Oh, I also think A Collection was better than most of what made the album. Also, Sympathy (both versions) is nice, but I much prefer the original Rare Bird version.
Oh, I also think A Collection was better than most of what made the album. Also, Sympathy (both versions) is nice, but I much prefer the original Rare Bird version.
Agree with this - always loved that song.Originally Posted by Howler Monkey
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
When the album first came out I was disapointed with it, but over the years it has aged quite well and grown on me. I don't think it is their best, but I like it a lot.
Steve Sly
I just got Season's End after all of these years and did get Holidays when it first came out. I prefer Season's End.
I absolutely DESPISED this album when it first came out...although like someone mentioned, there are indeed a few great songs thrown in with a bunch of absolutely mediocre to bad songs. When the remasters came out with the extra disc, I was absolutely captivated by that second disc and the nacent forms of several songs along with some cool prog jams. I was then able to go back to the first disc (the remastered album)... SURPRISE! Suddenly it clicked! That's just the way it is with Marillion sometimes...So these days, I like the album. It's not one of their best, but not worst either. I'd put it squarely in the middle of the pack
"So...you seek understanding. Then listen to the music and not the song..." - Kosh
This happens to me with Marillion more than any other artist.SURPRISE! Suddenly it clicked! That's just the way it is with Marillion sometimes...
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Not a fan of the Fish era?
Yeh that's the problem, a love affair with the Fish era. I did see Hogarth front the band because Fish didn't want to tour. Hogarth looked like Peter Gabriel then, and was much more dramatic than PG. No costume needed.
I was speaking to Howler Monkey(A and B conversation). Btw, Fish and Marillion split up due to personal conflicts. Had nothing to do with touring.
Waiting to Happen is one of the few Marillion songs my wife ever liked.
Huh?
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
My thoughts exactly, Scott.
My wife and I used it as our first dance at our wedding. It will always have a special place with me.
Steve Sly
Fish explained his reasons for leaving in an interview in 2003:
"By 1987 we were over-playing live because the manager was on 20 per cent of the gross. He was making a fantastic amount of money while we were working our asses off. Then I found a bit of paper proposing an American tour. At the end of the day the band would have needed a £14,000 loan from EMI as tour support to do it. That was when I knew that, if I stayed with the band, I'd probably end up a raging alcoholic and be found overdosed and dying in a big house in Oxford with Irish wolfhounds at the bottom of my bed."
I think Holidays In Eden is a great album. Can't fault the band too much because the record label was really leaning on them to produce a "hit". Trewavas says on the interview section of the Brave Live 2002 DVD that they never cared for it because it's a pretty light album. Doesn't have the teeth that the follow up has, but some great moments on this. Floored to see them do it live at the 2011 convention in Montreal. The ovation after "Splintering Heart" says it all.
The conventional wisdom is that he already was a raging alcoholic by the time of Clutching at Straws.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
The other one my wife liked is Uninvited Guest. And that's about it. All the rest just seems to sound the same to her.
As the lyrics reflect. Not to mention, a good portion of the band were into some of the heavier stuff too back in those days (white, powdery substances and psychedelic fungi).
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
And your point? Are you arguing with Fish
Saw it. Love it. HATED it the first time I heard it. Didn't even give it a second chance. Took it out of the player and moved on. It wasn't until I had the opportunity to go see them a month or so later that I decided to give it another spin. That's when I got it. I had the Euro release and didn't hear A Collection until they played it live. Then I had to go buy the CD again.
It's in the H era top five for me. Depends on my mood, but Seasons End is ALWAYS at the top of my H era list. It is another album to add to the list for a thread I plan to start very very soon...
That was why I thought that he and the band parted ways.
Having grown up in the town where the band is based, and hearing about things through friends of friends etc., this is basically the biggest reason why the personal relationships within the band fell apart in 1988.
That, and apparently Fish wanted bigger royalties than the rest of the band, and became too big for his boots. But I think the simple truth is that things became very acrimonious for a while.
My understanding (from some of the liners, I think) was that it was a combination of all those things. Pressure from the record companies to keep their momentum going with more recording & touring, the fact that the arrangement would benefit only the label and leave barely anything for the band, the way they dealt with it with alcohol and drugs and the toll that took on their lives, it all just came to a head. Someone (Mark?) mentioned that if they'd had the presence of mind to say no to the label and take a good length of time off, they could have worked it all out and come back refreshed. But who knows.
Re: Holidays, I'm afraid I'm another fan that can't stand "No One Can" (nothing against the idea, I'm happily married, but still think the degree of saccharine is just ridiculous). "Waiting to Happen" is also iffy... I'm ok with it sometimes, but still skip that song more often than not. One or both of those really should have been replaced with "A Collection" from the start.
But the rest of the album seriously kicks ass, "pop" or not. Every other track is a mini-masterpiece... yes, even "Dry Land." In its own way, the whole thing (my two problem songs aside) is just as strong as Brave or AoS.
Not really, no. They had their moments. I remember when Kayleigh and Lavender were all over the radio in Colorado (where I was as a late teen). I liked the songs, but not enough to ever buy those albums then.
What made me a fan was hitting shuffle on my computer about 12 years ago. This Strange Engine came on and caught me at that point between sleep and waking and blew me away. Same exact thing happend with The Doorway and The Great Nothing by Spocks Beard. At any rate, I bought This Strange Engine in my local music store and have been conducting a long, slow-brewing love affair with the Hogarth era band ever since. H era just reaches me in a way that Fish never could. It took a few albums for them to really find their voice as a "new" band, but when they did...wow.
This is worth repeating.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
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