FEATURED CD - Marillion : Misplaced Childhood

[Oreb]

Have to send some love to Fish's live Return to Childhood. Not in any way a replacement for the original band's performances, but this is still a very effective one.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeah, really. Wow.

Yeah, Incommunicado is kind of a turd in the punch bowl but it's easily skipped.

Can't agree with that at all.

[Progatron]

"Incommunicado" is a great, fun track! It's nowhere near the best of the bunch - hard to compete with the opening trilogy of songs, for starters....

I've said many times here that "Just For The Record" is the clunker on Clutching At Straws, and my version of the album replaces it with "Tux On" (I also use the version of "Going Under" with the guitar solo).

[Paulrus]

Mark Wilkinson's cover sums this one up for me -- there's a lot of bombast and color, but it leaves a sort of bad aftertaste. And despite the commercial success I consider this Fish's low point with the band. Plus I feel like the band are either trying too hard or on auto-pilot. For years this was held up as the pinnacle of Fish-era Marillion but it's probably my least favorite of them all, actually.

[zombywoof]

I don't have a problem with Incommunicado. I prefer it to anything on MC (sorry).

[GuitarGeek]

I remember oh so long ago seeing their video for Lavender on MTV late at night, thinking it had to be some sort of Spinal Tap type spoof.

How can a straight performance style video make you think it was a spoof? I always dug that video, particularly love Rothery's Strat style doubleneck.

[bob_32_116]

I actually met a young women earlier in the year who's name is Kaylie and she said she was named after the song(she was about 26 maybe). She had no clue who the band Marillion are and never even heard the song. I beseeched her to listen to it at some point and even played her a little bit of it on my iPhone via youtube. Also, during my first year at college there was a woman in the radio club(I was briefly a member)named Kayleigh there who was in love with the song. She was too old to be named after it since this was 1989 but it's cool that someone discovered the song and band because of their name. I remember some guy in the radio room saying that lavender( I think that's the song)sounded like YES. I said to him "don't you mean Genesis" and he said "yeah, Genesis that's what I meant." That was the first time I witnessed someone confusing YES with Genesis but not the last time.

...and I suppose she had an older brother called Squonk?

[3LockBox]

How can a straight performance style video make you think it was a spoof?

Dilly dilly...

In 1980s US the song Lavender was long associated with Burl Ives and not necessarily fondly. An over-the-top performance of the song by a "rock" band who's lead singer's bangs emanated from back of his head came across as either spoof or unintentional comedy but ultimately very corny. They may as well have covered Julie Andrew's 'Favorite Things'.

[thedunno]

I loved this when it came out. Marillion was the first band I really got in to and I even was a member of the fanclub. I stayed overnight at ticket sales offices to be sure of concert tiickets. I guess I was a massive fanboy.

Cant remember the last time I played this though. I probably will revisit the early marillion albums at one point for sentimental reasons but I no longer consider them favourites.

Tastes evolve And Luckily Marillion evolved as well. I think their best albums are post-fish.

[iguana]

Tastes evolve And Luckily Marillion evolved as well. I think their best albums are post-fish.

+1. 2015: multiple 30th b-day bashes for young ladies named kayleigh. anarchy will smile on the royal mile

beautiful album with everyone in top form. absolutely fish’ and rothers’ record but – strangely enough – not my favourite by fishillion (that spot belongs to “fugazi” which has more diversity). some biographies state that there was a follow up that had been all but recorded but was dismissed by the record company because of being just too similar and derivative of MC. hence, the follow up was CaS which was a rather quickfire move, even down to the cover art (part photography, part illustration). i prefer this one but hindsight tells me that the band may already have been a spent force during transition between these two albums of course. a massively successful one of course.

[ombasan]

A wonderful album, not least because it's the sound of my youth!

[martiprog]

<<think one of the best moments on record with Fish was in "Heart Of Lothian" when it breaks into "...it's six o' CLOCK in the tower BLOCK...." - beautiful stuff>>

One of my all time fave neo-prog passages.

This bit still gives me shivers even thinking about it. Takes me back to 84 when they previewed around 20 or so minutes of it as a "work in progress" and blew me away with what seemed like a big step forward (and subsequently it proved to be). Even though I prefer CAS as an album, I think that this album was hugely significant in reminding people the Prog was not only still alive, it was bloody good too.

[Yves]

As Marillion went into the Hogarth era I lost interest. However Fish Marillion will always have a spot in my music soul.

My opinion of H-era Marillion is that I found it to be somewhat monochromatic. By the 5th release I basically lost interest. Admittedly there are some recordings I haven't heard, but I own most of the ones considered their best, as picked by the fans, and I'm still left feeling lukewarm towards them.

[Progatron]

Takes me back to 84 when they previewed around 20 or so minutes of it as a "work in progress"

Yeah, that slightly different arrangement of 'side one' that was previewed live is a great listen. I'm thinking of the Hammersmith Odeon show from December '84, which also contains the best version of "Incubus" I've ever heard.

[TheLongshot]

While I think this is Fish's best work with Marillion, I personally liked his solo work better.

[arise_shine]

My favorite Fish-era Marillion album (though Straws is a very close second), and probably my favorite Marillion album, period. Lush, melodic, emotional, epic.

[moecurlythanu]

I think "incommunicado" is one of the best tracks on the album... I even remember my brother saying it sounded like "old Genesis."

Bizarre. I don't think "Incommunicado" sounds like old Genesis at all, apart from Fish being vaguely reminiscent of Gabriel, but that's every song. When "Incommunicado" came out as the first single, the British press were all over them for ripping off The Who, believe it or not. Can't say I ever understood that one either.

[JJ88]

The only moment on 'Clutching...' I find questionable is the keyboard solo on 'Just For The Record'. I'm not big on Mark Kelly's 'widdly widdly' solos, but love his atmospheric stuff, so that's why I don't really like that.

'Heart Of Lothian' is one of the emotional high-points of Marillion's career. At the time I think it was an all-time peak for them. The video, I seem to remember, has the actor Glyn Edwards as a pub landlord- this would have meant more to UK viewers as he played a similar role for many years in the very popular TV show 'Minder'.

[Richard J T]

I think so. That intro section of Bitter Suite, before the spoken word bit, I believe that's Rothery playing a Roland GR-300. Concert footage of the band from this era shows him playing a sunburst Roland G-505 guitar equipped with a Kahler tremolo (also seen in the Kayleigh video). I'm not sure if he uses it elsewhere on the album, I'd have to listen to it again. But that bit seems to have a similar synth tone to that you hear people like Pat Metheny, Steve Hackett and Robert Fripp using during that era. And it sounds like guitar phrasing to me.

For the record, if memory serves, that's also the GR-300 on the intro of Assassing.

From what I recall, he didn't use a guitar synth. I clearly remember the double-neck Squier (upper neck with capo) being pretty straightforward (i.e., no extra controls/midi pickup). He did use an ebow during Psuedo Silk Kimono.

This was my first time seeing them and I was taken aback by Pete Trewavas' bass-playing. Truly an outstanding live bass-player whose potential never really seemd to be captured on recording. It always seemed to me that his technical prowess (and ability to convey feeling) is often over-looked. IMHO, I'd consider him one of the "greats" (like: Squier, Rutherford, Levin, Lee...).

[the winter tree]

Dilly dilly...

In 1980s US the song Lavender was long associated with Burl Ives and not necessarily fondly. An over-the-top performance of the song by a "rock" band who's lead singer's bangs emanated from back of his head came across as either spoof or unintentional comedy but ultimately very corny. They may as well have covered Julie Andrew's 'Favorite Things'.

I think it's pretty cool. I assume it's a song about the innocence of childhood or young love. How uncool of Fish to have receding hair and pretend to be a pop star! ;-)

[Mister Triscuits]

When "Incommunicado" came out as the first single, the British press were all over them for ripping off The Who, believe it or not. Can't say I ever understood that one either.

Oh, I totally understand that. It clearly smacks of Who Are You-era Who to me.

[trurl]

Bizarre. I don't think "Incommunicado" sounds like old Genesis at all, apart from Fish being vaguely reminiscent of Gabriel, but that's every song. When "Incommunicado" came out as the first single, the British press were all over them for ripping off The Who, believe it or not. Can't say I ever understood that one either.

Oh, I totally understand that. It clearly smacks of Who Are You-era Who to me.

It's both. It's the little organ riff in Supper's Ready before the quiet part leading up to "A flower" (more or less; listening to it now it's not really quite the same) done to the chord progression of Bell Boy. And Fish yelling the title of the song over it. It does sound more Who than Genesis and now that I hear it again I like it more than I did. I still think the chorus is cheesy though

But try it, over the solo sing "The beach is a place where a man can feel he's the only thing in the world that's real...)

[SteveSly]

This was my favorite album when it came out. I was just exiting my teens and had a girl who had just 'broken' my heart.
It doesn't really resonate with me anymore, but it is an excellent album.

Same here. I was coming out of a 2 year relationship when this album came out and it really resonated to me at the time. By the time “Clutching” came out the line “If you want my address its number 1 at the end of the bar, as I sit with the broken rebels” was pretty much my theme song at the time.

[Mister Triscuits]

It's both. It's the little organ riff in Supper's Ready before the quiet part leading up to "A flower" (more or less; listening to it now it's not really quite the same) done to the chord progression of Bell Boy. And Fish yelling the title of the song over it. It does sound more Who than Genesis and now that I hear it again I like it more than I did. I still think the chorus is cheesy though

But try it, over the solo sing "The beach is a place where a man can feel he's the only thing in the world that's real...)

There's maybe a bit of PG's "On the Air" in there as well.

[JKL2000]

In many respects, I don't think of MC or CAS to be neo albums at all. To me, neo-prog self consciously mimics Genesis and I think Marillion had well and truly broken away from that sort of thing with MC. Not that there's anything wrong with what bands like IQ and Pendragon were doing at the time, but looking back, it's kind of easy to see why Marillion were able to break out of the neo-prog pack and (briefly) become superstars in many territories and touring with the likes of Queen. I think Marillion at this particular time, had the perfect mixture of angst, pop sensibility and solid enough musicianship to appeal to first generation prog rock fans. Fish was a charismatic vocalist who must have been quite an anomaly among the pretty boys and new wave vocalists of the time; a slightly overweight 6'5'' Scot with receding hair who perhaps was never the most gifted vocalist technically but was able to pull on the heartstrings like few others could. He could have drunk Simon Le Bon under the table too.

Agree 100%