Tag Archives: genesis

Um, Tony Banks?!

14 Aug

At the end of the year I think I’m going to find it interesting to see which artists I never in a million years thought would have made an appearance here, did.  Today’s choice will definitely be on that list.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I have never been much of a prog-rock fan.  I never even went through a phase.  So it won’t come as a surprise that I never bothered to listen to Tony Banks’ solo albums.  (For those of you that even less into prog-rock than I, Tony Banks was a founding member of and driving force in Genesis.)

I recently heard a song from his 1983 solo album, The Fugitive, and immediately regretted always ignoring it.  “By You” is now a new favorite.  Tony’s not a fantastic singer and I’m guessing he kept the songs much simpler than Genesis ones in order to play to his singing.  Whatever his reason, I’m super happy he did because now we have a simple and beautiful song instead of an over-complicated, overly-serious musical composition.

I’ve already had it on repeat for about 20x.  I’m compulsive that way.  I don’t expect you to do that, but aim for at least twice in a row.  So, so nice.  Kind of perfect to listen to with the sound of the rain outside.

That’s the good part.  The scary part is that I guess this means I should check out the rest of The Fugitive.  I love “By You” so why am I dreading this?  I’m trying to get out of my own way and all my pre-conceptions in general….I suppose I can start with Tony Banks.  Wish me luck.

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Hooked on 3 Feelings

3 Aug

I spent a good part of this evening with a Swede.  That’s not that odd because I do know a fair amount of of them, but it never fails that whenever I spend any time at all with any Swede, at least once during the visit, the 1970s group Blue Swede pops into my head.

And then I wonder…which is weirder:  the fact that every one of  Blue Swede’s hits were cover versions of other band’s hits or that their biggest hit, their version of B.J. Thomas’ “Hooked on a Feeling,” was not only a cover but the weird “Ouga Chaka” background vocal thing was itself “borrowed” from yet another cover version, by Jonathan King?

Huh?!

But Blue Swede ain’t got nothing on Jonathan King as far as weird goes.  And Lord knows B.J. “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” Thomas isn’t weird.  No, as far as weird is concerned, I need to stick with Jonathan King.

He wrote “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon” when he was still in college.  He went on to produce (and name!) Genesis, run Decca Records (twice!), recorded nearly 20 chart hits between 1965-1979 under various names, was imprisoned for sexually molesting 5 teenage boys and most recently released a film called Me, Me, Me.

Wow.

His story is so much better than the three versions of “Hooked on a Feeling,” combined.  Maybe what is weirdest here is that now you have three versions of “Hooked on a Feeling” when you may not even want a single one.

Ouga Chaka indeed.

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