Wind & Wuthering (Genesis) | Extended Play Lounge Ep. 68
Added 2024-05-22 00:33:45 +0000 UTCAfter a battle of prog rock heavyweights, Genesis won the day! So, I'm pleased to share my review and full album listen to Wind & Wuthering. It's an ASTOUNDING album. I had heard portions of the album before, but never listened to the whole thing in one sitting. I very much enjoyed it, and I hope you do as well!
Comments
The last great classical progressive rock album in the 70ies. And one of the best of the genre. Later Bands in thr 80'ies and with the re-emergence of the genre in the late 00's. Grew up as a child ca 5ish when my older brother purchased the album with its release. Still gives me shivers and makes my eyes wet. The diversity and sheer quality of all compositions, the crunchyness of Steve, Tony's neo classical compositions, the lows and the highs, Phil's Jazz drumming, the lyrics and the overall sonic coherence. Everything has been put here what progressive rock means.
Frank H
2025-03-11 10:27:41 +0000 UTCOr have Tony react to Doug's first listen of 'One For the Vine' he did with the music score. What fun that would be!
Data Crusher
2024-09-04 15:08:28 +0000 UTCMy words for W&W are "mature" and "sophisticated". Beautiful, polished LP that possesses a lushness not achieved before or since by the band.
Christopher Arters (relative timeworx - Mr.A)
2024-07-31 04:47:27 +0000 UTCAbout One for The Vine and its last line "then, on a distant slope, ..." , for me it was always like a neverending story, a cycle. He finally becomes the leader, and the one he sees on a distant slope is himself, vanishing into air, pop! Parallel worlds, a story that feeds back into itself? No idea, and no, I haven't smoked anything, Sir! :-) :-) Just a bit of McCallan, if I may :-)
Salvador Montoro Goethe
2024-07-15 08:48:21 +0000 UTCAlso on other Genesis Albums that you haven't fully played, forget about Genesis to Revelation, Duke is very good, Trick of the Tail is also very good, Then there were Three a few good tunes on there but forget about Abacaab.
Steve Campbell
2024-06-05 22:46:36 +0000 UTCOne for the Vine just feels to me that it would have fitted so well in to SEBTP
Steve Campbell
2024-06-05 10:47:16 +0000 UTCTrick is a superb album, and should be done, but I have to put in a plea for "And Then There Were Three." It doesn't get as much love as the other Genesis albums do, perhaps, but it was my introduction to the band and is a tour de force of musicianship, songwriting, and creativity from the three who would make up the core of the band for the remainder of its existence. "Deep in the Motherlode," "Down and Out," "Snowbound," "The Lady Lies," and even the two fun songs - "The Ballad of Big" and Little Nemo ("Scenes from a Night's Dream") are all magical and can stand up well to the best of the band, in my book. Don't overlook this gem; it's a rich and rewarding aural experience, and should come after "Trick" if there is any justice in this world! :)
Charles A Herndon
2024-06-03 03:19:13 +0000 UTCRight! The song is less about a God-like megalomaniac as it is a quasi-Twilight Zone lyric; in the beginning, the guy is a deserter who somehow, as he deserts the battle, is transported to another place and time where - due to his sudden appearance - he is welcomed as a savior to the simple folk who are also embroiled in conflict. He's elevated to become their savior - ironic as he's actually a deserter - and called upon to lead "his people" into the same kind of battle he fled from in another life and time and place. The final scene sees him leading his forces into a presumably doomed conflict and seeing another man, one of his soldiers, deserting and fleeing up a mountainside, where he trips, falls, stands up, and - just as he did in another dimension - disappears. The cycle continues.
Charles A Herndon
2024-06-03 02:41:00 +0000 UTCJust re-listened to Trespass (yet again). This album still blows me away, after all these years. Stagnation the best track on the album, but it is ALL bloody good! Doug, I really think you need to check this one out. Forget "From Genesis to Revelation" - that was a Jonathan King effort. "Trespass" was where it started - and how!
Adrian Goodrich
2024-06-01 22:31:09 +0000 UTCTrick Of The Tail and this one are definitely my top genesis albums of all time. Absolute top musicianship, lyrical content. A masterpiece.
Bryan Sheehan
2024-05-26 20:02:46 +0000 UTCYes, Doug- you heard "Visions Of Angels" off "Trespass" on Doug On Demand a few episodes back. Number three, I think. My submission.
Tom (the soggy one)
2024-05-25 02:11:21 +0000 UTCWow. Wow. Just wow. Gonna come clean- this is the first time I've heard this whole album. Please don't revoke my prog card. I've heard bits of all these songs, and never 'got it'. But wow. I was off in another, better world. I know Doug said stuff, no clue what. wow. Did I mention wow?
Tom (the soggy one)
2024-05-25 02:09:40 +0000 UTCHi Robert. I agree that this aesthetic color is very unique (even among all the other Prog. albums). If you haven't heard Doug's take on Jethro Tull's "Minstrel in the Gallery," you might enjoy that as well (I think he's in top form in his analysis there also).
Allen
2024-05-24 23:32:54 +0000 UTCIt seemed to me that there was also a phrase from Ripples quoted in Unquiet Slumbers.
Mark L
2024-05-24 16:49:10 +0000 UTCLoved listening to this along with Doug. It made me think that this (and to some extent Trick of the Tail) is seriously under-rated by early Genesis fans (like me!). It also made me wonder whether there is a parallel with the Beatles' Abbey Road album. That is because it is comfortable and assured much more than the previous albums, and has a relaxed and sunny vibe - ironic as it is at the very end of the existence of the band that made those previous albums! For me, the album draws from all the past albums, and so has a warm nostalgic feeling, even though played on the newer instrument tech of the time. I was lucky enough to go to one of the concerts in the tour for this album - the last tour with Steve Hackett - and I can say that it showed me that this band were on a higher level, they were in the top drawer. Magical! So I have a two-tone feeling about the album. I love where they got to with this, the culmination of so much of the past, but I feel sad that PG isn't there, and that this marks the end of Steve Hackett's input. I think it will always have that emotional resonance, and it permeates every track. And now, I shall go and have a good cry! π€£
Adie
2024-05-23 22:27:30 +0000 UTCSo, this was the album that I bought amongst those in the store racks, of those listed in the poll for this session. It remains my favourite album by the band: so much melodic musicianship and heart-lifting arrangements. As an album's worth of toons it's also a great stage playlist, composed to fill an arena-sized auditorium and carry its audience along to a satisfying conclusion. It's as adept in that as, say, McCartney's 'Live And Let Die' is in selling us a Bond movie.
George Davis-Stewart
2024-05-23 21:50:59 +0000 UTCThis is one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard, AND this is my favorite video since becoming a member!
Robert Thornton
2024-05-23 21:19:29 +0000 UTCThe last truly great Genesis album, imo. Great compositions, production, tones, playing, dynamic shifts. Incredible keyboard tones and guitar tones! (Tony's keyboard tones after this album steadily declined into goof synths, unfortunately.) The way the keys and guitar blend is very effective on all the songs. And how about Phil's singing and drumming? Incredible.
Guitar Channel
2024-05-23 19:35:53 +0000 UTC100% agree. The versions of Afterglow from the β83 tour were insane! And when those lights came out from the dry ice smoke at the end, it looked like the Mothership from Close Encounters.
Steve Hall
2024-05-23 16:57:22 +0000 UTCActually...there may be real opportunity for writing soon...stay tuned :)
R. Douglas Helvering
2024-05-23 15:35:53 +0000 UTCWell, I'll be damned! Maybe Mike remembered how to tune the 12-string!
Bill Brinkmoeller
2024-05-23 06:19:46 +0000 UTC"Your Own Special Way" did get played on one tour - the Australian leg of the Invisible Touch tour (with a string section). The Archive 2 1976-92 box set has a performance of it from Sydney.
Russell Maddox
2024-05-23 03:49:11 +0000 UTCThe only thing is...it wasn't what made Genesis great. What made Genesis great was their ability to incorporate progressive rock and their genius in creating magical moments in music. As they moved away from their sound and became mainstream...they should have just been named Revelation...like what their first album title suggested anyway...
Rebecca Walsh
2024-05-23 02:53:24 +0000 UTCSitting in the back row of 10th grade English class with my proggy friends. We all let out a cheer as we read that last line of Wuthering Heights.
Steve Hall
2024-05-23 02:16:32 +0000 UTC...And Then There Were Three...is the most underrated Genesis masterpiece album in my opinion. It's the album where they cracked the code of what Genesis with Phil at the helm could be.
B.K. Pagels
2024-05-23 01:08:21 +0000 UTCThe chords / harmonies on this record are so lush and romantic and strange!
Gary Thobaben
2024-05-22 22:27:43 +0000 UTCA note on "Afterglow": In a DVD interview (the remastered Genesis), Banks mentions the kernel of the lyrics as imagining a lone survivor of a global catastrophe (nuclear or something) contemplating his existence after everything was lost. . .
Allen
2024-05-22 21:23:36 +0000 UTCI have this album in my collection and it is one Genesis better albums. I do think that this a Tony Banks album and that Steve Hackett could see the writing on the wall for him as the group began to slowly move away from prog and the need to incorporate Hackett's classical training. A lot of these songs you can hear the difficulty that Collins had trying to carry his voice over all the instruments and the progressive nature/style of this genre. It is no surprise then that Collins' voice stood out more with pieces that lend him opportunity to project his vocal register like 'Afterglow', 'Blood on the Rooftops', 'One for the Vine' and 'Your own special way''. I feel like "Wind and Weathering' is the LAST of the CLASSICAL GENISIS ERA...and, so it does have a special place in my heart.
Rebecca Walsh
2024-05-22 12:50:35 +0000 UTCPlease do Trick next.
TamΓ‘s PolyΓ‘k
2024-05-22 08:47:13 +0000 UTCWot Gorilla is not Steve's favourite, because he petitioned his own song, Please Don't Touch but the band vetoed it. Please Don't Touch became the title track for his second solo album after he left the band.
TamΓ‘s PolyΓ‘k
2024-05-22 08:19:57 +0000 UTCSO looking forward to watching this one!
Ruth James
2024-05-22 07:02:01 +0000 UTCWhat a blast! Thank you, Doug! I was surprised that you didn't pick up on the recurring motifs in this album. That opening melodic figure from "Eleventh Earl of Mar" shows up again in "...In that Quiet Earth", and part of the instrumental portion of "One for the Vine" is the basis for "Wot Gorilla?" That's why the writing credit is Collins/Banks--Phil took a melody of Tony's and turbo-charged it. This is done to even greater effect in "Los Endos" on the Trick of the Tail album. (There's also a little snatch of the melody from "Squonk" from Trick of the Tail quoted in "...In that Quiet Earth", too, but that's getting ahead/behind a bit.) Something I found out about "Your Own Special Way" is that Mike Rutherford plays 12-string guitar on it, but that instead of tuning his lower strings in octaves, as is standard 12-string practice, he tuned them to different intervals. This is why the chords being played aren't readily identifiable, even to you. It's also why the song was never played live. Mike couldn't remember how he re-tuned the 12-string! With "All in a Mouse's Night", yes, it may be based on a Tom & Jerry cartoon, but you missed something. At the start, there's a (human) couple who are just wanting to snuggle together on a cold, rainy night. Their reverie is disturbed by the mouse, and while the guy goes to get a box to trap it in, Jerry makes his escape from the bedroom. Thinking he doesn't have a care in the world, he sets off for the bread drawer ("That would be nice"), but bumps into Tom the cat. Just as Tom lunges for him, he tips over a jar and it hits him on the head and knocks him out cold. Later, trying to save face with his cat friends, Tom concocts a story about how a huge "monster mouse" puts him away with only one blow. I play along with "Mouse's Night" frequently when I'm practicing my drums. It's so damn much fun to play! Doug, this was more fun than ought to be legal! My favorite moment was during "Blood on the Rooftops" when Hackett went to a chord you (obviously) weren't expecting at all. You gave us that slightly askance look that you do when you're caught off guard, and then you quietly said "Cool." I wanted to hug you!
Bill Brinkmoeller
2024-05-22 06:54:17 +0000 UTC"Afterglow" is my fave from this album, although the live version from "Seconds Out" is even more impressive. The Mellotrons and bass vibrate so hard live. I second "Trick of the Tail" for the next listen!!
Joan Bounacos
2024-05-22 03:36:11 +0000 UTCYes this needs to be next!
Gary Thobaben
2024-05-22 03:22:29 +0000 UTCThis was the album in which I thought all of their talents coalesced in a stunning manner. Banks' keyboard orchestration and composition talents are breathtaking. The 12- and 6-string rhythm work in the background on many tunes churns, chimes, and swirls in support. Rutherford's bass work is muscular and driving. Hackett's guitar work is both Fripperly atmospheric and grounded in classical technique, and his composition work (i.e.'Blood') is a pinnacle piece. Phil gets to put his fusion chops on display, and his vocals are crystal. It's the perfect album from them. And yeah, the bass pedals are way up in the mix. Nice job on letting us see your enjoyment of discovery of this great work Doug, as well as the bits of analysis. (See ? This is the type of stuff you could be writing in a progressive rock format. ;) )
Peter Tutak
2024-05-22 02:40:23 +0000 UTCDo Trespass! I think you will be blown away, not least because of just how young they were when they wrote it. Pre-Collins and Hackett. Such an under-rated album. Stagnation is just superb - it really set the scene for all that was to come. And The Knife was a very young Tony wanting to write a song in the style of Keith Emerson and The Nice - hence the play-on-words title.
Adrian Goodrich
2024-05-22 02:39:53 +0000 UTCI LOVE this album so much , to me it's the perfect blend of Pop music sounds and Prog (interesting chords , structures and virtuosistic playing) , they really found the sweet-spot with each and every song. The first two songs are phenomenal , Blood on the rooftops sends chills down my spine every time and the "Unquiet Slumbers" medley it's one of the most energetic and uplifting guitar works I've ever heard. Just by looking at the album cover you are completely absorbed into it, extremely evocative music and sounds. A very sadly underrated album yet such a glorious farewell by mr. Steve Hackett to Genesis. Loved the album and loved the reaction Doug , Genesis were just on another level.
Hetfield Ninno Davide
2024-05-22 02:31:40 +0000 UTCI always prefer the live versions of Afterglow in the 80s, after In The Cage and the ensuing Medley. Has Doug heard any of those? My favorite is the one from "The Mama Tour"
MikeCarr
2024-05-22 02:22:22 +0000 UTCFrom what I can hear, I assume this is the 2007 stereo remix? The dynamics sound a little squashed. Listen to Eleventh Earl of Mar on your vinyl, Doug! The dynamics on the OG recording are way more akin to classical music than rock music.
Gary Thobaben
2024-05-22 02:12:22 +0000 UTCMy fav Genesis record. As a 9th grader who grew up with grunge and alternative rock (which I still love), the crescendo on Eleventh Earl of Mar was something I had never heard in rock music and it changed the trajectory of my life.
Gary Thobaben
2024-05-22 02:07:17 +0000 UTCOne for the Vine...the guy ends up becoming just like the supposed megalomaniac leader he originally lost faith in and fled from. And comes to understand why that previous leader, like him now, had no choice. In the last verse, he sees a follower lose faith and flee (back up the mountainside and vanish), just as he himself did at the start of the song. Brilliant lyrics!
Adrian Goodrich
2024-05-22 02:01:46 +0000 UTCBury your memories, bury your friends; leave it alone for a year or two. Till the stories grow hazy, and the legends come true. Then do it again; some things never end. Do lyrics come any better? I LOVE Eleventh Earl. And seeing Steve Hackett's band play it live in Sheffield a few years ago was just wonderful.
Adrian Goodrich
2024-05-22 01:46:51 +0000 UTCDoug, you should try to get an interview with Tony Banks. I heard Tony doing an interview with a podcast channel that had MUCH less viewers than you, so you have a very good chance of making it happen. Especially with your background in music and composition, he would be more interested in chatting with you compared to other channels. (can't hurt to try) Maybe you can bring up specific parts of old Genesis songs, and ask his thought process behind the composition, or maybe you can review one of his classical albums together (???). Just some thoughts...but I'd LOVE to see that!
MikeCarr
2024-05-22 01:42:30 +0000 UTCNot much to say except I have personally enjoyed this album for many years (one of my favorites) and am thrilled to see you enjoying this. Make sure to do "Trick Of The Tail"!! It's a great companion album to WAW. Cheers!
Ford H. Cotton III
2024-05-22 01:22:52 +0000 UTCGenesis' last prog album.
MikeCarr
2024-05-22 00:57:58 +0000 UTCThanks to the Counsel for voting for this gem. To me this marks the turning point of the Genesis story. Some have called it a bit dark and moody. I see as a transition period. I would have loved to have "Please Don't Touch" rather than "Wot Gorilla" if there was a choice in the matter. I love One for the Vine, Your Own Special Way, and Afterglow. These are the masterpieces from the album for me.
Sid Levy
2024-05-22 00:47:24 +0000 UTCCongrats ! Dr. D is on his way to graduate as Dr. G
Ricardo Hector Jimenez Valdes
2024-05-22 00:42:21 +0000 UTC
