Cricket is a simple game: The fielding side are in, so they go out. They batting side are in, but stay in. When the first batsman is in, he goes out, and stays in until he's out, at which point he goes back in. Then the next batsman who's in goes out, and he stays in until he's out and goes back in. This continues until all the batsmen have gone in, got out, and gone back in. The the fielding side (who were all out) goes back in and the other side (who were all in) goes out. So "out for 23" means that the batsmen successively went in, got out, and went back in until all of them got out for a measly 23 runs. Simple. Next I will explain the cricket terms "no ball", "silly mid-on", and "bowled a maiden over". --Geoff
Wow - lots of angst here over such a beautiful song (Blood on the Rooftops)... Though I love the lyrics, what attracts me most to this song is the beauty of the music. Steve’s delicate nylon guitar introduction creates a suspenseful tension; an unsettling mood about to unfold. Phil’s voice and Mike’s bass (very melodic and with intriguing choices of notes, as usual) usher in some of the most dry and serious lyrics the group had ever delivered; not like the satirical social commentary previously presented from the band, but rather cynical observations of inane living- room commentary. And then, on the second verse, Tony’s beautiful and yet haunting Mellotron, washing across the track with a weary resignation, echoing the emptiness of the words. A brief interlude with typical Genesis arpeggios, and then... BOOM! That chorus. What a bass line. That Mellotron. Phil’s vocal! Piano as well...and those chord changes, resolving on yet more minor chords and twists of key to the end of the chorus theme with Tony’s “fake oboe” synth sound. When the song ends with that part (after the final chorus) going into a short “jam”, I am transported to that place only Genesis can take me. Great use of dynamics, and one of my favorite Mellotron songs. Bravo! Though we can all take different views of the lyrics, isn’t the music what brought us to love Genesis in the first place? My opinion, of course.
Listened to the album yesterday and realized that the song "Blood on the rooftops" contains everything I associate with Genesis, at least the Genesis I like. Above all, the feeling on that track, remains from Trick of the tail as a whole. The other songs (apart from "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers...In That Quiet Earth") feels to me that the band was heading towards a new style, a style that I do not like very much. Also realized that the production itself is something that makes it difficult for me to appreciate the songs. Quite impressive that during such a short time that these two albums were made, they managed to produce so much material and still continue to develop. Too bad I didn't like the way they chose to go ...
I'm pretty sure in the music lies their strenght, albeit it's a true fact that I'm on these SH Forums just and only for the music..... I'm a "music man"! .
Having discovered this thread about a minute and a half ago, I might be trodding well-worn ground here, but Wot Gorilla always struck me as a reworking of the big, emotional payoff passage from One for the Vine. Not a musician, so can't transcribe the notes, but my ears hear a lot of overlap between the two.
Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers/In That Quiet Earth/ Afterglow Unquiet Slumbers has an interesting feel about it and reminds me somewhat of the incidental music on the Lamb Album. It has a somewhat eerie feeling and really kind of reflects the idea of a disturbed sleep. Genesis always seemed to be able to convey musically what they were suggesting lyrically. We have a drum roll that leads us into the In That Quiet Earth section, and I have always enjoyed the melody of this piece. It helps in this track for me that the guitar takes the lead instrument position, and of course Collins playing some fantastic drums again. We move through a section of reversed guitar and the synth takes over the main melody line and is then joined by the guitar. With unison and harmony playing. After a nice melodic run, we get a complete change in feel. and it works really well. It seems lkike the guys really worked hard on getting this piece right, unless it is just one of those tracks that fell right into place, as sometimes happens. We get some nice aggressive guitars creating a nice jerky rhythm and the synth playing a nice little lead break and then we move into a magnificent melody. Then we get a really aggressive section of crunchy chords that sound almost like guitar. but seem to be synth. This leads into another synth lead break and back into that magic melody. I really like this instrumental track. Then we move into a quick time little break that takes us into Afterglow. I really like Afterglow, and perhaps it worked better in a live scenario, but I really like the studio version anyhow. I think the chord structure is brilliant. Collins has a really nice reserved vocal, and the melodic movement below it is truly a beautiful piece of writing. I'm really not sure what anyone else thinks of this, but I think this is essentially a Genesis classic in three parts. A mini Suppers Ready, in some ways. It is certainly a great ending to the album. This album has grown on me considerably since giving it a closer listen. There is nothing on it I dislike, and although a couple of tunes may be seen by some to be second cousins of older tracks, I don't think there is anything on here that doesn't stand on its own merits. There truly isn't a song that I don't like on here, even though there may be a couple of tracks that are somewhat lesser compared with some songs from prior albums. On the whole the album starts very well and holds strong and steady until Blood On The Rooftops and the closing trilogy lift it up to the next level. I can certainly understand why it may be some people's favourite album. It isn't my favourite album, but it is certainly an excellent album, and I would say and essential Genesis album also.
I'm sure it's been covered here, but my one real gripe with W&W was sound quality: even the best version I have is muddy and claustrophobic. This is partly down to David Hentschel's mix (that you can tell from CD versions), but also that fact that the album is too long for vinyl. It will never, ever happen, but I would love to see them do a 2 x 45rpm version, set out as follows: Side 1: 11th Earl of Mar / One for the Vine Side 2: Match of the Day / Pigeons / Inside & Out Side 3: All in a Mouses Night / Your Own Special Way / Wot Gorilla Side 4: Blood on the Rooftops / Unquiet Slumber / In That Quiet Earth / Afterglow Sides of between 13 and 18 minutes - that would help SQ...
I like the instrumental but think "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers...In That Quiet Earth" is a really clumsy title. The first part is a nice intro that sounds like it could be part of a movie soundtrack. Then the mood changes and we get a full-on jam (carefully orchestrated jam, mind you) with a soaring guitar part from Steve. I like the backwards guitar part too, it's Genesis at their most psychedelic. Mike's bass lines are more than a supportive rhythm here, they really carry the low part of the tune of this section. The next part I really like with the crunchy guitars and Tony's synth solo. It's one of those Genesis magic moments where they really come together as a band unit. And then it goes into my favorite track from the album, the closer - Afterglow. This has Tony Banks written all over it, but I like everyone's contributions here. Steve's beautiful broken chord playing, Mike's bass pedals, Phil's vocals (both lead and BG Vox), his drumming are perfect. But it's the words that make this my favorite track on W&W and one of my favorite Genesis tracks of all time. As I understand it, it's about a man who has just died and realizes he's a ghost. He knows he has an afterlife now, but he really misses his loved one. This is one of the Genesis songs where I can actually remember every word by memory. LOL It's a perfectly sad song to end this extremely cold and wintry album. I have my issues with W&W, and think some editing/changes would improve the album as a whole, but when you close with something like Afterglow, you're not getting any complaints here. I admit that I like the live versions of Afterglow more than the studio version, it's one song that Phil really shines on when they do it live, but the studio version is so carefully constructed and the beautiful Phil samples run through the synth to give that textured layer BG vocal effect really gives me shivers.
The drumming and bass on this one are fantastic, Steve's hard playing latter on is great and that reprise of Eleventh Earl of Mar works really well. One of their last "heavy" pieces and another instrumental which they never did often enough.
I agree it's a clumsy title but IIRC it was an attempt to pacify Steve and give him another writing credit. Possibly that backfired as he was still fed up about his songs being bounced for Banks' ones. The medley as a whole is superb and is another great example of Genesis giving the album cohesion with its use of the starting riff from 11th Earl of Mar transformed into a more "rocky" jam. Very much like how Squonk got used in Los Endos Admire Afterglow but have heard it so often I don't look forward to hearing it again. Once Tony pointed out the similarity to "have yourself a merry little Christmas" I can't get that out of my head now!
I first heard "Blood on the Rooftops" way before the Internet days, so I was totally clueless about what that part of the lyrics actually meant and had no way to find out really -- of course, I do not live in the UK or in any of the other cricket-loving countries (Australia, Pakistan, India, etc.). Some years later I started working in the Sports section of a local English language newspaper (I live in a Spanish speaking country) and was doing some editing work on a box featuring results of cricket games in the UK and, suddenly, I ran into the line "rain stopped play at Lord's" and, bang! -- everything clicked.
Agreed! It's a mini-Supper's Ready indeed! I think it's a fantastic sequence of tracks, beginning with Blood On The Rooftops until the final tracks, this is where the album wins me, though the rest is quite good too. I feel tempted to say that Wind And Wuthering is my favorite Genesis album every time I reach this final sequence. But it isn't, because "Wot Gorilla" and "All In A Mouse's Night" are only ok imo, while "Your Own Special Way" stands out mostly because it was an indication of what they were going to do next. I think it would have been a stronger album if released more or less like this: Side A Eleventh Earl Of Mar One For The Vine Your Own Special Way Side B Inside And Out Blood On The Rooftops Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers.../...In That Quiet Earth Afterglow It's interesting to note that side one on the real album plays for 27 minutes, which requires some compression. In this case, each side is 23 minutes long As for the remaing tracks, the Spot The Pigeon EP could be included (like the Something Else EP on Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life, also from late 76) Side A Match Of The Day All In A Mouse's Night Side B Pigeons Wot Gorilla? For those who are reading this, what your ideal version would be like?
Unquiet Slumbers / Quiet Earth / Afterglow Unquiet is very reminiscent of Silent Sorrow or Ravine from Lamb ... basically moody ambient textures that allows a gentle introduction to the next track. Quiet Earth is nice and heavy ... heaviest Genesis guitar sound, perhaps? Thumbs up all around anyway Afterglow ... I like the drums on the live version, but I prefer the studio version for the layered vocals, kinda like 10cc's I'm Not In Love (which was also released in 1976 IIRC). --Geoff
Nice song selection. I fully agree that "Inside and Out" is a better choice than "All in a Mouse's Night". However, there might be too many slow pieces in the first half of Side B, with only the instrumental section of "Inside and Out" shaking things a little bit. Another possibility would be to leave "Your Own Special Way" as a single only release, with "Gorilla" as b-side and include "Inside and Out" as W&W's first side's closing track.
W&W and Trick are my favorite Genesis albums. Afterglow: Everytime I hear it I ask myself why there isn't a decent guitar solo over the ending. It just seems to go on and on forever and almost nothing happens! On the one hand it's classy not to have a guitar solo over it (because everyone else would have done it), on the other hand I really could imagine a killer Hackett-solo there.
What's the time signature of the first half of Quiet Earth? It sounds like 3/4 but each beat is a triplet so maybe it's 9/8? --Geoff
I think that also hear a bit of One For The Vine ("I'll play the game you want me") in the spooky synth sounds at the end of Unquiet Slumbers. --Geoff
Whether or not one likes something is, of course, a purely subjective reaction that cannot be negated by the opinion of anybody else. Whether or not something should be considered "good," is entirely different. While it may be that whether or not something is good also lies in the realm of opinion, not all opinions on the subject must be treated as equal. Just to provide a single example, forming an opinion based significantly on an incorrect assumption of fact is not a very valuable opinion. People who are hobbyists or experts in a particular area will be less likely to have formed opinions based on incorrect assumptions of fact (in their areas of interest) than those who are not. It might be argued that a fully-evolved internet forum member is *not* one who subscribes to the notion that all opinions are created equal, but who - when confronted by people with opinions clearly based on mistaken assumptions of fact, insufficient information, or simple bad taste - is able to nevertheless harmoniously navigate and interact. And if his/her powers are particularly honed, teach without demeaning.
I have read that ATTOT and W&W-era Genesis was in many ways the template for '80s neo-prog, and the strongest influence on that music. Not sure that I would call any music of Genesis neo-prog itself, because neo-prog was much about the time (1980s) and the bands participating as it was the formal elements of the music.
Honestly the genre definition for me seems to be rather pointless, but it is admittedly something I've noticed - most music described as neo prog would fall under "symphonic prog" and a lot of music under symphonic prog isn't really symphonic prog. Subgenres that don't need to be a thing more or less, unless you start getting really anal with categorizations. But to my ears most neo-prog bands seem either fall into the "Genesis like" category (IQ, Pendragon) or are miscategorized (Marillion's discography save for two albums)
