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IN THE BEGINNING - THE HISTORY |
Few bands can boast of the longitivity Genesis has enjoyed. With a career spanning 33 years, outdone only by The Rolling Stones, Genesis has had to go through a series of members including three different lead singers, to arrive to the state that they are now in. The genesis of Genesis all began at the Charterhouse Public School, Sussex, England. Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks were part of a group called The Garden Wall and Ant Philips and Mike Rutherford were part of a rival group called Anon. When Anon split up, Rutherford and Philips joined The Garden Wall. Former Producer Joanthan King recalls "...a small and grubby schoolboy pressed a demo tape into my hand. It was one of the school groups without a name. They had been pupils there with me, but, beign a couple of years younger than me I didn't know them....I played the cassette and loved it, particularly the singer's voice. That was Peter Gabriel. I christened the band GENESIS (feeling this was the true begniing of my professional career) and brought them up to London during the school holidays to record an album." The rest, as they say, is history.
Genesis' first single Silent Sun, was recorded in December 1967 and released February 22, 1968. King's first album, however, sank without a trace. But his belief in the band and particularly in Gabriel's voice, lead him to sign them up with Charisma records in 1970. In 1970, Genesis released Trespass, that featured songs like Vision of Angles, Stagnation (Featured as part of the Old Medley in The Way We Walk II, 1993) and The Knife. But before the album was actually released in October, Anthony Philips and Chris Stewart left the group. They were replaced by Steve Hackett and supertalent Phil Collins. In the following years they released Nursery Cryme, quickly followed by Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound. These albums had started to do good things to their popularity. Then in 1975, Peter Gabriel, masterminded the lyrics behind the most contraversial album in their history - Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. The Lamb, itself, told the tale of Rael, a Puerto Rican punk-kid, beginning with his adventures of the New York City life. Sadly, it was this album that initialized the spilitting of the group. Gabriel felt that, since he wrote almost all the lyrics to the albums, he WAS Genesis, and Gabriel left the group...only to rejoin a little later. Gabriel left again - this time forever. After Gabriel left, critics felt that Genesis was heading towards Armageddon. With no lead singer to head the group, Genesis started auditioning for a lead vocalist. Phil Collins, who was still a drummer for the band at that time, also decided to audition, and finally, all the members agreed to hand the microphone over to Phil (he had already done back-up vocals in the group, before Peter left - Carpet Crawl, Lillywhite Lilith, etc and lead vocals in For Absent Friends). Genesis then recruited former Yes drummer Bill Bruford to do the drumming, while they were on road. After a short stint, Bruford left Genesis and was replaced by Phil Collins' American friends - Chet Thomson on the drums ("Drum Duet, 1993 with Collins) and guitarist Daryl Streumer. With this rearrangement, Genesis decided to launch their next album.
Trick Of The Tail was the result. This is probably the most amazing piece of work Genesis has ever created and it silenced for ever critics who believed that without Gabriel, the group was nothing. Trick of The Tail, 1976, comprised such tracks as Dance on a Volcano, Sqoink, Mad Mad Moon, and my personal favorite, Ripples. Especially striking was the instrumental Los Endos, which was supposed to be a sort of "goodbye" to Gabriel (Collins sung various lyrics in ending of the song that was taken from Genesis' Supper's Ready, 1972. Genesis followed up this album with Wind and Wuthering. Though not as good as the previous album, it did have its good moments. Your Own Special Way was great track, and so were Afterglow and In That Quiet Earth. Steve Hackett left the band shortly after this album and Genesis was narrowed down to Banks, Ruthrford and Collins.
In 1979, Genesis released And Then they were Three. Though the album was a disappointment for fans, it was important to the history of the band, because it saw the release of their first commercial mainstream single - Follow You, Follow Me. Other fairly good tracks include Snowbound and Undertow.
In 1980, Duke was released by Genesis. This album was the base that set the standard for all other Genesis albums for that decade. Strong songs included Behind The Lines (also included in Phil Collins' first solo album - Face Value, 1980). Misunderstanding, Man of Our Times Turn It On Again and the mystical Duchess.
In 1982, Genesis released Abacab. By such a time the group was already heading toward commercialism in music. Abacab contained such songs as Abacab, No Relpy at All, Keep it Dark and Who Dunnit.
But it was the 1983, self-titled album Genesis that took Genesis' popularity to new heights. This album was near perfection. Great Tracks included Mama, That's All (their highest climbing single at that time - it raced to Number 2 on the Amercian Charts), and the simply phenominal Home By The Sea. All in all this was the album that took Genesis to perform for sold out crowds in historic arenas.
Genesis followed their 1983 mega hit with an even bigger monster hit with Invisible Touch in 1986. The title track Invisible Touch was the first of three number one hits of Genesis from this album. There wasn't even a single week song in Invisible Touch. In Too Deep followed by Throwing it All Away topped the charts in the United States. Great songs from this album were Invisible Touch, Tonight Tonight Tonight, Domino and the instrumental Brazilian
In 1990, Genesis released what was to be Phil Collins' last studio album with the band. We Can't Dance was released, though it didn't match the success that Invisible Touch had. Many of the songs were humanitarian cries that became common in the 1990's with most of Phil Collins' songs (Another Day In Paradise, Both Sides Of The Story, Colours, We Wait and We Wonder). Power songs in the album included No Son of Mine (reached number 2 on the US charts), Jesus he Knows Me, I Can't Dance, that was a satire on modern mainstream pop music and it's direction and the brilliantly scripted Driving the Last Spike.
1992-93 saw the release of one of the highest selling live albums ever in music history, The Way We Walk. This was the first time that the band actually toured with Phil Collins' own band - The Big Band (Daryl Stuemer, Chet Thompson and Leland Sylar). Hardcore Genesis fans would have been disappointed by The Shorts, for sheer lack of charisma and dynamism. Many tracks were shabilly done, except Jesus He Knows Me and In Too Deep. The Way We Walk : The Longs released in 1993 was just the complete opposite of the first album. It was totally electrifying and oozed with skills of musical genius that was and still in Genesis. Highlights of the Album included Old Medley, Domino, Home By The Sea and the simply brilliant Drum Duet starring Phil Collins and Chet Thompson -- just went out to show why Phil is the world's greatest drummer ever. Sadly, this was Phil's last album with Genesis. In 1996, Phil Collins officially announced his retirement from Genesis, after serving it for 26 years.
Yet again, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, called for auditioning a lead singer. They came up with twentysomething year old Ray Wilson. With Wilson in the band, Genesis released Calling All Stations in 1997. It was jut as good as Genesis' previous albums, though the lack of response to the album in America was somewhat discouraging to Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford. Smash hits included Calling All Stations, Congo, Shipwrecked and the hard hitting Dividing Line. Mike and Tony were still in fine shape, and Ray did justice to the album, though he couldn't be compared to the likes of either Collins or Gabriel. After the release of Calling all Stations, Genesis' existance was in hiatus and almost split -- permanantly.
After surviving a scary ordeal, Genesis came out with a hit-compilation album : Turn It On Again : The Hits. The album did well in the UK, racing upto number three on the album charts. For the first time in its 33 years of exsistance, Genesis did something it had never done before. With a brief reunion, all members, including Hackett, Collins and Gabriel reunited to create The Carpet Crawlers 1999!
This song featured Peter Gabriel on lead vocals, Phil Collins on drums, backing vocals and lead vocals, Mike Rutherford on rhythm and base, Steve Hackett on the 12 string and Tony Banks of the keyboards.
Though Genesis were expected to go back to the studios late in 1999 to record a new ablum, it didn't happen. Which leaves us to lament on the future of Genesis. Phil Collins was supposed to tour with Genesis again in 2000 for live concerts, but Atlantic Records issued a statement saying that that wouldn't happen this year. Meanwhile, Banks and Rutherford still haven't decided on whether to continue or not, although their statements over the last couple of months seem to be quite discouraging.