some ways that it was an unbroken live team for so many years, being the kind of set up it was

 

I don't like the sound in the first two albums of the classic Genesis era -- Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot. This has always been a major factor turning me away from those records. I'm not an audiophile myself but I think that complex music like the one that Genesis produced in the early years, badly needs good production and sound quality.