Yeah that's a lie. The first romantic Genesis song would probably be Let Us Now Make Love from... 1969. Or if we're counting album tracks, well I'm partial to Carpet Crawlers out of context...
Giving three examples of heirs who blatantly scrape the barrel for the money with no regard to quality/legacy/what the dead artist would actually have wanted or allowed to be released, to back up my point that the Genesis heirs would probably be more likely to want to exploit whatever tapes remain in the vault once they're dead than the living members do currently is an insult? I'd say your final sentence is an immature "taking your ball and going home" as it dismisses every logical and factual point I made - especially the fact that it's not (at least not officially) dead because whenever they are asked, the band members always tell us its not dead, and that its being worked on (negotiations with record companies/deciding on a distribution model etc). Why are you accusing the band of lying?
I have two on blue vinyl and one on black. I probably wouldn't have bothered with the black vinyl, except that it was the first copy I'd ever seen for sale so I grabbed it. After that I grabbed the first two blue copies I found (gotta have a spare!)
It's an advert/small poster placed in record shops to promote the single. It is shown here: Single Advert – Genesis – Your Own Special Way –
Ok, I've already noticed we're very far from each other on most things, this confirms it and explains why.
Are we still on Your Own Special Way? If so, I'll insert my opinion and say this is a weaker track but I still quite like it, and never understood the bile that seems to get directed at it. Much of the criticism seems to be to do with the middle section, the fact that it slows right down. I don't mind that at all. It's not always necessary for lots of things to be happening in the music. Sometimes it's nice to just take it easy for a few moments before the action picks up again.
Was there anybody else, besides me, who thought those were leaves on the front cover? -- I turned it over, And then I thought ...
IIRC this stemmed from an Australian musician's union rule that in whatever circumstances (international artist/size of venue/size of audience - I don't know but something) Australian musicians must be included in the performance (to some extent). Hence the Elton John Australian orchestral performances released as an album in the mid 80s (taken wholly from the second set I believe, as the first set was without the orchestra). I think Kiss did an Australian Tour (one set with an orchestra - IIRC with the orchestral players in makeup! - at least for the show(s) that were recorded/filmed for the live album/DVD. ...and Genesis did it as well employing a string section for at least that one song - but I want to say two songs (In Too Deep - I *think* but I could be wrong there) They certainly weren't dragging a string section all over the world - just all over Australia (though I guess they may have been using local players from each town they visited rather than paying the expense of carrying one group of players around with them. Any Australians aware of exactly how this musician's union rule works/worked in practice? How much of the set had to be augmented by Australian musicians, how many Australian musicians minimum, was it dependent on venue/audience size? etc etc etc?
You didn't have to have Australian musician's in the band. At least one support act needed to be an Australian band i believe. Kiss did the kiss symphony in oz because it was cheaper to do it and film it in oz.
So if that's the rule then the assumption would be that Genesis either had no Australian opening act on that tour, or perhaps no opening act at all on that tour, so they augmented the band with string players on the minimal acceptable number of songs as a workaround to satisfy the musician's union. Anyway it definitely made for a nice, interesting and very unique little rarity when put on a CD single (and later on the 1976-92 box)
Looks like a fair assumption since at this concert date at least "Genesis will perform the entire concert" (ie - no opening act) Ticket – Genesis – The Melbourne Olympic Park – 13th December
It may have relaxed a bit in more recent years, but in the 1980s the Australian immigration department and the musicians union still made it very difficult for foreign musicians to tour Australia unless it could be established that a “net employment benefit” would result from the performances. As you can imagine, that net benefit could be arbitrary and likely depended on the size of the tour (stadia versus theatres, for example). I know of one other artist’s tour in the early 80s where the benefit was met by agreeing to hire a local shadow crew for each show that would basically stand around while the touring crew did their work. (In fairness, that isn’t much different from many unionized venues elsewhere around the world, but in the case of Australia it was done on a national level, rather than by venue).
Anyone who doesn’t like Your Own Special Way on W&W will be crying for it after hearing what Steve Hackett did to it on his first Genesis Revisited record. Might be his most shameless stab at a possible MOR crossover hit. Even Paul Carrack on vocals can’t save it. Not my favourite track on W&W by any stretch of tha imagination, but it does help with pacing and balancing the album’s more epic pieces.
And looking around on Spotify I see John Wetton did a version that’s just as cheesy! Is one based on the other — they have similar arrangements...? Thank you, it does make the Genesis version seem better...
Thanks! The ads they placed in the music press were pretty tame in comparison. That poster would have worked well in the pages of Sounds and Melody Maker etc.....
Wot Gorilla? - this is simply one of their very best instrumental moments! I have no idea were the strange and annoying negativity towards it that I've encountered on this forum, comes from - the track is fun and amazing, nothing else!
Fun fact - the “tune” of Wot Gorilla is the same as the instrumental section in the middle of “One for the Vine”, slowed down and rearranged...
Wot Gorilla? We start with some atmospheric synth sounds and Collins hammering out a great beat. Banks really lays down some great synth in this track too. I love the opening theme. It meanders a little and has a bit of a jam feel to it, and then returns to that main introductory theme, which sounds great to my ears. Then We get a slow fade over the loose jam kind of feel. This may well not be a writing par excellence course, but it is a very cool little track, and a good way to wind down side one in the vinyl years. I enjoy it.
