Tabletop Genesis DO remember (and DO recall) Peter Gabriel’s third album as they take their first venture into a band member’s solo album. The group attempts to lead a normal discussion that includes everything from assassinations and kissing baboons to why she’s so funky (yeah!).
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Loved the longer-than-usual 2 hour discussion, and how you were able to get into much more detail (like discussing live performances of the tracks).
Thanks to all of you.
Thanks! We are trying to hold to at least a once-a-month release (coordinating the schedules of the five of us isn’t easy!), so we thank everyone for their patience since it had been a while since the last podcast. But we’ve got a good schedule lined up for recording/releasing for the next several months, so fingers crossed! (Plus a special podcast lined up for Feb!)
Just a note on Family Snapshot. Back in – I think the late 80s, BBC Radio 1 invited some musicians to host a daytime show. The Pet Shop Boys did a week, as did Joe Elliot from Def Leppard. Phil Collins also did a week, and at one point played this track, and said something along the lines of “this is a song that a lot of people – particularly at the record company didn’t want released, because it’s about The Kennedy Assassination” (I’m paraphrasing because it’s been about 25 years).
Now I’m not saying that we should take everything Phil says as gospel (he always maintains The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is “all about the split personality”), but, seeing as he worked on the album it’s a good bet he got that from Gabriel himself.
But then again, who knows how good Phil’s memory is?
Anyhoo great show!
Thanks, Simon! I did a little searching, and found this on Wikipedia, which supports the theory that the song does reference the Kennedy assassination in part:
“To clear up some confusion over whether this song is about the assassination of Wallace or Kennedy, Gabriel stated in the introduction to the song during his concert at the Paramount Theatre, Seattle, 10 August 1983, that the song is “partly taken from the writings of Arthur Bremer and The Diary of an Assassin and mixed with a few images of Dallas twenty years ago.'”
Funny how when he said that in ’83 the assassination WAS only 20 years prior – that’s nothing. Seems like a lifetime now.
Re Joe Elliott doing a series of shows on Radio 1 — I remember this too (and think it was more likely to be early 90s than late 80s), but this is the *only* reference I can find about it online. Does anyone have more information?
Love the longer session. Gives each of you time to expand, and we want to hear your thoughts!
In the spirit of “Phil Collins can do no wrong,” check out his drum fill out of the bridge at the 2:02 mark of “No Self Control.” Amazingly perfect.
Re: “Family Snapshot,” I’m glad Peter said parts of it were from the Wallace shooting, but his attack was a handgun at point blank, and not a rifle shooting into a cavalcade, as the song describes. Seems like a morph from Peter’s beautiful creative mind.
Please keep up the great work. Can’t wait for the next episode.
Thanks! I think at first we were a little concerned about time, trying to keep them to around 90 minutes, but we’ve let that go and will just let the conversation dictate the time. 🙂
Love that killer drum fill at 2:02 – and the animal-like growl/roar at 1:46ish.
As part of our next recordings, we’re going back to the Genesis catalog with “And Then There Were Three.” There’s a poll on the homepage of the site now if you want to vote for your favorite song! 🙂
I agree with Simon that this is where PG found his sound. PG1 was a breakaway and PG2 a transition but this album was him getting it all together. It was of course delayed. I went to the gig in 1980 and the LP hadn’t been released. All new. The band came on by walking through the audience wearing boiler suits and shining torches (that’s flashlights to the USAians). I think the opening song was Intruder. Biko was stunning. The only other thing which I remember was the encore, the house lights came on and PG came on stage and sang Here Comes The Flood by himself playing piano. I still have the badge and programme from that concert. It was called Gabriel China 1984 for some reason.
When the album came out I was so excited. The sound, the strange themes. A total blockbuster.
I was surprised that you lot didn’t know that Family Snapshot was about JFK. I loved the chat about Jeux Sans Frontiers, I was in the “She’s So Funky Yeah” camp. Even now I can’t get away from that.
Recently I bought the new remastered LP on heavy vinyl. It is remarkably good. I recommend it to all of you who have a decent turntable setup.. Even the original pressing was better than the later CD release, the new one is even better. Of course it hasn’t suffered 47 years of use.
Let me get this straight. You’ve reviewed a number of the solo albums including ” Face Value”, yet you haven’t discussed the Lamb ( as far as I can tell). The podcast is called ” Tabletop GENESIS” , you know? Other than that keep up the good work.
You’ve got it straight, Ted. 😉 We figured if we did all the Genesis albums first, the podcast would be over by now, so we wanted to throw some non-album podcasts in there. Plus, it breaks it up for us, gives us something other than a G-album to talk about, and we get to discuss how Genesis might have influenced some of the solo pieces, and vice versa. But our next release will be Calling All Stations (to coincide with the 20th anniversary), and we’ve already recorded Selling England. That leaves FGTR, the Lamb (which will be a 2-part episode), and Trick. So lots of good stuff coming. 🙂