Category Archives: Genesis

Genesis

Overview
First, things first. There are two completely different incarnations of Genesis as a band, and these incarnations are polar opposites of each other. When most common music fans think of Genesis, they think of Phil Collins, and they think of the 1980’s, but Genesis had a long history before Collins took the helm.

The first incarnation of the band released it’s debut album in 1969, and it was fronted by Peter Gabriel. This version of Genesis was around from 1969-1975, and after their debut they released 5 seminal progressive rock albums. (“Trespass,” “Nursery Cryme,” “Foxtrot,” “Selling England by the Pound,” and “The Lamb Lies down on Broadway”).  These 5 albums played an important role in the development of early progressive rock, and they put Genesis on the map as one of the main pioneering acts from first wave of original progressive rock along with King Crimson, ELP, and Yes.

In 1975, Peter Gabriel left the band. So with Gabriel gone, but the band at the height its popularity, the remaining members needed to find a new singer. Rather than bringing in someone new, Collins took on the role of lead vocalist and drummer (session drummers would fill in on tour), and they recorded two more progressive studio albums and one live album with this line up. Then in 1977, Steve Hackett left the band, leaving just the trio of Collins, Rutherford, and Banks. They released one more album in the 70’s appropriately titled “…And, Then There Were Three.” This album’s sound was the start of Genesis’s departure from their progressive roots, and it set the stage for the much more commercial sound that Genesis would become famous for in the 80’s.

With Collins at the helm, Genesis exploded as a intelligent pop phenomenon in the 1980′s, and they released 5 more albums between 1980 and 1991. All these albums were well received by the mainstream music community, and Genesis received regular rotation on the radio and MTV.

Collins left the band in 1996, and he was replaced by Ray Wilson for Genesis’ final album “Calling all Stations” from 1997. “Calling all Stations” received mixed reviews, and it is Genesis’ last album to date (2011).

Styles and Genres
progressive rock, pop rock

Progressive Rock Band Line-Up
Peter Gabriel – lead vocals, flute, oboe, percussion
Phil Collins – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Tony Banks – piano, keyboards, backing vocals
Steve Hackett – lead guitar
Mike Rutherford – bass guitar, bass pedals, rhythm guitar, electric sitar,

80′s Pop Band Line-Up
Phil Collins – drums, percussion, vocals
Tony Banks – keyboards, bass pedals
Mike Rutherford – guitars, bass guitar

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Genesis Trespass- 1970
RMR Album Rating- 7

On “Looking for Someone,” the first song on this album, Peter Gabriel opens the song with the lines, “ Looking for someone, I guess I’m feeling that,” and with just those lines, he establishes the Genesis signature sound. Hearing it for the first time, it immediately reminded me of the first line of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” off the “Selling England by the Pound” album, which was released three years later. Listen to both audio clips to compare:

Click here to listen to Looking For Someone
Click here to listen to Dancing With The Moonlight Knight

Gabriel has this unmatched ability to alter the tone of his voice and completely draw you into his lyrics and the song, and he does it to perfection in both of those songs, and it’s amazing to me he had nailed this technique this early on.

In terms of songs, the first 4 songs (“Looking for Someone,” “White Mountain,” “Visions of Angles,” and “Stagnation”) are all very similar, and spinning this album the first few times, I couldn’t really differentiate between the songs, but after awhile, each song’s intricacies really came out. They all feature Gabriel’s rising and falling vocal tones, great instrumental interplay, and each song has a vocal climax that really draws the listener in. It definitely takes repeated listens to pick up on these intricacies, but it’s worth the time, and all four of these songs are excellent. “Dusk” is also a great song, but it’s done in a different style than the first four tracks. It’s much more atmospheric (thanks to Bank’s keyboard work), and during the backing vocal sections, the song really reminds me of Pink Floyd.

Then lastly, we have “The Knife,” which is the complete highlight of the album, and I consider it the first prog metal song. I referred to Crimson’s “21st Century Schiziod Man” as the first heavy prog song, but “The Knife” takes it to another level. The whole song is great, and last 2 minutes of drum build up layered on top of the intricate guitar and keyboard interplay is just completely amazing, and it set the stage for prog metal moving forward. “The Knife” was really way ahead of its time. This was 1970, Yes didn’t get this heavy until “Relayer” in 1974, and to me, Yes’ “Gates of Delirium” seems to have pulled some inspiration from this song, as did Rush’s “By-Tor and the Snow Dog.” In fact, Rush’s use of the Crescendo in all their epic pieces sounds very derivative of the Knife. I’m not saying that Yes or Rush was ripping off Genesis, but they must have been heavily influenced by them and especially this track. (Click here to listen to The Knife )

Overall, this one’s a winner for me. There are really only three real downsides that I see with this one compared to the next 4 Gabriel era albums. First, it could benefit from a little more diversity, as I mentioned the first four songs sound pretty similar. Second, it’s missing the tongue and cheek British humor that Gabriel would add into future albums. Lastly, Collins and Hackett aren’t on board yet. They would both join on the next album, completing the short lived classic Genesis line-up and giving the band a much fuller sound, especially in terms of guitar and drums. These are minor complaints though, and this album should be required listening for progressive rock fans.

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Genesis Nursery Cryme- 1971
RMR Album Rating- 9

Classic…

Compared to the subsequent three Genesis releases: “Foxtrot,” “Selling England by the Pound,” and “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”— this one sometimes gets lost in the shuffle, and I think it tends to be a bit underrated, but it shouldn’t be, as all the classic, golden-era Genesis elements are represented here.

Genesis’ classic progressive sound contained several key elements, and as I mentioned above, they are all found on “Nursery Cryme.” First off, it is the first Genesis album to feature the golden-era line up of Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford, Hackett, and Collins. The two new acquisitions for “Nursery Cryme” were Hackett on guitar and Collins on drums. They replaced Phillips and Mayhew respectively, and Hackett’s and Collins’s contributions are immediately noticeable, and they both really shine on every tack, especially on the album’s closing track “The Fountain of Salmacis,” but more on that later. Another key element of this album (that “Trespass” was missing) is diversity. You have three epic tracks, two shorter tacks—that are no less powerful than the epics, a beautiful short vocal ballad sung by Collins, and “Harold the Barrel,” which gives us our first glimpse into Genesis’s sense of humor and Gabriel’s witty lyrics. “Harold the Barrel” is not only important for its wittiness and humor, but it is also the first real example of Gabriel using different character voices during a song, which would become a Gabriel trademark and something that he would really perfect on subsequent releases. So again, this album has it all in terms of key Genesis elements: golden era line-up, diversity, epics, humor, Gabriel taking on character vocals… not to mention amazing performing and instrumental execution on every song.

On to the songs! The album is structured around three fantastic epic tracks: “The Musical Box,” “The Return of the Giant Hogweed,” and “The Fountain of Salmacis”. All three are amazing, and they are all very different and diverse.

“The Musical Box” is certainly the most famous of the three, and it would remain a live staple through the 1970’s. It is maybe the best example of Gabriel’s rising and falling vocal style on the album, where he alternates between very soft and heavy vocals, climaxing at the end of the song, as he screams “now” in repetition. The music also rises and falls in intensity throughout the song to match the vocals. The story of the song is also the inspiration for the album title and cover. Here’s the story in short, a young girl takes a young boy’s head off with a croquet mallet. Then the boy returns mysteriously through a music box, but he ages rapidly into adulthood before her eyes. Knowing he will die soon, he pleads for her to “fulfill is romantic desires” (from the liner notes), but before she can react, the girl’s nanny enters the room and destroys the music box, which destroys him as well. Certainly not your typical rock lyrics, but they work for me (Click here to listen to The Musical Box).

Next up in terms of the epic pieces is “The Return of the Giant Hogweed,” which is definitely my favorite cut from the album. It starts immediately with great synchronized guitar/ synth interplay, which continues throughout the song and climaxes in a sub-section of the song titled “The Dance of the Giant Hogweed,” which runs from 4:05 -6:30 in the song. (Click here to listen to The Return Of The Giant Hogweed). I really like the lyrics of this one as well. The song tells the story of a plant that is brought back from Russia to London, and it ends up spreading to the point where it engulfs the entire world, taking the human race down with it… Kudzu anyone?

The last epic, which also closes the album is “The Fountain of Salmacis,” which lyrically tells the Greek story of Salmacis’ rape of Hemaphroditus. The song is a bit softer than the other two epics, but its pace doesn’t detract from the power of the song at all, and the track absolutely confirms that picking up Hackett and Collins was the right move for the band because they absolutely kill it on this song. They both really shine in a dueling guitar/ drum jam session that runs from 3:15- 4:10 in the song. Here is the audio clip of  The Fountain Of Salmacis, and really listen to Hackett and Collins during their jam session. It is absolutely my favorite instrumental section of the album.

To wrap this review up, my only slight knock of the album is its overall sound quality, which is a bit lacking for two reasons: First, early 70’s production techniques were far inferior to what’s available today, and second, Genesis’ rising and falling vocal and instrumental tones can make some parts of album hard to fully hear without continually adjusting the volume. I will say that this becomes less of an issue once you become familiar with the album. All in all, “Nursery Cryme” is a complete winner.

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(2 reader ratings, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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