For reasons that now seem ridiculous, I had never listened to early Genesis beyond a few cursory attempts. The idea of really delving into the Peter Gabriel records sometimes stuck to the back of my mind though. The evening of December 29, 2008, one friend mentions that The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is perhaps his favorite record. I begin downloading some of the 2007 re-mixed re-mastered versions that made up the 1970-1975 box, and from another friend borrow copies of the 1990's re-mastered versions of Nursey Cryme, Foxtrot, and Live. It begins...
The Lamb definitely stands above the rest. I also love the vague sociopolitical sentiment of "Time Table" on Foxtrot.
A curious thing happens. Born in 1979, regularly watching M T V from [I'm guessing] 1985 well into the 1990's, I heard a lot of Phil Collins Genesis, and a lot of Phil Collins Phil Collins (thankfully, the only kind). Tracks from No Jacket Required, Invisible Touch, and other albums oft subject to the cruelest ridicule pop into my head. I can't get them out. I must satiate the desire. I listen to my dad's copy of Face Value on vinyl, obviously loving "In the Air Tonight" played on a high-end stereo system. I dig through cassettes that my brother and I had bought as kids - She's So Unusual, Ride the Lightning, the usual - and find Hello, I Must Be Going and No Jacket Required, Genesis and Invisible Touch. Love it.
Then, I learn from a review by Erik Davis that "In the Shade of Earth," from The Blithe Sons's The Great Orthochromatic Wheel, quotes/covers "Looking for Someone," from Genesis's Trespass. And so we have a lovely coincidence tying a good chunk of this month's listening together.
About the Listening Log:
If I re-listen to the album or parts of the album on the same day, I don't list it again. Sometimes, usually when I'm listening to a C D on my car stereo, I finish a record the day after it's listed. I'm not including anything I hear on the radio, and I hardly listen to the radio anyway, except to flip quickly through the stations (or the static). I will discuss the shows I attended elsewhere on this blog. The Log encourages me to listen to the entire album, but I've strived to do so for several years now, to avoid the emphasis on the single track prevalent in these times.
1/1:
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (disc 1);
Keiji Haino - Uchi Ni Karami Tsuite Iru Waga Itami;
The No-Neck Blues Band Meets the Clear People with Mystery Gypped: Live at Ken's Electric Lake (disc 1);
Alice Coltrane - Ptah, The El Daoud;
The No-Neck Blues Band - Parallel Easters (disc 1);
The Blithe Sons - The Great Orthochromatic Wheel.
1/2:
The No-Neck Blues Band Meets the Clear People with Mystery Gypped: Live at Ken's Electric Lake (disc 2);
Stevie Wonder - Talking Book;
The No-Neck Blues Band - Parallel Easters (disc 2);
David S Ware - Go See the World (tracks 1-3);
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (disc 1).
1/3:
The No-Neck Blues Band Meets the Clear People with Mystery Gypped: Live at Ken's Electric Lake (disc 2);
Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Continued (disc 1);
Sun City Girls - Singles Volume 1;
David S Ware - Go See the World (track 4);
Supersilent - 6.
1/4:
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (disc 1);
Genesis - Nursery Cryme;
Genesis - Foxtrot;
Talking Heads - Fear of Music;
Annette Krebs - Guitar Solo (tracks 1-3).
1/5:
The Blithe Sons - The Great Orthochromatic Wheel;
Genesis - Foxtrot;
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill.
1/6:
New Phonic Art (track 1);
Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound Ensemble - 3 X 4 Eye;
David S Ware - Go See the World (tracks 1-3);
Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection.
1/7:
Derek Bailey and Keiji Haino - Drawing Close, Attuning - The Receptive Signs of Ordered Chaos;
Genesis - Invisible Touch;
The Jewelled Antler Library (disc 1);
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill.
1/8:
Genesis - Invisible Touch;
The Jewelled Antler Library (disc 1);
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions.
1/9:
Genesis - Invisible Touch;
Skullflower - IIIrd Gatekeeper;
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life (disc 1).
1/10:
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life (discs 1 and 2, incl. A Something's Extra Bonus);
Anthony Braxton - Trio (Victoriaville) 2005;
Shelley Hirsch - O Little Town of East New York;
Genesis - Invisible Touch.
1/11:
Genesis;
Phil Collins - Face Value;
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required (tracks 1-5);
Roxy Music - Stranded;
The Jewelled Antler Library (disc 2);
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Spiral/Wach/Japan/Pole (disc 1, tracks 1 and 2);
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (disc 1).
1/12:
The Jewelled Antler Library (disc 2, tracks 1-4);
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath;
Black Sabbath;
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (disc 2);
ABBA - The Album.
1/13:
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Spiral/Wach/Japan/Pole (disc 1, tracks 2 and 3);
Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (disc 1);
Genesis.
1/14:
Fushitsusha - Allegorical Misunderstanding;
Black Sabbath;
Black Sabbath - Paranoid.
1/15:
Gas;
Panda Bear - Person Pitch;
Don Cherry - Relativity Suite;
Frank Lowe - Fresh;
Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat (C D version, disc 1);
Eric Dolphy - Far Cry;
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life (disc 1).
1/16:
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam;
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion;
Horace Silver - Silver's Blue;
ABBA - Arrival.
1/17:
Lou Reed - Berlin;
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion;
The Blithe Sons - The Great Orthochromatic Wheel.
1/18:
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill;
Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (disc 1);
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kurzwellen [L P version] (disc 2, track 1);
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion.
1/19:
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion;
Thuja - Hills;
Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (disc 2);
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Hymnen [L P version] (disc 2, track 1);
The Skygreen Leopards - One Thousand Bird Ceremony.
1/20:
Joe Harriott - Free Form;
Fennesz - Black Sea;
Genesis - Nursery Cryme;
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kurzwellen [L P version] (disc 1, track 1).
1/21:
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kurzwellen [L P version] (disc 1);
Genesis - Invisible Touch;
Jane - Coconuts (track 1);
Skullflower - IIIrd Gatekeeper;
Charlie Parker - The Legendary Dial Masters (disc 2);
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound;
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (tracks 1-4).
1/22:
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Hymnen [L P version] (disc 1, track 1);
Thuja - All Strange Beasts of the Past.
1/23:
The Music Tapes - Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes;
Evan Parker, Paul Bley, Barre Phillips - Santk Gerold (tracks 1-2).
1/24:
Alèmu Aga - Éthiopiques-11: The Harp of King David;
Evan Parker, Paul Bley, Barre Phillips - Santk Gerold;
Peter Kowald - Was Da Ist;
Alex von Schlippenbach - Pakistani Pomade;
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (tracks 1-6).
Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won (disc 1, tracks 1-4).
1/25:
The Blithe Sons - The Great Orthochromatic Wheel (tracks 1-2);
Hamid Drake and Paolo Angeli - Uotha;
Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won (disc 1, tracks 5-10).
1/26:
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion;
The Ivytree - Winged Leaves;
The Blithe Sons - The Great Orthochromatic Wheel;
Thuja - Pine Cone Temples (disc 2);
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (disc 1, tracks 1-5);
1/27:
Improvised Music From Japan (disc 1);
Thuja - Pine Cone Temples (disc 1);
Sun Ra - Calling Planet Earth (disc 3);
Hamid Drake and Paolo Angeli - Uotha;
Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won (disc 2).
1/28:
Philip Corner - On Tape: From the Judson Years (tracks 1-4);
Arnold Dreyblatt - Nodal Excitation;
Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball;
Genesis - Trespass.
1/29:
Naked City - Absinthe;
Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet.
1/30:
Animal Collective - Feels;
Jane - Coconuts (track 2);
Naked City - Radio;
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required.
1/31:
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required (tracks 6-11);
Blaise Siwula and Ge-Suk Yeo - Orange Bird and Pink Bat - Segue;
Eric Dolphy - Conversations;
Killick - Jumping Frenchmen of Maine;
Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (disc 2);
Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet;
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion;
Phil Collins - Face Value (tracks 1-6);
Musica Elettronica Viva - M E V 40 (1967-2007) (disc 1, track 1);
Omar Souleyman - Highway to Hassake (Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria).
