I couldn't listen to this all the way through.Originally Posted by Progatron
Tony the 80s video star
I couldn't listen to this all the way through.Tony the 80s video star
^ I think it's a pretty cool song and kind of a novelty to see Tony "fronting".
And it has a really good middle section that elevates the song above most contemporary "pop" tunes.
I like the song itself, always have. But Tony was not meant to be the 'star' of a video like that. He was already awkward and wooden in the Genesis videos, especially next to Phil, who was a natural in front of the camera. Tony's discomfort shone through. Well, maybe not in the "Jesus He Knows Me" video where he got to be rubbed down by bikini babes.
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That's what's so fascinating about it ;-)I like the song itself, always have. But Tony was not meant to be the 'star' of a video like that. He was already awkward and wooden in the Genesis videos, especially next to Phil, who was a natural in front of the camera. Tony's discomfort shone through.
Banks Birthday today...well, it will be if I wake up in the morning. It's 3/27. What's he 64 now?
I always liked his 1st Solo, A Curious Feeling, but not really much from other recordings. I should listen to his symphonic stuff from recent years since I've been enjoying a lot of classical music lately.
I bought A Curious Feeling when it came out - loved it then and still do.
His follow-up soundtrack albums The Fugitive and The Wicked Lady didn't seem to get any publicity here at the time and I really didn't know about them. When Bankstatement came out I thought "Wow,another Tony Banks album", and had to check it out. I have to say it was a massive disappointment. None of the songs were actually bad,but for me they had none of that Banks magic.
After that letdown I stopped following his releases, until he released the classical work Seven. It's good - but it's not a rock album, it's a classical work, and needs to be approached as such. It's more likely to appeal to someone who likes the music of, say, Holst, or Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, than to someone who was a big fan of Genesis (not saying, or course, that those two sets can't intersect).
It was only after reading comments on other music fora extolling the virtues of Still that I realised I should investigate it. I'm glad I did.In some ways it's even better than A Curious Feeling. Perhaps ACF has better songs, but I always felt Kim Beacon's vocals let it down a little. I heard the opening bars of Red Day on Blue Street, and thought "This is what land of Confusion SHOULD have been like." Furtheron we get the beautiful Water Out of Wine, followed by the epic Another Murder of a Day, which rivals Somebody Else's Dream in its dark intensity.
I did also investigate the Fugitive, and while some of it was enjoyable enough I found several tracks a bit banal and verging on childish.
We now come to Strictly Inc, and what a strange beast it is. The pairing of Tony Banks' keyboards and compositions with Wang Chung's vocalist seems as though it could not hope to succeed. That was my impression on first listening to the album - too much of that early 80's synth-pop sound Not sure, I thought - maybe I'll give this one amiss,despite the presence of An Island In the Darkness.
Several days later, having been driven mad by "Only Seventeen" playing continually in my head, I decided I have to have this album,and have ordered it. Yes, there are a number of rather ordinary songs, but the good ones are SOOOO good, once you get past the initial shock of how different it sounds from Banks-era Genesis or from early Banks, that it's definitely going to become one of my most played albums.
When Banks is good he is very very good. When he is not, he is just ho-hum. Nevertheless I think he makes his bandmates Collins and Rutherford look like amateurs as far as songwriting is concerned.
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I remain hopeful that one day Banks will collaborate once more with Peter Gabriel. Phil Collins was an accomplished vocalist, but I don't think any one had a Gabriel's ability to bring a sense of drama to those songs.
Last edited by bob_32_116; 12-05-2014 at 08:20 PM.
It's dreadful, isn't it? But the Bankstatement cover wasn't much chop either. I wonder if Tony was so determined to prove that the music could stand on its own that he made the cover as unappealing as possible, as well as attempting to have it released without the musicians being identified. If so, it was a dismal failure from a marketing point of view. Perhaps magastars like Led Zeppelin could pull that off, but not someone like Banks, relatively unknown outside Prog circles.
I can't recall exactly where I read this now, but I think Banks intentionally tried to distance his name/rep from Strictly Inc because he was afraid it would hurt sales, given how weakly his solo albums often did. Kind of ironic.
I don't mind the art...it is what it is, and fit the music to my ears/eyes. I like the album quite a bit; none of his albums are slam-dunks but there are generally at least a few songs that make it worth the spin.
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Just listened to 'The Fugitive', and was surprised. Its actually very good. I've always thought it was decent, but today it sounded better than decent. I suppose the only song that would approach 'blow away' status for me is 'Thirty-Threes', which is the only one that makes me say wow. But there wasn't a bad song, and 'Moving Under' and 'K2' were excellent, both had excellent endings that faded out. 'This is Love' makes a good hit, but, at least today, struck me as the least interesting song on the album.
I really like the atmospheric "Man of Spells". The CD has a few bonus tracks but is hard to find. I ended up buying a copy on Ebay from a seller in Holland for more than I usually like to pay for a CD. I have a few copies on vinyl. Those usually go for a song. I prefer listening to it on vinyl.
Maybe I'll put on my LP of The Fugitive tonight in honour of Tony's birthday. BTW, faves of mine are the already mentioned "Lion of Symmetry" and "Water out of Wine" and much of A Curious Feeling--Oddly enough I always liked "For a While" as a single---great little tune with some nice developing chords in the chorus.
I still have to buy Strictly Inc!!!! It's been on my list for quite a while.
Played Soundtracks today too. I hadn't thought about his birthday, I just felt like hearing some Banks, probably due to this thread. I agree Ken, 'Lion..' is really good. A lot of good instrumental music too, such as Redwing Suite. I do not care much for 'Shortcut To Somewhere' with Fish. I feel like I must really be missing the point of that one. Whatever's there I'm just not feeling. The other vocal track, 'You Call This Victory' has a great intro, but the vocals come in and kind of kill it for me. Jim Diamond is technically a very good singer, I just don't care for his voice in this song. Sorry, I know the OP wished to discuss only the 'proper' 5 Banks albums.
Too bad the LP of the Fugitive doesn't have K2 (I feel the 'magic' in that one) and another cool one, 'Sometime Never'. (and bankstatement doesn't have the most genesis-y track on the album, on the lp-I guess Tony follows the Genesis tradition of leaving off some of the best tracks for b-sides)
I really like the theme to the movie Quicksilver and the other parts of that soundtrack that are on Banks' SOUNTRACKS LP.
I don't mind if people discuss all things Banks. I didn't think the thread would last this long!
And Happy Birthday Tony! It was my mother's birthday today also, 78 :-)
It's always sounded more to me like Soundtracks was a blend of progressive instrumentals and several really good "deep pop" songs, and not so much a collection of film music (maybe it would be different if I'd ever actually seen any of those movies). So for me it fits pretty well alongside Tony's "regular" pop-rock-proggish efforts.
Gotta admit too, I'm sort of surprised to see this much respect for Tony's solo albums. For the longest time, over the years here at PE, it always seemed that threads about his work had mostly negative feedback. Maybe my memory is faulty though. At any rate it's good to see him get a few props.
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I didn't end up getting around to putting on The Fugitive LP last night but these extra tracks sound interesting--I should try to pick up the CD. I actually like "Shortcut to Somewhere" because it's quite a silly, fun 80's track and the video was good and goofy too. But, it's certainly not as good as "Lion", not even close. "You Call This Victory" is ok for me--to be honest, I've got to put that one on soon too--again, I've got it on LP only. So, I've got some Banks CDs to pick up I'd say.
And to Reginod and Winter Tree, yes It's nice to see this thread go for a little while on here.
I bet both "Bankstatement" ad "Strictly Inc" were Tony's efforts to create some of the "Mike & the Mechanics" solo/band success for himself. I can't think of many band keyboardists that have had successful solo careers...Steve Winwood comes to mind, but he's also got a great voice.
I've found both some things to love and some things cringe-worthy on all of his albums. My favorites have been the ones with a single, consistent vocalist (ACF and Strictly Inc). I generally don't care for multi-vocalist projects...kind of Broadway-sounding to me.
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No doubt. He must have been wondering what he had to do to get some success! He's never seemed overly bitter about it in interviews but one wonders... I mean, Pete, Phil and Mike all had enormous success outside of the band, and Steve carved out a successful niche for himself as well, not to mention GTR was pretty big at the time. Just look at the mid-80s: The band themselves were just giant with the releases of the MAMA album and Invisible Touch. Phil himself was *everywhere* - you couldn't escape Phil Collins around that time, songs constantly being played on the radio and TV, producing albums, turning up in other projects like Band-Aid and film soundtracks, the "Playboy" interview, even acting on TV shows and movies! Mike And The Mechanics had massive success with "All I Need Is A Miracle" and "Silent Running" (and later an even bigger song), Peter was not only huge now (especially once So came out) but also the darling of the critics, endlessly being praised for his artistic merit and collaborating with other big names in world music... Steve was selling albums and touring, playing to a decent-sized fan base and then hooking up with Steve Howe for GTR (I remember "When The Heart Rules The Mind" video being played a lot).
Then Tony puts out some albums and all goes horribly quiet for him - despite his massive input into the writing and sound of Genesis. Low sales, no touring, videos that almost nobody saw... Poor guy!
I suppose a lot has to do with the fact that he simply wasn't a strong enough presence. He was no 'rock star' by any means. Phil and Pete were both singers and frontmen who were very visible. Steve was a lead guitar player, and Mike formed a solid band (in pop music terms) of writers. The quiet, proper British guy who was occasionally seen bobbing his head while playing keyboards in those Genesis videos was not about to get the same response from the general public.
I do remember some slight promotion however. He was on "Rockline" when Still was released (I remember it because I tried getting through) but I doubt that garnered much interest outside of the die-hards who always bought Tony's albums anyway.
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I also think songs like "Throwback" and "Red Day On Blue Street" were far too heady for the public as well. Seriously, your lead single is about how annoyed you are by modern times? "Throwback" didn't exactly have a singalong chorus, either; no "TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOWWWW" or "SAY IT LOOOOOUD, SAY IT CLEEEEEAR…" Tony was the off-beat presence in Genesis, from birth to death. He could really construct a good, solid song, but it took the soul leanings of Collins or the Beatle-adoration of Mike to help sell it to the public.
(You know, there's this Cracked article that correctly says that Mike Rutherford never gets any of the blame for "ruining" Genesis. I think that's a good point. Mike's had some good songs in Genesis but in all honestly, I think his songwriting skills were, on average, on par with Phil's.)
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Just got back from seeing Roger King play Banks. He did quite well but I hope to see Tony and Steve perform again someday.
I'm currently hearing "Still" on my proper speakers for the first time, having only heard it previously on the Internet. Wow, it's good.
"Angel Face" has to be one of the most vicious breakup songs ever.
It's fascinating hearing this album and comparing it with contemporary Genesis and with what his bandmates were releasing at the time. As I said earlier, "Red Day on Blue Street" sounds like what "Land of Confusion" should have been. "Angel Face" immediately reminded me of some of Phil Collins' ballads - except that the tune is several orders of magnitude above those of Collins.
"The Gift" is OK but pretty light-weight, probably my least favourite cut on the album. "Still It Takes Me By Surprise" is vintage Banks, and could quite happily have fit on "A Curious Feeling".
It's hardly a concept album, but it does seem to have an underlying theme of breakup, depression and disillusionment. "Back to Back" and "The Final Curtain" could both be interpreted as referring to the fact that for his former band, things were just about over. Likewise "I Wanna Change the Score" seems to be saying he wants to do something musically different from what he has done before. In other words, it's a song about itself.
I am thoroughly enjoying this album, and looking forward eagerly to the arrival of "Strictly Inc".
Last edited by bob_32_116; 04-12-2014 at 11:00 AM.
You nailed it. Peter and Phil were natural front men. Rutherford was in the same boat as Banks, meaning he needed well known singers and frontmen. He got both. Then he went poppier then Genesis, made good videos and to put him over the top, he toured. Banks for the most part was not great at the pop game but he did have some songs that would have done the job. He rarely promoted himself and never toured. Pop game over.
Played The Fugitive and Strictly Inc. tonight. Both are really good albums. Tony should have toured and gotten someone to sing for him.
Received Strictly Inc. on Thursday - via Discogs - from a seller in Spain. Boy was it well wrapped up. I think the package would have survived a nuclear war!
One little scratch on the CD case - who cares? Sound is perfect. Really enjoying the album, even the tracks I initially thought were rather ordinary, viz. Don't Turn your Back On Me, Charity Balls and Strictly Incognito. The only song I have not warmed to is Something To live For. The album is worth the purchase price for the final track alone.
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