Gould, Rob -& Friends-
(col) Play Nursery Cryme (+cd)
Coloured version. Fruits de Mer has a bit of history when it comes to recreating albums from the '60s and '70s... The Hollies' 'Butterfly,' The Pretty Things' 'S.F. Sorrow,' Egg's first album, The Action's 'Rolled Gold' - but who would be mad enough to take on the whole of the classic 'Nursery Cryme,' Genesis having escaped the clutches of FdM in any form until now?? Any artist with the nerve to take on such a challenge was bound to appeal to Fruits de Mer, and with Rob Gould he already had 'history'... on the back of the 'Rob Gould Plays Pawn Hearts' LP, released through FdM in the summer of 2021, Rob had the idea of doing a follow-up album, covering another of his all-time favourite bands; but, which one? Over to Rob... "'Nursery Cryme' had been a huge influence on me as a late-teen, and has stayed with me throughout my life as a musician, as have many of the earlier Genesis albums. But it was 'Nursery Cryme' in particular that I felt I knew best, having probably listened to it more than any other; another factor in choosing it over perhaps 'Foxtrot' or 'Selling England By The Pound,' was it seemed (not so in hindsight) infinitely more playable than the other Genesis classics. In stark contrast to 'Pawn Hearts,' where I felt there was a lot of room for my own interpretation of the three epic songs on that album, with Genesis - summed up by the understated quote of Michael Rutherford - "If you play all the right notes, then the songs will sound quite good" - there was less room for improvisation, and I knew I had to get 'all the right notes' as close to the original versions as much as possible, albeit with my own unavoidingly personal style, and the unique feel and sounds of my friends. Over a period of weeks/months even, I painstakingly recorded a 'basic' template of each song... tempo maps, chords and notes, and added as any parts as I could in readiness for my musician friends to add their parts."