Genesis “Duke”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#236 in the Series) is Genesis, Duke.
I’ve always loved the Duke album. Not every track is great like most of the early works, but from start to finish, Duke was a darn strong Genesis effort.
It should be listed to in its entirety. The songs play together as a story.
It opens with the great ‘Behind The Lines’ and segues thru ‘Duchess’ and ‘Guide Vocal. Man of our Times’ is another great song.
Side two opens with another great side opener, ‘Turn it on Again.’ It ends with the reprise tinged ‘Duke’s Travels’ and ‘Duke’s End.’
If you’ll notice I’ve deliberately left out mentioning one song. It also was left off the video montage because I thought it was one of the lowest points in their career. But the rest of Duke more than makes up for that one song!
There is a great bootleg DVD if this tour. If you can find one, grab it! (You can see some of it below.)
Duke peaked at #11 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart
Personnel
- Phil Collins – percussion, drums, vocals, drum machine
- Tony Banks – keyboards, vocals, background vocals, 12 string guitar
- Mike Rutherford – basses, guitars, background vocals
- Daryl Stuermer- guitar, vocals (Touring Band Member)
- Chester Thompson – drums (Touring Band Member) (Should have been Artie Baldacci!)
Track listing
All songs written by Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford, except where noted.
Side A
- “Behind the Lines (Lyrics Mike Rutherford)” – 5:31
- “Duchess” (Lyrics Tony Banks) – 6:26
- “Guide Vocal” – (Banks) 1:35
- “Man of Our Times” (Rutherford) – 5:34
- “Misunderstanding” (Collins) – 3:13
- “Heathaze” (Banks) – 4:59
Side B
- “Turn It on Again” (Lyrics Mike Rutherford)– 3:50
- “Alone Tonight” (Rutherford) – 3:56
- “Cul-de-sac” (Banks) – 5:05
- “Please Don’t Ask” (Collins) – 4:01
- “Duke’s Travels” – (Lyrics Tony Banks) 8:40
- “Duke’s End” – 2:08
Visit our write up on Peter Gabriel Album
Visit our write up on Genesis Selling England By the Pound
Visit our write up on Mike Rutherford, SmallCreep’s Day.
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PLEASE NOTE THE VIDEO LINK BELOW IS A PLAYLIST OF THE FULL ALBUM.
AFTER YOU CLICK PLAY YOU CAN SCROLL TO YOUR FAVORITE OR LET THE FULL ALBUM PLAY
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I was able to find most of the album in live versions
Links
Listen to Genesis ‘Duke’ in it’s entirety on the Cool Album MySpace Page.
Nice call. After Foxtrot this was one that I really got into.
I don’t agree . For the ones that don’t know the album , my little review : Behind the Lines/Duchess/ Guide Vocal /Duke’s travels are a very good piece of music . Turn it on again/Please don’t ask and Misunderstanding are , well ……ok when you take them for what their are , pop-rock FM tunes . Now the ones that suck : “Man of our Times” is a pompous ,self-indulgent , annoying, long and painful rip-off from ” Back in N.Y.C” ( from the Lamb album). When a band does a plagiarism of their own material , well , isn’t it a sign that something goes wrong? Lack of inspiration, imagination, or simply laziness? I don’t know , still that song sucks. “Heathaze” is another bland, weak , “melacholic” song from Tony Banks, where nothing happens. Frankly every of his weak er tunes from the previous album ( “and then they were three”) is a masterpiece comparing to that uninspired and boring stuff, while it was already terrible .”Alone Tonight” is anotjher pathetic atempt from Rutherford to do a “simple ballad” for a radio….well missed again, pal! While I had to meditate almost for weeks to get off my head the idiotic refrain of his previous atempt..the unbearable “Your Own special way” , here he comes again with ” Alone tonight alone tonight alone tonigt..” …and for almost 4 minutes nothing happens exept for “alone tonight alone tonight alone tonight alone tonight…” does this anoys you already? well it’s nothing comparing to the tune itself! After this we have ” Cul -de sac” , the title speaks for itself…cause this tune leads you ..nowhere! It’s so annoying I even forget what it sounds like. I just remember I couldn ‘t listen to 5 minutes of it.
Unfortunetely, with the Then they were three/Duke/Abacab begins an era of the Genesis history, where a fan has to skip more and more tunes from their albums. It’s not even a guilty pleasure, it’s like beign robbed, because by Genesis’ standards it’s a shame!