MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM/MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM.iso/DOCS/GENESIS.ZIP/GENESFAQ.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-02 | 35.7 KB | 524 lines

The Chamber of 32 Frequently Asked Questions
Thrown together Wednesday 16th June, 1994 by Adrian Catchpole.
Taken from the FAQ list by Ricardo David, 25th October 1992.
[Image]
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    1. Where can I find Genesis/related files via ftp?
    2. Why is the Genesis mailing list called Paperlate?
    3. Who is Gabble Ratchet?
    4. Was there ever a Reunion Concert with Gabriel?
    5. What is Flaming Youth?
    6. What are The Anon and The Garden Wall?
    7. What is Brand X?
    8. Who is Albert?
    9. Did Steve Hackett play on Nursery Cryme? He's not listed on my copy.
    10. Do any of the Genesis members have their own mailing list?
    11. Where can I get hold of b-sides, live tracks and other rare stuff?
    12. Are there any Genesis videos or laserdiscs?
    13. What Genesis books are available?
    14. What is Spot The Pigeon?
    15. What is Silver Song?
    16. What is the "duck" played on Duke?
    17. What does the riddle in Dodo/Lurker mean?
    18. What is We Know What We Like - The Music Of Genesis?
    19. Was Genesis on the Knebworth 1990 album?
    20. Why are there two versions of Three Sides Live and what are the
            differences?
    21. What is "The Shout"?
    22. Was a film of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway ever made?
    23. When are Genesis going to do a box set/remaster albums/release rare
            stuff?
    24. What does Abacab mean?
    25. Who is Sarah Jane?
    26. What is The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway all about?
    27. What is In The Air Tonight about?
    28. Why is the 1983 album self-titled?
    29. What is "That Damn Medley"?
    30. Are there any bands that sound like Genesis?
    31. Are there any Genesis tribute bands?
    32. Can you name a good mail order source for obscure albums?
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Genesis World Wide Web home page
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1. Where can I find Genesis/related files via Anonymous ftp?
Well there's the Official Paperlate ftp site, the European Genesis ftp site and a few General
Music ftp sites that contain Genesis stuff. If you don't know what Anonymous ftp is or how
to do it, please try asking a knowledgable person at your site (eg. helpdesk, system
administrator etc).
*** Official Paperlate ftp site ***
The official Paperlate archives can currently be found on the sites ftp.cs.unca.edu and
fletcher.cs.unca.edu. However, it is uncertain whether these sites will continue to provide
space for the Genesis archive. Also the network connection to these sites is sometimes
unreliable. These
archives may be relocated to atom.ansto.gov.au. at some point in the future.
*** European Genesis ftp site ***
From Andreas Lemke:
This archive is intended to be a source for all kinds of Genesis related information. It
(hopefully) contains everything one might ask concerning articles, discographies, lyrics,
reviews, tour guides, etc. about Genesis and its past and present members. For those who
are actively involved in music a set of transcriptions of old Genesis classics is currently
being built up by a few people. If anybody has transcriptions which are not present in this
archive please upload them. If you are calling from across the Atlantic then please use the
official Paperlate ftp archives instead, if you can. The directory structure (which is self-
explaining) follows a suggestion by Adrian Catchpole who did a great job in sorting these
things. Uploads can be placed at /pub/genesis/incoming (please drop me a line via e-mail).
Andreas Lemke ([e-mail])
*** General Music ftp sites ***
The main General Music ftp site is ftp.uwp.edu and it is maintained by Dave Datta
([e-mail]). For Genesis stuff here is where to look:
pub/music/artists/g/genesis             or just cd genesis
/b/banks.tony                  cd banks.tony  etc. /c/collins.phil
        etc.
From this directory you can find pictures, lyrics, magazine articles and much more! There is a
European mirror of the pictures and lyrics at ftp.sunet.se, in pub/music/pictures and
pub/music/lyrics respectively.
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2. Why is the mailing list called Paperlate?
The words "Paper Late" are originally found in "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" on
Selling England By The Pound, and later used as a soundcheck vocal by Phil, and the band
then proceeded to write a song based on the phrase. We use the name here because of the
reference to "the latest edition" of the news (we are the most up-to-date naturally :-), and
also in part as a play on the fact that, being a computer mailing list, there really is *no* paper.
Because of the digest format that many readers receive (all one day's messages are bundled
up and sent out to the readers), they really *do* receive a "Late paper", because they read
what was written in the previous 24 hours.
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3. Who is Gabble Ratchet?
Gabble Ratchet appears in "Supper's Ready" from the 1972 Foxtrot album; specifically in the
"Apocalypse in 9/8" section. Who he is can be best answered by Tony Banks. This is taken
from a radio Rockline interview.
Dick O'Leary: ...And, secondly, if I can get a quick one in, somebody mentioned the Genesis
computer mailing list, and one of the dying questions on this list is, "Who is Gabble Ratchet",
from "Apocalypse in 9/8" from "Supper's Ready"?
Tony Banks: Well, the last question is easy to answer - fictitious, I'm afraid. It would be nice
to give some sort of different answer to that, but that's the way it goes.
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4. Was there ever a Reunion Concert with Gabriel?
Yes, there was. Peter Gabriel founded WOMAD (World of Music and Dance) This
organization brings musical artists from all over the world and gives them the opportunity to
record and perform in concert. Gabriel's first WOMAD concert featuring artists from 24
countries and was a critical and artistic success. Unfortunately it left Gabriel extremely in
debt, with threats on life being made if he didn't pay up.
Tony Banks, Peter's longtime school friend suggested that he get together with the band for a
special reunion concert to bail Gabriel out of debt. Steve Hackett even joined in on the final
encores "I Know What I Like" and "The Knife". The concert was held on Saturday, October
2nd at the Milton Keynes Bowl. Peter made his grand entrance by emerging from a coffin. It
poured with rain all the way through the set apart from "Supper's Ready" (a sign?). The
concert was never officially recorded or filmed.
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5. What is Flaming Youth?
Flaming Youth was a band Phil Collins was in before he joined Genesis. In "The Book of
Genesis", Phil says:
"The Gladiators were basically a 4 piece soul group and they wanted musicians to back them.
Hickory was the band that were formed to back them, and I was brought in on drums.
"Then, we started getting better than the Gladiators, so we split from them, and changed our
name to Flaming Youth.
"Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, who managed Flaming Youth, gave us some songs which
we recorded on an album in about two weeks. It was very schizophrenic because we used to
go to gigs and play our regular band stuff at the beginning of the set and then follow that with
with the album material. People who'd liked the first part generally hated the second.
"We had a burst of publicity with Flaming Youth when our album, 'Ark 2', came out. That
was about it - a blaze of publicity and very little work. After a year, I decided it was going
nowhere and I left."
In the Phil section of the book by Gallo, there's a bit:
"Howard and Blaikley offered us this concept album they had written. They demoed the tunes
on cassettes, and we took about 2 weeks arranging it, and they were knocked out.
Phonogram got behind it, and we thought we were in for a big one. We were manipulated
quite heavily, we had to do what they wanted. They renames us Flaming Youth, and the
album was called Ark II. There was one song on it which was a hymn called 'From Now On',
and Brian sang it on his 21st birthday. It was very emotional, very exciting.
"We had a big premire party for the album at the Planetarium in London. Everybody came,
and we got amazing reviews. We got Album of the Month in Melody Maker, and Led
Zepplin, Humble Pie, Zappa, and Janis Joplin all had albums out the same month as us. The
amount of press we got was incredible. We also shot a film in the streets of London for
American TV, but we didn't do any gigs! No one could get us gigs. We couldn't really see it,
but they were hyping us, and we didn't understand it because we were getting really
hot rehearsing and getting a nice vibe and style. All the time we were growing one way, and
Howard and Blaikley were growing the other way. They wanted us to do more poppy
tunes, and in the end we got out of favor with them.
"...saxophonist join us, Dave Brook. We were getting really far out by this time, and he was
completely bald and completely spaced out, and he brought an even weirder element into
the group, so by this point we weren't a commercial band any more. We would go on stage
and just blow, even less arranged than Brand X, and the last two gigs we did were
Plymouth and Penzance, but nobody wanted us really. At that point, I had my eyes open for
different gigs, becasue I realized this was a sinking ship."
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6. What are The Anon and The Garden Wall?
The Anon is the band during the Charterhouse days that Mike Rutherford and Anthony
Philips were in. They eventually merged with the Garden Wall, Tony Banks and Peter
Garbiel's band, to form Genesis.
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7. What is Brand X?
Brand X was a title assigned by the recording engineer of a bunch of session players who got
together to make some music (jazz/fusion), initially while Genesis was between tours. The
group was a project idea started by Phil Collins and Bill Bruford though Bruford never
played with the group. Collins has not been involved with the project since his solo career
took off, and Brand X currently revolves around Percy Jones and John Goodsall.
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8. Who is Albert?
Albert is the goofy looking guy featured on the Duke album artwork. He is a French cartoon
character from the late Seventies. From the Duke Gatefold cover, "Albert also appears in
L'Alphabet D'Albert By Lionel Koechlin."
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9. Did Steve Hackett play on Nursery Cryme? He's not listed on my copy.
Steve Hackett *was* a member of Genesis at the time of Nursery Cryme, and played guitar
on the album. However Steve Hackett has been omitted from the credits in some of the
releases of Nursery Cryme, most notably the Atlantic cassette release.
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10. Do any of the Genesis members have their own mailing list?
Peter Gabriel is the only Genesis member/ex-member with his own mailing list. Joe Germuska
([e-mail]) runs the Peter Gabriel mailing list. To post mail to the list for all the
subscribers to see, send it to [e-mail]. To subscribe to the mailing list,
send "sub gabriel {your real name}" to [e-mail]. To unsubscribe
from the mailing list, send "unsub gabriel" to [e-mail]. To receive
digests instead of bounce
mail, send "set gabriel mail digest" to [e-mail].
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11. Where can I get hold of b-sides, live tracks and other rare stuff?
One of the best things about the Genesis mailing list is that we can pool our material together
and offer cassette tapes of rare genesis material that was officially released by the band. These
are usually B-sides to the released singles.
There are currently ten volumes of raretapes available (er?) and we are working on a couple
more. These tapes are not meant to substitute for the original recording but are a means for
us on the list to hear these great songs and then perhaps try to hunt down these recordings.
NOTE: These tapes are not for sale or for profit. I have no idea of the situation with regard
to volumes 1-10 of the Raretapes. Some may still be available, some may not. David Hollister
is technically currently in charge of Raretapes Volumes 11 & 14, The Rarest Live and the
Covers/Originals tapes. He has made lovely DAT originals of the tapes for your increased
listening enjoyment. I recommend you mail David at [e-mail] and ask him nicely
for more details.
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12. Are there any Genesis videos or laserdiscs?
Yes, there are more than 7 officially released Genesis videos on VHS and at least 4 laserdiscs
that we know of so far. There are also many Phil Collins videos available which should be
easy to find.
VHS videos:
Three Sides Live (1982, re-released in 1991, not very good quality) Genesis Live: The Mama
Tour (1985, this is hard to find)
Genesis Videos Volumes 1 & 2 (1987, quite hard to find)
Genesis Live: The Invisible Touch Tour (1989, getting hard to find) Genesis, A
History (1991, highly recommended)
Genesis Live: The Way We Walk (1993)
Laserdiscs
Three Sides Live
Invisible Touch Tour
Genesis, A History
The Way We Walk (including We Can't Dance videos not on VHS tape)
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13. What Genesis books are available?
There are six Genesis books, and unfortunately all are out of print except the most recent
one, and that is only available in the UK. However they often show up in records store or
record shows. I mananged to get two through the library loan program, it took about two
years (no joke) but I did get them to read eventually.
GENESIS: A BIOGRAPHY
by Dave Bowler and Brian Dray
(available in hardback, 1992, and updated 1993 paperback in the UK)
GENESIS - PETER GABRIEL, PHIL COLLINS AND BEYOND
by Philip Kamin and Peter Goddard.  Introduction by Phil Collins (115
pages - 1984.  Beaufort Books.  ISBN 0-8253-0243-9)
THE BOOK OF GENESIS
by Hugh Fielder.
(128 pages - 1984.  St. Martin's Press.  ISBN 0-312-08880-9)
GENESIS
by Janis Schacht
(124 pages - 1984. Proteus.  ISBN 0-86276-257-x)
(History of the band with many photographs and terse discography)
GENESIS - FROM ONE FAN TO ANOTHER
by Armando Gallo.
(144 pages - 1984.  Omnibus Press.  ISBN 0-7119-0515-0)
I KNOW WHAT I LIKE
by Armando Gallo
(extremely good, very hard to get hold of)
PETER GABRIEL
by Armando Gallo
(also extremely good and hard to get hold of)
PETER GABRIEL: AN AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY
by Spencer Bright
(UK only - quite good paperback)
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14. What is Spot The Pigeon?
Spot The Pigeon is a 3 song Extended Play (EP) single (yes, *SINGLE* it's NOT an album)
released in 1977. Here is the discography info.
Spot The Pigeon EP (1977)
Match Of The Day (3:23)
Pigeons (3:10)
Inside And Out (6:42)
Sleeve: football (soccer) game - lyrics on back of album.
        7":   Charisma GEN 001
        12":  Charisma 6200-032;
CD:   Virgin CDT-40 AAD (some CD booklets contains lyrics)
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15. What is Silver Song?
"Silver Song" first saw the light of day in 1974, when it was broadcast on BBC radio. The dj
can be heard to say that the song is Phil, Ant, and Mike, and "may be released soon". He
announces it as a Genesis song. The Phil Collins version was never officially released. The b-
side of the single was to be another song recorded in the same sessions as Silver Song (also
with Phil on vocals) called "Only Your Love". This has also never been officially released.
More recently, when Ant Phillips re-issued his albums, he decided to include a version of
Silver Song on one of the CDs as a bonus track. This version is a re-recording, or at least the
vocals are, because Ant asked Phil to give his permission to release the original, but Phil
didn't agree, so AP released his own "demo" version with himself on vocals.
Ant Phillips, from the liner notes of "Private Parts And Pieces":
"This was written as a farewell to former Genesis drummer John Silver. Ironically, it was
later recorded as a putative single by Phil Collins in 1973 - though never released. Countless
attempts to recreate the magic that Phil applied to the song having failed, I've decided to
include my own demo version. There is categorically no chance that Phil Collins' version
will be released."
From the book "Genesis, A Biography" by Bowler/Dray:
"This time, though, Phil wasn't the only member who wanted to get involved in extra-
curricular activities, Mike teaming up with Anthony Phillips to make an album. Since
leaving Genesis, Ant had studied music further in order to increase his all-round
understanding of form and composition, until finally he felt the time was right to return to
recording. There was a great deal of material that he and Mike had written together in the
early seventies which had never made it on to record and so they intended to rectify this,
hoping to write some more music to complete the album. Phil was also called in to help
with the project, the three of them exhuming 'Silver Song' with the intention of releasing it
as a Phil Collins solo single, although that never saw the light of day."
(You may notice Mary Mary is missing from this FAQ. The truth is I don't want to get
invloved in the argument by putting an "answer" in here!)
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16. What is the "duck" played on Duke?
Well here's Mr. Tony Banks, from his famous 1992 Rockline interview, to explain all.
"Caller 13: I saw in "Duke" that you played 12-string guitar as well as a "duck." And I was
really wondering, what is the "duck" that all you guys played on "Duke"?"
TB: Well, it's only Phil and I played the "duck" together. Uhm, It was this kind of, it was an
attempt... it was a way of triggering... this was back in the early days, you know, before
technology could sort of give you all the things you wanted. It was a way of triggering the, I
think it was a Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer. We triggered it using Phil's voice. But he used it,
instead of - this was trying to get a sort of brass sound on a couple of tracks, particularly
"Behind The Lines" - and the way of doing it was using a duck-call. You know, one of those
duck-call-things you can get. We used that into the microphone, and it got just the right kind
of sound, so that we put it down that we played a "duck". We hoped a few people would ask
a question about it - you're the first person I think {BC: the first one!} since the album was
released who's asked that"
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17. What does the riddle in Dodo/Lurker mean?
We've never fully figured out the Lurker riddle, and nobody's seen/heard any answers or hints
from the band with regard to the riddle. Bottom line we've never figured it out. The next time
one of the boys in on Rockline or something, we *have* to ask that question!
Here's long-time Paperlater Rob Petrone's thoughts on the riddle:
"My theory is that the answer to the riddle is Earth. The song seems to have a theme
regarding protection of the environment - the references to the mink, and attitudes regarding
the insignificance of lower life forms
(It's only living / It don't matter at all), etc. So here's my analysis of the riddle:
Clothes of brass - (play on words: *brazen* structures of mankind) Seldom need to
breathe - in geographical eons the earth does everything seldom
Don't need no wings to fly - it revolves around the sun
And a heart of stone - it's core is made of molten stone
And a fear of fire and water - biblical flood and armagheddon
Who am I? - Earth
Another Paperlater suggested the answer might be man, which *still* fits with the pro-
environmental theme of the song:
Clothes of brass - Mankind is violent; this is illustrated by a knight in armor
Hair of brown - A common (arguably the most common) hair color in humans Seldom
need to breathe - technology allows us to overcome the sea (aqualungs)
Don't need no wings to fly - planes allow us to overcome the skies too And a heart of
stone - we're heartless for destroying the environment And a fear of fire & water -
biblical flood & armagheddon destroying humanity
Who am I? - Man
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18. What is We Know What We Like, The Music Of Genesis?
"We Know What We Like" is the music of Genesis interpreted by David Palmer and
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Steve Hackett plays the guitar on some of
the tracks. The Charterhouse School Choir appears on Undertow, Supper's Ready and Guide
Vocal. Some on the list have called it Genesis elavator music, it is available as an LP or a CD.
Genesis had no involvement with the album.
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19. Was Genesis on the Knebworth 1990 album?
Yes, Genesis played at Knebworth 1990 and are featured on the album. If I remember
correctly they played Mama, That's All, Throwing It All Away and Turn It On Again
(Medley). Phil and his band also played just before the Genesis set - they played In The Air
Tonight, Drum Duet/Colours Part 2, Sussudio and Another Day In Paradise. I think only
Turn It On Again and Sussudio are featured on the album.
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20. Why are there two versions of Three Sides Live and what are the differences?
The US version of Three Sides Live has the fourth side as the two Duke b-sides and the 3x3
EP released in England. The UK version has the fourth side live which includes a fantastic
live version "One for the Vine". The album was originally intended to be three-sides of live
material and one-side of studio material, hence the title. But the studio tracks were easily
available in the UK at the time, so it was decided to include live tracks instead.
US version 4th side:
11. Paperlate (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) (3:20)
12. You Might Recall (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) (5:31) 13.
Me And Virgil (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) (6:20) 14.
Evidence Of Autumn (Banks) (4:57)
15. Open Door (Rutherford) (4:06)
UK version 4th side:
11. One For The Vine (Banks) (10:36)
12. Fountain Of Salmacis (Gabriel, Hackett, Banks, Collins, Rutherford) (8:15) 13. It/Watcher Of
The Skies (Gabriel, Hacket, Banks, Colins, Rutherford) (6:45)
As a side note, one of my friends and I saw another CD version of Three
Sides Live in the UK in about 1988, with totally different live tracks including "Paperlate"
and "Keep It Dark". We even copied the lyrics of "Keep It Dark" from the booklet as the
Abacab CD didn't yet include them. However, *nobody* else has ever seen this version of
Three Sides Live and nobody has seen it since then. This leaves us to believe that we must
have both dreamt it! But we both saw it at the same time!!!???? Wierd.
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21. What is "The Shout"?
Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford worked on the soundtrack to the film "The Shout". There
is no soundtrack available, although you may still be able to find the video of the film. Phil
Collins did not work on this soundtrack. The movie was released in 1979. It is claimed that
the theme from The Shout showed up on Tony Banks' first solo album "A Curious Feeling"
as "From The Undertow".
Genesis Magazine No. 6 January 1978: "For the past few weeks, Tony Banks and Mike
Rutherford have been very busy writing a film score, and have been spending a lot of time at
Shepperton and Pinewood studios. More details will follow..."
Genesis Magazine No. 8 July 1978: "As mentioned previously, Tony and Mike wrote and
recorded the theme and incidental music for the film 'The Shout', which has won the Special
Award Grand Prix de Jury at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Mike commented "They
seem to have drowned our music out with other noises", and this definitely seems to be the
case. Having seen the film, I wouldn't recommend to anyone else because there is very little
actual music and the story itself is rather weird. Anyway, if you're curious, give it a try. The
electonics are by Rupert Hine, by the way." Geoff Parkyn
From "Genesis, A Biography" by Bowler/Dray, 1992: "...some songs suffering from being cut
short - 'Undertow' was a prime example of a stunning piece of music which would have
scaled Olympian heights had it been stretched further, an irony at a time when critics were
castigating the progressive bands of the day for extending the flimsiest of themes way beyond
breaking point. (Tony did, however, return to a theme from this song on his album A Curious
Feeling, also employing it on a soundtrack for The Shout which he co-authored with Mike
once the recording of ...And Then There Were Three... was completed.)"
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22. Was a film of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway ever made?
Peter Gabriel started talk of producing a film about The Lamb in about 1980. However, due
to problems with record labels PG couldn't get the financial backing for the project. There
was even talk about get the band back together to re-record the music, but Steve Hackett
was hesitant and Tony Banks was particularly against the idea, as he thought it would mean
dragging Genesis back into the past, especially after their phenominal success without Peter.
However, I'm not going to rule out possibilty that something might happen one day.
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23. When are Genesis going to do a box set/remaster albums/release rare stuff?
Well, when Genesis were asked this question in interviews for the We Can't Dance
album/tour, their response was basically that they would wait until they retired and the band
broke up to release box sets, b-sides, rare live tracks etc. In other words, we would get them
as a "parting gift". A two-CD set of B-sides seems likely given Tony Banks comments on the
subject. Mike Rutherford has said he would love to release any early tapes that still existed,
pre-1970 for instance, at some point.
As regards remastering old albums, Atlantic has hinted recently that this is in the pipeline for
the future, and indeed the remastering work may already have taken place. Mike Rutherford
stated in 1992 that would like to improve the sound quality of albums like "Foxtrot" and "The
Lamb". Atlantic have recently released the albums Abacab and Face Value as Gold CDs with
full original packaging and extras - though unfortunately without lyrics and the pricing is a
little on the steep side (to say the least).
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24. What does Abacab mean?
Well, I will ask Mike Rutherford to answer this one. This is from a radio interview.
MR: There were three bits of music in Abacab, and we refered to them as "section a",
"section b", and "section c"...and at different times, they were in different order. We'd start
with section "a" and then have section "c"...and at one point in time, it spelled Abacab. On
the final version, it's not that it all, it's like "Accaabbaac".
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25. Who is Sarah Jane?
Nobody. An invented character (just like Gabble Ratchett) and not, like it was believed on the
list for some time, Mike's wife. The name came as the song was written, naturally. See the
lyrics "I invent a name". It's exactly that :-)
Tony Banks from Schacht's book:
"The lyrics came almost in a dream. The central idea of Me & Sarah Jane reaches the absurd
proportions that you take things to when you're lying awake. The baloon bursts and it fades
away...the funny thing about lyrics is you can make them mean what you want. It's like an
abstract painting with different meanings for different people. I did write Me & Sarah Jane in
one sitting..."
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26. What is The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway about?
This is a loaded question because everybody has an interpretation of The Lamb. Phil Collins'
short quote about in the history video says it is about
"split personalities". However a two word quote hardly justifies the entire concept of The
Lamb. The Lamb's lyrics were primarly written by Peter Gabriel and it is his story which
appears on the album.
You are welcome to post your interpretation of The Lamb to the list as this is an ongoing
discussion and it is often discussed. Probably the best thing to do is to read
"the.annotated.lamb" file which should be around somewhere. Also any file with the word
lamb in it is a good place to start. Or buy the album, read, listen and enjoy!
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27. What is In The Air Tonight about?
This bit is from fellow Paperlater Eric J. Hall:
Many have heard the stories about how Phil witnessed a murder or somebody drowning or
something and wrote the song about it. There are a few versions. According to Phil, the song
isn't about anything in particular, really. It's just sort of a mood. So if you hear these stories
don't believe them!
Scott McMahan summarizes what Phil said on the Donahue Talk Show:
According to Phil, he got all his brand new home-studio equipment and got stuff out, and
started messing around, and In The Air Tonight was a spontaneous song he made up as he
went along trying it all out.
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28. Why is the 1983 album self-titled?
This is the album with the yellow shapes on the cover. It is sometimes called Genesis Genesis
or the Mama album.
Rob Petrone adds the following:
On another note, didn't the band say something about wanting to self-entitle the (what we
call) Mama album because it was supposed to be a rebirth of the band in some form or
another? I don't remember exactly what they said but it was something to that effect.
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29. What is "That Damn Medley?"
"That Damn Medley" refers to the Turn It On Again medley which combines short segments
from other band's songs into the Turn It On Again closing number. Apparently Phil started
singing the odd lyric and eventually the band began to follow. I believe this started with the
Mama Tour. Some of the songs included in the past have been by The Rolling Stones, The
Who, Boy George, and many more. Yipee!
Many people on the list find the medley a bit annoying and hence it was coined "That Damn
Medley." Not exactly an affectionate term. The bit with the dark hat and glasses during the
medley is a tribute to the wonderfully gifted Dan Akroyd of Blues Brothers fame.
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30. Are there any bands that sound like Genesis?
Well, ask this question and many people will give the answer "Marillion". Marillion can be
considered a progressive rock band that many people find parallels early Genesis. You may
also hear mention of Fish, who was Marillion's lead singer and lyricist until he left in 1988.
The following helps to see where the Genesis connection occurred:
Right from the first show Fish decided to wear make-up. Being a clumsy six foot five
Scotsman made him understandably self conscious, so the make-up gave him a mask to hide
behind. He soon began to realise that the make-up, if applied in different ways, had other
benefits like attracting and holding an audiences attention, enabling Fish to help them
understand some of the complex imagery portrayed in the songs by the use of mime.
The make-up unfortunately gave rise to Peter Gabriel comparisons, just as the music was
likened to Genesis. This tag haunted and hindered them for many years. It cropped up in
nearly every early interview. Though the band did not deny the influence they pointed out
that collectively they were also inspired by Peter Hammill, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and
Alice Cooper. Many people wrote the band off as Genesis copyists, but the more astute
realised that Marillion were much more than mere imitators. They realised that here was the
touch of originality that separates a great band from a good band.
I really like Marillion, but there are also many bands that have been influenced by Genesis
and create excellent, original music. I.Q. and Echolyn are two well known progressive
bands whose music is frequently compared to Genesis. In other areas, bands who state
Genesis as major influences vary from Simple Minds to Iron Maiden! Although neither
sound much like them now. Though they were never influenced by Genesis (more the other
way round?) :) Yes and King Crimson also deserve a mention here.
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31. Are there any Genesis tribute bands?
A Genesis cover band means that all they play is Genesis tunes. There's Over The Garden
Wall from Ontario, Canada. From The Knife to No Son of Mine, they cover the whole range
of Genesis music, and seem to tour small bars and clubs in the north east US (New York
area) / Canada. For some reviews I have heard they are solid musicians and perform the
material very well. The lead singer even dresses up in costumes similar to Peter Gabriel's.
Another band is The Musical Box. They have staged many totally sold-out shows in Ottawa,
Canada, which mainly consisted of a total replica of the Selling England By The Pound tour,
specifically the Montreal 1974 show. Music, costumes, slides, all have been attempted to
make these shows as near to the real thing as they can get. This band is apparently one not to
be missed!
There are also a few other bands, including Seconds Out who tour the UK and Europe and
and a band from South America whose name escapes me right now. Also it bears mentioning
that Steve Hackett included a few Genesis numbers in his solo shows in 1992/3.
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32. Can you name a good mail order source for obscure albums?
Well, this looks like a good place to start. This is taken straight from the
alt.music.progressive FAQ by Mike Borella. I've heard nothing but good about Ranjit, except
that he might take a few days to answer your e-mail just be patient I suppose!
Name:        RANJIT
PADMANABHAN
Mailing Address:    566
Crystalberry Terrace
        San Jose CA
95129 Email:
    [e-mail]
Comments:
Such a clever idea: Sell CD's over the net. Anyway, I'd been hearing about
Ranjit for a couple years, mostly from Ken Welchoff of Progressive, who
recommended him highly, before I actually got in touch with him. It was other
netters highest recommendations that finally convinced me. He sends out
periodic "Descriptive" catalogs over the net, as well as simple lists that list
everything he has in stock. All you need to do is email him and ask him to send
it. He's a very friendly guy, knowledgeable and helpful, his selection is
extremely good and his prices are good also. Once your order is confirmed, he
holds it for you, you send him the payment, and he sends you the discs. Very
simple, very convenient.
You are now standing outside the Chamber Of 32 Freqently Asked Questions.
You can hearing a whirring sound growing near.............