Total nonsense IMO Phil was just what Genesis needed at that time, which was proven by the amount of success they had. The dude had huge huge hits as a solo artist, huge hits with Genesis, and you still long for a different singer to sing those songs!!!! Granted I didn’t like his solo stuff after the first 2 albums, but those early solo albums and the Genesis stuff he sung just as well as Peter did, infact if you check out the Sum documentary Peter himself talks about how he thinks Phil was a better singer. I thought this was to discuss the albums as they were released, not the boring old debates of Peter v Phil or another non existent singer who would have been better than Phil.
Phil had just come off of touring with Brand X when they went into the sessions for Duke. It's some of his best drumming with Genesis.
Behind the Lines Good majestic intro by Tony with Phil gloriously bashing away. The guitar has a bit of a modern sound. Really I just love Phil's drumming here. He has this quality to his playing, as he always has, where you can hear the confidence in what he does. There are many good rhythmic syncopations during the verses. Mike gets a lot of good bass runs in addition to his guitar playing. It's a fun, thematic opening to the album. It's weird to hear it on its own without Duchess, but that's ok. We'll get there tomorrow. Great track for me.
Duke was the first Genesis album to reach the #1 position on the official UK album chart, debuting straight at the the top and maintaining it for the subsequent week. It spent 8 weeks in the top 5. GENESIS | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company (for those unfamiliar with that site, scroll down the page a little bit, select the 'album' tab and click on the '+' button to get more details)
That's a good interview. I keep getting interupted... hrmph.... work. I'll check the rest out later Cheers
Behind the Lines - one of my favorite Genesis tracks and I think the first track that made me love them. The lengthy instrumental intro is fantastic - great drumming and so many nice touches, such as that gorgeous bit Tony does with a sort of Ocarina sound and also the bit where they pull it back, with just the piano chords... (if that makes any sense)... The "song" part is also a gem - a great song in it's own right. Ace bass work from Rutherford and a nice groove. The lyrics? No idea, although it's possibly a similar theme to Turn It On Again, but the guy falls in love with a character in a book in this one? No idea and don't care, because the song is so good and Phil's vocal is top-notch. Also, bonus points for starting and ending the album with the same musical theme. I love it when they do that. Another reason I clicked with this album more than ATTWT is that, although it still has many of the trappings of the old/prog Genesis, there was also something very current about the sound, it had a vibe that was a bit more of the moment, in a time when New Wave, etc. was going on. (Obviously that became more pronounced on the next album, to an extent)
Finally home from holidays ... listening to ATTWT again for the first time in years. Down And Out ... reminds me of Broadway Melody Of 1974, but kinda sped up and in 5/4. Could easily see this on The Lamb. Undertow ... a great song ... is Mike playing fretless bass here? Ballad Of Big ... nope, still awful. --Geoff
The drums on Behind the Lines are ok but I can only imagine how awesome it would had been if they had brought John Mayhew back after Collins started singing lead.
This is the first time I've heard this track. The final two minutes are excellent, but it really could use a set of new lyrics ("Cos I know that you know, I know you know, That everything is better in the morning"). I do like that this track, as well as the rest of Smallcreep's Day, has Ant Phillips on keyboards (I must have 30 of his records). The A side Working In Line is a decent short section from the SC Day suite. I have always liked Smallcreep's Day; it's my favorite MR record of the three of his I know, but has some serious faults, such as the lyrics and the drumming. I probably played the SC suite 90% of the time. Considering this record has two original members of Genesis, I'd say that some segments of the SC suite would have been perfectly good Genesis music (ex. 4:45 - 8:52, 12:14 - 15:09, and especially Out Into The Daylight/At The End Of The Day starting at 15:10 and through to the end of the side.) Time And Time Again on side two also is enjoyable. Most of the time though, MR's lyrics are let-down ("turning water into wine, till there's nothing left to burn" - yeech). And the drumming is really methodical and uninteresting; it's too bad Phil isn't here. This record isn't in my LP collection any longer. I haven't ever heard A Curious Feeling. YouTube here I come!
It's basically the same Romeo and Juliet type story he told during previous tours. Not very original "and hasn't got much to do with Albert at all."
Behind The Lines is one of my Genesis favorites. Can't really add anything to what's already been said. Duke and Abacab were the current G albums when I started with their music, so they'll always mean a lot to me.
I really gave up on them,when I got the Knebworth concert on laser You had the excellent Gilmour led Floyd,then the “hits” Genesis coming out Doing a Motown medley which sounded like a Phil Collins back up band With Mike and Phil not playing their main instruments,and no Steve just a boring replacement playing too many Simple songs that rely on just vocals
Knebworth has nothing to do with where we're at here. I have no problem with you joining the thread, but if all you have/post is this nonsense I will get a gort to block you. Thank you
Behind the Lines---Really like the intro, seems like a great start to the album. Unfortunately, the song itself does nothing for me. I know others love it, but just never connected with me. I like the way the intro is reprised in Duke's Travels/End
^^ Gimme gimme gimme, a rambler after midnight.... I had another listen to Behind the Lines. I can understand why many people love this start to the album, which makes it hard for me to explain why I don't. It seems to me to have something forced about it. It's as thought he band is trying to sound very much of its time (nothing wrong with that), but then periodically remembers they are supposed to be a progressive band, so they do things like stretching out the intro and doing abrupt changes in dynamics. Like much of the album, it is neither one thing nor the other -to complex to feel like a pop song, yet as symphonic prog does not really flow naturally. This is a criticism I would make of many of the long songs in Genesis' later work, eg The Last Domino pt 2, Alien Afternoon, Driving the Last Spike.
ATTWT listening session continued, to see if my opinion has changed: Snowman ... nah, still sounds like a Ripples rip-off to me. Burning Rope ... back to the prog ... middle section tries for a Firth Of Fifth sound, but needs a Hackett. Deep In The Motherlode ... better than I remembered. Many Too Many ... yep, still great, maybe a grand piano would give it a more familiar sound. Again, needs a Hackett at the end. Scenes ... No. Just no. Joe ... still great. Wish the outro was longer. The Lady Lies ... back to the prog again. Would not sound out of place on Trick IMHO. Follow You Follow Me ... still a great pop song. I think Phil is performing this song at recent shows. Overall my opinion hasn't changed much with a recent listen. There's a lot more excellent bass playing from Mike than I remember. The production really hurts the listening experience though ... far too dense. I'm listening to Duke now and wishing that ATTWT sounded more like this. --Geoff
This thread is great for digging out the old Genesis LPs (or CDs). Yesterday I was listening to Duke in its entirety for the first time in years, the 5.1 surround version. As much as I like to have this in surround, I think theses mixes are very un-daring (compared to what for example a certain Mr. Wilson does) and kind of a missed opportunity. It surely could have been done better but I'm grateful that we even got something in 5.1. Duke IMO is a stone cold classic in Genesis' repertoire. The two outtakes Evidence of autumn and Open door might have fitted better on the record than certain other songs (although Open door has much resemblance to Alone Tonight and Evidence of autumn is a kind of updated version of One for the vine).
