Revisiting Duke - Genesis: It's actually good.

I can't remember where I found this track sequence, either here or on Rate Your Music's forums. I was going to use the search engine on the latter but I'm receiving a "bad gateway" notice. And it's not here either: What if "Duke" by Genesis was a double album

Genesis - Duke Re-imagined

1. Behind the Lines
2. Duchess
3. Guide Vocal
4. Man of Our Times
5. Evidence of Autumn
6. Misunderstanding
7. Heathaze

8. Turn It On Again
9. Open Door
10. Alone Tonight
11. Cul-de-sac
12. Please Don't Ask
13. Duke's Travels
14. Duke's End

 

The "Guide Vocal" reprise in Duke's Travels never fails to give me goosebumps.

 

Again and again, I ask myself, was I wrong?

 

And the double time reprise of the Turn It On Again melody in Duke's End, right before it goes back into the Behind The Lines reprise one more time...

 

I like that one...and I normally don't rearrange album track listings

 

I would make Duke shorter -- a 45 minute album:

1
Behind the Lines
Duchess
Guide Vocal
Misunderstanding
Evidence of Autumn

2
Turn It On Again
Man of Our Times
Cul-de-Sac
Duke's Travels

 

Personally they lost me with And Then There Were Three..... but got me back with Duke, before losing me altogether thereafter. Not the best album they did, but the best of the pop-era albums by a very long way. If they'd released the Duke-Suite as a studio piece I think things might have gone differently, but we have had the chance to build it ourselves since!!!

 

I like this idea, and I'll take it even further to optimize the sound on vinyl.

Side A 19:06
Behind the Lines 5:31
Duchess 6:40
Guide Vocal 1:18
Man of Our Times 5:35

Side B 19:37
Turn It on Again 3:50
Cul-de-Sac 5:02
Duke’s Travels 8:41
Duke’s End 2:04

And then how about three 7-inches singles released over the course of the album cycle, one each for Phil, Mike, and Tony?

Misunderstanding / Please Don’t Ask
Alone Tonight / Open Door
Evidence of Autumn / Heathaze

(Or is this too KISS-solo-album-y?)

And while I'm living in the land of make believe, how about a vinyl issue of all the live tracks from the 1980 shows that have been officially released so far? Could be a great special for Record Store Day or something.

Side A
Deep in the Motherlode (Archive 2)
One for the Vine (Three Sides Live UK)
The Lady Lies (flexi-disc / Archive 2)

Side B
Duke's Travels (Archive 2)
Ripples (Archive 2)
Follow You, Follow Me (Three Sides Live)

 

Abacab and Duke are their 2 best albums, I think

 

Genesis was my friend's favourite band and I remember him playing Duke for the first time. After he'd listened to the first three tracks, he removed the LP from the turntable and declared that that was the end for him and Genesis. The look of disappointment on his face said it all.

I have the 1980's Virgin CD. To my ears, the sound is awful with little bass and tinny drums.

 

Revisit and listen to your Virgin Duke on a good modern CD player. Most 1980s CDs were mastered with a lot more dynamics vs their "remastered"
counterparts. And Duke took a lot of listening for me to get into it. I think it's one of their best, while Abacab and later is more The Phil Collins Band
vs a Genesis lineup.

 

I have an 80's Virgin CD and it sounds fantastic. Nice clear highs and good bass.

 

I'm mainly a fan of "pop Genesis", and "Duke" is the oldest album that I (mostly) warmly embrace.

It's really the one that demonstrates the most obvious crossover between "true prog" and pop - it straddles that fence better than any before/after, IMO.

"Abacab" is my favorite, and then either "Duke" or "Genesis". "Duke" showed a prog band starting to go pop, and "Genesis" showed a pop band moving away from prog.

Sorta. Of course, they'd never truly abandon prog - even as pop as it leans, "Invisible Touch" still had real stabs at prog.

But I do view "Duke" as a true transitional album...

 

I would call Duke only half good, thankfully I don't need to rearrange the tracks like many have done here because the band themselves did it right in the great 1980 Lyceum concerts where they did all the prog stuff together in one huge lump. If anyone hasn't checked those shows out, do so immediately, great energy!

 

I'll have to dig my copy out and have a listen.

 

On the studio version of Duke, Collins plays bongos on the first track.
With Chester playing live, does anyone know if he ever played them on stage?

Cheers

Carlos

 

I really do not like this album

TTWT was the last great album to me.

Misunderstanding was vomit inducing and Phil developed into that crooner voice

They tried too hard with that semi prog Duke's Travels suite.

Tony abandoned his keyboard sound entirely for more modernized toys

When TTWT came out I thought
"Oh great - they are getter more airplay"
With Duke "no, please no"

I like the puzzle shapes album better

 

I very good album but I've always had a hard time listening to Man of Our Times. Lousy song with bad production. I can take one or the other, but not both.

 

I like Duke fine. Some of Phil's best drumming on a Genesis record.

I do think the drums sound a little funny - mostly because it's the first instance (at least that I know of) where Phil opened up his drum sound for a big, ambient tone. But they still had yet to build their own studio with a dedicated live drum room or, of course, discover the gated reverb effect. I give him credit for trying on Duke.

 

Love Duke.


You can also reimagine this
Album if you try to plop In The Air Tonight somewhere in there. PC never intended to make a solo album in 1979 he was just writing songs.

 

I do too. But just a smidge better. In fact Duke, Abacab, shapes...love em all.

 

Their last great album. The rest were patchy, or have dated badly.

 

I can understand why many hardcore fans hate "Misunderstanding" but I have loved that song since it came out. In fact, it was one of the reasons why I bought Duke almost 20 years ago. I was drawn in by the hit singles and loved most of the album as soon as I heard it. (I still have to be in the right mood to listen to "Duke's Travels" though.)

 

The 1980 and 81 tours were fantastic based on the audio evidence. I still kick myself for not catching them in '81, though I had a good excuse -I was in Army basic training and MOS training for the entire summer and fall of '81.

 

Yes, Duke is a transitional album and this transition started a bit earlier with And Then There Were Three which had their poppy hit Follow You, Follow Me but was still mostly a progressive album. I love progressive Genesis but consider Abacab a favorite and Duke, Genesis and Invisible Touch great albums.