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SteveG
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Topic: Duke: Genesis Posted: October 24 2014 at 16:22 |
An AOR album to me. The proggier parts sound forced. Not quite pure pop yet, but not satisfying either. What's your opinion of Duke?
Edited by SteveG - October 25 2014 at 11:15
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HolyMoly
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Posted: October 24 2014 at 16:45 |
Similar to my feeling about the prior album. The songs I love, I really love, and the songs I don't, I almost always skip. Most of them are good to great, though.
Turn it on Again is a brilliant complex pop song. I tried learning it on guitar and couldn't get the chords right. Not that I'm any guitar pro, but still, pretty unusual chords for such a song. It must have been written on piano.
Behind the Lines, especially the first instrumental half of it, is such a great opener too. I've seen concerts where they open with that song too, and it's great in that setting as well.
Songs I skip: Heathaze, Alone Tonight, Cul de Sac, and sometimes Please Don't Ask. the rest are awesome.
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Chris S
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Posted: October 24 2014 at 19:22 |
Yet another Genesis classic...what an album, great wall of sound with some brilliant Genesis pop too. Yes they still had another few years of consistent output.....Star tracks - Duchess, Behind The Lines, Heathaze +++
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Catcher10
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Posted: October 24 2014 at 20:54 |
Its got some great songs, complex and some simple pop songs....but I don't care, its Genesis and they are brilliant!
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The Dark Elf
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Posted: October 24 2014 at 21:00 |
Meh.
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Slartibartfast
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Posted: October 24 2014 at 21:02 |
I absolutely, positively hated Misunderstanding, it really was some kind of mistake. I always felt that if you slapped the proggier bits together as one log track and put they poppier stuff together it would have made for a better album. But it is what is. I have a copy of the LP that was autographed at this long defunct chain record store in Atlanta called Turtles. Saw them live of course.
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richardh
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Posted: October 25 2014 at 02:26 |
I made the comment about ATTWT that it didn't 'fly'. Duke does especially on Duke Travels and Behind The Lines. This is real full on prog nothing AOR about it imo. I also like Misunderstanding as much as I like Your Own Special Way , Many To Many and That's All. Genesis could write very nice romantic songs and I have no problem with that. Duke also has one of Genesis most underrated songs thats hardly ever talked about Man Of Our Times. My only issue with Duke is that it seems to fall into a hole with a few tracks on side two like Please Dont Ask that would have been better placed on a Phil Collins solo album and doesn't feel like proper Genesis to me but nevertheless this is the last Genesis album I can take seriously before they deliberately changed direction and embraced a post seventies approach.
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Blacksword
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Posted: October 25 2014 at 03:03 |
Very good album. Some very high points, Dukes Travels etc, and some desperately low points: Misunderstanding, Please don't ask. Misunderstanding is among the worst songs they wever wrote. It's boring, listless, unimaginative, dull, insipid, uninspired and weak sounding. No wonder it was such a big (s)hit...
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lazland
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Posted: October 25 2014 at 05:17 |
One of the finest albums ever recorded, an absolute classic.
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Moogtron III
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Posted: October 25 2014 at 15:59 |
I love Behind The Lines, Duchess, Guide Vocal, Heathaze, Please Don't Ask, Duke's Travels and Duke's End I like Heathaze, Man Of Our Times and Misunderstanding I think Cul De Sac is okay Not too keen on Turn It On Again
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fudgenuts64
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Posted: October 26 2014 at 03:15 |
A bit patchy in places... definitely not AOR (Genesis mostly never treaded there, even in the 80s) but the Banks compositions save it for me. All the tracks are good barring Please Don't Ask and Alone Tonight. Please Don't Ask isn't a bad song... but just doesn't sound much like Genesis. Alone Tonight is such a weak song by Mike, after three wonderful love ballads on the previous albums. Duke Suite doesn't do much for me... used to love it.
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TODDLER
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Posted: October 26 2014 at 11:27 |
This album upon the first week of it's release...totally disappointed my life as a musician who took music very seriously. It was actually a very wholesome commercial effort and "I mean that!" Genesis were writing Pop songs and I believe they were interesting enough to add in progressive hooks/signature lines within those Pop songs...without taking away from the commercial sound. You've got to give them credit for that, because it is not easy my friends to write a Pop song and create all the right trimmings.
The year the album was released, one crowd of people utterly hated the existence of it and did nothing but laugh at it. The other crowd appreciated it. This was crazy to live through. Genesis were huge and influential to all the brilliant musicians I traveled the road with for years and so they just raised hell over Duke as if it were something to take away from their talent. They took it personally like a knife in the back. The personal insight I'm giving here reflects the attitude of the current mix of people who are Genesis fans. At the Genesis show in Philadelphia, (perhaps 5 years ago?), The older crowd would head for the door when Genesis played the 80's material. They would stand outside and smoke cigars, cigs/ and whatever else. Then when Genesis played the older material, the 80's fans got bored and proceeded to do the same thing...they went outside to relieve themselves of musical torture. These 2 extreme groups of fans developed their dislike for each others personal vision of Genesis around the time Duke was released.
It wasn't as if Genesis were totally cheesy? I remember decent guitarists struggling with the center instrumental bit in "Abacab"..so they would come to me and ask if I'd quickly learn it and teach them. I couldn't help myself because I was dragged down by extensive road travel , so I asked: "If this music is commercial garbage that has no value, then why do you find it challenging to play?" Both of these Genesis crowds were borderline insanity and very extreme reactions to a band whose decisions they could do nothing about. Duke started a war.
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SteveG
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Posted: October 26 2014 at 12:41 |
FYI: I heard songs from this album sandwiched between Styx and Boston songs on the radio and nothing sounded out of the ordinary to me. Now that's AOR!!
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TODDLER
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Posted: October 26 2014 at 13:23 |
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SteveG
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Posted: October 26 2014 at 13:26 |
^I agree Todd. Banks is an excellent keyboardist but so is Geoff Downs. Does this scenario sound familiar?
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TODDLER
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Posted: October 26 2014 at 13:27 |
SteveG wrote:
^I agree Todd. Banks is an excellent keyboardist but so is Geoff Downs. Does this scenario sound familiar?
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Very.
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dr wu23
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Posted: October 27 2014 at 09:10 |
SteveG wrote:
An AOR album to me. The proggier parts sound forced. Not quite pure pop yet, but not satisfying either. What's your opinion of Duke?
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That about sums it up for me and I don't play anything after Wind these days. I do hear the pop hits from the later albums on the radio and that suffices.
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someone_else
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Posted: October 27 2014 at 10:20 |
I think it's their best album after the Hackett era.
Best tracks: Duke's Travels/Duke's End, Duchess, Cul de Sac, Guide Vocal. Lowpoint: Misunderstanding.
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bhikkhu
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Posted: October 27 2014 at 14:19 |
This was the first Genesis album I bought right when it was released ("Wind and Wuthering" made it to our house as a new release but it was my sister's purchase). I absolutely loved it at the time and affection remained for many years. The bloom fell of off the rose a bit about a decade ago, when I started to really dig into prog again. It still holds a special place in my heart but honestly I rarely play it.
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HolyMoly
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Posted: October 27 2014 at 14:27 |
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