Jethro Tull vs. Genesis

 

songs from the wood-quality folk prog

heavy horses-more quality folk prog

stormwatch-strong bonus tracks make this good album into a really strong cd

 

then they have the 3 monsters:

 

thick as a brick-classic prog

a passion play-almost classic prog

living in the past-my fave tull release

 

and these 2 are probably the best value remasters of all time

 

warchild-the 7 bonus tracks are the best songs on the remaster mainly. Very good remaster

benefit-some classic tunes, expecially the bonus tracks

 

As for genesis, trespass and foxtrot are pretty cool. Nursery cryme is a bit dull. The lamb and Selling England have their faults but they are cool too. Not really a gabriel fan. Doesn't have a very good voice and some of his lyrics are cringeworthy. I liked what Genesis were doing in Wuthering and Trick. They gained a cleaner sound. I'd rank Garbriel era among the top 10 bands from 1970-75 probably, but the combination of Hacketts depressing guitar sound, Gabriels squeely rough voice and Banks occasional strange sounds prevent Genesis from being among my top 5 bands. With so many good bands in the 70s, I've always found it weird that bands such as genesis and crimson are ranked at the very top. Top 10 is understandable

 

I appreciate Jethro Tull and I agree that they're one of the best prog bands, but I like Genesis much more.

 

I definately wouldn't consider gabriel era genesis the best. There are things about the band which I would gaurantee would hold them back if most people got into 70s prog. I reckon most people would get into prog after enough listening but most people have pretty simple/dumb taste in music. But in the end they would wake up to how good prog is after enough listening. I'm very confident they would rate tull higher than genesis in the end though. Tull remasters are full of great value. Even the remaster of Warchild compares pretty similarly to The lamb even if the original album wasn't that strong. Both from 1974 and both pretty much double album length. Both have strong and weak tracks. I love those bonus tracks on Warchild the most on the cd. They are the songs that should have been on the soundtrack in the first place, not those poppy songs like bungle, third hoorah, sealion, 2 fingers.

 

I think if someone had these releases of both bands i'd think tull would still come out of top.

 

TAAB-excellent

LITP-excellent

Bursting out-very good

SFTW remaster-very good

Heavy horses remaster-very good

Stormwatch remaster-fairly good album, but very good year in studio(bonus tracks really add quality)

Warchild remaster-decent soundtrack, but very good year in studio(7 bonus tracks are among 10 best songs)

Benefit remaster-fairly good album, but very good year in studio(teacher and witches promise are excellent)

APP-pretty good album

 

Foxtrot-very good

Trespass-very good

The lamb-very good although i can't stand NYC and 2nd half of title song

Wind and wuthering-very good

Trick of the tail-very good

Selling england-pretty good

 

 

 

 

Actually, Ian Anderson might disagree with you about prog (and he certainly doesn't seem to respect Gabriel-era Genesis).

 

Anderson from the new Classic Rock Presents Prog: "Prog became a bit of a joke, really. Perhaps the archetpal prog rock bands were the spaghetti noodlers like Yes and ELP, who could take a good idea and make it last for days! Some of it was silly, when you think about Peter Gabriel dressed a giant sunflower. It was ridiculous."

 

If Ian Anderson is kind of right, as you say, then maybe music fans who aren't into prog don't necessarily have "simple/dumb taste in music" and probably wouldn't "wake up to how good prog is after enough listening." Especially not if prog's about "spaghetti noodlers" and ridiculous theatrics. Reading Anderson's quote, one gets the feeling that the fans who turned away from prog and aren't interested may be more clued-in than you're giving them credit for. On the other hand, maybe you're right about people getting into prog if they'd only give it enough listening... but then Anderson's statement would have to be taken with a grain of salt (and probably disagreed with).