Genesis

Well I wouldn't say so, Stardust. You may have asked the forum to discuss your favourite Genesis song & then said bugger all about why you liked it when asked, but that wouldn't qualify as a laughing stock in my book. Still, your threads are pretty amusing! :D
 
Alright, this thread descended into madness long ago and has gone on long enough, so we're closing it. If anybody wants to talk about Genesis, you can start a new thread or maybe continue here.
 
Yes, this thread is back, for some actual Genesis discussion...

There's a Genesis documentary coming out, "Together and Apart". However, it's not available in the US yet (even by "other" means). So until then, here's a very good 1991 doc:


Much of the performance footage here is widely available now (plus much more), but in 1991 this doc was a rare source. It was a prized VHS.

For those who find a full doc to be too much, here's something much shorter. A delightfully odd song from Nursery Cryme (1971).


From a Phil Collins interview I've got in a book here:

A lot of the humor on our early albums went over a lot of people's heads. They were taking us far too seriously. A lot of the songs like "The Musical Box" and "Return of the Giant Hogweed" had a lot of humor in them, but people tended to think we were deadly serious. We were serious about trying to do well, but there was an awful lot of dry humor in the lyrics.
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"Harold the Barrel" is another such humorous song, maybe the funniest Genesis ever did.
 
The humor in the early Genesis stuff is what really made me like this band. It could be a somewhat dark humor, like in Musical Box, which really enhanced the music for me.
 
Just before the quote above, Phil was explaining his background as a child actor and saying that he was the humorous guy in the band. It certainly continued for their whole career: I think you could drop "Squonk" and "Dodo" in the humor category, more clearly "Who Dunnit" and "Illegal Alien" are there too. I'm tempted to add "Jesus He Knows Me", although I detest that song. Televangelists were an old boring topic by the time Genesis got on the train.
 
Some of the most funny lyrics ever put in a Genesis song is in The Battle Of Epping Forest. And the song is great too!
 
It's that dry humor in that song. Also Gabriel's love of playing with the sounds of words:

"I do my double-show quick!" said Mick the Prick, fresh out the nick.
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Reminds me of butterflies, gutterflies, flutter-bys and slubberdegullions on squeaky feet.
 
Or, pretty much all of Broadway Melody of 1974.


"There's Howard Hughes in blue suede shoes
Smiling at the majorettes, smoking Winston cigarettes"

Great couplet.

Note: if you must smoke, avoid Winstons. They're quite horrible.
 
Another funny song is I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe).
Too bad it was destroyed beyond all recognition on Seconds Out, The Way We Walk Vol 2 and Live Over Europe.
On those live albums, it downright SUCKED!
 
People seem to put down albums such as Duke and And Then There Were Three. But no one says anything bad about Wind & Wuthering. I find that album to be really freaking bad at points.
 
I'd disagree with all those, actually. I love the use of I Know What I Like in the Old Medleys. It gave them a chance to drop quotes like the tapping lick from Moonlit Knight or the closing theme from Stagnation. I especially love the Old Medley on The Way We Walk.

As for W&W, it's nowhere as near as good as its predecessor. I'll agree it's weak; the epics aren't compelling, and lots of filler. However, Afterglow is a masterpiece.

Another album that deserves some defense for the closing song: We Can't Dance. The closer, Fading Lights, is one of the best post-Gabriel songs. The instrumental section finally brings back the kind of epic Tony Banks solo we hadn't heard in a long time. If the opening/closing ballad section isn't to your taste, I'd understand - but the vocal performance there by Phil is really quite soulful, and for me the effect of the entire song is magical.

 
I love Genesis, my favorite Peter Gabriel-era song from them is "Return of the Giant Hogweed", and my favorite Phil Collins-era song is "Land of Confusion"... There is a really excellent Genesis tribute band called The Musical Box that I have seen that I definitley recommend to any Genesis fan.. They've even been authorized by Genesis themselves! I saw them play "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" in 2011, amazing show! Might see them in February when they're playing "Foxtrot"
 
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