Genesis Archive: 1967 - 1975
Genesis
(This review originally appeared on the Classic Rock
channel of about.com, Winter 1998)
Once upon a time, long before Phil Collins turned into a piano-bar balladeer;
before Peter Gabriel became a music video
revolutionary and backbone to the world
music community; before Mike Rutherford relied on Mechanics
to "fix" his music; before Tony Banks and, to an even lesser degree, Steve Hackett, fell into the pit of obscurity and
neglection -- there was a great English progressive
rock band called Genesis.
There are some who will argue that Genesis
was a great band right up through last year when they released Calling All Stations, their first album in over 25
years without
Phil Collins. But if you dug the classic Genesis
that is represented on Genesis Archive: 1967-1975,
then you kissed them off the minute Phil became the front man in 1976. For although
the band has churned out an admirable chunk of hits since the post-Gabriel 70s -- and has occasionally shown signs of
that old progressive spark -- it is that magical combination of Gabriel,
Banks, Rutherford, Hackett and Collins
(on drums) that continues to hover on the brink of immortality.
Without question, Genesis Archive: 1967-1975 is for those
discriminating fans, mostly old and gray by now, yearning in their desire for all things
eclectic and musically over-the-top. It's no wonder that Pink
Floyd, Yes,
Jethro
Tull, King
Crimson and ELP
carry on -- how ever cliche it may sound, these bands represented an extremely
misunderstood era where music and art were taken to their most extreme. Genesis was a striking catalyst during that period,
reaching beyond the process of producing off-beat and classically- flavored music, and
turning whole pieces into theater for the eyes and ears.
Perhaps, the best example of what the early Genesis
was capable of can be found in the mega opus, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. The only
multi-track "live" version of The Lamb
fills the first two discs of this set. By the time of this
recording -- 1/24/75 from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles -- the band had already
toured the world over in support of The Lamb,
having worked out any staging or technical bugs, with full knowledge of Gabriel's
imminent departure.
Nevertheless, Gabriel brought a whole new visual dimension to The Lamb, parading the stage in a strange ensemble of
costumes and characters, exploding with each verse, narrating the story between breaks.
The instrumentation, mostly under the guidance of Tony Banks,
was dynamic and cosmic enough to sustain the tension of The Lamb -- a spacey tale of Rael,
a young Puerto Rican tough roaming the boroughs of New York, rolling through a number of
different emotional and surreal states whilst bumping into various abstractions along the
way. In the grand tradition of The Who's Tommy
and Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Lamb was probably meant for the big screen, but Gabriel's sudden exit from the band killed that idea
for good.
Side three is made up of selected "live" material. Mostly culled from a 1973
performance at the Rainbow Theatre in London, Firth of Fifth
and Suppers Ready are played with such
stirring magnetism that it was enough to make the hair on my arm stand to attention. Bank's command of the keyboards and Hackett's lightness and touch on the guitar, weaving
in and out over the strident foundation of Collins
and Rutherford, was a sound bristling with
resplendence and majesty. Out in front, Gabriel
as the quintessential performance artist, carefully enunciating each lyric with passion
and conviction, adding the necessary flourishes to transform the music to another level.
The CD closes with a snappy remix of Watcher of The Skies,
one of the band's earliest singles, and an ominous predecessor of things
to come.
The fourth and final CD of the set is made up of early demos and mixes by earlier
incarnations of the band. Featuring Anthony Phillips on guitar with a number of
different drummers, most of these cuts are little more than historical footnotes to a
remarkable career. Under the stern hand of producer Jonathan King, one may sense
that Genesis was being groomed for something
they would, many years later, become: an "art"
band with a pop sensibility. Maybe the soothing notes of something like Dusk or guitar-driven rockiness of Build Me A Mountain could have made the desired
impact; but most of the pieces are dominated by Banks' piano and assorted keyboards, which
would eventually define their direction.
The 80-page booklet that accompanies the set spells out all the gory details
surrounding the rise and fall of the early Genesis.
There's even a blurb about the "reunion" of 1982, a gathering of 60,000 to
witness the "best"
edition of Genesis -- Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford, Hackett and Collins (on drums). On that note, you'll get no
argument from me.
Shawn Perry
For submissions, comments, suggestions and offers of sponsorship
Send E-mail to stperry@inetworld.net
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