COMMENTS on CWC August 2020 👣 CARPET CRAWLERS 👣

jesi23

Welcome to the COMMENTS Thread.

Please post all comments in this thread, and keep the main thread reserved for your ENTRIES

_{underlined link is direct link to the entries thread}.

Topic for AUGUST 2020 👣CARPET CRAWLERS👣

This month’s topic was chosen by @caro120 - I challenged her to come up with a topic, and she replied:

“just inspired by fact could do with a hoover here and not got round to it yet.
‘Carpet Crawlers’ was a track by early genesis who did very odd video! got the song but not the lightshow film thingy they projected onto back of stage… all i remember was long carpet fibres and people weaving in and out of it, must have been shag pile lol! It makes me think also of those electron microscope piccies of dust mites; could also be fleas, developmental steps of babies, our cat we took in once made his home in a roll of carpet outside the house - he could be a carpet crawler.”

screenshot from performance of Musical Box ‘Carpet Crawlers’ on YouTube.

As always, the topic is subject to your personal interpretations and a variety of approaches are possible!

Entries should be your own work; if you decide to post anything written by someone else, please acknowledge their authorship.
Only your first entry will be considered; you can submit ‘non-entries’ (labelled as such) in this thread if you wish.

Please keep to a maximum 1500 words
winner will be decided at the end of the month on the basis of ‘reactions’ received
No prizes except the satisfaction of appreciation and the joy of writing
Please one entry per member
No abusive language please

Thank you to everyone who gets involved in this month’s CWC whether in submitting entries or in reading and commenting.

Everyone’s contributions are valuable and make this what it is!

I am looking forward to reading your entries and discussions this month! Jes _{_🤡}

‘When in Rome 2007 DVD’

Published on 29 Oct 2009 on YouTube by RHINO
Watch this live performance of “Carpet Crawlers” from Genesis’ DVD “When in Rome” from 2007.
The song was originally from the 1974 Genesis concept album
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
http://www.genesis-music.com/

_{_🤡}

frenchielove

jesi23 thank you for this 🤗

polowoman

jesi23 - Such a vivid description of the unwanted guests under the sofa in your poem makes quite an impression. Your mention of their presence on hot August evenings is reminiscent of my daughter’s dread of this month when large spiders appear, apparently from nowhere. We have an insect catcher with a long handle so if they are accessible we trap them in this, then put them out of the back door unharmed. Life in our house can then return to normal! Unfortunately, the under-sofa visitors would slip through the catcher so little point in chasing them with it! So pleased you have also entered the comp and hope you will do so in the future.

killian12

jesi23
I’m a big Genesis fan - thanks for sharing this.

Enjoyed your entry. Sort of put me in mind of the Gruffalo. Perfect pic to accompany your piece by the way.
Well done. 👏

jesi23

Just a shout out to those who regularly write to let you know the current topic has been posted: @polowoman @ja11 @amejoy @serving_n_a_j @natty88 @scrips49 @spiritquest @jjanssen @123kingarthur @netfax @bluemoonbaz

Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested. _{_🤡}

polowoman

jesi23 - Many thanks for the post with August’s theme - much appeciated. @caro120, Carpet Crawlers is certainly a different topic and one which hasn’t immediately given me a writing idea so needs some thought. I do know I won’t be able to write on my Aztec for this title but it can wait. Looking forward to reading all the entries and hope there will be many, with more votes than in July for each one.

amejoy

jesi23 Thanks for alerting me!
and Thanks caro120 for the idea.

caro120

polowoman

It is an oddie, just what leapt into mind, hope isn’t too obscure and wish people luck with this.

Shame couldn’t find a copy of the backdrop projection. We saw it with a tribute act, think the chap that plays gabriel and sings his parts is french, little chap that looked so much like a young Peter! They used a lot of the original props and slides for the performance, went under name of the Musical Box… think are still going. Chap that played the drummer was also staggeringly close. Someone even yelled out Phil (Collins) have you ever considered a solo career, which made everyone laugh!

As I missed seeing early Gabriel first time round, it was lovely to have the chance to see these guys perform!

jesi23

caro120
I posted a clip in my OP of a 2007 performance; (never embedded a video before!) and a screenshot from the Musical Box performance with a backdrop which sounds like what you described … _{_🤡}

polowoman

caro120 - Good to see the screen shot and watch the video which I wasn’t familiar with. Despite having seen dozens of bands live over the last 50 years, I have never seen Genesis in concert. Shame you never got to see Peter Gabriel but the tribute band is obviously the next best thing.

Still thinking about the topic and hope to come up with an inspired tale revolving around Carpet Crawlers.

suppers_ready

I wouldn’t normally do this, but Phil Collins should have stuck to playing the drums. The vocal on the video destroys the atmosphere of the song.

Here’s how it should be done, and hopefully will give more inspiration for the theme.

jesi23

suppers_ready Here’s how it should be done

Thank you for that inspiration. I’ve not tried to embed a video before - it is surprisingly simple on Flarum, isn’t it? _{_🤡}

polowoman

suppers_ready - Hi and hope you are well. Thanks for this version - as you say superior and has the benefit of being studio recorded. Good to see this post from you and sorry for not being in touch for a while - will rectify that soon!

caro120

jesi23

yes think this is something like it.. long wavy pile, not very clear visuals.. 4.32ish

always a lot better when there!🙂

polowoman

caro120 - Shame it’s not clearer but concert footage can suffer from blurring and distance videoing. It always is better to be there but live videos can provide either memories of a taste of how the evening for those not in the audience.

polowoman

amejoy - As ever, you have come up with a different approach to the topic and it works very well as a radio interview. I could imagine a Cockney shoe shop owner in the 50s/60s being exactly like this. Aside from customers getting the names of the shoes wrong, which was quite amusing, you incorporated modern history with an insight into life in East London in the years around World War II, and I know it wasn’t easy with all the bombing, rationing and other deptivations in that era. Great first entry for this competition!

caro120

polowoman

ah they were excellent tribute band.. note-perfect and you tubes not doing them justice really.. all the gestures and effects.. music spot on, couldn’t fault them!

that bit where he came on pushing the imaginary lawnmower and shaking with wheat blade in his mouth - made more sense of the track ‘in your wardrobe’ i think?

caro120

polowoman

spose can always get ideas from the lyrics too!?

polowoman

caro120 - Yes, an excellent point especially as I always find good song lyrics create pictures in my mind. In fact, my recent Aztec story was inspired by my favourite song Cortez the Killer by Neil Young whose emotive and thought-provoking words and music have been part of my life since 1967.

polowoman

caro120 - It’s a delight to find good tribute bands and this can compensate for not having seen the originals live. In fact, as fans themselves, they can relate to the songs so well and so perform them with meaning and enthusisam.

caro120

polowoman

Didn’t think knew that one but now have heard it and put a name to it… we got mate does excellent neil young, doesn’t gig so often now but he is wonderful and yes he has performed this one - recognised the tune cos the words rush over you in a pub!

yes horrible what the spanish did to aztecs.. invasion and theft.. went to exhibition up V and A or maybe british museum, think was called aztec and cos the gold had been siezed and melted down there were very few gold artefacts, maybe the odd earring.

They believed a violent death was a good one, not sure why but the more pain - maybe it was a form of reincarnation and if you suffered you got to heaven more quickly?

caro120

polowoman

it was just so accurate musically going by recordings, not sure what they like now cos everyone gets older and stiffer and it was gabriel when he was young..

yes think i’d rather have an accurate tribute than a band doing a remake of a song unless they know what they’re doing cos usually original version will be the best… and it was their idea in the first place (unless they copied somebody!)…

not sure if have seen any other tribute bands -oo apart from voodoo room that do cream and clapton, they’re fab too.. dont’ set out to look like the people but the rendition is pretty special🙂

polowoman

caro120 - A good tribute band is rare but so worthwhile if they can replicate the sound of the original songs. However, generally I prefer the original version, often written by the singer, though have to say Hendrix made a superb job of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” - almost unrecognisable from the original track on the John Wesley Harding album.

polowoman

caro120 - - Glad you know the track and thanks for the video, though my virus guard is insisting I don’t play it as the site isn’t safe. However, I know this well - it’s a favourite with Neil’s fans and I was delighted when he played it at his 1976 London concerts as I had the chance to hear it live. It was these lines towards the end of that song which inspired my story:
I still can’t remember when
Or how I lost my way
That whole verse doesn’t seem to run on smoothly from the previous one but when they were recording the album there was a power cut during one verse of this song, and Neil never bothered to record that verse again!

My husband and I went to the Aztec exhibition at the British Museum in 2009. Very impressive, though much of the gold and other treasures from their civilisation had been plundered by the Spaniards centuries earlier but the artefacts and information on display made the visit very worthwhile. The Aztecs were a far more violent nation than the Incas, practising human sacrifice (the victims were mostly their prisoners of war) to appease the gods and ensure good harvests and so forth, and had days of such horrific rituals which appalled the Europeans. On the other hand, they were very skilled craftsmen and though many of the delicate items did not survive the invasion, either stolen or melted down, their buildings are still standing. To quote Neil from “Cortez”:
And they built up
With their bare hands
What we still can’t do today