STEVE HACKETT Fixing Genesis Classics
Steve Hackett’s Genesis Revisited II project gave him the opportunity to fix some of the band’s classic songs.
He’d always regretted the absence of a solo part in The Music Box, and felt Supper’s Ready needed more guitar work.
And the new album – connected to his 1996 release Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited – presented the perfect chance to satisfy himself.
Hackett tells Music Radar: “I wanted to do this material again and get the guitar parts right. To get it in time and in tune was irresistible, but I wanted to restore certain things.
“The end of the guitar solo on The Music Box, I originally wrote as a three-part harmony. One of the parts got left off in 1971 because we mixed it at about four or five in the morning. So I re-recorded that and that third harmony is now in there.
“I felt Supper’s Ready could have done with a bit more guitar on it around the keyboard solo, so I brought some in, like a distant ghostly violin sound. I find it quite riveting, this idea of very quiet, screaming lead guitar.
“I also used it on Chamber of 32 Doors. You get this very empty moment where the vocal’s going, ‘I need something to believe in, something to trust’ and I’ve got this screaming guitar – but it’s very, very quiet, way off in the reverb and just about audible.
“It’s something most guitarists don’t do. I’m not the first to do it, but it’s another colour for guitarists.”
Hackett decided to select what he thought were the most “haunting” Genesis tracks to give the Revisited treatment. “It’s stuff that’s considered seminal material by people such as Steven Wilson, who appears on the album,” he says. “Guitar is key to it. I always think Genesis blurred the distinction between what guitars and keyboards were capable of.”
Source: http://www.progrockmag.com
You may also like...
Prog Sphere Android App
You must be logged in to post a comment Login