1979 LP Charisma-2207-USA
1992 CD Blue Plate CAROL-1823-2
Virgin CASCD1148 (U.K.) 1979
Recorded at Polar Music Studios, Stockholm
Mixed at Maison-Rouge, London
Thanks to all at Hit & Run and Charisma
Genesis keyboardist Banks' first solo effort is a fine, overlooked
record (it was virtually ignored in the U.S.A., but did well in the
U.K.) that showed his gifts for melodic invention and his skills as a
musician admirably, and places his contributions to Genesis' sound into
context. The music is vintage progressive rock, with Banks' typically
dense layer of keyboards giving the music a good deal of atmosphere
"From the Undertow" is taken from Jerzy Skolimowski's film The Shout,
for which Banks and Mike Rutherford composed the score), and ex-String
Driven Thing vocalist Kim Beacon doing a fine, if not particularly
distinguished job on the vocals.
Nick Burton, All-Music Guide
Tony Banks' first solo album borrowed faint elements of Genesis' early
progressive sound, making his debut release the strongest in his
catalog. Solid keyboard movements lend themselves to mystic,
fantasy-like excursions found in tracks such as "From the Undertow,"
"Somebody Else's Dream," and "The Waters of Lethe," one of the album's
strongest cuts. Banks manages to capture the wonderment and allure that
enveloped Genesis' Peter Gabriel days in a number of his tracks, yet he
filters out the instrumental intricacies, unorthodox time signatures,
and complex poetry which enveloped these works to create a milder but
equally effective progressive realm, thus generating a fair amount of
musical distinction across the album. Banks has refreshingly disposed
of any coagulated instrumental pretentiousness that one might have
thought would be present, as cuts like "For a While," "In the Dark,"
and the title track verge on a new age sort of keyboard/guitar
beguilement. Vocalist Kim Beacon, who has worked with the Walkie
Talkies, String Driven Thing, and Thin Lizzy, is quite significant
throughout, as is the atmospheric percussion work of Chester Thompson.
Later efforts from Banks began to show a drift toward commercial pop,
much like Genesis' material, making A Curious Feeling and, to a lesser
extent, 1983's The Fugitive his most compelling work.
My name is unimportant
And my job you could call mean
But I like the work and I do it well
And that's enough for me.
I think there was a time when I
Could do, and did, much more.
I have dreams in which I captain the ship
and hear the ocean roar.
I've lived alone for all I can remember
Though that only means some six or seven years.
I would rather be nobody else,
I'm happy as I am.
All I need is in my way
And you see no one expects too much from me.
People cry, but no one asks me to advise them.
They want to know but they don't ask me how.
That's for someone else and not for me, I don't know.
Lucky me.
My friends think that I should be trying
To find out who I was.
But I feel that road would bring me pain
And too much would be lost.
How I am is how I'm meant to be now,
And anyhow there's things I see more clearly
Than those whose heads are searching in the clouds
to make discoveries,
And maybe fail to see
What's on the ground beneath their feet, not hard to find.
People cry, but no one asks me to advise them
They want to know but they don't ask me how,
That's for someone else and not for me, I don't know.
Lucky me.
The Lie
Thirty odd years before on some grass covered wasteland,
A boy is observed on his own who is watching and playing.
He's just made a pact with himself,
If that rabbit over there
Doesn't go down yonder hole,
Let the ground beneath him disappear.
And it runs on past,
Disappears in the distance
But the earth doesn't move and nobody thought that it would.
He makes bets and pledges again and again.
Sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses, no matter,
Some might call him stupid
To tempt fate in this way,
But he really does believe in it
Each time the rules are made
There he goes again,
'If I never fall for a lady, let me famous, let me be wise ---'
Now this one I like,
It has a different ring,
Instead of something trivial
That's a serious undertaking.
So I say to you,
This time I think I'll act,
I'll be a witness to this contract,
I'll settle everything.
So if you should ever fall in love
You'll not only not be wise,
You'll lose your memory and most of your mind
And I've never been known to lie.
And ow he's not really sure if he truly heard someone,
So what if he did, he thinks, for nothing will happen,
And though he seems to shrug it off
He won't play that game again,
Forever morning after the night before
When even one drop would cause pain.
And the years go by.
The incident is all but forgotten by one
But The other who lives it remembers that innocent fun.
After The Lie
For a while I could not lose this childhood spectre,
I felt others saw it too.
Now I notice a change in the way that people look at me,
And how those people look to me.
I see they're not so clever, I like them better for it too.
And one still more.
For now I see more clearly
Many things that passed me by.
Like Paul the visionary,
I see things in a different light.
For now I know what course to take.
Now at last I find a meaning in scenes of life
That made no sense to me before.
And the complicated structures of scientific knowledge
Once just mad, they seem so simple now.
And one I've known since childhood, she has new meaning for me too
These things are good.
For now I see more clearly
Many things that passed me by.
Like Paul the visionary,
I see things in a different light.
A Curious Feeling
It's a curious feeling to see the edge receding,
It seems the more I know, the more I don't know,
does this ever end?
If you listened to fanatics of the left or tight,
You'd think they'd solve it all,
But they don't convince me.
Some statesmen, gurus, men of science and of philosophy,
All have an answer but they won't agree.
So if anybody tells you stories
Of how they're gonna chance your world
Be they the Aga Khan, the ex Shah of Iran,
Or the Man from UNCLE,
Say I don't believe you cos I know we don't need you.
On the name of science or of any politician,
IO'm sure we've heard it all.
If races always ran to form they never would be run,
Where would be the fun?
And if ever a man could understand everything there was,
He'd have no reason to carry on.
So when anybody tells you stories
Of how they're gonna change your world,
Be they the Aga Khan, the ex Shah of Iran,
Or the Man from UNCLE,
Say come with me then to the Garden of Eden.
Put back our bites from the Apple of the Tree of Knowledge,
Be like the beasts again.
Forever Morning
(Instrumental)
You
How strange I never noticed
Your eyes or the colour of your hair.
It seems to me you grow more beautiful
In every way.
With every single passing day.
Love crept in unseen,
Found me wanting
I didn't even have the sense to know
What I was missing ,
Or what I was soon to feel for
You the laughter,
You a reason to live.
You the object of all the love I can give,
And all that I possess.
You who meant nothing when I was younger
It see, a memory from another life.
Did you ever think we'd meet this way,
Feel this way.
Did you ever even care?
Some changes I foresaw,
But not this one.
This feeling I would not have understood.
Strange to think
I might have lived my whole life without
You the laughter,
You a reason to live.
You the object of all the love I can give,
And all that I possess.
You who meant nothing when I was younger.
Somebody Else's Dream
Too good to last, how those four words ring in my ears.
A voice from the past has been heard again,
Whether it's real or not, I can't say I care
But my memory's going and my mind is losing its grip.
I'm walking on thinning ice.
Soon I shall be taken down, drowned in blind ignorance.
It's hard to bear but harder still
To tell the one I care for,
Please to say love is here today, but it's going away, going away.
Millions of people won't know what I mean,
None can appreciate somebody else's's dream.
Thousands of reasons for staying alive
Explode into fragments,
Dissolve into nothing.
As I prepare for the oncoming night,
Already I feel a creeping coldness chilling my bones,
Dulling my sight and mind.
Soon there shall be only sand where once water flowed.
Nature dies and is reborn, but I shan't weather this coming storm.
Not for me to die with children around my bed
After a happy life,
Though rain will fall ad the sun won't change in its course.
It's hard to bear but harder still
To tell the one I care for,
Please to say love is here today, but it's going away, going away.
Millions of people won't know what I mean,
None can appreciate somebody else's's dream.
Thousands of reasons for staying alive
Explode into fragments,
Dissolve into nothing.
As I prepare for the oncoming night.
The Waters of Lethe
(Instrumental)
For A While
I feel it leading me
Away to I don't know where.
I might be back someday,
But the people and things will change
And no one will remember me then.
Don't need no sympathy,
For soon I'll forget everything.
I feel it fading now,
And I see in the eyes of my love
Tears for how it might have been.
It sure felt good for a while.
Yes it was good for a while.
I found somebody to take my hand
To the promised land of the loved.
Now as the night draws in,
A dark with no promise of dawn,
I feel my eyes grow dim,
As I see in the eyes of my love
Tears for how it might have been.
It sure felt good for a while.
Yes it was good for a while.
I found somebody to take my hand
To the promised land of the loved.
In The Dark
If you know my story now,
Please don't't tell
Don't want to hear
It can only bring me pain.
Maybe one day before I die
I'll open that door
Maybe I'll cry,
But for now I'll live in the Dark.