Che non ci sia argomento più intrigante della musica, DeBasio lo conferma, lo vuole rendere a chiare lettere. E tra tutti gli argomenti musicali che accendono gli animi, che emozionano, che scatenano ire, odio, amore, gioia, indifferenza, oggi voglio parlare dei Genesis. E' vero che non ci sono più album ufficiali da recensire, anzi c'è una massiva ricchezza di doppioni, però, dell'ampia discografia non ufficiale dei Genesis, c'è tantissimo materiale inedito che spesso i fan hanno avuto modo di ascoltare proprio grazie a registrazioni non autorizzate.
Pare ci siano circa seicento bootleg di questa band e molti di essi contengono materiale particolarmente interessante, tra questi c'è un cofanetto triplo CD, messo sul mercato nel 1993 utilizzando materiale derivante da registrazioni della collezione privata di Philip Cohen, noto collezionista di materiali musicali di svariati autori.
Il box di "From One Fan To Another" raccoglie un primo volume, decisamente il più interessante dei tre, contenente materiale dei primissimi anni '70. E' stato il primo supporto digitale sul quale poter ascoltare i brani delle BBC Sessions denominati "Nightride" e risalenti al 22 febbraio 1970. Si tratta di tre brani composti nel periodo di transizione tra il retro pop beat di "From Genesis To Revelation" e il prog sinfonico di "Trespass". Sono composizioni molto importanti perché, oltre ad essere rimaste inedite, sono le prime senza la mano nera e cattiva di Jonathan King: niente archi melliflui e inutili, niente fronzoli e orpelli non voluti, niente arrangiamenti ruffiani e scontati, ma tanta, tanta melodia e un'arguzia di intenti che dimostra già la genialità compositiva di almeno quattro dei cinque componenti. "Shepererd", "Pacidy" e "Let Us Now Make Love", questi i titoli dei tre brani, sono accomunati da una trasognata realtà agreste, infantile, satura di ricordi, di piacevole e positiva nostalgia, di un raro e forse unico pathos spontaneo. Ricchissime le parti acustiche di dodici corde, piano e flauto e quando l'equilibrio elettroacustico viene sbilanciato a favore dell'intensa forza dell'organo di Tony Banks il trasporto è totale. Nulla è invadente e, pur trattandosi di arrangiamenti non destinati ad un disco, dai brani saltano fuori evidenti le caratteristiche di quella che sarà la più bella avventura musicale del progressive inglese e forse mondiale. Il primo volume prosegue con altri brani molto interessanti, tra i quali cito "Looking For Someone", tratta dalla stessa session del 22 febbraio e con testi e musiche parzialmente diversi rispetto a quelli definitivi di "Trespass", troviamo poi due spettacolari "Stagnation" e "The Musical Box" questa più lunga e con alcune parti diverse rispetto a quella edita su "Nursery Cryme" e altri due inediti live: "Silver Song" un brano orecchiabile composto da Anthony Phillips e "Going Out To Get You" brano stranamente rockeggiante, tirato, sanguigno e blues, forse composto da Gabriel e che in alcuni concerti dei primi anni veniva allungata anche a oltre venti minuti, qui la registrazione è nella versione breve al Piper di Roma del 1974. Per completezza di informazione segnalo che sul primo volume sono presenti anche altri ottimi brani live tratti dalla session radiofonica della BBC del 25 settembre 1972: "Twighlight Alehouse", "Watcher Of The Skies" e "Get'em Out By Friday", maggiormente fedeli alle versioni edite.
Il secondo volume si apre con una delle migliori versioni live di "Supper's Ready", quella registrata al Rainbow Theatre di Londra il 20 ottobre 1973, dallo stesso concerto è anche "More Fool Me" cantata da Collins e una delle più discusse canzoni dei Genesis del periodo d'oro. Tutto il resto del cofanetto è dedicato all'intera performance live del Civic Center di Lakeland, Florida, dell'11 gennaio 1975, quindi con l'integrale rappresentazione dell'opera "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" e del successivo encore, "The Musical Box".
L'importanza di questa registrazione è lampante: "The Lamb ..." è una delle più importanti opere della storia della musica, possa piacere o no, questo gli va riconosciuto e delle 102 rappresentazioni complete dei tour 1974 - 1975 non ne esiste alcuna versione ufficiale. L'ascolto completo è quindi relegato ai bootleg, questa è una delle migliori registrazioni originali, anche perché quella ufficializzata tramite i volumi "Genesis Archives" è stata pesantemente taroccata con sovraincisioni, modifiche e ripresa di molte parti, soprattutto vocali. L'ascolto è comunque ottimo e ci presenta una band in grande forma con un Phil Collins stellare e un Gabriel che, pur preso dalle sue manie teatrali, è perfettamente dentro alla parte. Ineccepibili le parti di Banks e Hackett e una grande rivalsa di Rutherford, che ci fa ben capire quanta importanza rivestisse nell'economia musicale del gruppo.
Mi sono un po' dilungato ma, d'altra parte, stiamo parlando di un triplo CD, ricchissimo di materiale e di storia ... e che storia!
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 The Chamber of 32 Doors (09:24)
At the top of the stairs he finds a chamber. It is almost a hemisphere with a great many doors all the way round its circumference. There is a large crowd, huddled in various groups. From the shouting, Rael learns that there are 32 doors, but only one that leads out. Their voices get louder and louder until Rael screams "Shut up!" There is a momentary silence and then Rael finds himself the focus as they direct their advice and commands to their new found recruit. Bred on trash, fed on ash the jigsaw master has got to move faster. Rael sees a quiet corner and rushes to it.
At the top of the stairs, there's hundreds of people,
running around to all the doors.
They try to find, find themselves an audience;
their deductions need applause.
The rich man stands in front of me,
The poor man behind my back.
They believe they can control the game,
but the juggler holds another pack.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I'd rather trust a countryman than a townman,
You can judge by his eyes, take a look if you can,
He'll smile through his guard,
Survival trains hard.
I'd rather trust a man who works with his hands,
He looks at you once, you know he understands,
Don't need any shield,
When you're out in the field.
But down here,
I'm so alone with my fear,
With everything that I hear.
And every single door, that I've walked through
Brings me back here again,
I've got to find my own way.
The priest and the magician,
Singing all the chants that they have ever heard;
and they're all calling out my name,
Even academics, searching printed word.
My father to the left of me,
My mother to the right,
Like everyone else they're pointing
But nowhere feels quite right.
And I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I'd rather trust a man who doesn't shout what he's found,
There's no need to sell if you're homeward bound.
If I choose a side,
He won't take me for a ride.
Back inside
This chamber of so many doors;
I've nowhere, nowhere to hide.
I'd give you all of my dreams, if you'd help me,
Find a door
That doesn't lead me back again
- take me away.
02 Lilywhite Lilith (03:05)
The chamber was in confusion - all the voices shouting loud.
I could only just hear, a voice quite near say, "e;Please help me
through the crowd"e;
'Said if I helped her thru' she could help me too, but I could
see that she was wholly blind.
But from her pale face and her pale skin, a moonlight shined.
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna take you thru' the tunnel of night
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna lead you right.
When I'd led her through the people, the angry noise began to grow.
She said "e;Let me feel the way the breezes blow, and I'll show
you where to go."e;
So I followed her into a big round cave, she said "They're
coming for you, now don't be afraid."
Then she sat me down on a cold stone throne, carved in jade.
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna take you thru' the tunnel of night.
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna lead you right.
She leaves me in my darkness,
I have to face, face my fear,
And the darkness closes in on me,
I can hear a whirring sound growing near.
I can see the corner of the tunnel,
Lit up by whatever's coming here.
Two golden globes float into the room
And a blaze of white light fills the air.
04 Anyway (03:26)
He panics, feels around for a stone and hurls it at the brightest point. The sound of breaking glass echoes around the cave. As his vision is restored he catches sight of two golden gloves about one foot in diameter hovering away down the tunnel. When they disappear a resounding crack sears across the roof, and it collapses all around him. Our hero is trapped once again.
"This is it" he thinks, failing to move any of the fallen rocks.
All the pumping's nearly over for my sweet heart,
This is the one for me,
Time to meet the chef,
O boy! running man is out of death.
Feel cold and old, it's getting hard to catch my breath.
's back to ash, 'now, you've had your flash boy'
The rocks, in time, compress
your blood to oil,
your flesh to coal,
enrich the soil,
not everybody's goal.
Anyway, they say she comes on a pale horse,
But I'm sure I hear a train.
O boy! I don't even feel no pain -
I guess I must be driving myself insane.
Damn it all! does earth plug a hole in heaven,
Or heaven plug a hole in earth - 'how wonderful to be so profound,
when everything you are is dying underground.'
There's not much spectacle for an underground creole as he walks through the gates of Sheol. "I would have preferred to have been jettisoned into a thousand pieces in space, or filled with helium and floated above a mausoleum. This is no way to pay my last subterranean homesick dues. Anyway I'm out of the hands of any pervert embalmer doing his interpretation of what I should look like, stuffing his cotton wool in my cheeks."
I feel the pull on the rope, let me off at the rainbow.
I could have been exploding in space
Different orbits for my bones
Not me, just quietly buried in stones,
Keep the deadline open with my maker!
See me stretch; for God's elastic acre
The doorbell rings and its
"Good morning Rael
So sorry you had to wait.
It won't be long, yeh!
She's very rarely late."
05 Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist (03:43)
Exhausted by all this conjecture, our hero gets the chance in a lifetime to meet his hero: Death. Death is wearing a light disguise, he made the outfit himself. He calls it the "Supernatural Anaesthetist." Death likes meeting people and wants to travel. Death approaches Rael with his special cannister, releases a puff, and appears to walk away content into the wall.
Here comes the supernatural anaesthetist.
If he wants you to snuff it,
All he has to do is puff it
- he's such a fine dancer.
06 The Lamia (07:20)
The scent grows richer, he knows he must be near,
He finds a long passageway lit by chandelier.
Each step he takes, the perfumes change
From familiar fragrance to flavours strange.
A magnificent chamber meets his eye.
Inside, a long rose-water pool is shrouded by fine mist.
Stepping in the moist silence, with a warm breeze hes gently kissed.
Thinking he is quite alone,
He enters the room, as if it were his own,
But ripples on the sweet pink water
Reveal some company unthought of.
Rael stands astonished doubting his sight,
Struck by beauty, gripped in fright.
Three vermilion snakes of female face,
The smallest motion, filled with grace.
Muted melodies fill the echoing hall,
But there is no sign of warning in the sirens call:
Rael welcome, we are the Lamia of the pool.
We have been waiting for our waters to bring you cool.
Putting fear beside him, he trusts in beauty blind,
He slips into the nectar, leaving his shredded clothes behind.
With their tongues, they test, taste and judge all that is mine.
They move in a series of caresses
That glide up and down my spine.
As they nibble the fruit of my flesh, I feel no pain,
Only a magic that a name would stain.
With the first drop of my blood in their veins
Their faces are convulsed in mortal pains.
The fairest cries, We all have loved you Rael.
Each empty snakelike body floats,
Silent sorrow in empty boats.
A sickly sourness fills the room,
The bitter harvest of a dying bloom.
Looking for motion I know I will not find,
I stroke the curls now turning pale, in which Id lain entwined
O Lamia, your flesh that remains I will take as my food
It is the scent of garlic that lingers on my choclate fingers.
Looking behind me, the water turns icy blue,
The lights are dimmed and once again the stage is set for you.
08 The Colony of Slippermen (08:46)
The Arrival
Leaving by the same door from which he had come in, he finds some sort of freaks ghetto on the other side. When they catch sight of him, the entire street of distorted figures burst into laughter. One of the colony approaches him.
Rael:
I wandered lonely as a cloud,
Till I came upon this dirty street.
I've never seen a stranger crowd;
Slubberdegullions on squeaky feet,
Continually pacing,
With nonchalant embracing,
Each orifice disgracing
And one facing me moves to say "hellay".
He is grotesque in every feature, a mixture of ugly lumps and stumps. His lips slip across his chin as he smiles in welcome and offers his slippery handshake.
His skin's all covered in slimy lumps.
With lips that slide across each chin.
His twisted limbs like rubber stumps
Are waved in welcome say 'Please join in.'
My grip must be flipping,
Cos his handshake keeps slipping,
My hopes keep on dipping
And his lips keep on smiling all the time.
Rael is a little disillusioned, when the Slipperman reveals that the entire colony have one-by-one been through the same glorious romantic tragedy with the same three Lamia, who regenerate themselves every time, and that now Rael shares their physical appearance and shadowy fate.
Slipperman:
"We, like you, have tasted love.
Don't be alarmed at what you see,
You yourself are just the same
As what you see in me."
Rael:
Me, like you? like that!
Slipperman:
"You better watch it son, your sentence has only just begun
You better run and join your brother John."
Amongst the contorted faces of the Slippermen, Rael recognises what is left of his brother John. They hug each other.
A Visit To The Doktor
John bitterly explains that the entire life of the Slipperman is devoted to satisfying the never-ending hunger of the senses, which has been inherited from the Lamia. There is only one escape route; a dreaded visit to the notorious Doktor Dyper who will remove the source of the problems, or to put it less politely, castrate.
They discuss the deceptively-named escape for a long time and decide to go together to visit the Doktor.
Slipperman:
"You're in the colony of slippermen.
There's no who? why? what? or when?
You get out if you've got the gripe
To see, Doktor Dyper, reformed sniper - he'll whip off your
windscreenwiper"
Rael:
John and I are able
To face the Doktor and his marble table.
The Doktor:
Understand Rael, that's the end of your tail.
Rael:
"Don't delay, dock the dick!"
I watch his countdown timer tick....
The Raven
They survive the ordeal and are presented with the offensive weapons in sterile yellow plastic tubes, with gold chains. "People usually wear them around their necks," said the Doktor handing them over. "The operation does not necessarily exclude use of the facility again, for short periods, but of course when you want it you must provide us with considerable advance warning."
He places the number into a tube,
It's a yellow plastic "shoobedoobe".
It says: "Though your fingers may tickle
You'll be safe in our pickle."
As the brothers talk themselves through their new predicament, a big black raven flies into the cave, swoops down, grabs Rael's tube right out of his hands and carries it up into the air in his beak.
Suddenly, black cloud come down from the sky.
It's a supersized black bird that sure can fly...
The raven brings on darkness and night
He flies right down, gives me one hell of a fright.
He take the tube right out of my hands
Man, I've got to find out where that black bird lands.
Rael calls for John to go with him.
And he replies "I will not chase a blac
09 Ravine (01:44)
Instrumental
Album: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Location: CD2, Track 8
Artist: Genesis
11 Riding the Scree (04:36)
He rushes to the cliff and scrambles down the rocks. It takes him a long time to get down to the water, trying to keep up with the current at the same time. As he nears the water's edge he sees John losing strength.
Struggling down the slope,
There's not much hope.
I begin to try to ride the scree
but the rocks are tumbling all around me.
If I want John alive,
I've got to ditch my fear - take a dive
While I've still got my drive to survive.
Evel Knievel you got nothing on me.
Here I go!
12 In the Rapids (02:27)
He dives down into the cold water. At first he is thrown onto the rocks, and pulled under the water by a fast moving channel, which takes him right past John, down river.
Moving down the water
John is drifting out of sight,
Its only at the turning point
That you find out how you fight.
In the cold, feel the cold
all around
And the rush of crashing water
Surrounds me with its sound.
Rael manages to grab a rock, pull himself to the surface and catch his breath. As John is carried past, Rael throws himself in again and catches hold of his arm. He knocks John unconscious and then locking themselves together, he rides the rapids into the slow running water, where he can swim to safety.
Striking out to reach you
I can't get through to the other side,
When you're racing in the rapids
There's only one way, thats to ride.
Taken down, taken down
by the undertow
I'm spiralled down the river bed,
My fire is burning low.
Catching hold of a rock that's firm,
I'm waiting for John to be carried past.
We hold together, hold together and shoot the rapids fast.
But as he hauls his brother's limp body onto the bank he lies him out and looks hopefully into his eyes for a sign of life. He staggers back in recoil, for staring at him with eyes wide open is not John's face - but his own.
And when the waters slow down
The dark and the deep
have no-one, no-one, no-one, no-one
no-one left to keep.
Hang on John! We're out of this at last.
Somethings changed, that's not your face.
It's mine - it's mine!
14 The Musical Box (10:51)
Play me "Old King Cole"
that I may join with you,
all your hearts now seem so far from me
it hardly seems to matter now.
And the nurse will tell you lies
of a Kingdom beyond the skies.
But I'm lost within this half-world,
it hardly seems to matter now.
Play me my song,
here it comes again.
Play me my song,
here it comes again.
Just a little bit,
just a little bit more time,
time left to live out my life.
Play me my song,
here it comes again.
Play me my song,
here it comes again.
Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
and a merry old soul was he.
So he called for his pipe,
and he called for his bowl,
and he called for his fiddlers three.
And the clock, tick tock,
on the mantlepiece,
and I want,
and I feel,
and I know,
and I touch the wall.
She's a lady, she's got time.
Brush back you hair, and let me get to know your face.
She's a lady, she's mine.
Brush back you hair, and let me get to know your flesh.
I've been waiting here so long
and all this time has passed me by.
It doesn't seem to matter now.
You stand there with your fixed expression
casting doubt on all I have to say.
Why don't you touch me, touch me?
Why don't you touch me, touch me?
Touch me now, now now, now, now ...
The musical box:
While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet smiling Cynthia
raised her mallet high and gracefully removed Henry's head. Two weeks later, in Henry's nursery, she discovered his treasured
musical box. Eagerly she opened it and as "Old King Cole" began to play, a small spirit-figure appeared. Henry had returned -
but not for long, for as he stood in the room his body began ageing rapidly, leaving a child's mind inside. A lifetime's desires
surged through him. Unfortunately the attempt to persuade Cynthia Jane to fulfill his romantic desire led his nurse to the
nursery to investigate the noise. Instinctively she hurled the musical box at the bearded child, destroying both.
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