Guitar Noir (17th May 1993)

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Some Notes From Scott Mcmahan's Genesis Discography

The Viceroy version of this CD has an extra track at the end which is of special interest. It is Cassandra (3:42), featuring Steve Hackett & Brian May of Queen. This is the only track from the Hackett/May album that will ever be released. The track is actually not listed anywhere on the liner notes or even on the CD itself. The only way it is noted is by a sticker added to the front of the CD booklet. There are no writing, performance, or even copyright credits anywhere for this song! (Thanks to Jason Finegan for this one!)

Information taken from "The Genesis Discography" by Scott Mcmahan.

Lyrics & Production Credits

  1. Lost In Your Eyes (4:11)
  2. In The Heart Of The City (4:32)
  3. Sierra Quemada (5:02)
  4. Vampyre With A Healthy Appetite (5:11)
  5. Take These Pearls (4:12)
  6. Little America (4:40)
  7. There Are Many Sides To The Night (6:55)
  8. Walking Away From Rainbows (3:10)
  9. Like An Arrow (2:49)
  10. Dark As The Grave (4:37)
  11. Paint Your Picture (2:57)
  12. Tristesse (3:57)
  13. Cassandra (3:42)

    14. Produced by Steve Hackett with Aron Friedman & Billy Budis
    Executive Producer : Billy Budis
    Artisic Director : Kim Poor
    Front cover: Enamel painting on steel by Kim Poor

    All tracks recorded and mixed in The Basement
    Mastered by Ian Anderson at Battery
    Management: Kudos Music, PO Box 71, Twickenham TW1 2PW

    Billy has asked me not to give him special thanks but I
    will anyway for being more than a manager.

    Personal Note: If ever an album was also a love letter it's
    this one, addressed to Kim for all her inspiration,
    understanding and sweetness... Keep painting the light!

    Notes: Distributed and marketed by The Total Record Company via
    BMG (UK) Limited
    Released on CD format only


Players

Steve Hackett : Vocals, Guitars, Harmonica, Stepp, Rainstick, Noises & Backing vocals
Aron Friedman : Keyboards, Programming & String Arrangements
Julian Colbeck : Keyboards & Backing Vocals
Dave 'Taif' Ball : Bass
Hugo Degenhardt : Drums & Backing vocals
Billy Budis : Backing Vocals


Lost In Your Eyes (Steve Hackett/Julian Colbeck/Hugo Degenhardt/Dave Ball)
The harmonica has finally come out of the closet - born again through the Blues!

I see the valleys
I see the streams I see the mountains and what's in between
I hear thunder fall from the sky
I see a world
Lost in your eyes

In my dreams
I see you smile
I feel the sun
I want to stay for a while
I hear music just makes me cry
I see a world
Lost in your eyes

A one horse town
A dirt road
Way in the desert where the cactus grow
I hear you calling me mile after mile
I see a world
Lost in your eyes


In The Heart Of The City (Steve Hackett)
A total experience in aural claustrophobia, man!

Standard bearers march to the tick of the clock
It's a war against time when you're fronting the flock
Determined resolute defiant and strong
Noble and Savage know they belong

In the heart of the city
In the heart of the city

The battlefield of love a ruffled feathered bed
From fluid moist lips the benediction's said
You love them and leave them with yesterday's guilt
Everything's on schedule in the empire that you built

In the heart of the city
In the heart of the city

In the heart of the city
In the heart of the city

You close a deal Thursday at 7.45
The train home is empty you're the only man alive
You throw away your clothes in a house of clouds
The window is sealed the furniture in shrouds

In the heart of the city
In the heart of the city
In the heart of the city
In the heart of the city

Sierra Quemada (Steve Hackett)
Loosely translated means 'the scorched earth'
(Instrumental)


Vampyre With A Healthy Appetite (Steve Hackett)
Inspired by a newspaper headline about the theft of several pints of blood from a hospital in the French Quarter of New Orleans

As New Orleans slips far away
When the gas lights dim and the street cars fade
When the beast within takes on a new shape
The blood runs cold make no mistake

You're just a vampyre with a healthy appetite
And you stay awake half the night

A band strikes up and they're starting to play
When the sirens wail but they're way too late
The crowds don't see they're drunk anyway
The inquest said it was coming her way

You're just a vampyre with a healthy appetite
And you stay awake half the night

Well you ran to ground as you always do
And then they finally caught up with you
Well they sent you down and Old Smokey was waiting but pressure
groups being what they are these days you were released after five
years at a funny farm in upstate bankrupt
New York to walk the streets once more


Take These Pearls (Steve Hackett/Aron Friedman)
A song about bearing gifts

Take these pearls from an oyster shell
From the depths of the ocean bed
From the bottom of the sea
Like a wishing well
Oh...

Take these stones fashioned into jewels
Like the essence of a half remembered song
From the crust of the earth
To the limits of the sky
Oh...

Oh...

Take these stones fashioned into jewels
Like the essence of a half remembered song
From the crust of the earth
To the limits of the sky
Oh...

Ooh...


Little America (Steve Hackett/Julian Colbeck/Hugo Degenhardt/Dave Ball)
American TV is a guest that has taken up permanent residence in all our homes

With Lana Turner on the screen beside me
The frame is hardly filled by Orson Wells
We switch into a Fred and Ginger number
That they're dancing oh so well

Blowing the blues all night
I'm sure I heard someone say
Stars never fade
And everyone's dying to play

In Little America
In Little America
In Little America

We got a chinese Elvis painted by Norman Rockwell
His part tonight will be played by Richard Pryor
The Mason Dixon line divides
The free from all the rest so you can sell

Oklahoma
To Cinderella
From Long Island
And everyone's dying to play

In Little America
In Little America
In Little America

Lower your standards raise your prices
On cable TV
Pretty woman seen at the death of a salesman
All covered with cream

And everyone's dying to play

In Little America...


There Are Many Sides To The Night (Steve Hackett)
The story of a streetwalker and her deepest motivation

Standing under the lamplight
In one of the nicer parts of hell
Behold this dreamer
With rich red ruby lips
Some pay for the privilege
And some just pay to talk
Because there are many sides to the night

When Father Thomas lies sleeping
His ever watchful sons
Divide up the spoils of the day's takings
A woman's work is never ever done
She's a child a slave a teacher and a fool
And then she vanishes from sight
Did no one ever tell you
There are many sides to the night

Standing under the lamplight
Selling perfume sweetcorn and lace
She looks beautiful from a distance
But it's too dark to see her face
I do it for my child alone
And who would say it's just not right
Verily I say unto you
There are many sides to the night


Walking Away From Rainbows (Steve Hackett)
Sometimes the afterglow isn't enough and we must move on
(Instrumental)


Like An Arrow (Steve Hackett)
From an idea as old as Eros

Like an arrow in the night
Like an arrow by the day
Like an arrow in the night
Like an arrow by the day

Come away from your bed at night
Leave all those empty halls behind
Have no fear of death
Have no fear of life
The taste of victory ahead
The spirit never dies

Like an arrow in the night
Like an arrow by the day
Like an arrow in the night
Like an arrow by the day

A mission bell by the ghostly station
Tolling in the wind
The veins in your hand
Stretch like broken trees of winter

The last call the last port of entry

Like an arrow in the night
Like an arrow by the day
Like an arrow in the night
Like an arrow by the day


Dark As The Grave (Steve Hackett/Aron Friedman)
A pessimistic view of the human condition

Dark as night
Dark as the grave
Dark wherein my friend is laid
Sleepwalkers fill the boulevards
Pretty girls and backward boys
All the voices can be heard
An opera of the absurd

Dark as night
Dark as the grave
Dark wherein my friend is laid
We welcome you
We welcome you
The world of chaos far away
As the crowd of mourners said
Tragedy is nothing new

Dark as night

Dark as night
Dark as the grave
Dark wherein my friend is laid


Paint Your Picture (Steve Hackett)
The visualisation of a loved one through brush and canvas or ... "Here's looking at you kid!"

I'd like to paint your beauty
All over the world

I'd like to paint your sadness

I'd like to paint your picture
All over the world


Tristesse (Aron Friedman)
For Roger Weil - Who knows what lies behind ... "that patch of blue we prisoners call the sky" (Oscar Wilde)
(Instrumental)


Cassandra (Steve Hackett)
Bonus Track

Give me a sign
If you know about the future
Tell me the reason
Why you look oh so sad
Somewhere in time
Another premonition
Or is it a memory of what happened in the past?

Cassandra
When you cry
Cassandra
A legend died
Cassandra
Stay the night
Till sunrise

Open the door
If you can brave the danger
Having to see right now
What lies ahead
Nobody listens
Till it's too late to change it
Always in suspicion
No matter what you said

Cassandra
When you cry
Cassandra
A legend died
Cassandra
Stay the night
Till sunrise

Cassandra
When you cry
Cassandra
Oooh...
Cassandra
Oh...
Cassandra
Cry...
Cassandra
Till sunrise
Cassandra.....

Cassandra
Cassandra

My Thoughts...

This is an album where I see Steve heading towards a new direction. I think he has a new band too. Well, it is interesting to note that on this album, he had taken on different approach in the writing of the music. For example, songs like "Lost In Your Eyes" and "Little America" were co-written by the band and himself, I think that's great! We also see Steve collaborating with a new guy, Aron Friedman, he even recorded a composition by him which is a first for Steve as Steve Hackett has always recorded his own or co-written compositions besides doing traditional pieces, Bach or Chopin.

I've enjoyed this album tremendously. This album is musically very strong and I think there are two types of songs here. The fast bits are mainly on the first half of the album and the slower ones on the other half. I prefer the slower ones as they touch my heart more. Again, Steve amazes me with his guitar skills and also his use of the Stepp guitar, which is a digital guitar. There are not many guitarists familiar with this technology and I'm really glad Steve is. I think I have an article of Steve's writing in a British guitar magazine called "Total Guitar" which I hope to include here shortly. My favourites on this album are "In The Heart Of The City", "Sierra Quemada", "There Are Many Sides To The Night" and "Walking Away From Rainbows". All very beautiful pieces. In the song "In The Heart Of The City", I was most impressed with the ending, the instrumental solo by Julian Colbeck was so good and the chords behind that even better. I think Julian played for the group, Yes, once and I think he's a great musician. My mother adores the song "Sierra Quemada" and I love it too, especially the ending sequence where Steve sustains his guitar endlessly, I really wonder how he did that, if only I could ask him. I felt that his signature Genesis style of playing can be heard very clearly in "There Are Many Sides To The Night" and "Walking Away From Rainbows" can really make you cry. On some tracks, Steve reminded me of Enya, not bad for someone who can't really sing at some stage. I really hear his voice improving here!

If you want to get into Steve's work, this is a good album to start with as it's very accessible but still represents what Steve Hackett is all about. I don't see it hiting the charts as it's not really Billboard material but I really wish it could.

Any comments, additions, flames, mail me okay?