Fair point. I will go with the flow. OP you are in the (electric) chair on this one. I know it's my assumption, I'm really up the juncction. Oops...
I like a certain amount of order but I'm not dogmatic about it. Anyhow, we are just introducing here. When we get to albums and songs we can be more orderly .... perhaps
We will start with From Genesis to Revelation and roll it on from there. Like I say, this afternoon or tomorrow we'll hook into that
There will be some stagnation for me then but I will read and join in at Trespass. By that time I will definitely be looking for someone.
That's cool. I only heard From Genesis To Revelation for the first time yesterday. I'm no expert, I'm merely working as a vessel to get folks talking about these albums. I like these threads because it gets me in deeper and helps me get back that more in depth listening I used to have as a young fella, with more time and a life and all those exciting youth things lol
Not much time for internet, so I don't know if I will be able to contribute, but sure I am a fan. PG era is my favorite. I was introduced to the band in the 80s by some prog-head friends. Thanks for starting the thread.
Well, I was introduced to Genesis by a friend of mine. It must have been around '79 because it was post 'And Then There Were Three' and pre 'Duke'. My first record was Seconds Out, which ended up a perfect choice because it acted as sort of a bridge from the old Pete material with Phil singing lead. It was a while before I was even familiar with the studio version of Supper's Ready. And it took a little adjustment getting used to hearing Gabriel's take on the material. But after that I was hooked. Nursery Cryme remains my favorite Genesis album. Opening it up and listening to it on Christmas morning 1980 (I think) was magical. Anyways, once Duke came out I always bought all Genesis records the day they hit the streets. Saw them live on the Abacab tour, loved Three Sides Live, scooped up "Genesis" (Shapes album) in '83 and loved it, waited four years until their next album... And that's when it all came crashing down. I'll just leave my story there. For now.
Nursery Cryme is most often my favourite also ... I got to see them on the Mama tour and it was great.
This one is very good: Genesis - Genesis. Comes with all the singles from that era My introduction to Genesis was Christmas of 2016, when my dad got me A Trick of the Tail. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but not as much as Yes, my favorite band at the time (and for quite a long time until I finally recently decided that Genesis was indeed the better band). I decided I was going to listen to all the albums in order, and was totally turned off by FGTR. So I decided to skip to what I heard contained the peak of prog, Supper’s Ready. I pretty much enjoyed Foxtrot, though a lot of it went through one ear and out the other (I did not have a great ear then). Well by the time the end of the school year came around, I had come to not only really love Supper’s Ready but also the entire Foxtrot album, and it was then I realized I had to give everything another chance. It took me awhile to get to the rest of Genesis, but when I finally started listening to all the albums in order, I couldn’t see how anything could top Foxtrot. At this point, Foxtrot was maybe my favorite album ever, and I couldn’t see how more acclaimed albums, such as Selling England and The Lamb could possibly top it. Well, when I finally got to Selling England by the Pound, my jaw dropped at what I’d been missing. Upon first listen, every moment had absolutely captivated me. This immediately became not only my favorite Genesis record I had heard, but my favorite record of all time. Period. The Lamb took me a bit longer to warm up to, but now I love it almost as much as Foxtrot. When I listened to Wind and Wuthering, I found myself quite a bit disappointed, so I stopped listening to them in order. From there, I listened to the albums as I purchased them for the most part (I won’t be buying anything from Invisible Touch on for awhile), and I found myself surprised at the quality of the music from Duke through Genesis. Now I own all their material, excepting that from Invisible Touch onward, a few b-sides, and some live albums. Needless to say, I love almost everything to come out of this band, and it amazes me how they could go from one of the greatest Prog bands of the 70’s to one of the best and most successful synth pop bands of all time.
I was a youngster watching the MTV in the early 80's. I knew of Genesis from videos like "Illegal Alien". I also knew of Phil Collins from "In The Air Tonight" and "You Can't Hurry Love" videos. And then there was that Peter Gabriel guy. I liked "Shock the Monkey" and "Games Without Frontiers". I might have had the Shapes LP at this point, I can't remember. But at any rate I'm sure I had that album first. It was probably a couple of years later when I caught a Genesis "Rockumentary" or something on the MTV where I learned that Peter Gabriel was once in Genesis. I saw wee live snippets of "Willow Farm" and "Musical Box" with Gabriel in his costumes and was immediately intrigued. Something about the music had a bit of muscle and menace that appealed to me, much more so than this electronic Casio drum crap that was the flavor of the day (some of which Genesis themselves were perpetrating). So I immediately went to the store to look for old Genesis albums. I didn't know any titles. I stopped at the magical Woolworth's $2.99 cassette tape bin, where all the finest out of print titles, caked with dust, resided waiting for a home. It was here I had acquired such titles as David Bowie's "Heroes" (and having only heard "Modern Love" and China Girl" I was so confused!) and Ringo Starr's "Old Wave" ("Hopeless" is still my jam). So here I found a copy of "Trespass". Was this an album of the music I heard on TV? I knew not. But a mere 6 tracks meant this was probably an album of long, intricate pieces. And that face in the wall on the cover looked sorta like that mask Gabriel was wearing. I put the money down (or at least Mom did). While not exactly what I was looking for it certainly hit the spot and pushed me to acquire more. Ready to fully commit I went to Record Town and searched through the Genesis section proper. Here I found a cassette tape called "Foxtrot". Looking through the titles I saw mention of "Willow Farm", which I as relatively certain were the words Peter was singing with the flower on his head, so I splurged and spent $8.99 on the tape. Yep, this was it. "Supper's Ready" was a spine tingling experience. Still is. And when I heard Hackett play it live and in person a few years ago I nearly wept with joy. The rest of the album ain't bad either. So that was that. I put the rest of the catalog together piece by piece, focusing on the Gabriel era first, naturally, but eventually giving in and buying the rest of the catalog. I was a bit snobbish about the pop era as a youngster but now I embrace most of it, though I will always prefer the 70's stuff (except for 'shapes', which I unapologetically love just as much, just for different reasons). It's okay to enjoy both, so I do, to an extent. With my introductory AA meeting spiel out of the way I'm now ready to talk about the music. Bring it on!
This cannot be stressed enough!! @mark winstanley - you know I am so going to participate. Gives me reason to re-listen to all my Genesis vinyl and take some long overdue re-evaluations, especially Lamb-era Looking forward to this and please: no Peter v. Phil in here. It happened in two other threads I partook in already
Sorry if this has been mentioned, but are we covering EP’s and B-sides? If so, will we just be covering the b-sides with some of the albums, like Happy the Man (I know this was an A-side) with Nursery Cryme, Twilight Alehouse with SEBTP (even if it fits in more with Foxtrot), Vancouver with ATTWT, etc.?
Oh yeah, my introduction to Genesis: I had been exposed to Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel ever since being a curious little toddler. My mom has at least the 80s run by Phil (+ the Serious Hits and Hot Night in Paris live albums) and a compilation that had 'Sledgehammer' on it. In addition, the famous songs by the two were always on the radio back then (well, actually they still are), 80s and 90s Genesis as well. I wasn't too interested in this stuff since my first musical interests were more by the likes of Shakira, Alice Cooper, Amy Winehouse or Led Zeppelin (still love em all, though). At age 15, I rediscovered 'Invisible Touch' (the song) while browsing YouTube. It stuck in my head for days and so I decided to get the IT album on CD - watching American Psycho only confirmed my personal neccessity of getting this album I loved IT upon first listening - my primary example for perfectly produced pop, a triumph of everything that made the 80s in music: synths, drum machines, lots of stereo playing, conscious lyrics and Phil Collins. Fantastic - I had opened a gate without knowing where it could possibly lead me. And since life is like a box of chocolate, the YouTube algorithms suggested 'The Cinema Show' to me. The first listen did nothing for me - too complex, maybe, but mostly I couldn't quite fathom the instrumentation and Peter's singing. It must've stayed with me, though, because when I fell in love for the first time, I had this in my head again. And listened to it all the time. Some day, I heard the entire Selling England on YouTube. Then I knew I couldn't ignore Genesis anymore if my heart was still functioning. For some reason, I bought Duke as the next step. A transitional record - the song writing of Selling England with the sound of Invisible Touch and the dark content of early solo Phil. I played the hell out of this album and for quite some time would always cite this as my favorite album. In summer of 2016 - I had just turned 17 - I could get hold of the 'Genesis Collection Volume 2', a vinyl box set containing Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound. The needle of my turntable touched the surface of Foxtrot for the first time and the rest, as they say, is history. This is why I'm here in this forum, in this thread, today to talk Genesis with you. You'll have realized my personal highlights are Foxtrot, Selling England, Duke and Invisible Touch so those should be the albums you'll have the most text from me. But since I have heard all of their albums, I'll contribute to all of them as well - maybe just not as intense as to those four
If I miss anything please feel free to jump in and correct me. I don't pretend to be fully fluent in singles and b-sides, but my aim was to include as much as possible
Was a 7" flexi wasn't it if I remember right? And I hope we can talk about singles - then I can trumpet to my heart's content about Paperlate!
nice ... I'm hoping between everybody's expertise in certain albums we can get some real insight. I love it all, but float toward the mid period most. I know some folks are all about the later albums and hopefully they will be bold enough to let it all hang out. Obviously from everything I've seen most folks seem drawn towards the early stuff, so there will be plenty of space for them to tell us all about their love of those albums. We should have some really good input. Hopefully this can be a thread of healing, and the old and new crowds can find a safe middle ground to appreciate how good this band really are. Just the fact that were able to cross over, so slowly and smoothly, having such a great legacy and legend, and be successful is a feather in the cap of all those involved.
Was released as a Flexi, but first as the B-side to “I Know What I Like”. And yes, Paperlate and the rest of the 3 X 3 EP is very good. My personal favorite off that disc is “Me and Virgil”, but overall all of it is much better than Spot the Pigeon (which is also enjoyable in its own right).
I couldn't have said it any better - I like all of their stuff, from the debut to Calling All Stations and since my favorite albums by Genesis are from verious different periods of the band I hope for an insightful and enrichening discussion in this thread so as to rediscover songs I didn't quite have on the radar anymore
