I’m not going to lie to you – I wasn’t a fan of Genesis until I first heard them in the early eighties. At that time, I was completely unaware that they had a long history as one of the best art-rock bands of the seventies, or that Peter Gabriel had been the lead singer for much of that time. I was introduced to the band just as they were starting to fragment, a result of Phil Collins’ growing popularity as a solo artist. Though the other primary members of the band (Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford) managed to maintain most of their art-rock sound in 1981’s Abacab, by 1983, Phil had released two solo albums that threatened to kill off any chance that Genesis could continue to succeed in the art-rock arena. (Phil would complete the kill with 1985’s monstrously popular album No Jacket Required)
…heard a BANG! 1981 – In The Air Tonight (art rock, no harm done…)
BANG! 1982 – I Don’t Care Anymore (more art-rock, no damage…)
BANG! 1982 – You Can’t Hurry Love (Ow! That one had to hurt…)
and down you go…
That’s how I perceive the lyrics now for Just A Job To Do - a short, balding assassin stalking the band and taking them down over the course of a few short years. Dramatic? Yes. Overwrought and unfair? Probably. Let’s face it – Genesis is probably their most “pop” album, and aside from Phil’s rising fame, it can be credited for bringing the band into pop consciousness. There are still elements of the art-rock sound to be found throughout the album, but nothing that really stretched music as an art form like the Peter Gabriel influenced albums of the mid-seventies. I knew none of this as a teenager back in 1983 – all I knew was that I liked the pop tunes on the album, and the weirder material on the record appealed to me somehow. All in all, it was a record that I could enjoy that I thought set my musical tastes apart from those of the mainstream – ah, the follies of youth!
So what makes Genesis an album that made a difference in my emerging musical tastes? Looking back on that era now, this was the record that opened my eyes to the whole art-rock genre. After hearing an instrumental like Second Home By The Sea, I found that I wanted to hear more music like this, and I began to explore the sounds of bands like Yes, The Alan Parsons Project, ELO and Jethro Tull - I also discovered that I much preferred Peter Gabriel as a solo artist over Phil Collins.
Genesis has some really catchy pop songs - That’s All, Illegal Alien, and Taking It All Too Hard are all classic tunes from 1983. Tony Banks’ synthesizers helped to define some of the synth sounds yet to come in the middle of the decade, and Collins popularized the use of drum machines, in addition to his own rock-solid timekeeping. Though they were my favorite songs on the record back then (at that time, I made the mistake of equating popularity with quality) these three songs are fluff compared to the songs of Genesis that I prefer to listen to now.
I love Home By the Sea and Second Home By the Sea – it’s basically a long piece divided in two movements, if you will, vocals first, instruments second. The bass really drives the first song, providing a pulse to underscore the slightly creepy lyrics. The second song features Banks’ interesting synth work – he was one of the proponents of the keyboards as a possible lead instrument in rock music – it’s nothing ground breaking, nowhere near as complex as anything Yes ever created, but it’s one of Genesis’ art-rock trademarks, and was bound to be included in this record.
Silver Rainbow and It’s Gonna Get Better are “forgotten” songs - they are both really solid tunes with great lyrics and terrific melodies. I love the off kilter rhythms of It’s Gonna Get Better, and the chorus of Silver Rainbow is fabulous – how quickly we lose track of the great “other” songs on an album. I’ve found that some of my favorite songs on an album are those that don’t make it to radio… they remain hidden treasures for the faithful to find.
For me, the best song on Genesis is the opening track, Mama. Now, Collins had led off his first two solo efforts with atmospheric, percussion saturated anthems that delved deep into the troubled psyche (the afore-mentioned In The Air Tonight and I Don’t Care Anymore). Mama takes this model to an entirely new level – it is palpably malicious, a sinister psychotic episode in music that lurks in the darkness, just itching to rip out your soul. Banks cranks up the creep factor on his synth, Phil sets the drum machine to “don’t let up” and he pounds along on his drum kit while his vocals get ever more disturbing as the song progresses. (If you’re one of the millions who can play air drums for the final couple minutes of In The Air Tonight, you should challenge yourself to learn to play this song.) Mama is music to get you in the mood to glare menacingly at people…
To wrap it all up into a neat statement that supports my thesis - Genesis is one of my favorite albums because it got me to dig deeper into the art-rock scene, and it was the gateway to a lot of great music I would discover over the next several years. There are a lot of excellent songs on this recording, and my favorites are not the popular hits, though they were certainly better than a lot of the music you could hear in 1983. It’s just one of those records that burned it’s way into my brain, and I won’t ever be able to shake it – not that I’d dare try to cross that guy menacing me with an evil grin - BANG BANG BANG!! and down I go…
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Genesis - Genesis
Originally released October 1, 1983 by Atlantic Records
Track Listing
Mama / That’s All / Home By The Sea / Second Home By The Sea / Illegal Alien / Taking It All Too Hard / Just A Job To Do / Silver Rainbow / It’s Gonna Get Better
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My Top Ten List of albums that molded my musical tastes
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