Genesis - I Know What I Like and I Like What I Know

Speaking of “Dance on a Volcano”.

I had to start off my morning today with The Brazilian. I don’t know why it popped up so strongly in my head, but it felt really good to listen to it a few times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85I7tUIFmrQ

I had the cassette of Invisible Touch back in the 80s and I pretty much wore it out rewinding and repeating that song.

Oh man. The Brazilian is a super-guilty pleasure for me. It’s so emblematic of the late-stage, over-the-top, synth & drum driven ‘80s prog that so many people loath. But I can’t help loving it just the same.

Well, you have to give Collins some leeway, given that he is a drummer. Though no Peter Gabriel! (sorry, had to sneak that in).

I again refer everyone to above in the thread for “except Gabriel-era die-hards.”

It’s amazing how a song or album (like a smell) can bring forth an entire memory & experience. For me, Invisible Touch evokes warm early summer evenings in my senior year of high school. Driving around in my mom’s shitty Toyota Corolla, windows down, overly long hair whipping in the wind, blasting The Brazilian from a warbly cassette that has been played nearly to death. To be young and foolish :-)

Time for Supper again, I guess.

https://youtu.be/e4HfFwVy-h0

I kind of missed this thread when it was around earlier so I though that I would speak my mind. Genesis is kind of three entities. The Gabriel era, Post Gabriel but still Hackett and The Collins era. Myself, I liked all eras and accepted that they were different from each other. Finally, Trick of The Tail is one of Genesis’ finest albums. Its simply great from the first drop of the needle. Trick of the Tail holds it own regardless of the era.

Agree wholeheartedly. We are Genesis-brothers.

Absolutely.

I was fortunate enough to see the Trick of the Tail tour at the Berkeley Theater.

As for later stuff, for me it isn’t about the lineup or album, but individual tracks. The more poppy, the less I care about it.

Post-Genesis Gabriel is a genre in itself, of course.

As is post-Gabriel Genesis, imo.

As you note, the poppier, the worse.

Its interesting this thread got bumped today, as I just saw a headline a few hours ago that Genesis was in town giving a few concerts. Might have even considered going to see them, but I’m still too weary of the Covid to head to a big concert yet.

How did I miss this? I’m a huge Genesis fan. They’re in my top 5 bands of all time list. My rankings:

1) The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974): There’s some bloat on the second of this double album, but the first one is a perfect masterpiece on its own. The second still contains some fantastic material. Unlike other 70s prog rock albums, including some of the other ones on this list, this one sounds ultra modern - like it could have been recorded today. Gabriel was credited with the direction Lamb took (it’s his favorite Genesis’ album, while Tony Banks has been critical of it), but there’s no way he gets credit for its sound, since even Gabriel’s first couple of solo albums failed to come close a few years later, and sound completely of the time period. And their next couple of follow-up albums sounded more like the previous album (1973’s Selling England By the Pound).

2) Selling England by the Pound (1973): This one is a close second place and my introduction to Genesis aside from the radio hits of the 80s which I detested at the time. But I was a huge Peter Gabriel fan and did not know what to expect when I first listened to this in 1998. It blew my mind.

3) Foxtrot (1972): Supper’s Ready. Enough said. No, that’s not true. “Watcher of The Skies” and “Can-Utility and the Coastliners” are also great.

4) Wind and Wuthering (1975): Released less than a year than the first Gabriel-less album (A Trick of the Tail), I prefer the songwriting on this one as it moves a little further from their previous sound and has some great instrumentals. I still debate internally whether this album should be lower on account of “All In A Mouse’s Night” which is just terrible. Embarrassing, even. And despite it being such a big song in their live sets, I don’t care for “Afterglow”. It starts off well enough but goes nowhere.

5. A Trick of the Tail (1976): First album without Peter Gabriel was quiet the positive surprise. I had put off listening to any Collins’ led Genesis albums for a long time before I took the plunge with Duke because someone loaned it to me, and then I went back and listened to the other stuff. It helps that the album sounds a lot more like a true follow-up to Selling England by the Pound and that Collins may have been trying to channel Gabriel a little in his vocal performance. Some of my favorite Genesis’ tracks are on here: the explosive “Dance on a Volcano”, and the gorgeous “Mad Man Moon” and it would have been higher on the list if not for “Squonk”, which like “Afterglow”, is a song without a proper chorus or hook which would be totally fine if not for it’s repetitive structure.

6) Duke (1980): This is as high as it is on my list because of my own “version” of the album:

  • Behind the Lines
    Duchess
    Guide Vocal
    Man of our Times
    Misunderstanding
    Turn it on Again
    Cul-De-Sac
    Duke’s Travels
    Duke’s End

This would have been perfect this way, and maybe even higher on my list. The 3 songs I’ve left out are dull ballads that slow down the pacing and make the album seem a lot longer than it is. They also signal what’s to come from the band as this is their truly last album with one foot solidly in progressive rock. They lost me when they went full pop with the following album.

7) And Then There Were Three (1977): Underrated album, but then again, it could have been higher on this list, but like Duke, it contains a few throwaway tracks. Still, some of my favorite Genesis songs are on this album: “Down and Out”, “Ballad of Big”, “Deep in the Motherlode”. Hacket’s guitar playing is sorely missed, but I feel Rutherford did an admirable job filling in and the songs that work are really great. It’s debatable whether this or Duke was the last truly prog rock Genesis album, but this is definitely the last album that has a certain sonic link to their previous work, as if Hacket’s shadow was still lurking. Duke clearly sounds more like a band starting fresh.

8) Nursery Cryme (1971): A solid album marred by poor sound production. Even on the latest remasters, parts of it are a bit murky. It also contains a number of throwaway tracks, but is worth the price of admission for “Supper’s Ready” precursor “The Musical Box” and “Return of the Giant Hogweed” and Collin’s vocal debut on “For Absent Friends”.

9) Trespass (1970): I bought this and listened to it once in over 20 years. Not a very good album.

After Duke I stopped buying Genesis albums. I’ve tried to go back and listen to those albums on Spotify, and I just don’t like those albums and can’t listen to them in their entirety. I do like “That’s All”, “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”, and “Land of Confusion”, but that’s about it.

Oh, and if any fans have not listened to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in Surround 5.1, it is quite an experience.

While you’re at it, you’re missing four Collins era albums.

Very cool! I did not know that. I’m still stuck in 80s and 90s thinking, constricted to the albums I can find by walking into a Camelot music store at the mall, and seeing nothing older from Genesis than Abacab. I keep forgetting that I can listen to any album I want to now.

Since you like the 80s stuff, I highly recommend Duke.