Those who know me know that I am a huge U2 fan. I would have to say that they are my favorite band right now and have been for a few years now. But they have not always been my favorite band. No, siree! In fact for most of my adult life (and a good chunk of my adolescent life) my favorite band has been Genesis. Most of my old friends know this. My siblings absolutely know this (I used to put on a different cassette by my bed every night and listen to the until I fell asleep). Most people who have only recently come to know me well, probably had no idea. This is mostly because they haven’t released any new material in over 12 years (and nothing worth listening to in almost 20!). And when they decided to do their reunion tour they chose to not come within 100o miles of Miami. HOW DARE THEY!!! Well, Genesis, I guess my new favorite band will have to be… let me look at my CD collection… ah, here we go… U2! So there!!
All kidding aside (that should be difficult for me to do), I have liked Genesis music since I first heard “Abacab” when I was 12 years old. I heard the song on 103.5 WSHE (She’s only rock n’ roll!) and fell in love with it instantly. I quickly recorded using my cassette recorder and listened to it until the tape almost snapped in half. I then heard their next single, “No Reply At All” and I was hooked. This was my favorite band, hands down, with a sound nothing like any other I had heard. Little by little I began to acquaint myself with their music. This all culminated with me going to my first concert at the age of 17 (I was a late bloomer there, my parents didn’t like the idea of going to concerts and always forbid it). I almost didn’t make it to that concert, but I was not going to be denied. I had to tell my parents that they were a religious group, hence their name, and that I really wanted to see them. they said I could go but I had to take my little brother along. Not a problem, he liked them too! (It helped that I forced him to listen to them every night apparently).
The Invisible Touch concert was awesome and it solidified my love for their music. While there I heard for the first time, their older stuff, pre-Phil Collins, and then made a choice to start collecting ALL their music. I had known about Peter Gabriel but I wasn’t sure if I would like Genesis music before Phil had begun to sing. In a short period of time, I would learn that I would like it just as much. By January of 1989 I had collected the entire Genesis catalog up until that point (that’s all their music save for the 2 releases they had afterwards, We Can’t Dance in 1991, and Calling All Stations in 1997). (For all those wondering, my second concert was U2′s Joshua Tree tour date in Miami later in 1987)
So why bring this up and into the light now, you may ask? Well, as it turns out, this year on March 15, 1970 (my 40th birthday) Genesis will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For a long time I have been crying foul that they had not been inducted. Their music, especially early on in the Gabriel years was revolutionary. Their concerts were as much a feast for the eyes as they were for the ears. The glamour and the stage presence of acts like David Bowie could be attributed to Peter Gabriel, who had been previously doing much of the same types of antics on stage as the frontman of Genesis. They were rock legends, particularly in their native England, and are one of the bands ever to move from cult status to mainstream success throughout their career.
To me one of the reasons that I think they should have been considered for entry earlier was how they progressed and how their music continued to beg for more and more attention as the years passed. Whereas many acts peak after their third or fourth album, Genesis had the distinction of having every one of their releases outsell the previous one all the way until their last release will Phil at the helm. That’s pretty amazing! If your wondering, that is a total of 15 releases. How many other acts can say that? Oh yeah, none!
Their music evolved as music in general evolved. Some people called them sellouts for having many radio friendly hits near the end of their career, but few of these people would listen to their albums in their entirety, where if they would have they could have seen how they never completely let go of their Prog Rock roots, and how they still could push the envelope and find ways to make 10 minute songs listenable.
Herein may lie one of the reasons why they were overlooked for so long. Ever since the opening of the doors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it seems that the Hall and those that vote in members have had a sort of disdain for Progressive Rock and the acts that created that style of music. Though there have been hundreds of acts that have been inducted into the Hall, up until this year only one act that can even be considered to be Prog Rock in nature had been enshrined, Pink Floyd. This may be because many don’t see Pink Floyd as Progressive Rock. Other similar bands from the era that produced the 12 to sometimes 30 minute cuts on their albums have been completely ignored. These bands include Yes, Rush, Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake and Palmer, King Crimson. Every single one of these bands released some incredible music. The majority of them still exist 40 years after their inception in some form or another, with Rush in particular having the same lineup since their second album in 1974. Longevity should count for something right? And yet these bands are treated with the same respect as the hair bands from the late 1980′s. That’s insulting. I personally thought that the hair band era produced some of the worst music in the history of Rock and Roll. Interestingly enough their glory years were bookended by two of Genesis biggest releases… Invisible Touch in 1986 and We Can’t Dance in 1991. It was as if one CD was ending one era and the other was opening a new one. It’s possibly not much of a coincidence that those two CDs also coincided with U2′s two biggest CDs, 1987′s the Joshua Tree and 1991′s Achtung Baby. Other than one release between the two bands (U2′s Rattle and Hum, more a soundtrack, than an entire new release), these bands were quite absent during those painful years. After their return and great success, I think people realized that listeners were hungry for a different type of sound, and bands became creative again.
Back to why I think that Genesis really deserves this nod. Genesis has the distinction of doing something that no other band has ever done. Back in 1986, they had, at one time, songs by 4 of their current or former members on the top 40 chart while they themselves as a band had a song rising up the chart to #1, Invisible Touch. Peter Gabriel had his own song going towards number one in “Sledgehammer”. Phil Collins was busy charting his 5th single from the album “No Jacket Required” with the hit “Take Me Home”. Mike Rutherford’s band Mike and the Mechanics had their second single on the charts with “All I Need is a Miracle”. And former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett and his current band GTR were on the chart with the song, “When the Heart Rules the Mind”. The closest anybody ever came to pulling off this feat was when the Beatles had all four former members on the chart at the same time. Them and the Beatles… pretty darn good company if you ask me.
Well, 42 years after they released their first LP, they finally get their due.. They will be enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And the induction ceremony will be on my 40th birthday. Happy Birthday to me, indeed! I don’t think that I could have gotten a cooler present for my 40th birthday… other than maybe being there to witness their induction myself. Sadly, I will never be able to see them live again since they no longer work as a band. Collins himself says he’s retired from touring, and unlike bands like the Who (who’s performing at this Sunday’s Super Bowl) and Kiss (who are on their 8th farewell tour), I tend to believe him. I will just have to carry the memories of that first concert ever that I attended in the now gone Orange Bowl, and their 1992 concert in the since renamed 27 times Joe Robbie Stadium. And I will also carry the memory of Peter Gabriel in concert back in 1992 also. That, along with the Genesis and the U2 shows, has to be one of the greatest concerts I’d ever seen.
I was thinking of doing a ranking of the Genesis releases from the one I like the least to my favorite, but I will do that another day after I go back and give them all a quick listen. I’ll let you off the hook knowing that the two I like the least were their first and their last releases. Calling All Stations, their last release was a sad excuse for a couple of guys just to get together to record. Collins was gone and they brought in Ray Wilson (Ray Wilson?… exactly!) as the new singer… it had Van Halen written all over it, ughhh! The record was one big bore and unnecessary. I bought it because it was Genesis and have tried to listen to it a number of times over the years… maybe that’s the one I should use now to put me to sleep. I actually fell asleep while listening to it once… WHILE I WAS WORKING OUT. True story!! Not good. Their first release was before Collins, their eventual drummer had joined, as well as Hackett, their eventual guitarist. This releases that had Anthony Phillips and Peter Mayhew on guitar and drums respectively (both original band members, and neither being inducted with the band) was chock full of cheesy songs all about three minutes long, and all alluding to… it couldn’t be, but it really was… the creation and the Genesis story… PUKE. There were a couple of catchy songs along the way, but this LP, which has been released and re-released under different names (I bought it as “From Genesis to Revelation”) is definitely disposable and only for completists. As for the other releases, I’ll have to get back to you guys.
So, I look forward to a happy birthday, and I am looking forward to seeing the induction ceremony on VH1 when it is aired. Those inductions have some of the great moments in Rock where artists you’d never imagine playing together unite to play some classic songs. In the meantime, I look forward to a couple of other acts getting inducted in the next couple of years. The aforementioned Rush and Yes… The Red Hot Chili Peppers that should have been inducted on their first try this year… The Beastie Boys whom I once hated, but now find myself looking at as pioneers… and last but not least, my boy Weird Al. That guy deserves to be in just for doing something no one else has ever done well, except him. But this isn’t about these guys is it?
Congrats to Genesis!! This honor is well-deserved!! May your music live on for a long, long time!