01	Watcher of the Skies						07:23
	02	Time Table						04:47
	03	Get 'em Out By Friday						08:37
	04	Can-Utility and the Coastliners						05:45
	05	Horizons						01:41
	06	Supper's Ready						22:56

Foxtrot
(Oct 1972)
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Personnel:
Tony Banks - Organ, Mellotron, Piano, Electric Piano, 12 String, Voices
Phil Collins - Drums, Voices, Assorted Percussion
Peter Gabriel - Lead Voice, Flute, Bass Drum, Tambourine, Oboe
Steve Hackett - Electric Guitar, 12 and 6 String Solos
Mike Rutherford - Bass, Bass Pedals, 12 String Guitar, Voices, Cello

Production:

Produced by David Hitchcock
Sleeve Design: Paul Whitehead
Engineered by John Burns
Also starring Guy and Paul
Richard MacPhail: Equipment and Stage Sound (sound friend)
Recorded at Island Studios, London
Photographs: Barry Wentzell, Geoff Terrill, Martin Nunn, Armando Gallo


Foxtrot 1972 CASCDX 1058
7243 8 39779 2 5

DEFINITIVE EDITION REMASTER (1994 ?)

All titles composed, arranged and performed by Genesis.
Published by Stratsong Ltd


Remastered at The Farm and Abbey Road by Nick Davis, Geoff Callingham and Chris Blair.


Bob Eichler:
I don't have much to add to the already existing reviews, except to relate this little tale: When I was in college, my roommate accidentally left the door to our room unlocked one day, and someone walked in and stole my tape deck. The thing that really irritated me about it was that my copy of Foxtrot was in it at the time, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find another copy. Definitely one of Genesis' best, and a classic album that all prog fans should hear.

Sean McFee:
This 1972 release from Genesis shows a band growing more confident in the sound developed in their previous release, Nursery Cryme. The influence of Tony Banks continued to grow as more and different keyboards were worked into the compositions. Genesis released their first (and only) side-long epic. All these things point to Foxtrot as one of the most important Genesis albums.
Strong points of the album include the solemn "Watcher of the Skies", bookended by a powerful and familliar Mellotron theme. "Can-Utility and the Coastliners", a somewhat underappreciated track, is almost prototypical Genesis, with Gabriel singing of the legend of King Canute while Hackett and Banks tear into their respective instruments to produce parts which are enjoyable yet still technically proficient. "Horizion's" is a nice enough guitar solo, and of course there is "Supper's Ready". So what to make of this 20+-minute song that begins with an evening watching TV and ends with the apocalypse? Personally I think it works, with even the weaker parts at least offering something to the overall theme of the song. While Peter Gabriel dancing around as a flower isn't exactly the height of art for me, I can deal with it because of the impressive payoff that closes the song in the form of "Apocalypse in 9/8" and "As Sure As Eggs is Eggs", the final two parts.
Of course this album isn't a total success. For that to be the case, the lyrics of "Time Table" would have to be something other than painful. And there is the mystery of "Get 'Em Out By Friday"; why is it that those nice old people were evicted to fit people in who were half the height ("We can fit twice as many in the same building site") when they offered to pay double the rent? If you keep them around, you can make the same money and not have to pay for renovations! Joking aside, it's a pretty half-baked morality tale without too much going on for eight or nine minutes.
Foxtrot stands strongly in the Genesis canon despite its flaws, and makes an excellent entry point into the world of symphonic for interested neo-prog fans. Likewise, people who enjoy Genesis but not most of their contemporaries may want to make the leap to that other sub-genre as well. Recommended.

Joe McGlinchey:
Similar to Yes' fourth album Fragile, Genesis' fourth album is rather disjointed, attempting to glue various bits and pieces together into a workable whole. The most seamless tune and undisputed classic is "Watcher of the Skies," with its gothic mellotron opening. The sometimes-disputed classic is "Supper's Ready" (as for myself, I love certain sections, but think the epic as a whole is a bit overrated when one looks at the forest instead of the trees). As for the remaining tracks, "Time Table" is my least favorite. I find it boring all the way through, with hideous lyrics. The sci-fi satire of "Get 'Em Out By Friday" starts off great but then criminally fizzles out (perhaps the biggest anti-climax on the album). On the other hand, "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" is the most underrated one here, and "Horizon's" is a short Hackett guitar instrumental that, while perhaps a tad out of place opening up for the mammoth "Supper's Ready," is still an undeniably beautiful piece. All in all, Foxtrot's a great album to be sure, but I think it has got some weak moments.

Eric Porter:
The centerpiece here is the classic "Suppers Ready", which makes this CD a must have. There is much more to the CD that is special. The CD opens with "Watcher of the Skies" which contains one of the most memorable keyboard intros in prog. It is a very powerful piece of music with excellent drumming from Collins and the band playing a hypnotic rythym with Banks' organ over the top. A very dramatic finale closes this great tune. "Time Table" opens with piano, a mellow tune for the most part, and straight forward. "Get 'Em Out By Friday" has nice guitar and keyboard interplay on the opening; it's a pretty heavy song with strong bass and jumping organ chords. "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" has lots of acoustic guitar and flutes, nice mellotron section with driving acoustic guitars, a lot of different sections. "Horizon's" is a short classical guitar piece from Hackett. "Supper's Ready" is broken into seven distinct sections, opening with acoustic guitars and vocal, followed by an instrumental section with flutes and piano; very atmospheric. Lots of Tony Banks featured throughout, heavy organ sections and soloing, lyrics get surreal, music gets very eclectic at times, like in the "Willow Farm" section for example. "Apocalypse in 9/8" helps build the tension to a maximum, very rythmic and powerful, and of course the ending where you feel a sense of relief, a soothing symphonic ending. Foxtrot is a great CD and offers everything that you could want. It is a must have as is most early to mid-period Genesis.

Brandon Wu:
First of all, it must be known that aside from "Firth of Fifth", Genesis' music does practically nothing for me. It lacks edge, aggressiveness, and musicianship; and just generally fails consistently to grab my attention. That said, I think Foxtrot is an overrated album. The opener "Watcher of the Skies" is decent enough, and I do like "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" and the brief Hackett acoustic guitar piece that is "Horizon's" (why the apostrophe?). None of the other pieces, including the much-vaunted side-long epic "Supper's Ready", appeal to me at all. "Supper's Ready" itself seems like a bunch of separate songs - not particularly great ones, either - pasted together into an LP side. Also see the jabs at "Apocalypse in 9/8" that David Lynch has written (available in the articles section); I agree with them wholeheartedly. Not my cup of tea, then; but fans of the band will undoubtedly disagree with me completely, as this is an acknowledged Genesis classic. To each his own.






Genesis - Foxtrot

Released: 1972
Label: Charisma/Virgin
Cat. No.: CASCD 1058
Total Time: 51:10


Reviewed by: Davide Guidone, February 2003
I have a particular feeling with Genesis' Foxtrot: it was my first prog album in 1992 when I was fourteen. I think I'd never had a better start. In fact this is one of the works which made the story of progressive rock.

Foxtrot is a very long disc, if you consider it was recorded in 1972, but there are no weak points in it. Some pieces, by this time, make part of the prog legends, and they are appreciated a lot by the recent musicians. For example, if you have Transatlantic's Live In America, it can be noticed Neal Morse plays the organ intro of "Watcher Of The Skies." The words of this song were written by Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks in Italy, on a rooftop in Naples. This one is a great opening track with a solid rhythmic basis and the organ in evidence.

However, all the songs are masterpieces: from "Horizons," a piece for classic nylon guitar only, where Steve Hackett shows what he can do (he will play it in concert as a soloist) to "Get 'Em Out By Friday," a very complicated one with many variations that has an interesting text. It speaks of the "Styx Enterprises", a building firm, which buys all the houses in a street and makes the residents four feet tall to earn space.

The most famous track is "Supper's Ready," a long twenty-three minute suite in seven parts, that speaks of the eternal fight between Good and Evil. My favorite part of this piece is "Apocalypse In 9/8" where Tony Banks is the master of the field playing a successful organ solo.

My final consideration is: unfortunately Genesis don't write music all together.

More about Foxtrot:

Track Listing: Watcher Of The Skies / Time Table / Get' Em Out By Friday / Can-Utility And The Coastliners / Horizons / Supper's Ready

Musicians:
Tony Banks - organ, mellotron, piano, electric piano,12 strings guitar, vocals
Steve Hackett - electric guitars
Phil Collins - drums, percussion, vocals
Peter Gabriel - lead vocals, flute, percussion, oboe
Mike Rutherford - basses, bass pedals,12 strings guitar, vocals, cello

Contact:

Website: www.genesis-music.com
Note: will open new browser window

Discography

From Genesis To Revelation (1969)+

Trespass (1970)
Nursery Crime (1971)
Foxtrot (1972)
Live (1973)
Selling England By The Pound (1973)
Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)
Wind and Wuthering (1976)
Trick of the Tail (1976)
Seconds Out (1977)
And Then There Were Three (1978)
Duke (1980)
Abacab (1981)
Three Sides Live (1982)
Genesis (1983)
Invisible Touch (1986)
We Can't Dance (1991)
The Way We Walk: The Shorts (1992)
The Way We Walk: The Longs (1993)
Calling All Stations (1997)
Turn It On Again - The Hits (1999)
Archive #1 (1999)
Archive #2 (2000)







Genesis - Foxtrot

Track Listing
1) Watcher Of The Skies
2) Time Table
3) Get 'Em Out By Friday
4) Can-Utility And The Coastliners
5) Horizons
6) Supper's Ready
a) Lover's Leap
b) The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man
c) Ikhnaton And Itsacon And Their Band of Merry Men
d) How Dare I Be So Beautiful?
e) Willow Farm
f) Apocalypse in 9/8 (co-starring the delicious talents of Gabble Ratchet)
g) As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)

Member: TopographicYes

Foxtrot was the first of the Peter Gabriel era releases I ever purchased and remains a favorite of mine. It's a very well rounded album that is solid from beginning to end. Gabriel is in fantastic voice here and the band finally hits their stride as well. Everything comes together for Genesis on this album. Things only hinted at earlier finally gel and define their sound.

I originally heard the epic "Suppers Ready" on the live Seconds Out album. I wanted to hear what it was like with Gabriel singing instead of Phil Collins, so I picked up Foxtrot when the record company finally released the Genesis remasters. I liked the Gabriel version better from the first listen. A friend had given me a mixed tape with a few Genesis tunes on it and "Supper" was one of them. "It's like Genesis' "Close To The Edge!" he told me. That piqued my interest...

Foxtrot opens with the Genesis anthem of the Pete era, "Watcher Of The Skies", a great slab of classic prog rock. Opening with lush and foreboding mellotron, "Watcher" soon kicks into high gear as the band joins in with a punctuated beat. By the time the vocals enter, you're on the fast track for some classic Genesis inspiration! All the best elements of this era are right here in this song.

"Get 'Em Out By Friday" is one of Gabriel's best storytelling vocals. Told from the view of the landlord and also the tenants that have to be "out by Friday", this tune paints some incredibly vivid images with words. The loping Hammond groove draws the listener in as well.

"Can Utility And The Coastliners" reminds me of a mix of older Genesis and Genesis that would soon come. A mix of "White Mountain", "Cinema Show" and "Squonk" maybe?? A lost Genesis classic. Wonderful tune!

"Horizon's" is a beautiful classical guitar piece by Steve Hackett and makes a great intro to the grandest epic in the Genesis catalog....

"Suppers Ready" is indeed Genesis' stab at a side long epic and for the most part it works. It really can't be compared to "Close To The Edge" from Yes though (my friend was a little off the mark there) except in length. While "CTTE" comes storming out of the gate, "Supper" starts slow and reflective (the Lovers Leap section) with acoustic guitars and Pete's vocal inspired by a real life incident. There is some lovely interplay between the guitars and Gabriel's flute following the vocals. Soon the organ enters and breaks into the anthemic hook (Eternal Sanctuary Man) "Can't you see he's fooled you all..." which is reprised at the end. Over the course of the next 15 minutes this epic takes a number of twists and turns. One of my favorites is the "Willow Farm" section, probably the heaviest section of the tune. As through all of "Supper" Gabriel's use of lyrical imagery is excellent and at times very amusing. Here he and Collins conjure up a variety of odd voices "the soil, soil, soil". After this the popular 9/8 section carries the listener along on a punctuated beat. On top of this is roiling organ courtesy of Tony Banks. Eventually the anthemic hook from the beginning reenters and gives the listener a hair-raising experience that is really satisfying. You feel like you have come full circle on an amazing journey.

For classic Genesis, it doesn't get much better than Foxtrot! It builds on the ideas hinted at on Trespass and Nursery Cryme and furthers them with amazing results.

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Member: ptuasca
Foxtrot is the second best Genesis album in my opinion. It has "Supper's Ready", which is a work of giants.

Song by song review:

"Watcher of the Skies":

I don't know why this one is so celebrated... It's a pretty basic instrumental piece (when comparing to other Genesis tracks) with a much-too-long warm-up intro. The lyrics and vocals are cool, but still there's nothing different in this song (as far as I can see).

"Time Table":

This is a very soft and beautiful song, with nice lyrics and vocals. Instrumental doesn't shine yet, just like "Watcher..."

"Get 'Em Out by Friday":

Here we go! This is a Genesis tune! The previous two are too weak compared to this one! Everything is perfect here: there's humor in the lyrics, there are little characters for Gabriel to bring to life, there's Rutherford backing Steve on the 12-string guitar, there's a strong bass-line, a nice guitar solo and an awesome flute solo! I love this one!

"Can-Utility and the Coastliners":

Things slow down again, but in the ending, there is a very nice keyboard solo. The background guitars are very warm too.

"Horizon's":

Hackett on the classical guitar. What else should I say? Genius? Master? Teacher? The-best-of-all-who-think-they-are-the-best? By far the most beautiful song on the album.

"Supper's Ready":

This is a move forward in progressive rock. There are very many themes arranged here. Everyone has space to show their abilities. I can't find the words to describe what happens on this song. But beware: you need to be very relaxed to listen to this song, or else you won't like it (it happened to me). It's one of those songs like Tull's "Thick as a brick", Floyd's "Echoes", if you know what I mean.

Rating:

I would give it 9 in a 10 star rating.









Genesis - Foxtrot


"When a flash of intuition is a gift
that helps you excel-sell-sell-sell"


Band Members:
Tony Banks - Organ, Mellotron, Piano, Electric Piano, 12 String, Voices;
Steve Hackett - Electric Guitar, 12 String and 6 String Solos;
Phil Collins - Drums, Voices, Assorted Percussion;
Peter Gabriel - Lead Voice, Flute, Bass Drum, Tambourine, Oboe;
Michael Rutherford - Bass, Bass Pedals, 12 String Guitar, Voices, Cello
Also starring: Guy and Paul [?!]

All titles composed, arranged and performed by Genesis

Producer: David Hitchcock
Engineer: John Burns
Sleeve Design: Paul Whitehead

Tracks:
[1] Watcher Of The Skies (7:19), [2] Time Table (4:40),
[3] Get 'Em Out By Friday (8:35), [4] Can-Utility And The Coastliners(5:43) [5]Horizons (1:38), [6] Supper's Ready (22:58),
[i] Lover's Leap, [ii] The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man,
[iii] Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men,
[iv] How Dare I Be So Beautiful?, [v] Willow Farm,
[vi] Apocalypse in 9/8 (featuring the delicious talents of Gabble Ratchet),
[vii] As Sure as Eggs is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)



In 1972, there were only a few albums that stood out among the steady stream of (prog) releases. Yes released Close To The Edge, Jethro Tull Thick As A Brick and Genesis Foxtrot. Some may say that Genesis made more significant albums than Foxtrot, like Selling England By The Pound or The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, but Foxtrot was basically the reason why Peter Gabriel started dressing up in strange masks and costumes, something which earned the band just that little bit of extra attention they needed to be noticed by a larger audience. Since that extra attention was however largely focused on Gabriel, giving him a rock star status that he did not desire, it also caused him to leave Genesis a few years later. Still, Foxtrot is the album that contains one of the songs that people still talk about with a certain reverence and which inspired many other bands to write long (read: 15-minute-plus) songs; Supper's Ready.

To survive on the ocean of being
For Genesis, how the follow-up of Nursery Cryme would be received was very important. Charisma, their record label at that time, had not been very enthusiastic about the album and did therefore not put its utmost into its promotion. If that was also the reason why it did not enter the British charts is an interesting question. Still, they more or less demanded something better this time. The band were not 100% satisfied with Nursery Cryme either since it combined "very high highs" with "very low lows," as Mike Rutherford put it in an interview. And Tony Banks said about it that only The Musical Box and Fountain Of Salmacis really stood out for him.

By regularly playing in clubs and other smaller venues in England, Genesis had managed to build up a small following in their home country. Especially playing in the Friar's Club in Aylesbury felt like home games to the band. Strangely enough, though, the attention they got there was nothing compared to their popularity in countries like Belgium and Italy. Without ever having played there, Genesis scored a number one hit in Belgium with their second album Trespass and Nursery Cryme reached number four in the Italian charts. When they finally travelled these countries to play a few shows, the band was surprised to find that they were all but revered there. This experience sufficiently boosted their confidence when they subsequently went into the studio to record Foxtrot.

The fox on the rocks
Gabriel's stage persona had matured and developed from the moment he got appointed the role of lead singer. Being unable to afford more reliable equipment, an early Genesis show would normally contain quite a few extended breaks in which the instruments had to be retuned or even needed to be repaired (the mellotron, admired by many because of its special sound, being the instrument that was cursed most in that respect). Being a shy person by nature, Gabriel would just be standing behind his microphone during these breaks, hoping to become invisible. As he became more and more confident on stage, he started to develop stories that he could tell to make the breaks less embarrassing for everyone involved. Some of those stories were extensions of the song that they were about to play, but he also had some in his repertoire that were very bizarre.

Genesis' stage act was rather static in the beginning. Sitting down in order to concentrate on their sometimes rather tricky parts, Steve Hackett, Rutherford and Banks were not exactly mobile, whereas Phil Collins was bound to one spot for more obvious reasons. On top of that, Rutherford, Hackett and Banks were not the kind of "stage animals" that some performers are; they preferred anonymity. Anything that meant deflecting the attention of the audience away from them suited them just fine. So when Gabriel felt relaxed enough on stage to let go of himself completely, thereby capturing the audience's attention, they were completely okay with that.

His first step on the way to his notorious masquerades was set when he decided that Genesis should get some extra attention during the Lincoln Festival in May 1972. To achieve that he appeared on stage with his face painted white, thick black eye make-up, a heavily jewelled Egyptian collar with matching cuffs and, most striking of all, the front of his head shaved. The audience was shocked, but the extra exposure this simple act got through the press was definitely rewarding.

Being on tour while waiting for the release of their upcoming album Foxtrot, Genesis wanted to do something extra to attract the attention of the audience to the album well in advance to its release. Paul Conroy at Charisma Records thought that it would be a good stunt to get someone on-stage dressed up in a red dress and a fox's head, the central image of the front side of the album. Gabriel said about that later in an interview: "I think he really fancied doing it himself. And I thought, 'Well, damn it, if we're going to do it, I want to do it! I want to be the centre of attention!'" And the rest is history, as they say. The first time that he tried it out was at a boxing ring in Dublin. Without any of the other band members knowing what he was planning to do, he walked off stage during the instrumental part of The Musical Box and returned to do the rest of the vocals of the song dressed in a red dress he had borrowed from his wife Jill and a fox's head. Gabriel later told about that moment: "I remember being very nervous as I walked onto the stage in the middle of a number. The audience was shocked by the weirdness of a man dressed up in woman's clothing and a fox mask - but I loved it! This performance gave me an unquestionable authority, and I thought, 'I must be on to something here.'"

Some of the other Genesis members were shocked when they saw their singer's attire, although they had to admire the fact that Gabriel had the guts to do such a thing. Still, the action was not without effect. Collins remembers: "When we played the Rainbow, there was a picture of Pete in his fox's head on the front page of the Melody Maker - which doubled our earnings straight away. We went from earning ?300 a night to earning ?600 a night, which was a lot of money in those days. Suddenly people had something to write about - you can't really write about the crashing cymbals, thudding drums and the swirling keyboards for very long. They needed some new angle, and suddenly Peter had given it them. The Rainbow concert was definitely the beginning of all that."

Gabriel felt encouraged by the success of the fox's head to develop the visual element of the Genesis shows further. The fact that the mask and the dress were only referring to the album cover of Foxtrot, but did not have anything to do with the subjects of the songs or the characters in them, did not feel quite right to him though. He then went on to create a fitting costume for every song, or - in the case of the multilayered Supper's Ready - part of the song. Acting out the part of the alien, Gabriel would appear during Watcher Of The Skies with Day-Glo painted around his eyes, which glowed spookily in the ultraviolet light they were using for that song, while wearing batwings on his head and a brightly coloured cape around his shoulders. A crown of thorns illustrated the part of Supper's Ready called The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man. He wore a daisy headdress for the "A flower?" bit before the start of Willow Farm, and donned a black cape and a red geometric box headdress to act out the antichrist in Apocalypse In 9/8. In the grand finale of Supper's Ready he would throw off the headdress and cape to reveal the angelic, sparkly white jumpsuit he wore underneath. On a few occasions he would amplify the effect even more by carrying an ultraviolet tube while singing the final lines.

Having been sceptical at first about Gabriel's expansion of his masquerades, the other band members began to see other merits apart from the raise of their incomes they caused. As Collins put it: "Our songs and words often had more to them than met the eye. They weren't regular rock and roll lyrics. So when Peter started coming in wearing these masks it was just an extension of the fantasy element."

Happy as fish, and gorgeous as geese
I have always felt that Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot were, in a way, two of a pair. The similar atmosphere that these two albums have, is mirrored in the similarity between their covers and even amplified by the fact that the cover of Nursery Cryme can be spotted on the back of Foxtrot's. Both are surrealistic paintings by Paul Whitehead, who was also responsible for the cover of Trespass, and both are painted in the same style. Still, the producers and engineers involved in the making of the two records are not the same, so it must have been the special chemistry between the band members that is responsible for that similar sound.

Genesis actually went through several producers before they ended up with David Hitchcock. They had wanted to continue working with John Anthony and David Hentschel, with whom they had recorded Nursery Cryme, but they were unavailable at the time. They then decided to produce themselves, while using only an engineer to take care of the technical side of recording the album, but that plan was vetoed by Charisma Records.

The first producer assigned to the band was Bob Potter, who had just worked with Bob Dylan and Bob Johnson, but he did not really like Genesis' music and left after a week. Tony Platt, an engineer with Island Records, was the second one to try, but the chemistry between band and producer did not really work out, causing him to leave rather soon as well. He was replaced by David Hitchcock and engineer John Burns (also from Island), the latter being a big fan of the group, while Genesis went on to co-produce the record. This combination did work out - both band and record company were pleased with the result - and according to Collins, Burns even managed to put some 'funk' into the album.

A flower?
All songs on Foxtrot are credited to all band members, although not everybody was equally involved in all of them. Watcher Of The Skies, for instance, was in essence written by Rutherford and Banks during a tour in Italy. The two had been staring out over the landscape at the back of a hotel in Naples. Banks talked about it in an interview: "It was totally deserted. It was incredible. We had the idea of an alien coming down to the planet and seeing this world where obviously there had once been life and yet there was not one human being to be seen." The track was road-tested before being recorded, after which the vocal line was changed considerably.

The scene for this tale about the alien visiting earth and observing how man has messed things up is set with delicious waves of mysterious mellotron strings (Banks bought his mellotron from King Crimson before the recording of Nursery Cryme). As the strings fade out in the background, a throbbing bass rhythm comes in, doubled by Hackett's typical, mean guitar sound, before they put down the main theme together with the organ. The song goes through some heavier and softer sections, which build up and release the tension in a great way, before ending with some mournful guitar wails and a thunderous drum roll. A great song!

The live rendition of this song actually made the alien theme even more tangible. Hackett said in an interview: "I remember at a gig in Italy, Tony started playing the mellotron introduction for Watcher Of The Skies. I was somewhere downstairs in a dressing-room when I heard this sound coming out which shook the foundations of this huge echoey stadium. It really sounded as if something was coming in to land."

Watcher Of The Skies was released as a single a while after the release of Foxtrot. It came out in a different version than on the record in February 1973 and had Willow Farm as a B-side. The track had been made more radio-friendly by cutting away the entire intro and starting with the first verse right away. Also, the end was changed into a repetition of the line "Watcher of the skies" until it fades out. I believe that this version can be found on the third CD of the Genesis Archive 1967-1975 box set.

Time Table is built up around Banks's acoustic piano and is a lot gentler than Watcher Of The Skies, the verse ("Why?") being the most aggressive part of the track. The piano intro which seems to be doubling back upon itself is the most interesting part of the track, since the rest sounds a bit too "normal" for Genesis standards. Nice, but not that special. The lyrics are a somewhat philosophical reflection on the Middle Ages, but not really among the best Genesis have written, in my opinion. The song forms a bit of quiet before the storm that is Get 'Em Out By Friday.

Inspired by his own trouble with his landlord, Gabriel wrote Get 'Em Out By Friday as a protest song against the way landlords treated their tenants. It has the form of a radio play put to music and contains a range of different characters (one of which sounds suspiciously much like Collins doing a silly voice). The music of the track, going from aggressive, fast sections to calmly flowing ones and back again was largely a group effort. It contains some great bass, drums and organ playing and is among my favourite early-Genesis songs.

The largely underrated Can-Utility And The Coastliners was written in the rehearsal room and road-tested before it was recorded, just like Watcher Of The Skies. It is a story about King Canute, although I have read a theory that said that it is in fact about Gabriel himself; a singer wary of "flatterers" and of singing. The track contains some lovely bass pedal and mellotron sections. It also features one of the few guitar solos on the album. Great track!

Hackett had been suffering from a slight inferiority complex during the recording of the album as a result of his smaller contribution compared to the others when it came to writing music. Even though he did get more material onto Foxtrot than on the previous record, he was not feeling very content with myself as a fledgling song-writer. He thought he could do more than he did and was actually feeling that he should leave the band because of that. The others strongly disagreed, stating how much they appreciated his guitar work. The inclusion of his unaccompanied solo piece Horizons was, however, not just a concession to Hackett; it was a track all band members liked. Just like Time Table this classical guitar piece offers a nice resting point between the intensity of Can-Utility And The Coastliners and the "mammoth" Supper's Ready.

Not everybody in the band was that sure about whether the length of Supper's Ready would be appreciated by their audience. The fact that it was possibly as uncommercial (read: radio-unfriendly) as it got and might therefore be gunned down in reviews made some band members rather nervous, but since they were all very satisfied with the end result, they decided not to worry too much about that and just leave it as it was.

Some of the music of Supper's Ready was written at a doctor's house near Chessington, though most of it was written in the rehearsal room at Una Billing's School of Dancing in Shepherd's Bush with the banging of feet over their heads. It probably does not come as a complete surprise to hear that the track was a combination of a lot of different ideas. Willow Farm was originally a song that Gabriel had written that started off with a guitar piece of Banks's (Banks did also regularly play guitar at that time), which was turned into something that sounded a bit like The Musical Box. Banks thought it would be good to stop the song all of a sudden and then jump straight into Willow Farm because of its "great introduction." This sense of experimentation was used throughout the song; cutting and pasting all kinds of ideas together, not necessarily in a logical order, and jamming to fill in the gaps.

To me, Supper's Ready feels like a nightmarish dream - chaotic, patchy and in many respects a combination of reality, horror and fantasy - but the lyrics were actually based on a strange experience that Gabriel had had at some point. In an interview, he explained the background behind this strange song. "There was one particular incident which gave me the inspiration for 'Supper's Ready'. There was this room at the top of Jill's [Gabriel's wife] parents' house. This room was the coldest part of the house. I always used to get the shivers when I went in there. It was covered in strong purple and turquoise wallpaper. Everything was bright purple and turquoise. Anyway, we had this strange evening up there which ended with Jill feeling like she'd been possessed. It was extremely frightening. I don't know how to explain it - it was as if she had had a fit, or something. I experienced a sense of evil at that point - I saw another face in her face. I don't know how much of this was going on inside my head and how much was actually happening, but it was an experience I could not forget and was the starting point for a song about the struggle between good and evil."

While writing the lyrics, Gabriel had the feeling of being led by some force or other. He bases this assumption on the fact that there were a number of odd coincidences; unlikely facts suddenly coming to light, certain names suddenly leading to other things. He ended up reading the Book of Revelation in the Bible, which explains the presence of the apocalyptic part at the end of the track.

Lover's Leap, the first part of Supper's Ready, is a sparkling acoustic guitar piece about two lovers who get lost in each other's eyes. During a lovely, sensitive instrumental section, the song changes pace and subsequently flows into the more electrical The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man. This is a rather vague part in which a town is described which is dominated by two characters; one a benevolent farmer, the other (the Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man) the head of a highly disciplined scientific religion.

Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men with its somewhat galloping pace, is about an army below the ground that is summoned to come to the surface by the Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man. This section contains a great guitar solo by Hackett, effectively visualising the following battle between good and evil. The enemy is slain and the army fades away in the distance until it cannot be heard any more.

The beginning of How Dare I Be So Beautiful? consists of waves of misty organ. Gabriel describes the deserted battle field where a solitary figure is sitting who is obsessed by his own image and spontaneously turns into a flower.

Willow Farm, on the other hand, is full of silly word play and has the sense of some psychedelic dream. The whole scene changes into a faster but no less strange interlude before this part of the song returns to its original theme.

Hackett's electric guitar wails in the distance after which a very sensitive instrumental enfolds, born by a quivering flute solo, which erupts into the great Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet). On the breath of the lovely organ solo by Banks, the song is directed towards various more and more inescapable climaxes. After the introduction of Gabble Ratchet (apparently the sound of wild geese that heralds the arrival of archangels, or something in that vein), the song comes to a grand, bombastic climax with Gabriel singing as if his life depends on it (which is exactly how he described it felt).

Gabriel actually recorded his vocals for the Apocalypse in 9/8 part in secret, since he knew that Banks had a very particular idea about how this part of Supper's Ready should sound.

"I made sure there was no-one else around when I recorded my part, because I knew that (a) I couldn't do some of the vocals very well and also I would be rather self-conscious, and (b) I was trying stuff that I knew some of the others wouldn't like. I knew that the keyboard solo was too long for the number. It was distracting. There was a great solo in there, but it needed editing. I thought that the only way that I could keep this number working was to get a vocal in. I worked for a long time to get it right. When the band came in - and they came in together, thank God, I made sure of that! - and I played them the tape, sure enough, Tony was outraged that I'd gone over his sacred solo. However the rest of the band were really excited by what I'd done and popular vote was always the deciding factor. There were the absurd manipulating tactics which we were all guilty of - but probably me, more than any other!" Banks had to admit that "[t]he vocals added drama, and I felt that, as a result, the song reached an incredible peak."

In As Sure as Eggs is Eggs (Aching Mens' Feet) the tension is released in a huge sounding finale, with Hackett's guitar soaring majestically above it all, until everything fades away. We have returned to the lovers, who awake from their strange nightmare and feel their love for each other. Everything is back to normal.

There's an angel standing in the sun
Charisma boss Tony Stratton-Smith, after having heard the album for the first time, reputedly said "This is the one that makes their career," and he was right. Foxtrot reached a number 12 in the British charts and the subsequent tour took the band to America, where Gabriel's extravagant presentation caused Genesis' star to rise as well. The next two albums only helped to expand their following. However, the seeds for Gabriel's departure from the band after The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour had already been sown. The press had a large hand in this event. Banks expressed his discomfort with the inevitability of the situation in an interview. "There was a tendency to put the credit for things like Supper's Ready at Peter's door, which was just ridiculous because it was a group-written piece. It contained a lot of stuff that I wrote in university, so I was just really pissed off. That sort of thing made you feel antagonistic towards the guy himself, which was a shame, because we still got on very well as friends." Obviously, that proved to be insufficient.

Gonna blow right down inside your soul
If there would ever come a time in which it would be possible to freely use a time machine, I do not think that I would be the only one who would want to travel back to the early seventies in order to watch a Genesis concert. It would be quite an experience just to hear classics like The Musical Box, Watcher Of The Skies, Firth Of Fifth and Supper's Ready played by the people who originally recorded them and to see Gabriel's weird outfits and stage performance! Until that time, if it ever comes, I guess we will just have to make do with what we have got; a collection of LPs and/or CDs, some photographs and the few films that exist from their concerts. With that material, we can try to imagine what the Foxtrot tour must have been like and dream away once more on the waves of the intro to Watcher Of The Skies:

Written by Hester Stasse (September 2002)








Tricks Of The Tale, Part 1:
A Guide To Genesis: The Gabriel Years
By Clayton Walnum

If you put a bunch of progressive-rock lovers into a room and asked them to vote for their all-time favorite classic prog group, I suspect that Genesis would win handily. A perfect example of this popularity is the fact that no other group has so strongly influenced the so-called neo-prog bands of the 80s and 90s. When it was time for prog to make a comeback, it was mostly Genesis to which the new young musicians turned. Would there even be a Marillion, Pendragon, IQ, Citizen Cane, Jadis, Magellan, Glass Hammer, Cairo, Crucible, Like Wendy, Flamborough Head, Sylvan, or Metaphor (to name only a few) if there had never been a Genesis? No way!

Another case in point is one of my favorite prog Web sites, Gnosis (located at gnosis2000.net). On this great site, nearly 50 reviewers listen to and rate progressive music releases. The scores are all averaged to provide what has to be one of the most authoritative prog listings in existence. If you rank all the groups by score, you'll discover that Genesis has three albums in the top 20. When you consider that Gnosis lists over 13,000 albums, that's quite an achievement.

Still, some of these albums are over 30 years old. You folks who are new to progressive rock may not be familiar with all the classics in the genre. As for the more experienced prog listeners, maybe you've missed a Genesis album or three, or maybe, like me, you just love to read about this stuff. In any case, here begins my overview of one of the most significant groups in prog history. I'll be presenting this omnibus review in three segments. This, the first, concentrates on the years when Peter Gabriel was Genesis's vocalist. The second part will cover the progressive years with Phil Collins at the helm, and finally, part 3 will examine the band's output when they turned to more commercial fare.

From Genesis to Revelation (1969)

Genesis crashed upon the world with this, their first album. Maybe "crashed" is a bit of an overstatement. Actually, it's an immense overstatement. The truth is that this album went mostly ignored when it was released, only selling in any quantity years later, after Genesis gained its fame. The music here is barely recognizable as Genesis. The album is strongly song oriented, and while some interesting instrumentation pops up here and there, these songs are very much an extension of 60s-era British pop. The one link to later Genesis is the fact that this is a concept album.

On this disc, not only has the band itself not found its identity, but also the performances show a group of youngsters groping for their way. A good example of this is Gabriel's vocals. Gabriel probably has one of the most distinctive voices in prog rock. However, here you'd barely recognize him. He sings most songs here matter-of-factly, his performance lacking the intensity and texture for which he would become famous. Also notable is the fact that Steve Hackett and Phil Collins do not appear in this lineup. [Chris Stewart and John Silver played drums -ed.]

In short, this album is recommended to completists only or to those curious about Genesis's origin. By the way, this album has been released over the years with various covers. The one shown here is from the recent 2-CD collector's edition. The original cover is all black with just the album's title printed in the upper left corner. [Also note that the same material was also released as Where The Sour Turns To Sweet - ed.]

Trespass (1970)

The difference between From Genesis to Revelation and Genesis's second album, Trespass, is astonishing. In a single year, Genesis took a huge leap toward the band that would make prog history. The pop sounds are now completely gone, replaced with much more complex arrangements, placing the band squarely in the center of the 1970's burgeoning prog-rock category. In fact, the melodies and arrangements here act as an introduction to the style further developed by the classic Genesis line up that would appear on their next album, Nursery Cryme.

The performances here are confident, inventive, and marked with more virtuosity than their previous effort. Also, Gabriel's voice has taken on an expressiveness almost completely lacking in his debut performance the year before. From the first word sung on this album, there's no doubt you're listening to Peter Gabriel. Amazingly, the line up here is the same as the group that performed From Genesis to Revelation, though you'd be hard pressed to tell by the more advanced sound. If there's a downside, the recording quality isn't top notch, although still good enough to stay out of the way of the music. Still, there are a couple of moments of distortion that always make me cringe a bit.

Of special note here is the song "The Knife," which would become a Genesis concert staple for years to come. The opening track. "Looking For Someone," is also an album highlight, featuring the kind of songwriting that would become Genesis's style for many future albums. While not as complex and mystical as what was to come, Trespass is a marvelous example of the early Genesis sound and a classic progressive-rock release.

Nursery Cryme (1971)

In 1971, it all came together for Genesis, at least as far as their sound was concerned. No doubt the addition of guitarist Steve Hackett and drummer Phil Collins had a lot to do with the transformation, as Nursery Cryme represents the first appearance of the classic Genesis lineup. Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that they were a cutting-edge prog group, Genesis still weren't getting the attention they deserved, though their following was growing. Still, this was the year when people stood up and took notice of this new type of music coming out of England. Things were looking up. Specifically, this was the year Yes released their breakthrough effort, The Yes Album, and a little group known as Emerson, Lake and Palmer released their astonishing Tarkus. So Genesis had good company -- company whose successes would help propel Genesis into the forefront of prog.

I have a special fondness for Nursey Cryme, as it was my introduction to Genesis. In fact, this era of music was huge for me, because it was around this time that I also discovered Yes, EL&P, Gentle Giant, and King Crimson, groups that are musical staples for me to this day. As one might guess from the album's title, Nursery Cryme is a dark and mysterious outing. The compositions here grow from the group's interest in mythical tales, a focus that would remain all through the years Gabriel stayed on as vocalist -- and even beyond. The grim cover, with Squash players using severed heads as balls, match the dark dreams presented within.

The album begins with the beautiful, yet eerily melancholy, melodies of "The Musical Box," a Genesis classic and concert favorite. About three and a half minutes into the song, the full band bursts forth, and the world gets its first taste of Steve Hackett's unique electric-guitar style and soaring, regal, fuzz-toned melodies. Also included here is the spectacular "The Fountain of Salmacis," a composition that foreshadows the sophisticated "Supper's Ready," an opus that would appear on the next album.

I still can't listen to this album without goose bumps crawling all over me. Throughout the dark tales here -- including stories of a monstrous hogweed, a suicidal bloke named Harold, and a doomed hunter and the mythological source of hermaphrodites -- Genesis springs back and forth between gentle melodies and roaring symphonic brilliance, all marked by Gabriel's gruff vocal stylings and the complex interplay between guitarist Hackett and keyboard player Tony Banks. And oh those wondrous mellotron washes! As theatrical as it is musical, Nursery Cryme presented to the world the classic Genesis lineup of Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Michael Rutherford, Steve Hackett, and Tony Banks. Damn, there's those goose bumps again.

Foxtrot (1972)

In many ways, Genesis's fourth album, Foxtrot, is Nursery Cryme, Volume 2. Both albums just seem to fit together, almost as if they were recorded at the same time or were intended to be released as a double album. In fact, if you look at the artwork on the back of Foxtrot, you can see, in the upper right corner, the Squash players from the Nursery Cryme art, still knocking around those severed heads. The opening mellotron chords of this album's first track, "Watcher of the Skies," are a Genesis trademark if there ever was one, a musical passage that any progressive-rock aficionado can identify in seconds.

Foxtrot also contains the first Genesis opus, "Supper's Ready," a 23-minute tour-de-force of mythical tales and outstanding musicianship. The driving meter of the subtrack "Apocalypse in 9/8" is one of my all-time favorite Genesis passages and acts as the bridge to the track's amazing climax. "Supper's Ready" would remain in Genesis's concert set list for many years to come, even after Gabriel left the group and Collins took over the vocal chores. Audiences would have it no other way.

The line up here is still, of course, the classic group of Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Michael Rutherford, Steve Hackett, and Tony Banks. In fact, this lineup would remain intact all the way through the next three albums, over which time the group would record some of the finest progressive rock of all time. If I had to choose between Nursey Cryme and Foxtrot, I'd probably go with Foxtrot, due mostly to "Supper's Ready." Anyway, how can you not be entranced by song titles such as "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man," "Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men," and "Sure as Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)"? Thank heavens, though, I don't have to choose.

Live (1973)

After hearing both Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot, I became a Genesis fanatic. I must have listened to those two albums a hundred times each, always discovering something new buried within the complex tracks. I despaired, though, of ever being able to see the band perform live. This wasn't, after all, mainstream stuff, and the band's following was small. Around this time, I was working for a record distributor, and my boss, knowing that I was a huge Genesis fan, told me that he could get me tickets for a Genesis appearance in New York City. Even though attending this show required a three-hour train ride, I jumped at the chance. My girlfriend (now my wife of 28 years) and I set off for the Big City.

I mention all this personal history because I can't look at the cover of Genesis's first live album without feeling intense nostalgia. You see, the stage setup depicted on the cover of this album is exactly the one Genesis used that day in New York. The stage setup was Spartan yet elegant, with Genesis performing in front of a plain white sheet that hid all the amplifiers. This was Genesis at a point where the great Phil Collins was playing on a tiny drum kit boasting one small kick drum and only three toms! Peter Gabriel stood behind his own kick drum (weird), wearing his now famous masks, including the foxhead, the bat wings, and the "musical box," depicted on this album's cover.

Seeing Genesis like this was a rare and intimate treat, and it would never happen again; this group of talented Englishmen was close to hitting the big time. In any case, this live album is a terrific document of an early Genesis performance. Featured here are "Watcher Of The Skies," "Get 'Em Out By Friday," "The Return Of The Giant Hogweed," "The Musical Box," and "The Knife." The recording quality is exceptional for its time, and the performances are wonderful. This is Genesis stripped down to its raw musical power, without tons of overdubs and without the truckloads of sophisticated electronics that would soon become part of the show.

Selling England By The Pound (1973)

Most prog experts agree that Selling England By The Pound is Genesis's greatest achievement. Everything that Genesis had set out to do gelled perfectly here, giving the world one of the best progressive-rock albums that would ever be recorded. You couldn't improve one note of this masterpiece -- and it would be sacrilege to try! From the opening a cappella vocals of "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" to the closing strains of "The Cinema Show - Aisle of Plenty," this album is perfect and magnificent.

Included here is the FM-radio hit "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" (back in the 70s, there was a huge difference between FM and AM radio; these days, just about everything is FM), as well as the intensely powerful "Firth Of Fifth," one of my all-time favorite Genesis tracks. The fifth track, "The Battle Of Epping Forest," a tale of warring gangs, is probably the song that sounds most like the Genesis that recorded Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot, while most of the other tracks present a band that has polished their playing and composing chops to peak form. Not that "Epping Forest" isn't up to par; it just has more of that older Genesis sound than the other tracks here.

Another one of my favorites on this album is "The Cinema Show - Aisle of Plenty," which not only boasts some great melodies, but also features an extended instrumental section that truly rocks. Here a complex rhythm background provides the engine for Tony Banks, who demonstrates why he's one of prog's premiere keyboardists. Soaring synth lines float over the driving rhythm section, augmented by occasional mellotron washes. Every time I hear this section of the album, I want to go back to the beginning of the track for another listen. If you can afford only one Genesis album, this is it.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)

By the time The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was released, rumors of Genesis's demise were rampant. I remember listening to this album, feeling as if a best friend had just died. Genesis had become one of the greatest groups in the world (at least as far as I was concerned), and the thought that this would be their last album was heartbreaking. As it turned out, the rumors were exaggerated, as no one from the band had said anything about breaking up. Instead, they had simply announced the departure of Peter Gabriel. Simply? As far as Genesis fans were concerned, a Genesis without Peter Gabriel couldn't survive. Who on earth could replace Genesis's strange, flamboyant, yet brilliant frontman?

Although The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is, by every measure, a great album, it was actually a bit of a side step for the band. Peter Gabriel had come up with a bizarre story of a young man named Rael, who gets caught up in some sort of energy vortex and is transported to a nightmarish underground world where snake women consume human flesh and mad doctors remove male genitalia in order to cure disease. Gabriel's detailed story was as sprawling as it was strange. The band decided that it would take a double album to do the story justice. With all this space, Genesis tried some new things, experimenting with some atmospheric, nearly avant-garde, interludes.

The first half of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is a solid prog effort that offers many classic Genesis moments, especially the songs "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," "Fly On A Windshield," "In The Cage," "Back In N.Y.C.," and "The Carpet Crawlers." However, by the second half of the story, the band seems to run out of steam. There are a few high points, including "The Lamia" and "The Colony Of Slippermen," but for the most part, much of this part of the album is uninspired and unexciting. Had it been condensed to a single album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway could have been as great as its predecessor, Selling England by the Pound. Still, one must keep in mind that even a flawed Genesis album is miles above 99% of the other stuff out there.






Tricks Of The Tale, Part 2:
A Guide to Genesis: The Collins Progressive Years
By Clayton Walnum

Dividing, into two equal parts, the albums Genesis produced with Phil Collins as the lead singer is tricky, especially if one wants the article titles to be meaningful. I chose to call this second part "The Collins Progressive Years" because the music Genesis produced in this time period (from 1976 to 1982) went from outright progressive to lightly progressive. Granted, a lot of the later music covered here rightly can be termed pop -- but in most cases, it was pop with a progressive edge. The third and last part of this series will be titled "The Collins Pop Years." However, as you'll see then, Genesis never dropped their progressive edge completely. (They just hid it exceedingly well!)

In any case, after Peter Gabriel left the band, most fans feared the demise of Genesis. Luckily, the fans would be in for a pleasant surprise, as the smaller group produced some extraordinary music with Collins fronting the show. It wouldn't be long, though, before pop would figure more and more in Genesis' sound. After all, by 1976, when the first Collins-era album was released, prog was already on its last legs. That Genesis managed to put out so much great music in the latter part of the decade is a tribute to their musical vision and genius. Unfortunately, tributes pay no bills. The times eventually dictated that Genesis either change their direction or disband. Many people would have urged the latter. And so our tale continues:

Trick of the Tail (1976)

This was the album for which every Genesis fan waited with both excitement and foreboding. Could Genesis possibly be the same without Peter Gabriel? Surprisingly, not only did Genesis survive, but they put out one of the best albums of their career. From the very progressive "Dance On A Volcano," "Squonk," and "Los Endos" to the magnificence of "Ripples" and "Entangled," A Trick Of The Tail was (and still is) spectacular. (The ending of "Entangled" still gives me goose bumps.) Of course, it didn't hurt that Phil Collins, who took over the lead vocal duties, sounded similar to Gabriel. Casual fans of the group probably didn't even notice the change. Still, even musically, the Genesis sound was intact on this album.

What is especially surprising was the continued use of mythological fairy tale-style stories that make up the bulk of the album. Most Genesis fans had always assumed that the source of these stories was Gabriel's imagination. Turns out that there was plenty of imagination to go around. Yes, the band probably wanted to stay true to their previous efforts, and in that quest, they succeeded wonderfully. One final comment: No one writes more powerful progressive ballads than Genesis did. Some utterly gorgeous tracks on this album include "Mad Man Moon," "Entangled," and "Ripples." In fact, it is Genesis' ballads that are the source of inspiration for most of the so-called neo-progressive bands, such as Pendragon and IQ.

Wind & Wuthering (1977)

In the previous edition of this series, I said "In many ways, Genesis's fourth album, Foxtrot, is Nursery Cryme, Volume 2. Both albums just seem to fit together, almost as if they were recorded at the same time or were intended to be released as a double album." The same can be said for Trick Of The Tail and Wind & Wuthering. They fit together perfectly. Moreover, they came out less than a year apart. Anyone who thought that Trick Of The Tail was just a lucky fluke had to eat his words when Wind & Wuthering hit the stores. Although not as perfect as Trick Of The Tail (more about that in a moment), Wind & Wuthering was another feather in a cap already bulging with wing parts.

This album boasted all the qualities that made Trick Of The Tail great, including complex tracks ("Eleventh Earl of Mar," "Wot Gorilla?," "All In A Mouse's Night," ":In That Quiet Earth") and beautiful progressive ballads ("One For The Vine," "Blood On The Rooftops," "Afterglow"). The track "Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers" even sounded like something from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, melodic but flirting with the avant garde.

Unfortunately, what the album also had is the classic Genesis lineup's first foray into pop music. I was tempted to say that the song "Your Own Special Way" was just as sappy as the title would lead you to believe. But looking over the lyrics and listening to it again after a long while, it's not quite as sappy as I remember. (The fact that I had to play this song ad nauseam in a professional cover band might have something to do with my opinion, although I had to play "Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas just as often, and I still love that piece.) In any case, it was Genesis' first big hit, which made it mighty suspicious from a progressive-rock point of view. Also, this track was a hint of the direction the band would be heading before too long. Still, "Your Own Special Way" notwithstanding, this was one great album.

Seconds Out (1977)

Pushing Phil Collins to the front of the stage created a dilemma for Genesis. Obviously, while on tour, Collins couldn't be both the front man and the drummer. Neither did Collins want to resign as Genesis' skins man. What to do? For touring purposes, our heroes hired on a second drummer, none other than the famed percussionist from Yes and King Crimson, Bill Bruford. (The terrific Chester Thompson would also often fill this role -- more often, in fact, then Bruford.) When Collins was fronting the group, the second drummer handled the percussion; when the group hit instrumental sections, Collins could jump back to his drums. This new and somewhat unusual stage show screamed for a new live album, and so Seconds Out hit the record racks.

The performances documented on this two-CD set cover the whole range of Genesis material, from classic pieces like "The Musical Box" and "Firth Of Fifth" to the new material from Trick Of The Tail and Wind & Wuthering. The sound quality was top-notch, only a bit short of a studio production. The playing was confident and powerful, and, surprisingly, the double drummers didn't clutter the mix. There's not much else to say about this album. No new material, just good stage performances of many classic tracks. You could almost call this The Best of Genesis Live.

:And Then There Were Three (1978)

After the release of Seconds Out, the third album without Gabriel, the Genesis fan community were convinced that their favorite band had survived the loss of their lead singer miraculously well. Then came more bad news: Steve Hackett, the guitarist with the signature style that, along with Tony Banks, practically defined the Genesis sound, was leaving. Again, as with the loss of Gabriel, the band decided not to hire a replacement. Instead, bassist Mike Rutherford took over guitar duties in the studio, with a "hired gun" guitarist, Daryl Stuermer, filling in on tours.

Three started off with a roar in the form of the progressive "Down And Out," which leads to the ballad "Undertow." Both tracks were good, but not exceptional, and Hackett's contributions were sorely missed. These criticisms were true for most of the rest of the album as well. More emphasis was now placed on the keyboards, and, although Rutherford was a competent enough guitarist, I suspect even he would have to admit that no one could replace Hackett. In fact, much to his credit, Rutherford didn't even try, eschewing solos and limiting most of his guitar work to rhythm and simple melodic lines.

Although competent, stirring this album wasn't. Moreover, the band here had moved in a slightly less progressive direction. Finally, I don't like the mix, which sounds harsh. If I were in charge of putting together a Genesis box set, I would include only two tracks from And Then There Were Three, those being "Down And Out" and "Scenes From A Night's Dream." (All right, maybe "The Lady Lies," too.)

Duke (1980)

Duke starts off auspiciously with the powerful opening to "Behind The Lines," but the track soon falls victim to Genesis' new-found pop sensibilities. Now don't get me wrong: I like a well-written pop song as much as anyone, just not from Genesis. To be fair, there were a couple of nicely melancholy moments on this album, such as "Heathaze." Still, a track like "Please Don't Ask" took over as Genesis' sappiest song to date. Did anyone ever believe that they'd hear the line "I Love You" in a Genesis song? The day had come.

Taken on its own terms, Duke was a good album, maybe even better than good. But the terms you had to accept were that this was not the Genesis who released the miraculous Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound. Nope, this Genesis was what I like to call "near-prog," the same genre in which I'd place groups like Ambrosia, Crack The Sky, and Saga -- all terrific groups to be sure, but none of which is likely to be found in a progressive-music listener's top 10.

Still, Genesis took its new pop direction all the way to the bank, getting more airplay than ever before, particularly with the infectious songs "Misunderstanding" and "Turn It On Again" (the latter being one of my favorite pop songs from that year). And little in the world turns a person's head faster than a wad of that green stuff, which, in the non-prog world, is a sure measure of success, not to mention an irresistible lure. The only truly progressive tracks on Duke are the closing "Duke's Travels" and "Duke's End," linked songs that made the listener long for the old days.

Abacab (1981)

After Duke, Genesis was raking in the airplay and the cash. The group's tour venues had gone from small theaters to sold-out arenas. Whether their musical direction was dictated by their hearts or by the lure of riches and international success, I don't know. One thing's for sure, a band like Genesis, who had battled for years in the trenches of progressive music to see little more than critical acclaim, certainly deserved to be rich. Disappointing as it might be to Genesis' die-hard fans, one can hardly blame the group for wanting the success they deserved. And the fact is that they had more fans than ever before. They were just different fans. Anyway, in 1981, progressive music was long dead -- or at least in a coma.

From the perspective of a prog-rock listener, Abacab would be the first of a long line of mediocre albums, and the last studio album I dare put under the heading "progressive." Truth be told, calling this album progressive is stretching the term about as far as it can go. This album did have a few progressive parts, like the ending of the title song, "Abacab." Also, "Me And Sarah Jane" offered interesting moments and even changed meter here and there. Even more interesting was the track "Dodo/Lurker," which was reminiscent of Trick Of The Tail's "Squonk" and must have been a shock to Genesis' new fans who knew little of the group's roots. On the other hand, Genesis reached an all-time low (by just about anyone's criteria) with the novelty track "Who Dunnit?" a truly horrible thing that should have been abandoned in the studio. I suspect this, uh, song was the last straw for die-hard Genesis fans and a throw-away even for the group's new pop fans. The end of an era.

Three Sides Live (1982)

I have little to say about this release, except that it's wonderfully well recorded and probably pleased most of Genesis's new pop-oriented fans. There are only three truly progressive pieces on this double-CD live outing (with a few studio tracks), those being "Dodo," "In The Cage," and the prosaic "Afterglow." A couple of prog close-calls in the guise of "Me And Sarah Jane" and the studio recording "Evidence Of Autumn" also present themselves here. The rest is mostly pop.

Stay tuned for part III: "The Collins Pop Years."














Genesis
Trespass
1970
Virgin/Charisma

Genesis, every bit the school-chum band (or perhaps even art-rock garage band), released its second album, Trespass, in 1970. The album cover graphics, by Paul Whitehead, perhaps best summarize the tension in Genesis' music at this stage of its career: romantic quaintness with the threat of violence by the knife never far removed. Genesis was indeed making its mark in the early years of the decade and helping to create the category of progressive rock proper with a musicality that was at once soothing and dangerous.

Trespass is the album just prior to the emergence of the band's most noteworthy lineup; Phil Collins and Steve Hackett are not yet in the fold, and in their stead are John Mayhew on percussion, and Anthony Phillips on guitar. Regardless, what was then and would continue to be the nucleus of the band was intact: Peter Gabriel on vocals and flute, Anthony (Tony) Banks on keyboards, and Michael (Mike) Rutherford on various stringed instruments. The band is largely well synchronized and writing with finesse and dexterity, and it would not be too extreme a suggestion to say that symphonic progressive rock has one of its better examples in Trespass.

The album starts with the excellent "Looking for Someone." Peter Gabriel has not quite found his smoother voice within Trespass, and at times his singing style is too shrill and too jarring (especially in the high end), but his phrasing ability and control of vocal dynamic are quite interesting and command the listener's ear. Although the mix is poor in places (muddy and unseperated), the playing is stellar. Banks' continuous switching between organ and acoustic piano fleshes the song out nicely, and the alternation between softer passages and driving tempo changes is well conceived. At moments, the music reminds the well acquainted Jethro Tull fan of Thick as a Brick, especially in the more frantic, hard rock-oriented sections, but with perhaps less dependency on reprised arena riffs. Mayhew is rather busy in his drumming, but he and Rutherford hold the rhythm solidly. Phillips' fretwork - and this will be true throughout Trespass when he is soloing or adding electric guitar flavor - is sometimes dead-on but also sometimes annoying, as he incorporates a thin tone and an extremely abrupt staccato technique. The conclusion is dramatic and evidences an incorporation of classical music motifs. This is a great opener, especially with regard to structural variety.

"White Mountain" follows, slightly recalling the work of early King Crimson. (The overall sense is that perhaps both Crimson and Tull were studying the Genesis output closely in the progressive rock heyday, and borrowing as suitable.) Anthony Phillips is at his best here with crisp, clean arpeggio work. The vocal mix is blurry and again, Gabriel is shrieking here and there, but this tune is another fine example of complex popular music - the gift of the era, truly. The song is a timepiece, undoubtedly, with its use of flute and recorder (compare it to several of Tull's Aqualung tracks, or tracks by Yes and Led Zeppelin), but the pastoral atmosphere is mellow and clean and sits against the more mobile instrumental segments in sharp contrast. There is a slower, very creepy, very dark bridge, which is haunting and bleak and then moves into a breakneck run: music for chase film footage. The transitions within the track are delightful and edgy, maintaining the listener's focus.

Unfortunately, the album slides into a minor lull with the next three tracks: "Visions of Angels," "Stagnation," and "Dusk." "Visions" is maybe the weakest song of the bunch, a bit pretentious (using "mirth" in the lyrics) and weighted with idiosyncratic theological imagery. Here, and in "Dusk," the vocal harmonies sound strikingly comparable to The Bee Gees of the late '60s - not at all a terrible problem (The Bee Gees were first-rate at that time), but slightly twee and affected. Mike Rutherford plays his most expressive bass lines in "Visions," but Mayhew tries the listener's patience with repeated drum rolls - too much, too often. A bombastic ending - not the first or last in the annals of progressive rock - sours the tune to a degree. "Stagnation" is bland, again very twee and quite slow. Tony Banks is marvelous throughout the song, saving it, honestly. In fact, with this track one realizes that Banks' keyboard acumen is primarily giving Genesis its unique sound (along with Gabriel's voicings), a realization that holds up and increases upon additional exposure to the album. "Stagnation" is the sort of song that will pave the way for bands like Styx and Boston, not to mention Marillion, for good or ill: overreaching and pompous at times, but with a balanced modulation between major and minor key themes. "Dusk" is hardly different than "Visions" or "Stagnation," but the opening double-tracked guitar melody is sweet, the up-tempo instrumental break is fiery (allowing Gabriel his most lively flute offering), and the final measures are tense and appropriate, with the guitar gingerly laid over a very symphonic piano fill. There is nothing deplorable in these three tunes; they are occasionally overwrought and soporific, but perhaps in some way they serve well as repose between the more forceful minutes of Trespass.

The album ends with "The Knife," the highlight of Trespass and a future live staple, hinting at the Genesis to come. (It is not incidental, by the way, that bands in their prime can and do hold the best track for last; a welcome show of strength, when it is far easier to front-load the release and then tack filler onto the album.) Rollicking and powerful from the outset, the opening groove reeks of criminality and suspicious intent. The ensemble playing is tight throughout the track, and Banks' galloping organ sets an enthusiastically racing speed. Anthony Phillips is off-track in most of "The Knife" - his style is too monotonous and attenuated - but his contribution after the lines

Stand up and fight for you know we are right
We must strike at the lies that have spread like disease through our minds

is cutting and strong: his creative high-water mark upon Trespass. Generally, the electric guitar leads are abrasive, jagged, and sharp here - intentionally knifelike? Gabriel gets a second notable flute solo (compared with Ian Anderson, a mild and calm technique but not passive or heartless) and the delayed guitar chords echo both Peter Banks' and Steve Howe's playing in Yes. The band is vicious after the rambling, chaotic mob-and-police sound effects, and overall, the track is remarkable for its dark foreboding and anxious intensity.

Symphonic rock music would continue after the release of Trespass, but Genesis' sophomore effort is a mainly compelling addition to the niche, and may even be one of the best examples of the style. Normally, and undeservedly, Trespass seems to receive short-shrift from prog fans and Genesis fans. This is a thoroughly worthwhile album, even in its more relaxed moments, and when it rips, or reveals in tense interplay, it is top-notch. Trespass is recommended especially for fans of Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Yes, who may have skipped over Genesis, for whatever reason. Start with Trespass and hear the genre being created and developed in completely masterful fashion. - JS