Genesis - Riding The Scree Lyrics

This is everything I love about Genesis....

Struggling down the slope
There's not much hope
I begin to try to ride the scree
But the rocks are tumbling all around me

If I want John alive
I've got to ditch my fear, take a dive
While I've still got my drive to survive

(Evel Knievel you got nothing on me)

Here I go!

There is triumph in that keyboard riff.

Rael has already saved his own soul. He just doesn't know it yet.

Thats what I call a stumbling drum

2. Apocalypse in 9/8?

These musicians walk to a different stride..... RLRLRLRLL!

Drummers always harp on about Bonham (A great player) but for gods sake you’d think he was the only drummer to ever achieve anything! Collins had everything Feel, groove, technique, swing,power, amazing arranging skills and that flawless ability to switch time signatures and make it sound seamless, a truly amazing drummer! I always love it when Tony and Phil take off on these wonderful musical journeys with Mike underpinning everything with his very underrated Bass playing 😎

Proove of Steve Hackett Genius Guys Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trs7YXYQk8o

This song is really good, but have you ever listened to its live version from Liverpool Empire Theatre (1975) where Phill plays so fucking fast that even Tony struggles to play part of the solo? That shit is amazing

In the History of Music. Forever.

I always have to listen to this song at least one more time. I remember Freshman year at college discovering this album in a friend’s collection. And musically it just blew my mind. The whole album .... especially Back in NYC .... lifting up the needle.... playing it over and over..... thanks for posting this as The Lamb is one of my favorites ..... and each time I listen to it I enjoy it even more....

Phunk Collins right here

Do you shout "Here I Go!" when listening? I do!

Let's get it straight, how do you even begin to write stuff like this? Answer, you are early Genesis, I've loved this since I first heard it in 1978, I love all the Genesis stuff, early is better, but the later stuff sold better.

Yes just the best ever😘😊😛🤓

out of this world!

Even modern stuff like Mr. Bungle can’t come close to this.

The greatest album in rock music history.

might be an allegory to baptism by immersion.

👍👍👍

tony banks never knew the real love and credit he would be getting from this album

Would like to see Tony's hands moving so fast during this amazing solo

Fuck yes!!! I can't wait for Page McConnell to murder this tune in Vegas this year for Phish Halloween!!!

Phil Collins is so nasty

Genial acompañamiento de Phil a la batería y espectacular solo del maestro Banks. Gracias Genesis por existir y ser tan jodidamente buenos.

1,42 - 2,10 the most wonderful sound on earth.

*0.00-4.07

Absolute masterwork. Thank you Genesis.

The drumming may be very unorthodox, but Phil Collins is one of the most brilliant and underrated drummers who has ever lived!

@Tarkus2040 not underrated !

@Jason Barbush Peart is great, but Collins in his days topped him by far

@OfeKool Collins 73-77 period is in another league... over Peart by far.

Definitely Jason

I love Peart because Peart loved and admired Phil Collins. He said that himself.

This was an assault on senses according to Mike Rutherford

And Waiting Room wasn't?

love the way this song sounds like the cinema show

This sounds like a song that would be played in an evil laboratorty of some sort

Emerson and Wakeman could play this keyboards work while there were watching a football match on TV

+Anki Hansen is your respectable opinion, i think different. comparate Emerson and Wakeman to Malmsteen is more than Crazy but if you think you are right is ok. for my opinion Banks is a medium keyboard player and also Minnear and Vittorio Nocenzi were much more inspirated and technical

giorgio broletti chi si erge a PRESUNTUOSO sei tu...caro IGNORANTE....Keith e Rick possono al LIMITE pulire le tastiere a TONY.....bye bye BLA BLA.

tu sei un mediocre nella vita come Banks lo era alle tastiere, i passaggi di questo pezzo sono ridicoli, da principiante, senza un minimo di creatività, tutto già sentito e risentito

giorgio broletti Giorgetto...ma quanto sei.....PATETICAMENTE IGNORANTE......IMPARA A PENSARE COSA È LA MUSICA...SEMPRE SE È NELLE TUE POSSIBILITÀ....PENSARE....

marco, continua a pensare come vuoi, la musica non è questa, sta da altre parti ed i Genesis fino a Selling england sapevano benissimo dove era la musica, peccato che con questo confuso calderone pop-rock abbiano perso la bussola. chissà perchè nei dischi seguenti hanno cercato invano di ritornare sui propri passi (per quanto fosse francamente impossibile)

8-track memories.

Here I go!

Tony Banks is a genius. This is great.

8 people failed to ride the scree.

WOW tears!

No disrespect to the others - just Tony? WOW. The last in line of the out there keys.

Yeah Tony gets a hard time because of Peter and Phil and Mike . He's the original.

Although written in the 1970's still one of the most perfect rock organ instrumentals ever written - BRILLANT!!!Rock on boys & girls!Cheers!, Blozo The Clown

I worked with a guy that saw the famous show at the Shrine auditorium, with his wife. They didn't know Peter was leaving the band. He was blown by the concert.

Tony banks Master synthesizer

the lamb

the lamb

I love concept albums but Ian Anderson was right to satirize them to with Thick As A Brick.

Tony Banks is one of the most inspired keyboard players...he may not have the speed or technique of the God Keith Emerson but he surely has imagination

I know they are all great , but Tony Banks was one of the most imaginative in my opinion

listen to the awakening by Yes sometime with Wakeman's keyboard. Tell me that doesn't take some imagination. That being said even through the worst years of Genesis the one thing that always stayed great with this band was Tony Banks plus he was such an arrogant ass he had to be somewhat inventive to get away with his arrogance.

@blabbermouth777 I listened to it and it is surely evocative , but Tony Banks is more original in my opinion. Rick Wakeman is a master though ; the sound effects and the organ playing in "I get up I get down" section of Close To The Edge gives me shivers every time I listen to it.

Banks' 10 best solos (mainly the analog synth ones):

Can-Utility and the Coastliners
Supper's Ready
The Cinema Show
In the Cage
Riding the Scree
Robbery, Assault and Battery
...In That Quiet Earth
Down and Out
The Lady Lies
Duke's Travels

Suppose I also better include The Raven!

This is the hardest song I ever tried to learn on Drums. I failed miserably.

@TRANZEURO You got Terry confused with Peter Cetera. Terry accidentally killed himself in 1977, and that's when Cetera's sappy ballads took over. But go listen to those early Chicago albums, and listen to just how good Cetera was on bass.

@Ed Lawn No,I think you misunderstood.You're absolutely right what you say about Cetera but when I brought up Terry Kath I was referring to the fact that he doesn't usually get mentioned as being one of the greatest rock guitarist when that topic is being discussed or whenever they do those rock polls. The stigma that Chicago has because of their later 80's work causes Terry's brilliant guitar playing to get overlooked very frequently much in the same way that Phil's drumming is.

@TRANZEURO I understand. But I thought Collins and Cetera kind of paralleled each other as well in that like Collins' drumming, Cetera's excellent bass work on those early Chicago albums is forgotten, because his sappy songs are all anyone thinks about him now. And as for Kath, any real music aficionado knows just how great Terry was, and that he wasn't a part of the bad era of Chicago, just as Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett left Genesis before they went pop.

@Ed Lawn Yes,I agree Cetera's bass work is excellent.I own all of those early Chicago albums,and I definitely appreciate what he was capable of doing.It's frustrating that Phil,Terry,and Peter don't get their proper recognition.....but in the case of Peter and Phil they kind of did it to themselves.....

Try breaking it down into 5/4 then 4/4 to get the whole 9/8 count down easier. Or just stumble along while playing to it with headphones until you eventually can at least play your own 9/8 version of something similar and eventually you will either be able to play it note for note or you will no longer feel like you need to play it note for note to be comfortable as a drummer

1:37-1:42 Phil being beyond awesome.

Check him out in Brand X!

Check out what he's doing behind "Evel Knievel, you got nothin' on me" @2:39 you can feel the rocks coming loose as he scrambles downslope

this amazing album is the sum total of what Genesis is all about.The best they ever sounded as well.Radio stations are scared to death of stuff like this.That's how you know it's good.

OMG 5 people are philistines! :-o

IMHO the whole album „The lamb lies down on Broadway“ is one of the greatest pieces of art ever written in music history. It's pure art, not just pop music and dull entertainment, although it's at the same time a great pleasure and joy to be listening to it.

And this song is one of its many highlights. However, I would never listen to it on its own, because the Lamb is a concept album in the truest sense of the world, it's all connected to one big piece of music, like a symphony, and the enjoyment of each song is biggest in the context of the other songs.

It would be difficult to argue against that point...I've been listening to it for decades and love it even more now...If you haven't checked out the annotated Lamb, It's very informative...http://www.bloovis.com/music/lamb.html

Yup, which is part of its quality. If a band made a new album in this style it would be less impressive.

Agreed. As far as it not being as ideal when listening to any of the tracks on their own, I nevertheless could probably pick three sections off each of the two discs as being the main highlights for me:

Fly on a Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974
Cuckoo Cocoon/In the Cage
Back in N.Y.C./Hairless Heart

Anyway
The Lamia
The Light Dies Down/Riding the Scree

Best Prog-Rock ever !!!

Favourite part: 1:35 to 2:10

elbay2 same

MONSTER DRUMS AND KEYS

There will never be another like that. That was the best. Today we can never have music like in those times.

amazing drumming

Phil Collins at his finest!

Amazing everything !!

Weird mix. The picked guitar part is really prominent in the fade out.

Tony Banks at his best!

In the Rapids but my Favorit is "It." !!!Love this Songs well i like " it "  ;) !!!

Best prog rock EVER. And especially good when listening through Klipsch LaScalas and a pair of Universal Studios horn loaded Sensurround subs loaded with JBL 2242h drivers and 600 watts of bass power. Here I go! And you go! So do the pictures on the walls the glasses on the table and the plaster. Genesis forever!

high school ; blodder ; and young ... and farewell peter ...

..I was born in the 70's ...I was lucky to Listen to Great Music like this from Genesis..!..The Lamb Is a Awesome Album...And Glad to Have it.!

+Carlos Krueger You were very lucky, I'm only 32.

Thxs.
.I sure am...

I was a teenager at that time: i lived fully that period. There was something magical and unexplainable during that age.

I dig into my Genesis collection and play the lamb ,always blown away...

DAT BASSLINE.

Mike Rutherford mate

Tony Banks <3

as a keyboardist, I went crazy for this song long ago. I still think this is one of Tony Banks' masterpieces.

O yeah, he's got quite a few of those... ;)

The Sense8 Thank You Project Magic raelity of life in music

Keyboardist here too, but I think the young Tony sound was too busy... hate me all you want but I prefer his music with the 3 men band.

@Ernesto Gasulla I see a kind of pattern with talented young musicians who are very competitive, they tend to "show off" to the audience and each other, then as they get older they start to slow down and appreciate atmosphere, structure, and nuance more. ^_^

Hackett and Banks at their best.

And Gabriel Too!

@balero22559 You are correct, Hackett does not play on this song.

arkanoiddude d

Afraid there's no Hackett on this track. Rutherford is playing the six-string through phaser. I saw this live, and Steve definitely left the stage during this track.

Sorry, you Might say : Banks- Collins- Rutherford

The run from 1:34 to 2:10 is fucking gorgeous.
9/8 FTW!!!!

I just love listening to Phil's drums on this track. His use of the ride cymbal is especially good.

Me too. I tried to learn the drum parts, once, Couldn't even get the first 2 bar right after hours of trying.  It's in an unusual time signature and pretty hard to learn.  I have such respect for Phil, as a drummer since!

Check the Lamb live version from the 1998 CD box set. Phil is mindblowing here. And Tony is on fire (that combionation of the Hammond T-102 organ and Arp ProSoloist synth was pure awseomeness.

I love the beautiful oddness of this.

oddity and distortion has its wonderful quality.

I was just commenting that the guitar quality, along with the fact that it is exposed at the beginning of the track, REMINDS me of Have a Cigar. I know that Wish You Were Here was a 1975 release and that the two guitar riffs contain separate notes. With how patronizing some of the comments were, I just needed to clarify my argument.

A slope of loose rock debris at the base of a steep incline or cliff.

always sang this one to myself as an ode to being low to out of ganj
"struggling downslope, ain't got much dope ..." was younger then, you see

Lmao.  That's something I would do

Steve Nyland I do too and I'm 50 years. Been a huge fan of The lamb since I was a teenager.

what is a Scree? 

It's rocks falling down a slope, sort of like an avalanche but with rocks instead of snow.

+arkanoiddude Not quite. scree doesn't move, it's fragments of rock that form at the base of a slope.

tony banks *-*

Bizarra y genial intro

Tony Banks kicks asses along the whole album

This is Genesis at its very best!

the synth work here is sick.

The lyrics is this: "Struggling down the slope, there's not much hope / I begin to try to ride the scree, but the rocks are tumbling all around me. / If I want John alive, i've got to ditch my fear - take a dive / While I've still got my drive to survive. / Evel Knievel you got nothing on me. / ...Here I go!"

you're trolling... like, right?!

Tony is the master here, yes. But Phil's drum work is nothig short of awesome and essential not just to the Genesis-sond but also to the "Lamb" sound. At the time almost every rock drummer used dry and taped down toms. Phil non-taped toms with coated toms and resonance heads (he later changed that into the opposite - clear coated toms without resonance heads), something only jazz drummers did at the time. I always admired the unique sound Phil got out of the drums like this.

Hard to say, because Phil did so many backing vocals blending-in perfectly with Peter on this album. But yes, this is definitely Peter Gabriel on (strong) lead vocal here. The "Here I go" part sounds like a tape-sped-up Peter Gabriel (I am a musician but not God) and not the usual "he's such a fine dancer!" high voice by Phil (whom I happen to love...). You think "Trick" and "Wind" suck as albums. Fine with me. I think they are still masterpieces. But that's a matter of taste. All's cool. :-)

Hard to say, because Phil did so many backing vocals blending-in perfectly with Peter on this album. But yes, this is definitely Peter Gabriel on (strong) lead vocal here. The "Here I go" part sounds like a tape-sped-up Peter Gabriel (I am a musician but not God) and not the usual "he's such a fine dancer!" high voice by Phil (whom I happen to love...). You think "Trick" and "Wind" suck as albums. Fine with me. I think they are still masterpieces. But that's a matter of taste. All's cool. :-)

Leave to Pete and the boys to create such a masterpiece thanks from my heart to yours. I bow to the and treat you with such reverence and adulation.

Uhhhhh.... the pipes are Peter Gabriel's..... .Granted, the drumming in the time signature played IS extraordinary, but this was the last Genesis album to feature PG. The rest go downhill from here.

Pure awesomeness. Tony the brilliant and disciplined keyboard wizard and Phil the wacky, inventive and equally highly talented drummer (to say notyhing about his incredible set of pipes). This is Genesis at their peak: they worked their asses off and still it has bite, zest and power. When i first heard this back in the 70s on poor quality vinyl I couldn't believe my ears. I thought this blows all other prog rock acts out of the water. Still does to tjis very day!

I never realized "scree" was actually a word until I came across it in a book today. I always assumed it was some magical creature Rael was riding to catch up to his brother XD

Especially as the song is in 9/8.

here i go :3

I play this song over and over and over and over and over, now, for the past 27 years...makes me cry everytime..idk why Genesis is Heaven I guess...

Have a Cigar is a much slower groove. The notes seem similar to the untrained ear, but when all musical elements are taken into account, both tunes are unique and special.

Came before Have a Cigar actually

The intro reminds me of "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd. Anyone else agree?

Except with a lot more talent.

Thumbs up for the futuristic intro!

This music is very ahead of its time .. sorry for my english.

Tony did get great tones in the 70s. It was when he moved over to the 80s synths that things got a tiny bit less interesting.

Goose pimples every time I hear the start to this! just bliss of the highest order!!! :}>

Thumbs up if you found this video while trying to learn more about scree!

Back in 1974 the Minimoog and the Arp Oddyssey were all considered the great synths (and they are in fact great), but Tony chose a preset single oscillator synth: the Arp ProSoloist. Man what a sweet tone - and Tony really knew how to squeeze out every last nuance of that underrated powerful synth. Some people say Tony was lazy chosing a preset synth - nope, you couldn't be more wrong: there still were a lot of switches to turn at the exact time and make use of its great aftertouch feature.

This seems to be the latest mix (not the '94 remaster which was already great). I remember this on crappy vinil back in the 70s, with noise, crackle and a 60Hz hum - it still blowed me away - and always will. Phil always played meaningful musical phrases that talked to you on the drums. Waaaay underrated!!!!!!! Now for Tony: I think he found the definitive keyboard sound here. Darn, Tony was the very reason I became a musician. Wrong decision, I know, but I still don't regret it.

still this group in this lineup was something different from one year after without gabe. the vibe is totally different. probably phil did not even had a plan back then. he just played what he felt. it was some sort of magic moments that never repeated for them anymore. the sense of mistery is over the top. the music was probably out of their control....