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Genesis - A Winter's Tale / One-Eyed Hound CD (album) cover

A WINTER'S TALE / ONE-EYED HOUND

Genesis

Symphonic Prog


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Guillermo
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars This is Genesis`second single for Decca Records, released in May 1968. Both songs of this single were also released by Decca for the first time in an L.P. called "Rock Roots: Genesis", in May 1976, in the same Mono versions as when they were released in the single format.

"A Winter`s Tale" is a vey good song, another love song composed by teenagers. Peter Gabriel sings with feeling, while Tony Banks plays the piano. The song also has acoustic guitars, bass and drums, plus an organ part played more in the background. The backing vocals are also good.

"One-Eyed Hound" is "a more conventional Rock song", with somewhat weird lyrics This song also has electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, piano, organ and backing vocals.

This single also wasn`t successful, and I also think that with adecuate promotion by Decca and their producer, this single could have been successful, as both singles doesn`t sound very far from the Pop Rock style that other English bands of those years played.

It seems that this single was the last contribution of drummer Chris Stewart for Genesis. He left the band to continue his school education, or maybe he was fired. I think that he was a good drummer for the band then.

Report this review (#74079)
Posted Tuesday, April 4, 2006 | Review Permalink
2 stars Every bit as hard to find as the other Decca single and just as unnecessary to own. You can find this mix on various versions of from genesis to revelation. Rare because of poor sales , like so many rare records this is hardly a surprise. This single is certainly pop and "The Silent sun" meant to sound a little like the bee gees. If the lads here had not gone on to become a major force in progressive music nobody would now remember these singles. As it is the songs on this disc are OK, "one eyed hound" is a bit of a rocker even. For almost all collectors you will have to make do with the reissued genesis to revelation, as this record is almost impossible to find now.
Report this review (#92251)
Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2006 | Review Permalink
Finnforest
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars A definite improvement over the "Silent Sun" single but still not as good as the best tracks from the debut. "A Winter's Tale" is easily the better track. Beginning and closing with piano there is a rather odd sounding organ holding the background throughout. Two part vocals and reasonably good (though still pretty amateur) song development in this song that reminds me a bit of early Badfinger's "Carry On till Tomorrow," at least in the quieter sections. There is a subdued section and a swelling heartfelt louder one which alternate back and forth. The flip side "One Eyed Hound" opens with a cool lead riff with acoustic backing and some saturated bass. There are some heavy effects on the chorus vocals too as Pete wails about the hound. Still forgettable but a hair better than the other single, so we'll round this up to 2 stars. Not recommended unless you can hear it on the reissue CD for the first album.
Report this review (#261807)
Posted Wednesday, January 20, 2010 | Review Permalink
Einsetumadur
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars I don't own this single, but I want to write about this two songs since they aren't really part of the From Genesis to Revelation album, although of course I know the two tracks from one of many From Genesis To Revelation reissues. Ithink they are worth talking about, given that they are easily the better ones of Genesis's early career.

A Winter's Tale is quite a decent piece of music, a sympathetic piano ballad which (despite its amateurish nature, especially the drum work which is authentically school-band-like) creates a wonderful melancholic mood. For example there are cozy organ backings in the first stanza sounding quite like a church organ and Peter Gabriel uses his unique voice to great effect. But the most interesting thing is the bombastic chorus where the Farfisa/Vox/or-whatever organ and the solid backing vocals create quite a wall of sound which would sound quite impressive with an adequate production. A nice piano interlude repeats the melody of the chorus afterwards and hints at Tony Banks's talent of working with musical themes. The last chorus is also worth listening to as Peter Gabriel (contrary to the rest of the early Genesis pieces) sings quite expressively with this baaing vocal style for which he should later be famous for. I don't know who wrote the lyrics for this piece, but lines like 'the winter's bitterness begins, it's the fireside warmth that comforts me' are some kind of tasty and well-done in my book.

One-Eyed Hound is totally a predecessor to Harold the Barrel, albeit by far simpler and constructed as a softer pendant to the Rolling Stones or the Beatles. In fact, the stanzas are actually quite uninteresting whilst in special the This man committed a sin backing vocals annoy me heavily. But I must admit that the catchy riff and the rocking, nearly Kinks-like chorus are very pleasant. A thing which should be written about is the guitar work here that is a bit rough, but nonetheless inventive and playful; listen to the country lick in 1:45 or the strange, muffled sound in the beginning combined with the acoustic guitar: Anthony Phillips should later be the master of strange guitar sounds, for example his typical guitar (Stagnation or Which Way the Wind Blows) of which I still don't know if it is electrically or acoustically recorded. And there's this cozy organ around 2:10 which has the total charming school band feeling.

Not more than two stars for this record. The music is still well-behaved, but it points into the direction the band already went in late 1969 with the Jackson Tapes. Only recommendable for those who want to recapitulate the history of the band, and for those who like amateur 1960s pop music with an eccentric twist.

Report this review (#277063)
Posted Friday, April 9, 2010 | Review Permalink
Tarcisio Moura
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Genesis second single released in 1968 was another flop and is very rare to find. Both songs here were non LP tracks and became collectors items for some time (they soon would become available as bonus tracks in just about every reissue of their debut, From Genesis To Revelation). It shows the group was evolving fast, since its superior to their debut: although Winter´s Tale is very much a pop song it is far more elaborated than The Silent Sun, with Tony Banks piano and organ leading the track. The backing vocals are good, although they still have that amateurism of the youth. Production could be a lot better, but I guess it was ok for the time.

The b side is more interesting, although that stylistic it is pretty much the typical middle tempo rocker of the period. There are some great guitar lines by Anthony Phillips, both acoustic and electric. The lyrics show that Genesis was not really the pop writers of the day. Again those backing vocals appear and they would not be used that much from now on. As the previous single, it was not something to write home about it, but showed great promise that, as we all know, was more than fulfilled. It would be long way.

Those early singles are just that: collectors items, since all the tracks can be easily found on the new editions of From Genesis To Revelation. But I found very interesting to observe them at this stage of their career, when they were not much more than students, part time musicians, beginning to get professional. Another nice find.

Report this review (#1527727)
Posted Wednesday, February 10, 2016 | Review Permalink
Matti
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars 20-Year Chronological... pt Six: 1968.

Unlike almost every other 7" single review I've written here, this one's understandably got several reviews already. Encouraged by some airplay on Radio Luxemburg of their debut single Silent Sun / That's Me, the young Charterhouse students under the guidance of producer Jonathan King (who also christened them as Genesis) went on to release this second single in May '68.

'A Winter's Tale' is a good representative of the early GENESIS prior they became the legendary and beloved Symphonic Prog band. The mellow, piano centered parts are slightly syrupy what comes to Peter Gabriel's vocals, while the more powerfully performed chorus parts are actually quite impressive in the emotional sense. Not necessarily as good as the best songs on the album From Genesis to Revelations, but close.

The B sider, a light-hearted little song 'One Eyed Hound', is pretty charming in its own modest way. All in all, it can be said that the extraordinary gift for delicate nuances and dynamics heard in the later prog masterpieces started faintly to exist already on their 60's recordings.

Report this review (#2489098)
Posted Thursday, December 31, 2020 | Review Permalink

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