The Cavern
Rock & Words
GENESIS
"Can you tell me where my country lies,
Said the unifaun to his true love eyes
It lies with me! cried the Queen of Maybe
- For her merchandise, he traded in his price"
"C+"
Main Decade: 70's
Main Eras:
Progressive (1968-???)
Key Members:
Peter Gabriel, Vocalist
Mike Rutherford, Bass and Guitar
Tony Banks, Keyboards
Steve Hacket, Guitar
Phil Colins, drummer and later vocalist
Key Songs:
Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, Supper's Ready, The Musical Box, Watcher Of The Skies, I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Firth Of Fifth, A Trick Of The Tail, More Fool Me, Hairless Heart, The Battle Of Epping Forest, Vision of Angels, The Return Of The Giant Hogweed, That’s Me, The Serpent, The Knife, Get 'Em Out By Friday, The Carpet Crawlers, The Fountain of Salmacis,
1 In the beginning was God, and he created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 5… and then He created the heavens, dried up the land, gave life to plants and trees, created the sun, the moon, and the stars, created aquatic animals and birds, and then land animals, and after that He formed man in His own image and likeness… Legend says that He rested on the last day, but that's not true! What the Bible doesn't say is that on the seventh day He created His masterpiece… No, not woman (He also created her on the sixth day, during his afternoon nap). On the seventh day, God created Progressive Rock! And He saw that it was good. And then He did dedicate Himself to resting and listening to the wonderful Genesis albums with Peter Gabriel.
However, he hadn't counted on the serpent's cunning, which, by tempting and sowing envy in Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Steve Hackett, and Phil Collins with an apple in the form of money, ultimately led Peter Gabriel to renounce paradise… This act of disobedience toward his masterpiece would provoke God's wrath, forbidding the band from ever achieving the mastery, intelligence, and glory of their albums with Gabriel. With Phil Collins at the helm, the band realized they were exposed, and filled with shame, they would clothe themselves in commercial melodies: Phil Collins would sing more of Gabriel's voice than Gabriel himself, and Genesis would achieve greater sales, but the divine curse would be fulfilled, and the group would never reach the near-perfection they achieved with Peter at the helm.
Genesis is a very strange band. Few know them well, and those few consider them a cult band. Many have heard of them, vaguely know that Peter Gabriel, that guy with the weird videos, was in it, that Phil Collins later joined, and that it became a commercial band. And they know that the few who really know them consider them a cult band, but they don't know why. Hahaha. The funny thing is that this band generally isn't given the same respect or seriousness as King Crimson, Yes, or ELP, not to mention Pink Floyd, and I think it's not only one of the heavyweights of Progressive Rock, but the one that truly laid the foundations.
Genesis is, therefore, a band that plays with concepts through music, and does so masterfully, brutally, in a way that is substantial and serious enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with giants like King Crimson, but at the same time with a sense of humor that sets them apart from this entire generation that pioneered Prog… and perhaps that's why people underestimate them, because Genesis are intelligent enough not to take themselves SO seriously through irony; they don't try to impress with kilometer-long solos, but rather have fun to the point of going on stage in fox masks or space costumes or Roman warrior outfits, inaugurating in the process some of the trends that glam would later use… Ironically, people only started taking them seriously when Phil Collins took the reins and the band became a real joke.
After their debut album, From Genesis to Revelation, Silver left the band and was replaced by John Mayhew on drums. Decca dropped them due to low sales, and they signed with Charisma Records to record their second album, Trespass. By then, the band was building a huge reputation for their live performances. With limited resources, they managed to captivate audiences with hypnotic melodies, Gabriel's enormous personality, and the witty costumes he wore on stage. Trespass incorporated even more progressive elements in terms of structure and complexity, although it sounds far less fresh than their debut. By 1970, the band nearly broke up due to the departures of Mayhew and Phillips. Phil Collins stepped in on drums, and after a brief stint with Mick Bernard, Steve Hackett joined on guitar, finally creating some stability and becoming the most well-known and glorious Genesis lineup.
In 1971, they released Nursery Cryme, now with Collins and Hackett in the lineup. Phil made his vocal debut with "For Absent Friends." The album was considerably more successful than their previous work, and the group finally began to achieve wider recognition. Foxtrot was released in 1972 and became one of the group's most fascinating works, featuring multi-part arrangements, epic pieces, and a delightful complexity. Selling England by the Pound was released at the end of 1973, a glorious year for progressive rock, and is considered by many not only to be Genesis's definitive album but also one of the best albums ever made, with an impressive dose of cynicism and social commentary. If Robert Zimmerman has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature countless times, Peter Gabriel should be nominated simply for this album, a true gem. Unfortunately, this marked the beginning of some internal friction within the group. In 1974, they released The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, a concept album, albeit with short tracks. Following the album's release, the group embarked on a colossal tour, full of theatricality and special effects (including the use of lasers and other groundbreaking effects for the time), and at the end of the tour, Peter Gabriel announced his departure from the band.
The rest of the band wasn't surprised. There had already been some friction between Gabriel and Hackett, vying for the leading role as songwriters and band leaders. Ultimately, the group decided to continue, allowing Phil Collins to take over lead vocals on the album *A Trick of the Tail*, which still maintained a decent level and the essence of Genesis. He would record the drums himself, but for live performances, they decided to hire another drummer so that Collins could focus solely on vocals. The chosen drummer was none other than Bill Bruford, making him the only person to have played in three founding progressive rock supergroups: Yes, King Crimson, and Genesis.
The second album of the Collins era, *Wind & Wuthering's*, wouldn't fare as well. Suffice it to say that it was inspired by the novel "Wuthering Heights," from which it took the title and the album's central idea. Hackett was utterly disillusioned with the result and with the creative block imposed on him by his bandmates, leading him to leave the band that same year, 1977, just as Second's Out was about to be released. Genesis became a trio, increasingly commercial, more hollow, more lacking in ideas, more inclined towards synth-pop… increasingly the antithesis of Peter Gabriel's Genesis. Mike Rutherford switched to guitar to fill Steve's shoes. Phil Collins began his solo career in parallel during the 80s, putting more effort into his solo project than into the band, which they should have buried long before. Gabriel's Genesis and Collins' Genesis are not a band with two distinct leaders… It's not like Pink Floyd, where you can detect the evolution from Barrett's era to Waters' and finally to Gilmour's. Peter Gabriel's Genesis is a completely different band from Phil Collins' Genesis, and the C rating I give it is solely for this early period.
It doesn't matter that they were the first band to sell out four consecutive nights at Wembley, nor that they were nominated for Best Video in 1986 (ironically losing to Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, hahaha), nor that they earned all the money they were denied in the 70s during this period… Genesis lost credibility as a serious, important, and progressive band. Phil Collins left in 1996, although they had already been relatively inactive for five years. Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks were determined to continue the project and hired a certain Ray Wilson to sing on the infamous and dreadful Calling All Stations in 1997, which could be nominated as one of the worst albums in history, in stark contrast to Selling England. The band didn't officially break up, but new albums and tours ceased, leaving only sporadic reunions with Collins, and very occasionally, with Peter Gabriel, such as in 2002 for his wedding.
In short, an ambivalent band whose lyrical and creative level was rarely surpassed in their glory days. Unfortunately, their peak was short-lived, and then came Gabriel's departure and the slow transformation into a more commercial pop band, betraying their origins. In any case, what they achieved during their time with Gabriel as frontman is more than enough to consider them a huge and revolutionary band that left an indelible mark on the history of Prog Rock.
By Corvan
Aug/21/2011
