Reminder... Genesis kicked ass!
- Thread starter Flint
- Start date
Good question. The only ones I know, having listened to them a lot in my high school years, are Genesis and Invisible Touch. (In fact I think Invisible Touch is the only album, at least that I recall, that I have *ever* bought in vinyl, since I was living at home and using my dad's system - with turntable, and bose 901 - that he still has!)
They had three quite distinct phases:
Peter Gabriel / Steve Hackett years - Theatrical, long, complex, and sometimes drawn out songs and albums which are amazing to truly sit and become completely absorbed in, but they take effort. The music in the concert clip above was from that era, specifically the "Lamb Lays down on Broadway" double LP. It is very good, but "Selling England by the Pound" is my favorite of that era as they had to add some wasteful filler to "Lamb" which make it hard to sit through from beginning to end. Every album up to "Lamb" is from the Gabriel/Hackett era and all are pretty good.
Post Gabriel Prog Era - This was the era immediately after Peter Gabriel left and their musical sensibilities were still focused on longer, more robust songs, but they started being individual songs so an album wasn't so much a long opera but a collection of related songs. The best is the first one, "Trick of the Tail", when Steve Hackett was still with them and contributing. The other two, "Wind and Wuthering" and "...and then there were three", are also very good if you like traditional prog rock.
Top-40 Era - With the release of "Duke" and "Abacab", Genesis started experiencing top-50 commercial success and many of the songs, while still very well written and still showing their talents as musicians, were more pop sounding and easy to listen to even if you didn't care about prog rock or complex musical arrangements. If you like that sort of thing, I think the album, "Genesis", is the best bet, but "Duke" is a good one as well.
If I had to choose one album, and since I love prog-rock, I would choose "Trick of the Tail."
Peter Gabriel / Steve Hackett years - Theatrical, long, complex, and sometimes drawn out songs and albums which are amazing to truly sit and become completely absorbed in, but they take effort. The music in the concert clip above was from that era, specifically the "Lamb Lays down on Broadway" double LP. It is very good, but "Selling England by the Pound" is my favorite of that era as they had to add some wasteful filler to "Lamb" which make it hard to sit through from beginning to end. Every album up to "Lamb" is from the Gabriel/Hackett era and all are pretty good.
Post Gabriel Prog Era - This was the era immediately after Peter Gabriel left and their musical sensibilities were still focused on longer, more robust songs, but they started being individual songs so an album wasn't so much a long opera but a collection of related songs. The best is the first one, "Trick of the Tail", when Steve Hackett was still with them and contributing. The other two, "Wind and Wuthering" and "...and then there were three", are also very good if you like traditional prog rock.
Top-40 Era - With the release of "Duke" and "Abacab", Genesis started experiencing top-50 commercial success and many of the songs, while still very well written and still showing their talents as musicians, were more pop sounding and easy to listen to even if you didn't care about prog rock or complex musical arrangements. If you like that sort of thing, I think the album, "Genesis", is the best bet, but "Duke" is a good one as well.
If I had to choose one album, and since I love prog-rock, I would choose "Trick of the Tail."
Thanks, Flint. Gonna order a couple of those. As often, Wikipedia has a nice timeline:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(band)#Timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(band)#Timeline
Just note that the timeline is for the touring band, not the core members. The core members during their practical life (post record contract to today) were Phil Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford. The original lineup included Peter Gabriel, who was the primary creative influence, and Steve Hackett, a genius experimental guitarist of the English art guitar movement that included Andy Summers (The Police), Robert Fripp (King Crimson), and others who didn't fall into the trap of copying the blues players from America.
You could start at 1:25 for his Phil Collins/Genesis review...or watch the whole thing because it's AWESOME.
I'd recommend either Abacab or "Genesis". If you are already a prog fan, then I totally agree with Flint. I think Trick of the Tail or Wind and Wuthering (my fav) would be good first choices.
I also like the live albums Seconds Out and Three Sides Live. If you're a fan of drums, those are great albums. I think people sometimes forget Phil was also one hell of a drummer and not just a pop singer from the late 80s on.
I also like the live albums Seconds Out and Three Sides Live. If you're a fan of drums, those are great albums. I think people sometimes forget Phil was also one hell of a drummer and not just a pop singer from the late 80s on.
Although, his terrifying entrance at the end of In the Air Tonight is the one part every air drummer in the country knows by heart.
Although, his terrifying entrance at the end of In the Air Tonight is the one part every air drummer in the country knows by heart.
Guilty as charged.