I was browsing through the LA Weekly today when I came across a book reading at Book Soup (which deserves its own blog entry actually.) This was for a book called Yes is the Answer. The "yes" in the title refers to the rock band Yes, and the book is all about the most maligned and loathed form of rock music, so-called "progressive rock."
While disliked by snooty rock critics and holier-than-thou hipsters, progressive rock is beloved by many music nerds. Those same guys that loved Dungeons and Dragons and were captians of the chess team....they also loved bands like ELP, Rush, Yes, and the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. If you're unfamiliar, progressive rock was sort of a fusion of classical music with rock. It featured long songs, lots of instrumental passages, a hefty amount of keyboard solos, and perhaps pretentious and/or inscrutable lyrics. (Which were of course analyzed by many suburban teenagers with nothing else to do.)
This book looks to be a humorous ode to some outdated music the authors grew up listening to.
What really caught my eye with the LA Weekly article, though, was that they will be having a discussion of the book at Cinefamily (which is to nerd movies what progressive rock is to nerd music.) Cinefamily is a program that runs at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax, showing some really, and I mean really, eclectic and oddball stuff.
They are having the authors in person, and showing some rare footage, including a film I always wanted to see on a big screen: Genesis In Concert.
This is not the pop throwaway "Invisible Touch" Genesis you probably cringe at remembering. (And that was famously lampooned in American Psycho.) This is from the first year Phil Collins moved from simply drumming to singing. Back when he had a beard and long hair:
The below photo is actually a still from the movie. And perfect for this book title, Collins is "double drumming" here with the drummer from Yes, Bill Bruford.
At this point in time, the peak of a Genesis show was a 30 minute song called "Supper's Ready" (which is in the above movie.)
I am sure the old Genesis nerds will come out of the woodwork for this showing....
