Help! I'm stuck in 1973 (Genesis Live - Genesis)

Member Name: pje

Product:	Genesis Live - Genesis
Date:	09/06/01 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Historical record of a legendary stage show.

Disadvantages: It's a godawful racket.

It all started when I realised that the book I was reading
(The Rotters' Club) began in the same year that Tubular Bells, which I was also planning to review, was released (1973).

A light-bulb lit up in my head - what other 'products' from 1973 are listed on DooYoo I wondered? So I did a search and found this...

I tell you that because I want you to understand that otherwise
I would never have mentioned this CD. Genesis Live is the most dreadful CD I have ever bought. It was a waste of money, even though it only cost me a pound! (A local library was flogging off old stock - they obviously saw me coming. Er, hold on, let me re-phrase that; when I say they saw me coming, I don't mean that they discovered me in the mucky books section - honest!)

Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford formed Genesis
at Charterhouse School in 1966, where they were 'discovered'
by Jonathan King <joke removed for legal reasons>
Phil Collins joined in 1970 after answering an advertisement,
and Steve Hackett was invited to join the band early in 1971.

Now you might think that a Marillion fan would be an aficianado
of early Genesis (isn't early Genesis a tautology?) But I came to Marillion via Pink Floyd (preferring the singing guitar solos of Gilmour and Rothery to the lyrical diarrhoea of painted frontmen Gabriel and Fish.) Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.


Some very alarming noises emanate from my CD player whenever I try to play this CD. In fact it frequently gets stuck, and it takes me a while to realise that it isn't SUPPOSED to sound like that... OK, my copy is a bit old and scratched, but I'm sure that if you buy a new copy it will play fine. However, it will still sound like a godawful racket!

Just in case you care I will try to give a track-by-track description below, but look, it's Genesis - if you've heard any early
Genesis you will know exactly what it sounds like, and if not, well, it's almost indescribable. Although I should warn you that any attempt TO describe any early Genesis album will inevitably include the phrases:-

tuneless; keyboard wankery; and pretentious.


The first two tracks were originally from the album FOXTROT:

WATCHER OF THE SKIES (8:34)

opens with a swirly keyboard intro from Tony Banks (I think he's playing with his Hammond organ here rather than his Mellotron, but who gives a stuff?) Then Mike Rutherford starts hammering out morse code on the bass guitar (SOS perhaps? I'm not sure, ask ScotGirl.) Hairy Phil Collins bangs away on the drums in the background and eventually Peter Gabriel's distinctive throaty voice enters the fray - the only thing about the track I like.
Mainly this is tuneless keyboard wankery with an occasional outbreak of discordant guitar playing courtesy of Steve Hackett.
Umm, if fans of early Genesis ever read this I'm gonna be toast...


GET 'EM OUT BY FRIDAY (9:18)

Get 'em out by Friday - isn't that the advice Denise Van Outen gave to Kelly Brook when she took over on the Big Breakfast?
Anyway, the 1970's wasn't a good decade for landlords, popularity wise (think of Rackman and Rigsby) and Peter Gabriel had some bad experiences himself. Hence this biting satire
of unscrupulous developers trying to force out sitting tenants.
The reference to central heating dates it of course, back then central heating was a fairly new mod. con. - just think mother,
no more trips to the shed with a coal scuttle and no need for hot water bottles!

I have to admit that I could really get into this one.
The terrifically urgent chorus makes this the most memorable track on the CD by a country mile, although it does wander off into a long instrumental passage later on (maybe Peter Gabriel had left the stage to chan
ge into another bizarre costume.)


The next two tracks appeared on the album NURSERY CRYME:

THE RETURN OF THE GIANT HOGWEED (8:18)

As Tony Banks might have said if he had been up for election: keyboards, keyboards, keyboards. The intro sounds like Bach
on speed. Lyrically I guess it's inspired by War of the Worlds
or The Day of the Triffids or perhaps just a bad trip. There is
no real tune for Gabriel to sing, so he speaks most of the lyrics staccato fashion (I daresay he would have rapped them if rap had been invented then). He also gets his flute out briefly.


MUSICAL BOX (10:59)

Gabriel's vocals are as exquisite as ever, but when he starts singing Old King Cole, well, I'm sorry, that's tooo pretentious.


The final track was culled from the album TRESPASS:

THE KNIFE (9:47)

Ohhhh just more of the same, only with a flute solo thrown in.
I don't care, you don't care, let's just get this over with!


Even the information on the inlay card is hopeless, and I quote:

Recorded at The DeMontford (sic) Hall, Leicester
and the Free Trade Hall, Manchester in February 1973.
This Compact disc is not digitaly (sic) recorded.

Although, to be fair, it does include the all-important lyrics. Which is useful because at one point in The Return of the Giant Hogweed I could have sworn I heard Gabriel singing about "homicidal buggerings" <joke removed for legal reasons> but apparently the line is "herbicidal battering" - so that's okay then!

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