Unquiet Slumber is probably the Genesis track most resemblant to Hackett's more further developed otherwordly solo pieces. I enjoy a lot its uniqueness, I think W&W was very benefited with Steve's odd touch on this track, his exotic flair adds an exciting eerie mood to an album otherwise too sentimentalist/wistful and mellow atmosphere wise. And the jazzy Quite Earth is a perfect follow-up that so beautifully enhances the predecessor's misty atmosphere with Mike's heavy bass lines and Phil's time signature changes promoted by such a grooving (and catchy as usual) drum lines imprinting a beautiful dynamics to it. I like this track, as though it's more enjoyable to me when played live, like my all-time favourite Los Endos. Afterglow Man this song has Phil's hallmark stamped on it, what a great showcase of utterly heartfelt singing, so perfectly suited for those GREAT vocal melodies, which - as usual in Phil-era Genesis - did not need to be instrumentally complex nor uniquely structured to convey such a powerful, striking emotional listening experience. Also, this track is really a must for a live show, due to the unmissable freakin' awesome double drumming throughout the last section... Seconds Out springs to mind... holy cow!
So And Then There Three was written and recorded in 1977 before Seconds Out was released? And when was Spot The Pigeon EP released? These blokes did some fast work, back in the day. --Geoff
They did work fast. I seem to recall that they had already booked studio time for the next album before Steve left. I wonder if they'd actually got as far as discussing material?
Can you read German? Apparently, his third Dick Knight double neck, first one purposely built. Just used on the Trick tour before he got the Shergold.
The Spot The Pigeon tracks were recorded during the W&W recording sessions and released in May '77. ATTWT was recorded in Sept-Oct of that year. This all kind of ties into the timing of Steve leaving. Steve's departure involved a number of issues. Part of it was that he a bit of an outsider with the band. Phil, Mike, and Tony had developed into working unit since around the Foxtrot period. Steve didn't feel that he was really contributing until SEBTP. But during the Lamb sessions it seems he got a little frustrated again, partly, it appears, because some his material wasn't used then too. He was actually contemplating the possibility of leaving at that point, but a couple of things helped him change his mind. Firstly, Peter left the band. That opened things up for him, or it seemed a possibility. Secondly, he got to record his solo album during the brief band hiatus. Anyway, he had already been feeling a bit held back within the band. Then there was the share of material. Steve felt that the writing should be proportionally allocated, so that he could have 25% of the credits. He was told that's not how the band worked. So that added to his frustration. But I think the thing that finally pushed him into leaving was the refusal to allow him time to go and record another solo album. Steve had material and was anticipating on going ahead with the project. But the rest of the guys were thinking differently. They had been working steadily for about a year and a half at that point. In that time they became more popular and successful than they had been ever been up until then. They wanted to take that momentum and go straight into writing and recording their next album, but Steve wanted to put a hold on that. When they said no, I guess Steve just thought, "to hell with it, I'll just go at it alone". In some ways I can't blame him for wanting that kind of independence. Heck, that's largely why Peter left too. I suppose he just felt that there were no other options, and with all the frustrations he'd already dealt with, that made the decision a little easier.
Spot The Pigeon was recorded during the Wind And Wuthering sessions (september-october 1976) and released in may 1977.
Well while we are talking about it ... and I sent Steve away before he left let's have a look at this. Spot the Pigeon EP by Genesis Released 20 May 1977 Recorded September–October 1976 Studio Relight Studios, Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands Genre Progressive rock, pop[1] Length 13:22 Label Charisma Producer David Hentschel, Genesis Spot the Pigeon is an extended play (EP) from the English progressive rock band Genesis, released in May 1977[2] on Charisma Records. Its three songs were originally written for the group's eighth studio album Wind & Wuthering (1976), but were not included in the final track selection. It was the final studio release to feature guitarist Steve Hackett prior to his departure from Genesis. Spot the Pigeon was not released in the United States as the market for EPs never took off there, but a Canadian release was issued by Atlantic Records (the band's overseas distributor) and was imported into the US and easily available at shops that sold imports. Spot the Pigeon reached No. 14 in the UK Singles Chart. It was released on CD in 1988 but has not been reissued since; "Pigeons" and "Inside and Out" were included in the Genesis Archive 2: 1976-1992 (2000) and Turn It On Again: The Hits – The Tour Edition (2007) sets, and "Match of the Day" on Genesis 1976–1982 (2007) and on the label sampler Refugees: A Charisma Records Anthology 1969-1978 (2009).[3] The title is a variation on the football-themed spot the ball (the cover resembles a spot the ball competition photo), replacing the word "ball" with "pigeon" so that the title links the themes of the first two songs. Collins expressed his disdain for "Match of the Day" in 2004, saying, "It was also not our finest hour looking back at it now. I wrote the embarrassing lyrics and the track featured an attempt to bring some of the hipper grooves of the day into Genesis, with very suspect results."[4] The lightweight "Pigeons" is driven by a one-note banjolele line that parodies English musician George Formby. Steve Hackett commented in 2009 that "the thing about ‘Pigeons’ was that it was possible for the band to play a whole note for a whole thing: ding-ding-ding-ding. And that was unvarying whilst the keyboard changed and [Banks] tried to do as many different chords as possible."[5] Closing song "Inside and Out" combines images of folk and progressive pop for what would be the last time in the band's career with Hackett as an active member. Since its 1977 release, Hackett remained adamant that the song exemplified the band’s multi-layered sound and should have been included on the Wind & WutheringLP released in December 1976. “I think it is one of the stronger tracks that didn’t make it onto the album,” he told Vintage Rock in 2017. “I think it should have been because it has a very beautiful sound to it. Right from the word ‘go,’ it’s got that Genesis multi-jangle thing where it sounds like one guitar, but it’s a whole bunch of guitars all playing the same thing.”[5] The song was performed several times on the Wind & Wuthering tour in 1977. Hackett performed it with his band for the first time in 2017, crediting it as one of Collins' earliest successes and speculated that perhaps it should have been included on Wind & Wuthering.[6] AllMusic's retrospective review praised the songwriting on the EP for returning to the sound of early Genesis album Trespass, but concluded their review with: "Spot the Pigeon has never been a popular or even very accessible release in the U.S. Of course, there's a reason for this: It simply isn't very exciting."[1] The blog site NarrowtheAngle.com commented in 2011 about "Match of the Day," stating "It's a ludicrously naff attempt at conveying the passion and commitment of a football match...There have been an abundance of terrible football songs over the years, but this has an earnest quality to it that makes it all the more offensive. How cheap does that keyboard riff sound?"[4] The EP was reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day 2012 by Audio Fidelity again on blue vinyl playing at 33 1/3 rpm on Side A and 45 rpm on Side B.[7] All songs written and composed by Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford, except where noted. Side one "Match of the Day" – 3:24 "Pigeons" – 3:12 Side two "Inside and Out" (Banks, Collins, Steve Hackett, Rutherford) – 6:45 Tony Banks – keyboards Phil Collins – drums, percussion, vocals Steve Hackett – guitars Mike Rutherford – guitars, bass guitar ------------------------------------------------------------- I haven't got anything to say about this, because tomorrow morning will probably be the first time I have heard anything off it. I may have heard something off it if it is tucked away on one of the box bonus discs, but I tend to listen to albums, so if I have heard anything off it, it would be a fleeting listen that didn't impact me because I had no point of reference and I would have just been kind of going ... "oh yeah.... so they did that hey?" If that makes any sense at all. The thing that does stand out to me is the way the writing credits are put on (at least) the Wikipedia page .... From that, it looks like they knew Steve was on his way, or that helped him with his decision. Also it would strike me that if Please Don't Touch had held any place in the bands mind, they could well have put it on here. It always gets tricky with multiple writers all thinking they have the gold record and everyone else's stuff is ok, but .... So tell me what you all think about this EP, big single and we'll start the Match in the morning Cheers Mark
I knew that ...And Then There Were Three... was recorded the year before its release but I had no clue it was recorded that soon. Seconds Out wasn't released yet and they were already mixing it. One thing that has always intrigued me is the amount of time it took them to finish work on the albums. In the 70s it took them just a month. In the 80s they used to spend 3 months in the studio, and 1991's We Can't Dance required 6 months of studio work. Apparently, the simpler the music became, the more it required studio work.
Generally as a band gets more money and interest there is less need to rush. Especially early on, with studio time being rather expensive, bands would prepare in a rehearsal room and then rush through the recordings to get it done within a reasonable time to save a budget issue and moaning from the label. By the time you're selling millions, nobody is that bothered about the time
Agree, but Steve’s insistence (if that is in fact what it was) on the writing credits being split a quarter each wasn’t a good stance to take. The other three were correct in stating that the best material should make the albums, regardless of who wrote it.
The chorus is very Air Supply-ish. As I wrote in my album reaction post, the song didn't bother me as much when I first heard it, because I had been getting into Genesis in reverse chrono order. But for anybody who had been there since the early '70s... I can only imagine the anguish. One observation I didn't make in that post was that W&W was probably the first album by the band in which the majority of the vocals weren't something that you could easily imagine being sung by Gabriel just as well as Collins. On Trick, only Ripples seems like a "Phil Collins vocals" song. But on W&W, there was more of this. I can't possibly imagine Peter Gabriel singing Your Own Special Way, for example. I mean, he probably would have refused to sing it to begin with but, that notwithstanding, I just can't imagine it being something his voice would be good at.
As much as I love Peter Gabriel, he would've likely drowned on the subtlety of Bank's piano trills/scales during the quieter sections of One For The Vine. But to be fair, Collins would've drowned out these parts if the song was recorded anytime after 1979
I lik I like it a lot. Match Of The Day is the weakest track of the whole Hilvarenbeek sessions, but still it's quite enjoyable. Lightweight pop with a nice melody. I like the chord progression on the chorus, specially on the last chorus on which the progression is slightly altered. The lyrics are no poetry but are quite unexpected for 1970s Genesis. Pigeons is pop perfection for my ears. An ear candy melody over another nice chord progression and a totally WTF lyrics subject. As a "comic relief" for W&W, I think it works better than All In A Mouse's Night. And finally Inside And Out. What a great song. W&W would have benefited a lot from it. BUT it had to make way for yet another Banks only composition...
That wasn't his original stance - that was the compromise he offered them after his request for time off to record a second solo album was refused - OK if I can't record my stuff on a solo album THEN I should be allowed an equal quarter share of the group album to at least get some of that material released. Its kind of crazy in a way that they didn't accommodate him (with time for a solo album) since most bands will use a live album to buy time before they need to put out another studio release, but Genesis didn't wait - they put out a new release about every five months from W&W to ATTW3: 1976-12 - W&W 1977-05 - Spot The Pigeon 1977-10 - Seconds Out 1978-03 - ATTW3 Not to mention that they took a year off a year after Steve quit for Mike & Tony to make solo albums - though to be fair it was also to give Phil time to sort out his marriage rather than forcing him to make any immediate rash decisions - ie quitting the band and moving to Canada. But their claim with Steve was that they were still on the rise in 1977 and needed to give it one more big push to get them over the top - which worked largely due to the success of the Follow You Follow Me single and 1978 world tour, which finally got them out of debt to the label, after which they finally started receiving royalty checks, rather than their monthly wage they had been receiving since they signed to Charisma (which were essentially advances against hoped-for eventual profits/royalties).
It was the other way around actually. He was first refused the time to record a solo album, and then refused his proposed compromise of 25% of the group albums instead.
