Genesis were an English rock band formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, in 1967. The band's longest-existing and most commercially successful line-up consisted of keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford and drummer/singer Phil Collins. In the 1970s, during which the band also included singer Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett, Genesis were among the pioneers of progressive rock.
The group were formed by five Charterhouse pupils, including Banks, Rutherford, Gabriel and guitarist Anthony Phillips, and named by former Charterhouse pupil and pop impresario Jonathan King, who arranged for them to record several singles and their debut album From Genesis to Revelation in 1969. After splitting from King, the band began touring, signed with Charisma Records and became a progressive rock band on Trespass (1970). Phillips departed after the album's recording, with Banks, Rutherford and Gabriel recruiting Collins and Hackett before recording Nursery Cryme (1971). Their live shows began to feature Gabriel's theatrical costumes and performances. Foxtrot (1972) was their first charting album in the UK and Selling England by the Pound (1973) reached number three there, featuring their first UK hit "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)". The concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) was promoted with a transatlantic tour and an elaborate stage show, before Gabriel left the group.
Collins took over as lead singer, and as a four-piece the group released A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering (both 1976) with continued success. Hackett left Genesis in 1977, reducing the band to a three-piece of Banks, Rutherford and Collins. Their ninth studio album, ...And Then There Were Three... (1978), contained the band's first major hit "Follow You Follow Me". Their next five studio albums – Duke (1980), Abacab (1981), Genesis (1983), Invisible Touch (1986) and We Can't Dance (1991) – were also successful. Collins left Genesis in 1996, and Banks and Rutherford replaced him with singer Ray Wilson, who appeared on their final studio album Calling All Stations (1997). The critical and commercial failure of the album led the group to disband. Banks, Rutherford and Collins reunited for the Turn It On Again Tour in 2007 and again in 2021 for The Last Domino? Tour.
With between 100 million and 150 million albums sold worldwide, Genesis are one of the world's best-selling music artists. Their discography includes 15 studio and 6 live albums. They have won numerous awards (including a Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video with "Land of Confusion") and have inspired a number of tribute bands recreating Genesis shows from various stages of the band's career. In 2010, Genesis were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
albums by Genesis
Songs by Genesis
Me i am not a native english speaking (german raised swiss) but this is probably THE song which, after countless listenings in my younger days (mostly the phil collins sung version on the stellar live classic seconds out album) i can sing word by word😉.
A truly genius musical treat as the whole album.
genesis in the gabriel aera was in my opinion far the better prog band as the (in relation) far too much played yes or moody blues.
give is more bill (selling england by the pound and foxtrot,)
neverthless
this was the wedding dance for me and my wife 16 years ago (surrounded in the dark of a circle of friends holding candles). a truly moving moment captured forever in our hearts and suprisingly awakend by this inclusion in the playllist. we had to stop what we were doing and start dancing again in our room.
thanks bill and thanks to fate for its foresight to arrange the crossing of my and my wifes path 21 years ago!
A = Verse
B = Chorus
C = Bridge
So the song went verse, chorus, verse, bridge, verse, chorus, but it ended up having a different structure - "ABACAB" was just a way for them to remember how it was formed when they started working on it.
When it came time to title the song and the album, they wanted something a bit abstract, and "Abacab" worked because it had no meaning. The album art was created to look like an abstract painting to go with this theme, which indicated that this would not be typical of Genesis' previous work. "It wasn't going to be goblins and fairies," Mike Rutherford said.
For me, it's not about the fact that PG left Genesis, but more the fact that they descended into a pop-y miasma of bland, obvious and boring music after he left. There is nothing special about this song - it is just simple straightforward 80s pop, and not even a particularly inspired version of that. There were one or two pleasant enough tracks on their post-PG albums, but for me it's mainly "move on, nothing to see here".
And I would say you're dead wrong about, "...they descended into a pop-y miasma of bland, obvious and boring music after he left..." because as I said below, A Trick of the Tail, Wind & Wuthering, ...And Then There Were Three..., and Duke were not pop-y, bland, boring. They were decent prog albums, whether the myopic Gabriel sycophants like to admit it or not.
You or no one else gets to revise history here to their own liking - because those four albums sans-PG cannot be ignored in the prog catalogue. I think some people make the mistake of forgetting that Genesis didn't go pop until well after Peter and Steve left the band, which may have happened anyway had one or both stayed in Genesis, given Peter's similar prodigious solo pop output in the 70s, 80s, and beyond.
In other words, the trend was leading away from prog and more towards pop. Peter saw that writing on the wall as much as Genesis did, and he exploited it as much as Genesis did. He just didn't need to be in Genesis to do it.
It's amazing how many listeners here have appropriate names...
neverthless
this was the wedding dance for me and my wife 16 years ago (surrounded in the dark of a circle of friends holding candles). a truly moving moment captured forever in our hearts and suprisingly awakend by this inclusion in the playllist. we had to stop what we were doing and start dancing again in our room.
thanks bill and thanks to fate for its foresight to arrange the crossing of my and my wifes path 21 years ago!
my wedding dance too. seriously.
phil knows how to write a song.
After watching some concert footage recently, I was thinking the opposite: would have been great to grow up in the 70s. So much stuff was going on - musically - back then.
I was born in the wrong decade :-/
Born in 1983 I own a huge collection of 70s music... greatest stuff
There is a cover band - The Musical Box - which is very worthy to follow on stage, for those of us who were too young to know Genesis live
But this is in no way early Genesis. In fact, I stopped paying attention not long after Peter Gabriel left. I think they lost their unique qualities well before the album. Early includes Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme, etc.
Couldn't disagree more. Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, and Phil Collins made a potent song writing team for years after Gabriel left (including this album and the two before it going back to 1976). It was just a different thing from the Gabriel years, much like Fleetwood Mac before and after Nicks/Buckingham.
I think Phil was their drummer by the time this was recorded. So while I realize you probably mean his singing, you are listening to him.
After 45 years, my favourite piece of theirs is 'The Lamia'.
Des nuits entières à écouter ça dans ma jeunesse.. superbe chanson et super album
I really didn't like Genesis much at the time. I thought the music was too soft and weak for my tatse as a teen in the late '70s. I much prefered King Crimson, ELP and Pink Floyd which were all far better musicians than anyone in Genesis (except for Gabriel who truly is a genius to me). But hearing this now is kind of nice. I guess I mellowed out with time ;)
Might agree with you about King Crimson and ELP from a purely technical perspective, but all of the musicians in Genesis were better than the musicians in Pink Floyd at their respective instruments (except maybe Hackett vs Gilmour but that's an apples to oranges comparison).
Tony Banks vs Rick Wright/Roger Waters — are you kidding? Rick did great work, but Tony not only is better technically (this song is exhibit A), but also wrote or cowrote a thin majority of the Genesis songs (thin majority since they were very democratic in their songwriting), and wrote a ton of very deep, thought provoking, and even political lyrics throughout their entire career (Phil and Gabriel era both). Tony's lyrics are much more subtle/nuanced (though perhaps a bit too highbrow and sometimes awkward) than a lot of Roger Waters' "I hate capitalist pigs/being a rock star sucks" diatribes, but he still addresses political topics on songs like Domino, Cul de Sac, and One for the Vine, arguably more effectively than a song like Sheep which bashes you over the head. Rick Wright had some input on a moderate number of songs in Floyd's early days, but that was basically over by the time of Wish You Were Here. Plus Tony did do some singing in the band's early years just like Rick did in Floyd's early years, and he also played a lot of 12 string guitar in the early days.
Roger Waters vs Mike Rutherford — Mike is in a different league than Roger on bass — way better. Plus Mike plays all guitar in the post-Hackett era and almost all the rhythm guitar during the Hackett phase. Roger can outsing Mike, of course, but Mike was a huge influence on the songwriting and lyrics for Genesis throughout their career, and had a successful solo career in Mike and the Mechanics (not the greatest band ever but they managed to score a few hits).
Phil Collins vs Nick Mason — now that's a HUGE stretch. Again, Nick was great at what he did in Pink Floyd, but Phil is one of the greatest drummers of all time plus he sang.
Peter Gabriel vs Gilmour/Waters as a frontman/visual artist — Peter not only wrote a lot of lyrics and wrote some music (though not nearly as much as most people think), he also spearheaded the use of special effects and theatricality. Yes Floyd used a lot of special effects, but since they didn't have a dedicated frontman they couldn't engage (some might say indulge) in the kind of spectacles that Peter was able to pull off while he was with Genesis. Love it or hate it, Peter's theatrics were just as original as some of Floyd's special effects. Plus Peter's voice is pretty darn good, especially in his younger days when he had more range, although I'd say comparing Peter vocally to either Gabriel or Waters is a push.