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1976
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"...Madrigal
Music Is Playing..."
After
the high of 1974's concept double-album "The Lamb Lies Down On
Broadway" and the subsequent departure of Peter Gabriel (such an integral
part of a unique band and their charismatic frontman for five years) – common
consensus held was that Genesis would implode or worse – carry on with a
heart-hearted crew pumping out half-assed material.
The
first album post PG-apocalypse featuring Phil Collins as the band's Lead
Vocalist was February 1976's "A Trick Of The Tail" and it proved the
naysayers wrong. In fact many would say that the following year's "Wind
And Wuthering" in January 1977 followed in October of that year by the
triumphant live double "Seconds Out" hammered shut the cakehole of
that gobby and argumentative git. Genesis had never been so popular or so
commercially successful and did so in the two years where Punk and New Wave
Music seemed to be wiping away all that was perceived as old fart.
So
when it comes to CD reissues of "A Trick Of The Tail" the only real
argument here is about the AUDIO. Is it any good? Or to be exact (after the
crap we’ve had for years) - is it any better? Hell YES is the answer here...
Having
been inflicted with what was called a 'Definitive Edition Remaster' in 1994
(themselves replacements for earlier shambolic issues in the Eighties) – fans
held their collective hairpieces when the April 2007 Remasters were released in
SACD form – Remastered by Tape Engineer Supremo TONY COUSINS. But one listen to
this amazing-sounding standard single CD edition (reissued April 2008) and all
those reports and raves about revelatory sound were true. Just taking in
"Entangled" or "Ripples" on this CD is enough to elicit a
little proggy tear from my ageing and weary googly-ganglers.
This
is a gorgeous and amazingly well handled transfer of dense and rich music. And
as the SACD 2-Disc variant from April 2007 (Barcode 094638596424) is now
garnishing extortionate sums since deletion (forty quid and more) – at least
this April 2008 single-disc stripped-down standard-variant reissue with just
the album on it - is available for less than the price of a kebab whilst still
retaining that great TC Remaster. Let’s get to the Squonk and dreams of Mad Man
Moon (that's Genesis-speak for details)...
UK
released April 2008 – "A Trick Of The Tail" by GENESIS on
Virgin/Charisma GENYCD 6 (Barcode 0094639164226) is a straightforward CD
'Standard Edition' transfer of their 1976 album (SACD and Stereo Mixes used
here first issued April 2007) and plays out as follows (51:15 minutes):
1.
Dance On A Volcano [Side 1]
2.
Entangled
3.
Squonk
4.
Mad Man Moon
5.
Robbery, Assault And Battery [Side 2]
6.
Ripples
7.
A Trick Of The Tail
8.
Los Endos
Tracks
1 to 8 are their seventh studio album (eighth overall) "A Trick Of The
Tail" – released February 1976 in the UK on Charisma CDS 4001 and in the
USA on Atco SD 36-129. Produced by DAVID HENTSCHEL and GENESIS – it peaked at
No. 3 and No. 31 in the UK and USA LP charts.
GENESIS
was:
PHIL
COLLINS – Lead and Backing Vocals, Drums and Percussion
STEVE
HACKETT – Electric and Acoustic Guitars
TONY
BANKS – Piano, Synths, Organ, Mellotron, 12-String Acoustic Guitar and Backing
Vocals
MIKE
RUTHERFORD – Bass and 12-String Guitar
The
booklet reproduces the lyrics first aired on the inner gatefold of the 1976
vinyl LP along with Colin Elgie's design and those cartoons that followed each
song. But the big news is the TONY COUSINS Remaster.
When
those beep-beep notes and drums open the band-written "Dance On A
Volcano" and it finally gets into its Prog swing - the power is huge. But
it's not until you get to the gorgeous six and half-minutes of Hackett and
Banks' "Entangled" that you 'feel' the audio change - those acoustic
guitars so clear - Collins and the others singing Lead and Backing Vocals -
children dreaming - the rush and swirl as the melody swoops and soars.
Rutherford and Banks provided "Squonk" - probably the nearest the
album gets to Rock - a swaggering Prog tune with Drums and Cymbals crashing
around your room as the Remaster brings the rhythm section to the fore. Side 1 ends with seven and half minutes of
"Mad Man Moon" - a piano based ballad provided by Tony Banks. Collins
sings about pain with conviction 'oh how I loved you...quite some time ago...I
was the one who decided to go...' and then about a thousand mirages later Banks
brings the Mellotron up with those wall of voices - very Lamb Lies Down On
Broadway meets Selling England By The Pound. The later piano passages and fast
lyric rolls to the end make for a sophisticated but moving listen.
Side
2 opens with "Robbery, Assault and Battery" - a 1975 Collins and
Banks song that lyrically seemed to point the way to his 'Buster' film role
more than a decade later during the height of Collins' solo career. But for me
the album's masterpiece is the beautiful "Ripples" - eight-minutes of
sail-away Genesis gorgeousness. Hell PC even sounds like PG in some verses
while Steve Hackett's delicate twelve-string guitar picking harks back to the
glory of "Horizons" and "Supper’s Ready" on
"Foxtrot". It's a gorgeous melody and the slow to fast
Rutherford/Banks song construction gives it an epic feel - 0whilst still
feeling like an intimate ballad (memories of 'The Grove' in Clontarf when this
song was played during a 'slow set').
The jaunt of the title track (a Tony Banks song) offers a clever change
of pace and mood - magical creatures in the city of gold somewhere up there in
the distance. The album comes to a close with the manic dash of "Los
Endos" - a motorcar-fast Proggy instrumental that always seems to
represent the album on those endless 'Best Of' and 'Anthology' CD sets.
Personally
I think this rather plain looking CD reissue in its dull jewel case loses some
of the original LPs visual impact (time to get one of those Japanese SHM-CD
Mini LP Repros) - but the Audio more than makes up for that. Sail away indeed,
but even after 40+ years those Ripples keep carrying me back...
