I stumbled across this relatively obscure Genesis b-side the other day. It dates from 1975, and The Trick of the Tail sessions, the first album they recorded after Peter Gabriel departed. The song appears to be three separate sections stitched together, with the middle section forming part of the closing ‘Los Endos’ on The Trick of the Tail.
It’s an interesting historical piece. The transition from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – their previous album – to this, is startling. The structure of the song retains prog. leanings, but the tune itself is pretty much a straight ahead dirge. It does sound good. Collins already seems comfortable in his new role as lead vocalist, while Hackett’s/Banks’s expert arpeggios and Mike Rutherford’s shuddering bass pedals create an assured, embalming atmosphere. Lyrically, it’s all change too. Hogweeds, Lamias and unifauns are replaced by a maudlin lament to a love lost.
The abrupt shift in the middle of the song self-consciously reasserts their prog. credentials. But it’s the closing coda that really caught my attention. Here, the band essentially reprises the intro. before heading off into generic, off-the-shelf, woozy psychedelia. Guitar’s chime at stoner pace before – wait for it – the arrival of backwards vocals! I couldn’t detect any sitars, but they are surely buried somewhere in the mix. Anyone vaguely familiar with the Genesis back catalogue will know that Genesis do not do woozy psychedelia. I can think of some attempts at scary sound collages on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. But psychedelia? No.
‘It’s Yourself’ wasn’t released until 1977, sneaking onto the b-side of single ‘Your Own Special Way’, which makes you think that the band were never that happy with the song. Personally, I could listen to meandering twelve string guitars all day, and I would have been happy for them to move more in that direction. But bands can spend a long time honing their sound, creating their own unique identity. It can be crucial to their continued success. Venture too far off-piste and you can guarantee that some band members will get nose bleeds.
Of course, the irony is that the band completely re-invented their sound once Hackett left, working from a completely new template. Still, I think ‘It’s Yourself’, remains an intriguing snapshot of alternative realties in the story of Genesis.
“Reinvented themselves” or ran out of ideas and produced a run of wet, weak, and oddly massively successful tracks (along with a few lucky good ones)? Gabriel was the loss of a wheel, Hackett the loss of another, so the vehicle had a problem. “And Then There were Three” should have been called “And they they washed-up” (nevertheless momentum, coasting, and their name enabled them to get by for another decade). Though not my thing, solo Phil Collins was better (and his drumming, better still). Tony Banks’s com positional playing became dull, and Mike Rutherford was simply dull. OOAA. But they are wrong.
What do you think of the track? Marks out of ten? I’m giving it a solid seven.
4. But that’s me. Prefer “Twilight Alehouse”.
Banks, Collins and Rutherford have talked at length about how they wanted to unshackle themselves from the their prog. heritage, and make pop music. At times, they almost seem embarrassed about their past. Perhaps all the abuse they received during the punk era took it’s toll. But the fact is that they were great prog. rockers, among the best, who went on to make very average, and sometimes very gauche pop music.
Turn it On Again is far better than any dreary prog era Gabriel/Hackett effort.
Hepworth would definitely agree with you, which is not what you might expect from someone so in thrall to 1971.
I can still remember his irritable, pithy review of the Genesis back catalogue from Q, almost a quater of a century ago. Dismissive, throwaway one and two star reviews of the early albums, with fulsome praise for the later stuff. His crowning glory was to give ‘Invisible Touch’ five stars. Lost interest in his opinions after that.
I remember a Radio 1 programme in (I think) the very early 80s, with Steve Hackett presenting some of his favourite music. One of the tracks was ‘Dancing With The Moonlit Knight’, which he liked especially for the dreamlike, meandering outro. He said the band at the time would refer to this as ‘Disney’. ‘Fill in lads, PGs gone off for a costume change, we need some Disney’.
I think there’s a similar feel to the outros to DWTML and Its Yourself. Sort-of gentle British psychedelia, that the Dukes Of Stratosphear nailed so well. Edward Lear and hazy summer days, rather than feeling your face is going to fall off, as you dive into 2001’s stargate.
Los Endos has to be one of the best tracks built of the bits of others.
I remember well that comment in the interview; I’ve always thought of them as disneys since. I would have put the instrumental between the verses in Cinema Show in the same bracket. I hear the same feel on some of the Anthony Phillips instrumentals.
I had completely ignored the career of Anthony Phillips until recently. Esoteric/Cherry Red are doing an amazing job on his back catalogue at the moment. The Private Parts and Pieces series contain some lovely pastoral pieces that offer tantalising glimpses of what might have been.
A year after Vince Clarke upped and left the band, Depeche Mode continued without their leader and main songwriter. They turned down the chance to take Clarke’s Only You and decided instead to tour the first album plus a smattering of new songs written by Martin Gore. This was, I think, their first Really Good song. Not an immediate floor filler by any means and forgotten by most – and it wasn’t as much of chart hit as the previous singles. But 35 years later it still stands up. Songwriting like this is of the reasons why they don’t need to rely on Butlins nostalgia weekends to make a living in 2018.
Fairly obvious I suppose, but the Fabs pretty much went off piste or, probably more accurately, changed direction with pretty much every release. You could contend that the early albums follow a format and sound to an extent, but from Help! onwards they tore up the rule book with every release. Hence the idea that bands had to be ‘progressive’ with each new offering, which was unknown before them….a double edged sword if ever there was one.
Some bands have such a signature sound that any deviation becomes instantly recognisable. The Fabs became identified by their cosmopolitanism, as much as anything. I guess Revolution #9 was pretty off-piste.
The Beatles were the first ‘Prog Band’ ever. As a 14 y.o. (1964) I described them as progressive in music class to much uproarious ridicule. What did they know?
https://vimeo.com/223977258?ref=em-share
They went pretty off-piste in Help! so it served them right that they nearly got blown up by “a thingy”.
Oh, very good!
There have been times when indie bands seem to shift gear, or head off-piste, and unleash their inner rock monster; My Bloody Valentine famously so with ‘You Made Me Realise’ , but also Ride’s ‘Carnival of Light’ album, and this example from Cud ( of ‘Only a Prawn in Whitby’ fame), who decided in the 90s to sound like Def Leppard.
or: “indie stop being so up themselves and realise using the word “Rockist” seriously is a wanky term for wankers”?
When Chumbawamba went from 8-ish to 4-ish, unplugged and went from shouty bit quiet bit shouty bit to full on choral folk.
From glorious racket to just glorious.
to
I remember thinking Blur’s Girls and Boys was a pretty bold off-piste move. A formerly baggy, mod-ish, indie band coming up with such a driving disco tune? Wow.
Good tune as well. A solid band.
The Blur album from ’97 raised eyebrows, with all the Pavement comparisons.
It feels as though eclecticism is more common these days. Musicians are confident to wander here there and everywhere within the space of a single album. I have no idea if labels still exert any control over these instincts. If you’re off-piste all the time then you might struggle to solidify a distinct musical identity.
I’m not sure labels have very much input prior to an album’s release, these days. Unless you’re strictly a chart singles band with a formula to follow.
Labels now tend to get presented with an album by an artist/band and they either release it or they don’t.
Can we claim the HJHs as inventors of the ‘Disney’ moment as well?
Thinking of the end of Strawberry Fields, Magical Mystery Tour