New Book: Genesis – 1967 to 1975: The Peter Gabriel Years

[Gizmotron]

The English language version is only available thru BS at this point. I paid $35 USD to get the book to Texas with shipping. I'm not wealthy, but it was well worth the cost to me. ��

I too wasn't thrilled at the cost of shipping (and the inevitable fees for changing my pennies into English pounds) but I did order it once my wife's interest was piqued.

[AncientChord]

Personally I'd trust old band friend Armando Gallo over this author. Another thread just popped up about a Rolling Stone magazine article claiming that the meaning of The Knife is about the 1970 Kent State Ohio student shootings. BS. Their exaggeration and fake news comes from this book. And its author published the book with an Armando Gallo photo for its cover without permission. Don't take the bait on this one. From Gallo:

ARMANDO GALLO Tuesday, 03 March 2020 09:01
This is Armando Gallo, author of THE book Genesis I Know What I Like. And the photo that you are using - without my permission - to announce a similar book by M Giammetti. Please remove it. I don't want to call my lawyer...
One Love,
Armando

[yesman1955]

Ancient Chord: I contacted Kingmaker Publishing today and I received a quick answer from no-less than Greg Spawton (Big Big Train) himself! His answer follows: Dear John, You may or may not be aware that the English language edition of Mario's book has been licensed from a publisher in Italy (Giunti). The Italian version, printed with broadly the same contents and the same cover image was published in 2013 and 2014. We understand that Giunti have permissions for all photographic content. The photo on the front cover is, according to Giunti, by David Gahr. I am at a bit of a loss as to why you feel there is an issue or a controversy in this matter? Best, Greg Spawton, Kingmaker

[yesman1955]

I answered back to Greg a few minutes ago and quickly got this response: Thanks for the clarification, John, and for the kind words about BBT. We understand that Armando is referring to a picture used by a website when they published a news article about the book back in March. He was not referring to any picture in the book. Mario is a highly respected journalist in Italy and his book is a significant addition to the literature on Genesis. Best, Greg

[AncientChord]

^^^Alright if that's the case, I stand corrected. But I did assume that the comments above on my post were from Armando Gallo. And I like BBT too.

[3LockBox]

One of my favorite parts of the book...

Which book?

[yesman1955]

^^^^^^ Mario Giammetti's book

[mozo-pg]

Like most, I've read a ton of Genesis books but jumped on buying this version. As an avid fan, nothing new in the story but very well researched, plenty (majority) of quotes on the song reviews by members of the band. Exhaustive tour listings. The same format, story, songs, live show, and tour listings. Was I happy - definitely! I can't get enough Genesis material to read.

[Gizmotron]

I finished it last night. It is very much worth the effort but I was a bit let down by the chapter on "The Lamb." It is almost like the author got a bit tired by that point and instead of writing the same amount of detail for each track as he had for the earlier albums, he decided that short ditties would suffice. It isn't glaring but it is noticeable. The book follows a recipe of tracing the origin and recording of the albums (primarily through interviews with the members) a bit too much. The type of broad-brushstrokes material that most books have to bind things together is sort of missing from this. It should be described as a song by song review with a touch of additional history, not a complete look at "The Peter Gabriel years."

And I have pretty much had enough of the various members telling us how bad much of the music is.

I suggest therapy; they seem to need it.

[Splicer]

And I have pretty much had enough of the various members telling us how bad much of the music is.

Everyone in Genesis are their own worst critics - except for Tony. He's everyone else's worst critic.

[Halmyre]

Everyone in Genesis are their own worst critics - except for Tony. He's everyone else's worst critic.

I can't think of any band that doesn't look at their back catalogue with anything less than mild disdain. Which is understandable, Jon Anderson isn't going to go into an interview to plug his latest product and say "well, it's not as good as Close to the Edge".

[Rarebird]

I can't think of any band that doesn't look at their back catalogue with anything less than mild disdain. Which is understandable, Jon Anderson isn't going to go into an interview to plug his latest product and say "well, it's not as good as Close to the Edge".

If you have a product to sell, you are not going to say, well, it is not as good as what I made in the past, but it will go. Probably you are going to say: "Well, it is a return to my better works" and having perhaps a mild disdain to the latest albums before the new album.

I always have to think about the new herring, where some experts always claim it is better than last year, when they also said it was better than the year before and so on and so on.