The Official Genesis Thread
 

Amazingly, this band doesn't have a thread. What gives?

http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddent..._gallery_2.jpg

During the prog years they weren't as well liked as their peers, and they were probably more known for Peter Gabriel's taste in cryptic imagery and the theatrical than their musical output, and then they became famous after they "sold out" in the 80s.

There's a divide among the Genesis fanbase. The proggies prefer the Gabriel stuff, those more keen to pop music prefer the late Phil era, those who like an appropriate mix of pop and prog prefer the early Phil era and nobody gives a f*ck about that Ray Wilson assh*le.

Their 70s material was straight up awesomeness through and through, and I admit to liking their 80s material as well though they became more of a singles band.

I was very pleased to hear that they were inducted into the hall of fame this year, too bad it only aired on Fuse which is a channel I don't have. I guess VH1 had more important programs to run, like Celebrity Rehab...... f*cking c*nts.

Anyway, here's a pretty poignant induction speech by Trey Anastasio.



I disagree with Trey's statement that 99% of prog rockers are wankers (and considering he likes to do 9000 minute solos he's not really one to talk) but eh, still a pretty good induction speech.

Though he did mispronounce Steve Hackett's name as "Steve Hackard".

And he also shouldn't have brought Radiohead into this. I'm pretty sure Jonny Greenwood hates Genesis. :laughing:

Oh well, Phish also did a really good cover of Watcher of the Skies.



I wish they would have gotten an actual singer though. Trey's an amazing guitarist, but he's a pretty lousy singer.

But that's enough about Phish, where the f*ck was I going with this? Oh yeah, discuss Genesis.

Wow, I am equally appalled we didn't have a thread already. 'Selling England By the Pound' is one of my favorite prog records of all time.

Though I am partial to the Peter Gabriel era, myself, I still enjoy their later Phil Collins years. The self titled is pretty good...'Mama' and 'Home by the Sea' come to mind. But you are right about Ray Wilson. F*ck that guy.

Whoah, they didn't have a thread!? Wow.
Imo, the best 70s prog band. Peter Gabriel is one of the best frontmen ever. :love:
Anybody who wants to check them out needs to get Selling England by the Pound. If you like that, go to either Foxtrot of Nursery Cryme

Dammit I was gonna make an album poll but this stupid f*cking 5 minute rule.

Do you still want to?

Yes. Basically add every Genesis album as an option.

Well, you don't really have to put Calling All Stations in there, nobody is gonna vote for that. :laughing:

Can't believe there wasn't already a thread. Great band. I agree that Selling England by the pound is a great album.

Just PM with the details and all.
Aka... what are we polling for. Favorite album? etc...

The Phil era does get a lot of unfair hate from proggies.

The first few Phil era albums were still prog rock even if they embraced a poppier side. Trick of the Tail is absolutely fantastic. Duke was probably their last prog album but even as a pop band their excellent musicianship and songwriting talents remain intact.

Abacab is that one album that proggies love to hate but give me a break. No Reply at All is an excellent song. Proggies just seem to really hate 80s pop for some reason, because they blame it for killing prog I guess.

Boobs, I'm still waiting for you to let me know what the poll is about so I can make it. :D

It's understandable. I never fault people for liking one or the other. I am just very obsessive about hearing an entire band's history start to finish if I really like even one album. That led me to listening to all of Genesis's stuff, and I still found music I like in their pop years.

I'm glad to hear Trick of the Tail gets some love, though...I always thought that deserved to be up their with their classics.

All these awesome prog thread are popping up everywhere. I'm stoked! :tramp:

I agree Trick of the Tail is a great album, as is Wind & Wuthering. I've yet to hear ...And Then There Were Three, but I have heard Duke and Abacab. Both have a few good songs ("Misunderstanding" is excellent, "No Reply at All" is pretty good), but overall I really don't enjoy those two albums. Beyond that I've only heard the singles from the rest of the 80s and early 90s.

My favorite Genesis...the stretch on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway from "Hairless Heart" to "Anyway"... :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: Unbelievably great songs in there, they nearly all give me chills. Those are my most played tracks by these guys. Too bad that only makes 7 of the 22 tracks on that album. The rest are good but no match for those 7.

About time this thread popped up! Although I'm in the minority here, my personal favorite Genesis album is most definitely Trespass. Very striking yet underrated transitional work that sounds unlike anything else they'd ever do. :)

I can't believe that neither. but hey thanx :)

Hey I don't mind Ray, he has his place in Genesis history, it just unfutunately came at the end where Tony and Mike were tired of touring and really didn't want to start all over. Hypothetically speaking, they should had gotten Fish for lead singer, that would of pulled in a lot of Prog fans in from both band's fan bases, and if they put an Prog album out like Nursery Cryme they would had hit pay dirt - I'm just dreaming. I was a little put out when Chester ask to be a full memeber in the band at the time of Station to Station came out, but Tony and Mike said no. I thought he paid his dues.

I don't care for Trey or Phish so I wasn't motivated to playt those vids tonight tonight oh but if you want to know the best tribute band of Genesis imo it is The Musical Box from Canada - to some just like the real thing to others better then the real thing. I found these interesting, maybe you won't maybe you will, but it's all this behind the scenes stuff for a tribure band (it's like a hobby gone out of control,) they really did their best to reproduce the experience of seeing Genesis live in the 1970's.

I've heard that Gabriel once took his kids to see The Musical Box and told them that "this is what daddy used to do".

Haha, awesome. :D I've never heard The Musical Box, I'll check out those vids later on.

Now the poll is up.

Thanks a ton Dali. :thumb:

Not a problem. Thanks for making this thread, btw... I'll be spying on it and getting my learn on. :D

I can't vote. Not because there are some I haven't heard, but because of the ones I like, I kind of like them all equally.

Anyway, apparrently Phil dislocated his vertebrae last September, it's unclear but he might not be able to play drums anymore. :(

Fine, fine band. Foxtrot was my intro and still my favorite album, though Selling England and Trick are both albums I constantly play and enjoy. I'm a little indifferent to Lamb Lies Down, which has some brilliant songs like "Carpet Crawlers" and some that are less than memorable. I read somewhere the Hackett felt the record was incomplete because some of his guitar parts were left off. I've been meaning to give this record another listen to try to get a firmer opinion.

I love The Lamb, being a double album it's not the most consistant Genesis album, but the sheer ambition makes even the lesser tracks interesting and it has one of the weirdest and most interesting stories of any rock opera record, I love that weird mystique and theatricality Gabriel added to the band.

Though I won't deny that sometimes the lyrics get really over the top during the second half, The Colony of Slipperman is about how the protagonist turns into a slipperman (aka giant hemmerhoid) and the only "cure" is castration and removal of his manhood, this is pretty well emphasised by the big ripping sound at the 3:50 mark, and then at the end of the song a Raven swoops down and steals his "Shoobedoobe". :laughing:

The title track, Cuckoo Cacoon, In The Cage, Back in NYC, The Carpet Crawlers, Lilywhite Lilith, Supernatural Anaesthesit, The Lamia and It are the highpoints of the album. Those are brilliant songs. It has some of the tightest musicianship the band has ever done, especially Hackett's guitar work.

It's also worth noting that Brian Eno was involved with this album and it does have a lot of weird ambient moments for a Genesis record. It's probably their most challenging LP for that reason.

Eno is the key to fully appreciating that album. It's as if he temporarily replaced Hackett on that one. It doesn't have the immediate impact of some of the other albums, but it's certainly a "grower".

EDIT

I gave this another spin, and Hackett does have some fine guitar parts throughout. Eno is more or less like the 6th man.

Eno is only involved with a few tracks I think, I'm not for sure, and Hackett is very present on the album, he's just very restrained. Banks writes the majority of Genesis material and Hackett always had the least amount of creative input so it's not a surprise that Banks was the real lead instrumentalist of the group.

Sometimes I have a hard time telling Hackett's guitar apart from Banks' synths.

I've been thinking about starting a thread solely for analyzing the Lamb, but I'm not sure many people would participate. It's a disappointment since it is really easy to get sucked up in analyzing what the story means once you really delve into the album.

There's probably websites devoted to the subject.

Man if I think about it too much my head will explode.

Yeah I agree. There aren't too many albums out there that do that to me.

With rock musicals being such a hot thing now maybe it'll be made into a musical.

Now THAT is a rock musical I'd totally pay to see.

They've also been trying for a few years now to get the original lineup back together to do a Lamb tour. The only issue is Phil Collins back isn't in such a great condition to be drumming.

While on the subject of Genesis solo careers. Steve Hackett (the quiet one) has some great stuff too.

So does Anthony Phillips, who of course was the original Genesis guitarist before Hackett replaced him, pretty underrated.





Yeah that's Phil singing.

It's a shame people (even Genesis fans) forget about this guy, he wasn't inducted with the rest of the band for this year's R&R HOF but he should have been. Even though he only played on the first two albums he played an important role in developing the Genesis sound.

Foxtrot, following up on my choice for Meddle in the Pink Floyd thread (Good set of songs on the first side, defining moment on the second), although I do have to say that while it could have been all about "Supper's Ready," - the first section being very beautiful and the last part very effective with complete cleverness in between - Peter's Fox in a Dress costume for the tour is clearly the perfect topping of the era.

Selling England by the Pound comes in for a very close Second...or even a tie.
Nursery Crime is Third while The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is forth.

But enough about Peter...for now.

Time for a little respect for the Collins era even beyond A Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering which were fine albums, but in a way lacking in something special even if there was great playing through it all. As I state, just a little, but that goes quite a long way thanks to the quality of the early 80's music that had it's own style and innovation. I'm certainly no fan of ...And Then There Were Three and it's crap overplayed hit, though, but his Drumming is killer and there were certainly some good moments with a few Early 80's albums which certainly did not kill Prog (It had a small group of bands reviving it by then...one band called Marillion) and proved that there was a band finally finding it's own voice again, and while it went Pop, it was for a while very good Pop.

Favorite Collins era album - Abacab. Damn, with Face Value, the best ever Collins solo album, '81/2 were his best post-Gabriel years (and yes I can add in his production for Frida too as the Drum Stomp on 1983's "Something's Going On" still kicks). "No Reply At All" is a crowning Pop moment for the Early 80's Genesis (thanks especially to Earth Wind and Fire's solid Horn Section), "Dodo/Lurker" was it's Epic work with Tony contributing some excellent Keyboard work, the title track being sharp, and "Keep It Dark" winding up Side One on a fine note. After Dodo, things went South ("Who Dunnit?" anyone?), but everything up to and including Side Two's opener seriously deserves another hearing.

"Mama" is also another solid moment. After that...well...let's just say that I would like to say the records after 1983 are not worth mentioning, but "Mama" and it's killer Demonic laugh are a worthy way to end the better part of their Pop years. Thankfully the Post-Phil Calling All Stations is almost forgotten enough for me to skip it, but Invisible Touch still is certainly the pain giver with it's MOR Standards, and although "Land of Confusion" has a nice video, the song remains one of those annoying tracks that make you scream "We get the point already!" at the radio. Still there's fine 80-83 tracks like "Paperlate," "Turn It On Again" and Phil's "Thru These Walls" to forget about the crap and whatever Phil Collins did after his second solo which went into over-played MOR Territory.

OK, back to the wonders of the Gabriel years!

I'm also a big fan of Steve Hackett's playing. I still have to get some of his solo work, but no matter what, he is a great Guitarist.

I think all the albums from Trespass up until Genesis are worth getting. Invisible Touch is the first real clunker, not including the uninspired debut.

That being said I do like Land of Confusion, I think it's the only good song on Invisible Touch and the last good song the band ever did, yeah the lyrics are preachy and obvious but the melody and hooks are great. And the video was awesome.

Genesis (Shapes) has That's All which I still consider the finest song of the Phil era, and Mama is great too. HA HA HEH. The only sh*tbomb on that album is Illegal Alien. At least that song is amusing in it's awfulness though.

Abacab is pretty underrated too. Who Dunnit? is absolutely terrible but everything else works. Progarchives has that album rated lower than Calling All Stations and that's just insulting.

Duke is awesome, it's the best Hackettless album and has some of Phil's best drum work too.

...And Then There Were Three is a perfectly fine album as well, even without Gabriel and Hackett there's still traces of the Genesis of old, though I'm glad they reinvented themselves with Duke, this is a career crossroads album, but a good one. Gabriel and Hackett are great but they went on to do great solo material so I don't really think their departure was a bad thing, being in Genesis would have just held them back, and personally I felt Banks and Rutherford were always the true core of the band, they were the main songwriters after all.

I'm not that big of a Genesis fan, but I do love Selling England by the Pound, Foxtrot and Live. But then again, I've never really listened to Live very thoroughly. I fall asleep to it at night. >_>

For those getting into Genesis but don't know where to start, well their catalog is so diverse so I'll give a little description of each album and newbies can decide which one sounds most like their cup of tea.

From Genesis To Revelation: No prog yet, just psychedelic pop, but not very good psychedelic pop imo, it's pretty generic and lifeless. But it's an interested history lession.

Trespass: Phil and Steve haven't joined yet but this is where Genesis found a sound of their own. This already sounds like Genesis, though there's more of a "classical" feel here than on their later works. It's very mellow mostly though The Knife is a very intense song which ends the album with a bang. The composition and musicianship isn't as tight as their later work would prove to be but it's a great start and the "true" debut of the band. If you want to check out Genesis albums in chronological order by starting with the good stuff, start here.

Nursery Cryme: Steve and Phil join the band and now the classic lineup is here. Now the band is really learning how to craft great hooks to go with their musicianship. The first truly great Genesis album, here they expand their horizons further. Highlights are the victorian fairy tale The Musical Box, the heavy sci fi epic of Return of the Giant Hogweed and the breezy mellotron layered Fountain of Salmacis.

Foxtrot: Has a similar feel to NC but it's even better. The fairy tale and mythology themes are still all over the album, though it has more "rock" to it than NC did. It's most famous track is the 23 minute apocolyptic epic Supper's Ready. But Watcher of the Skies is my favorite.

Selling England by the Pound: Still in the traditional Genesis prog style but this is where they absolutely perfected it. It's also the first to feature a lot of synthesizers which would become another Genesis trademark. There's everything in here, rousing medieval epics, quirky pop, acoustic ballads, piano solos, surreal humor, witty wordplay, lengthy synthesizer solos. It's pure Genesis. IMO The Cinema Show is the best song the band ever did. First half is a beautiful ballad about Romeo and Juliet with lovely 12 string guitar work and a very renassiance vibe, but it takes a twist ending in an awesome 5 minute (yes 5 minute) synthesizer solo, and the best synthesizer solo EVER.

Lamb Lies Down on Broadway: The last Gabriel era Genesis album and they really ended this era with a bang. Some call it the most excessive Genesis album and maybe so but its still one of their finest. It certainly stands out from all the rest, the songs are heavier and weirder than ever and it has a very dark and nightmare-ish atmosphere coupled with some of the most surreal lyrical imagery ever (mostly inspired by Peter's dreams) put on vinyl, there's a lot of ambience here and maybe that's no coincidence because Brian Eno played a role here. The story doesn't have to make a lot of sense, it's just awesome.

Trick of the Tail: The first Phil album and you know what? It still sounds like prime Genesis. This is a great album and no Phil era album has ever surpassed it. The classic progressive Genesis sound is still intact and Phil still sounds more like Peter than Phil. But the pop is creeping in slowly.

Wind & Wuthering: The last Genesis album to feature Steve. I think one reason he left is because he still didn't get to contribute as much as other members of the band, shame because he contributed some lovely guitar work here. This record has a very dreamy feel to it, driven by Steve's acoustic guitar and Bank's synthesizers. Very underrated and the last record where the prog dominates.

...And Then There Were Three: The first featuring only the trio as we know them. Now they are poppier then ever, though Banks is still using his trusty old hammond and mellotron so there's still a little classic Genesis left, though now that Ruthorford has assumed guitar duties he provides a more slick arena rock guitar sound then Hackett. Not a bad record but their pop period would prove to get better over time.

Duke: Now we're talking, this is a very underrated album. It's the album where the classic 80s Genesis sound really starts to surface. Though mixed with the pop there is a good dose of prog rock jamming and the musicianship is still very tight, this is the last Genesis album that could be considered prog.

Abacab: And now it's just pop, but pretty good pop nontheless. This album gets a lot of hate from prog fans but I honestly think it's nowhere near as awful as they make it out to be and if you like 80s pop this is not a bad bet at all. Who Dunnit? is one of the worst things they ever did though.

Genesis: The last good Genesis record if you ask me and it's a damn good one. Illegal Alien is a real duffer but this has some of the band's finest pop tunes. Especially Mama and That's All. Silver Rainbow is also a great deep cut.

Invisible Touch: Land of Confusion is great but the rest of this is pretty meh, this is where Genesis hardly sounded like a band at all anymore and instead become indistinguishable from Phil's solo material. Banks and Rutherford have little to do.

We Can't Dance: Or make good albums anymore, all the inspiration is gone and this just sounds like generic 80s pop, but it was made in 1991 lol.

Calling All Stations: Ever wondered what Genesis without Peter, Steve OR Phil would sound like?



Let me just say that this is considered the best song on the album. <_<

I think Trick of the Tale is better than Foxtrot, in my opinion. Foxtrot sounds so bland compared to the first album I heard by them, Selling England by the Pound. I would go to say that Entangled is one of the best songs the band put out. When the mellotron kicks in the sound dives into the sublime.

Foxtrot isn't bland at all and it's probably the most consistant Genesis album for me though Trick isn't far behind in that category. I rate their work like so.

Masterpiece: Selling England > Foxtrot > Lamb > Trick of the Tail > Nursery

Very good: Duke > Wind & Wuthering > Genesis > Trespass > Abacab

Decent but nothing special: ...And Then There Were Three

Mediocre: Invisible Touch > From Genesis To Revelation

Bad: We Can't Dance > Calling All Stations

Okay, so a friend gave me a mix CD with these Genesis songs on it:
-The Musical Box: ****ed in my pants
-The Return of the Giant Hogweed: Fantastic
-The Fountain of Salmacis: Well damn I just changed my pants and there it goes again...
-Harold the Barrel: Cute, and ridiculously catchy tune
-Supper's Ready, pt 2: I need this whole song badly
-Firth of Fifth: Is that 15/8?! NO. It's 15/8 mixed with 13/8 and 4. My mind was blown.

Basically, I need moar of this. I really need to pick up Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

The last two are essental Gabriel era Genesis as is the album Foxtrot.

Genesis is pretty sweet I perfer the Peter Gabriel catolague over Phil's. The lyrics are more out there and there sound is more progressive.