Genesis

Genesis, seminal British progressive-rock group of the late 1960s and 1970s. MEMBERSHIP: Peter Gabriel, lead voc. (b. London, England, Feb. 13, 1950); Tony Banks, kybd., voc. (b. East Heathly, Sussex, England, March 27, 1951); Steve Hackett, lead gtr., 12-string gtr.(b. London, England, Feb. 12, 1950); Mike Rutherford, bs., 12-string gtr., voc. (b. Guildford, England, Oct. 2, 1950); Anthony Phillips, gtr. (b. Putney, England, Dec. 1951); Chris Stewart, drm. Chris Stewart left almost immediately, to be replaced by John Silver in 1968, John Mayhew in 1969, and finally Phil Collins (b. London, England, Jan. 30, 1951) on drums and vocals in 1970; guitarist Steve Hackett replaced Anthony Phillips in the same year. Peter Gabriel left in June 1975; Hackett left in 1977.

Genesis favored a variety of keyboards and synthesizers in producing its sophisticated, richly textured music that set the style for other progressive- rock groups of the 1970s, such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Yes. Formed as a songwriters7 collective, the group emphasized the songs rather than virtuoso musician-ship. Building their reputation on the flamboyance and theatrics of lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, Genesis attempted to break through in America as a headline group rather than a supporting act in 1972. By 1975 the group had established itself with their early tour de force The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, an elaborate album combining a story line with surreal lyrics; some critics hailed it as the definitive concept album. The band employed progressively more ambitious stage presentations for subsequent tours.

With Peter Gabriel’s departure in 1975, Genesis began moving in a mainstream direction, with drummer Phil Collins taking over the lead vocal chores. Leaving behind their progressive pretensions with the 1977 departure of guitarist Steve Hackett, Genesis became an enormously popular touring and recording act in the 1980s, bolstered by the uncanny pop success of Phil Collins as a solo artist. Despite being criticized as boring, unimaginative, and repetitious, Genesis became one of the most popular and profitable rock groups in the world, and Collins likewise achieved huge success as a singles artist. Meanwhile Gabriel has continued to produce provocative, personal music, achieving his greatest success with 1986’s So and the hit song “Sledgehammer” and its innovative music video. Most recently he has become a champion of world music, founding the World Music Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival.

Genesis was formed in January 1967 as a songwriters7 collective by four students at England’s Charter-house School: Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Ruther-ford, and Anthony Phillips. After sending a tape to producer-songwriter Jonathon King (1965’s “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon”), the group recorded their debut album, In the Beginning (rereleased as From Genesis to Revelation), for Mercury Records with King as producer. The group was released from its recording contract after a year and was joined by drummer John Mayhew in 1969. This lineup of Genesis recorded Trespass for the ABC subsidiary Impulse (released on Charisma in Great Britain). Phillips and Mayhew left the group in 1970, and Phil Collins was recruited to play drums and sing backup vocals. He had been a child actor, appearing as the Artful Dodger in the London production of Oliver, and had taken up drums at age 10. He had begun playing sessions at 14, and played with Flaming Youth in 1969. Several months later guitarist Steve Hackett joined Genesis.

For Nursery Cryme, on Charisma Records, Genesis featured extensive use of the mellotron (an early synthesizer). The album contained two Genesis favorites, “Musical Box” and “Return of the Giant Hogweed,” and garnered rave reviews in Britain. The band then began experimenting with visuals and theatrics in performance that later became the group’s early trademark. Peter Gabriel became the visual focus of Genesis, utilizing mime, costuming, and lengthy song introductions on stage. Foxtrot included Genesis favorites “Watcher of the Skies” and the 23-minute “Supper’s Ready,” which featured spectacular lighting and elaborate costuming by Gabriel in performance. In an effort to generate a following beyond its cult status in America, the group debuted in the United States as a headlining act in December 1972.

Genesis’s first breakthrough into the American market came with 1973’s Selling England by the Pound. Featuring songwriting developments on the themes of myth, legend, and fantasy, plus Banks’s synthesizer work and several songs in odd time signatures, the album contained the group’s first British hit, “I Know What I Like.” With their reputation secure as a major British band by 1974, Genesis switched to Atlantic Records for the double-record concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Written in its entirety by Peter Gabriel, the album traced the surreal contemporary adventures of its hero, Rael, in the harsh N.Y.C. environment. The subsequent British and American tours virtually duplicated the album in performance, with Gabriel portraying Rael through a series of odd costume changes.

In June 1975 Peter Gabriel, sensing a loss of creative momentum and weary from years of touring and recording, left Genesis. Inasmuch as Gabriel had been (incorrectly) assumed to be the band’s musical leader and chief songwriter, critics began predicting its demise. Phil Collins took over on lead vocals for subsequent recordings. A Trick of the Tail proved surprisingly successful, as did Wind and Wuthering, which yielded their first (minor) American hit, “Your Own Special Way.” In order to free Collins from his drumming duties, Genesis recruited former King Crimson and Yes drummer Bill Bruford for their 1976 tours. For their 1977 worldwide tour they used all new sound and lighting equipment, enlisting American drummer Chester Thompson. The 1976 and 1977 tours were documented on Seconds Out.

Phil Collins began working outside Genesis in 1976, recording six albums with the jazz fusion group Brand X through 1980. Former member Anthony Phillips launched a solo career in 1976, and in 1977 Steve Hackett dropped out of Genesis to pursue a solo career. He recorded six albums through 1983 and formed GTR with vocalist Max Bacon and former Asia and Yes guitarist Steve Howe in 1986.

Reduced to a trio after Hackett’s departure, Genesis recorded the appropriately titled And Then There Were Three, with Rutherford playing all guitar and bass parts. Revealing a mainstream pop sound, the album yielded a major hit single with “Follow You, Follow Me.” Genesis next recorded Duke and the best-selling Abacab, which produced major hits with “Misunderstanding” and “Abacab,” respectively. Augmented by drummer Chester Thompson and new American guitarist Darryl Stuermer for tours, Genesis next released the double-record set Three Sides Live. All three members of the core band (Collins-Rutherford-Banks) have maintained their commitment to the group while pursuing various solo and other band projects from this period forward.

Phil Collins began recording as a solo artist in 1981, soon hitting with “I Missed Again” and “In the Air Tonight.” He scored a near-smash in 1982–83 with a remake of the Supremes’s “You Can’t Hurry Love.” His success seemed to bolster the career of Genesis, and 1983’s Genesis yielded four hits, including the smash “That’s All.” Genesis toured in 1984, and thereafter Collins and Genesis alternated producing smash hits. Through 1986 Collins had three smash hits with “Easy Lover” (in duet with Philip Bailey), “Don’t Lose My Number,” and “Take Me Home,” and top hits with “Against All Odds” (from the movie of the same name), “One More Night,” “Sussudio,” and “Separate Lives” (in duet with Marilyn Martin from the movie White Nights). Genesis scored five smash hits in 1986–87 with “Invisible Touch” (a top hit), “Throwing It All Away,” “Land of Confusion,” “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight,” and “In Too Deep” from Invisible Night. Collins starred in the 1988 movie Buster, which yielded top hits for Collins with a remake of the Mindbenders’ “Groovy Kind of Love” and “Two Hearts.”

During the 1990s Genesis scored major hits with “No Son of Mine,” “I Can’t Dance,” “Hold on My Heart,” “Jesus Knows Me,” and “Never a Time” from We Can’t Dance. The American stadium tour in support of the album yielded the two-part live set The Way We Walk (the first volume, “The Shorts,” celebrated their recent hits, while the second, “The Longs,” featured re- creations of their more ambitious 1970s progressive tunes). Phil Collins recorded the socially conscious album …But Seriously, which yielded pop and easy-listening hits with the top “Another Day in Paradise,” the smashes “I Wish It Would Rain Down,” “Do You Remember?,” and “Something Happened on the Way to Heaven,” and the major “Hang in Long Enough.” He scored a major hits in 1993–94 with “Both Sides of the Story” and “Everyday.”

Peter Gabriel returned to recording with three solo albums—released in 1977, 1978, and 1980—all, oddly, with the same name, Peter Gabriel. Exploring electronic instrumentation and Third World music on these al-bums, Gabriel was at the forefront of rock’s avant garde with his imaginative, complex arrangements and performance-artist persona in concert. He scored his first minor American hit in 1977 with “Solsbury Hill,” and the third Peter Gabriel album included the moderate hit “Games without Frontiers,” with backing vocals by Kate Bush, and “Biko,” his tribute to South African activist Steve Biko, who died in prison in 1977.

In 1982 Peter Gabriel founded the World Music Arts and Dance organization in England, to promote contemporary non-Western music, or “world music.” Over the years, the organization has presented more than 60 festivals in 12 countries, featuring acts from Jamaica, Africa, India, and Russia. That year the brooding, dense Security produced Gabriel’s first major hit, “Shock the Monkey.” He toured in 1983 and recorded five instrumental versions of previously released songs for the soundtrack to the movie Birdy. He finally made his commercial breakthrough in 1986 with the accessible So album, which yielded four hits: the top hit “Sledgehammer,” the major hit “In Your Eyes,” the near- smash hit “Big Time,” and the minor hit “Don’t Give Up,” recorded with Kate Bush.

In 1986 Gabriel performed on the Amnesty International tour, and he later conducted his own international tour of arenas, introducing Senegal’s most popular musician, Youssou N’Dour, to a new audience. He subsequently formed Real World Records for releases by Third World artists, and scored and recorded the music for the controversial 1989 Martin Scorsese movie The Last Temptation of Christ using musicians from Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. Gabriel managed moderate hits in 1992–93 with “Digging in the Dirt” and “Steam,” and introduced his impressive CDROM Peter Gabriel’s Secret World in late 1993.

In 1985 Mike Rutherford formed Mike and the Mechanics with vocalists Paul Young (b. Manchester, England, June 17, 1947) and Paul Carrack (b. Sheffield, England, April 22, 1951), keyboardist Adrian Lee (b. London, England, Sept. 9, 1947), and drummer Peter Van Hooke (b. London, England, June 4, 1950). Young had been lead vocalist with Sad Cafe, and Carrack had sung on Ace’s smash 1975 hit “How Long” and Squeeze’s moderate 1981 hit “Tempted.” Mike and the Mechanics scored smash hits with “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)” and “All I Need Is a Miracle,” and they toured the United States in 1986. They toured again in 1989, in support of Living Years and its top-hit title song.

Discography

GENESIS: In the Beginning (1968; reissued as From Genesis to Revelation, 1974); And Then There Was (1987); Trespass (1970); Nursery Cryme (1971); Foxtrot (1972); Best (reissue of above two; 1976); Nursery Cryme/Foxtrot (1979); Selling England by the Pound (1973); G. Live (1974); The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974); A Trick of the Tail (1976); Wind and Wuthering (1977); Seconds Out (1977);…And Then There Were Three (1978); Duke (1980); Abacab (1981); Three Sides Live (1982); G. (1983); Invisible Touch (1986); We Can’t Dance (1991); Live/The Way We Walk—Vol. One: The Shorts (1992); The Way We Walk—Vol. Two: The Longs (1993). THE LONDO N SYMPHON Y ORCH.: We Know What We Like: The Music of G. (1987). STEVE HACKETT: Voyage of the Acolyte (1976); Please Don’t Touch (1978); Spectral Mornings (1979); Defector (1980); Cured (1981); Highly Strung (1983); Time Lapse (1992); Momentum (1994); Till We Have Faces (1994); Bay of Kings (1994); Blues with a feeling (1995). GTR (WITH STEVE HACKETT) : GTR (1986). BRAND X (WITH PHIL COLLINS) : Unorthodox Behaviour (1976); Moroccan Roll (1977); Livestock (1977); Masques (1978); Prafarf (1979); Do They Hurt? (1980). ANTHONY PHILLIPS : The Geese and the Ghost (1977); Wise After the Event (1978); Sides (1980); Private Parts and Pieces, Part III—Antiques (1992); 1984 (1992); S/ow Dance (1991); Prawte Parts and Pieces, Vol. 8 (1993). PETER GABRIEL : Peter Gabriel (1977); Peter Gabriel (1978); Peter Gabrie/ (1980); Peter Gabriel (aka Security; 1982); P/ays Lira? (1983); Bm/y (soundtrack; 1985); So (1986); Passion: Music for the Last Temptation of Christ (soundtrack; 1989); Shaking the Tree: 16 Golden Greats (1990); Revisited (1992); Us (1992); Secret World Live (1994); OVO: Millennium Show (2000). TONY BANKS : A Curious Feeling (1979); The Fugitive (1983); The Wicked Lady (soundtrack; 1984); Soundtracks (1986); Still (1992). PHIL COLLINS : Face Value (1981); Hello, I Must Be Going! (1982); No Jacket Required (1985); ITers (1988); …Bwf Seriously (1989); SCTWMS Hits…Live! (1990); Bof/z Swfes (1993). MIKE RUTHERFORD : Smallcreep’s Day (1980); Acting Very Strange (1982). MIKE AND THE MECHANICS : Mike + The Mechanics (1985); Living Years (1988); Word of Mouth (1991); Beggør on 0 Brac/z of Gold (1995).

Bibliography

Armando Gallo, G.: The Evolution of a Rock Band (London, 1978); Steve Clarke, G.: Turn It On Again (London, 1984); Ray Coleman, Phil Collins (London, 1997); Spencer Bright, Peter Gabriel: An Authorized Biography (London, 1988).

—Brock Helander