Genesis were one of those bands I was aware of but did not really know well in 1980 as no one I knew had any of their albums for me to tape. Or no one I knew well enough. They had a hit in 1981 with Abacab, which was on rock side of pop, but did not seem anything special.
When we moved to Brightlingsea one shop in the town (which did not have a music shop) had some Genesis cassettes in the window and the pictures were intriguing – strange pastoral scenes, that when you looked closer were disturbing.
Like I said in my introductory post, all the way back on 6th April 2020 (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/29 ) some groups change so much that they are more than one group. Genesis are one of the leading examples of that. The band have been a five piece (with two different drummers, Phil Collins was not the original); a four piece when Peter Gabriel left; a three piece after Steve Hackett departed and there was a final album as a two piece after Phil Collins quit.
Steve Doubtfire (a man of great musical taste) had some early Genesis albums. He lent me a couple to tape. They had the lyrics printed on the inner sleeve and Peter Gabriel plays multiple characters in the songs that can be seen easily from this – harder when you just have a pirate tape,
The highlight of Nusery Cryme is The Musical Box, a ten minute song about a boy who ages rapidly with all his desires for a girl concentrated into minutes. This was short compared to Supper’s Ready from Foxtrot that runs over 20 minutes (Darrin Keeble was offended by the line “Winston Churchill dressed in drag” which I thought was odd).
(The first two albums are interesting, but really only for aficionados – highlighting how in the good old days groups would be a given a chance to grow without huge success).
I went back for more and their fifth album, Selling England By the Pound, remains one of my favourite albums ever. It is overshadowed in history by the double album that followed (Gabriel’s last) following a young man around a fantasy New York.
(Selling England by the Pound)
Peter Gabriel departed (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1290 ) and Phil Collins added vocals to his drumming. There are two albums as a four piece – Wind and Wuthering and A Trick of the Tail. Both good, but they seem slightly awkward. The albums are long for the time and only feature eight tracks. They are rock but not heavy rock.
Hackett’s departure produces another classic album. The songs are still long and complex but there is a single on …. And Then There Were Three (Follow You, Follow Me). Genesis actually went on Tiswas to promote it (a children’s Saturday morning program of unbelievable anarchy where custard was thrown everywhere – Chris Tarrant and Lenny Henry were heavily involved). Scenes From a Night’s Dream (about Little Nemo in Slumberland) and The Ballad of Big (a cowboy story) are stand outs.
Hugh Padgam’s influence as producer is more and more evident over the next albums, each one less interesting than the last with a bigger emphasis on percussion and a pop sensibility. At the same time Phil Collins started his solo career after one of his divorces and his solo music is proper pop music.
Dire Straits are usually cited as the archetypal CD band that allowed the music industry to move away from vinyl in the mid-80s, but Genesis are part of it too. So much so that Patrick Bateman in Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho cites them as his favourite band, not understanding their older material. As Bateman is meant to typify the vapid superficiality of the 1980s this is quite a damning commentary on Genesis.
They made one album after Collins left but it is not really Genesis anymore. They did produce a lot of great albums though – any serious music enthusiast should listen to Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Wind and Wuthering and …..And Then There Were Three.
There are a huge number of tracks from Genesis that could be on the list. Scenes From a Night’s Dream and The Battle of Epping Forest are amazing. Having two on one album shows how good that is –
The Cinema Show
Playlist:
- When the Sour Turns to Sweet
- White Mountain
- The Musical Box
- The Return of the Giant Hogweed
- Harold the Barrel
- Get ‘Em Out By Friday
- Supper’s Ready
- Firth of Forth
- The Battle of Epping Forest
- The Cinema Show
- The Aisle of Plenty
- The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
- Lily White Lilith
- Dance on a Volcano
- Robbery, Assault and Battery
- All in a Mouse’s Night
- Eleventh Earl of Mar
- Ballad of Big
- Scenes From a Night’s Dream
- Burning Rope
- Many Too Many
- Follow You, Follow Me
- Heathaze
- Turn It On Again
- Abacab
- Keep It Dark
- Mama
- Home By the Sea
- Land of Confusion
- Jesus He Knows Me
Five Miles Out 