RA&B : They can't all be 10/10 gems, but I love this little ditty, as well as the video! That hand over hand keyboard solo is amazing. Hell the whole middle section is amazing.
Robbery is my least favorite song on the album but I still like it. It's good Genesis, but the rest of this album is GREAT Genesis. As pointed out, I do like the instrumental mid-section a lot, it has a weird time signature that Phil pulls off, making it sound effortless while Mike does a spectacular job matching Phil's strange rhythm and Tony's complicated chord changes at the same time. Steve seems to be in hiding which is a shame, a soaring Steve solo would have been the icing on the cake. "God only fights on the side of the bad man!" I like that line.
Robbery, Assault and Battery There are a number of songs in the Genesis canon that I do not think stand as great songs on their own, but on their respective albums they enhance the album experience by providing a change of pace and a little light relief. These include "Harold the Barrel", "Get 'em Out by Friday", Battle of Epping Forest", and this song. Genesis were one of the few progressive rock bands - and probably the only one of the really well-known ones - to inject humour into their songs, and moreover to carry it off well. "'Ullo son, I 'ope you're 'aving fun". C'mon guys, surely you can't help smiling when Phil sings that line. I bet this brought him back memories of being a child actor and playing the Artful Dodger.
I hope when we go through these songs, especially the stuff coming up, that we all have an unbiased listen and reassess any preconceived notions about the songs and albums ... Not saying folks aren't, not commanding anyone to do that, it just strikes me as important Anyhow, carry on
Mad Man Moon is one of my favorite Genesis tunes. I love the cinematic feel of it. Robbery, Assault and Battery is almost as great. Love the instrumental breakdown in this one.
I agree with those who say that Robbery, Assault And Battery isn't great, but is a good song. However, on Seconds Out the track really stands out imo. The band is tighter, Phil is even more in character and keyboards sounds are superior...to my ears at least.
P I like to be able to see some of Tony's settings on the instruments he uses..... "Guitar" and "Banjo" used for percussion on the Hammond organ? Who knew?
Missing notifications screwed me... Mad Man Moon is home to objectively one of Tony's best studio performances ever on pure piano, and subjectively a favorite Genesis lyric of mine. I would want a live version, maybe in place of Ripples however there simply isn't much going on aside from a sparse backing track and a bit of percussion near the middle making it a poor choice. It still emotionally resonates with me due to how melancholic the entire thing ends up and probably a good reference for where Tony would go as a writer for the next bit of his career. Robbery Assault and Battery is a great little one. The lyric is obviously Banks with some his worst writing similar to All in a Mouse's Night, having incredibly odd word choices just to get the idea across. But that's a part of the charm. As a live piece, Phil didn't need to be so heavy with the ending - it's simply annoying "Done me wrong, same old song, FOREVER!", just cut it shorter...
I don't know what it is about the notifications ... I have had to keep checking the thread because of missed notifications and then a day later I get a notification about a post that wasn't there when I previously looked .... it must be a spooky home by the sea thread
Someone did explain the issue to me some time ago, I thought it was in this thread but I can't seem to locate it. The explanation was something like: you only get notifications for a thread if it's for things posted since you last read the thread - or since the last time the system THINKS you were reading it. If a post is made in a thread while you are reading it, you won't see it unless you refresh the page - but also you won't get notified of it because it was already there when you were last in the thread. That was the gist of it, as well as I can remember. I'm not convinced that's the whole story. I'm sure there are times when I get no notifications and I don't visit a thread for several days, then when I do there are a ton of posts, several every day that I was absent.
Per the notifications. It's a bug in the software and you have to unfollow the thread and then follow it again. I've started just clicking on "Watched Threads" and going from there.
I think Trick of the Tail is basically a perfect record. There's not a single instant during the whole thing that's wasted or filler. Every track is strong, the writing and performances are both top notch. Its an album created by 4 individuals with something to prove; that there is life after Gabriel. Mission accomplished.
I wouldn't go that far - but I would say its the closest they ever got to a perfect record. There's no tracks I want/need to skip, plus they for once chose the right "extra song" to leave off the record (It's Yourself). Usually they made weird/incomprehensible choices of which track(s) to leave off a record (for lack of space/use as B-Sides). Not only did they make a rare correct choice in what to include/exclude from the album, they also put all the songs in the correct running order for album flow. Not just in the running order of each side individually, but also in how the sides mirror each other: 1st song on each side is the "proggiest" 2nd song on each side is the acoustic guitar ballad 3rd song on each side is the most straightforward/accessible - the Zeppish Squonk, and the poppy title track - plus they both deal lyrically with human interactions with mythical creatures. 4rd song - OK maybe these songs don't mirror each other so much, but Los Endos bookends the album, and is a far better album closer than 'Its Yourself would have been. So again not perfect, but its the closest they ever got. Having said all that it still comes second after The Lamb as my favourite Genesis album.
Funny, I think exactly the opposite. This is the only extra of the prog era that I care about. I wouldn't know how to sequence it in the original record though. But as I said before, at least as a bonus on the CD! If you refer to exclusions from subsequent albums, I gotta agree though. I wouldn't call those incomprehensible, I sort of understand their thinking. But I like some of the leftovers like Submarine. - @mark winstanley, is the thread taking some days off or do you work during vacations too?.
That would be Phil's doing. As well as being the drummer, he was generally the person who said "this goes with that", "that would sound better sequenced after this", etc.
The fact that one person's favourite track can be another's least favourite in itself speaks to how strong this album is as a whole.
I think it's up to Mark whether to "work over the holidays" or not - but to just be aware that many people who might otherwise be actively participating in the thread may be absent over the next few days, so take things slow. Don't move on to the next album too soon, so that people have a chance to catch up with the ATOTT discussion.
How i feel about it is pretty irrelevant, this isn't anything like work for me. I guess Christmas day I won't post, but that will be hard, because I really look forward to doing this lol
Ripples I never use to really like this much, but time has endeared it to me. We have a very pretty delicate musical section to open up and a a very nice vocal from Phil. There is something epic about this in spite of it being a ballad. It has a melancholy that is quite affecting. It's an unusual lyric that seems to be about ageing, but I guess it could also be interpreted as someone having died. Again we get a really good instrumental section and Steve place some really good volume swells and everything ties in nicely together. A very solid song. As @abzach 's post say it is unavailable, i'll try posting this one, and hopefully that will work for anyone offended by the 2007 Genesis - Ripples
Let's have the original mix and master instead, so everyone can hear how the music is supposed to sound like, those remixes are horrible, especially ATofT - here you are:
