Article: It's Time To Admit That Genesis Has Always Been a Great Band

[downbyariver]

[Mr. Holland]

I have no problem admitting that. Love all of their albums to a varying degree, with the exception of the first and the last one. So many great songs and first class musicianship.

Nice piece also!

[luna65]

Yeah I saw that last week - it's nice to see the Millennial mainstream media opine on this subject.

[Gtkgasman]

Like Mr Holland, Enjoy the catalogue, some more than others, some songs have good memory connections to diff times in life. 😊

I’d say I like the Gabriel run the best. But. I like Trick, Duke, and Genesis as much as any early albums also. And I throw on Seconds out and Three sides live as much as any other live vinyl I have 😁

[pjt]

There's only Genesis album I don't like, and it's the first one. And even that one has a couple of good ideas even when they were that young.
I like every other album, some more, some less, some songs I skip, the vast majority I dont. Just like with Yes.

I was a Genesis fan before I was a Yes fan, but they stopped making new music when Yes hasn't, just because they were pissed that they couldn't fill stadiums any more.

[Gary Betts]

Genesis are the only band that when I listen to them, they are so good, I think I should really should like them more than Yes…of course I don’t.

[Old Frothingslosh]

What a terrific band, I like 90% of catalog (1st and last 2 with Phil are throwaways for me). I think Calling All Stations had some pretty good moments too. My favorite period is the Trick of The Tail, Wind And Wuthering, Duke, Abacab album run.

[Ash Armstrong]

Yes, I remember that documentary. I think it was part of the then-early evening Nationwide current affairs magazine programme. Unfortunately And Then There Were Three marked the closing of my interest in Genesis thereafter. Their shift away from the more expansive instrumental style towards a simpler song-based populism didn't interest me. I'm sure they must have gained a much greater following as a result, but in the process lost a good number of fans who thought as I did. I expect it's to a large extent a generational thing.
It's been debated, discussed and argued over ad nauseum.

[Mr. Holland]

What a terrific band, I like 90% of catalog (1st and last 2 with Phil are throwaways for me). I think Calling All Stations had some pretty good moments too. My favorite period is the Trick of The Tail, Wind And Wuthering, Duke, Abacab album run.

Thar is my favourite period as well!

[soundchaser09]

Genesis is a legendary band

[RelayerI]

Genesis is a legendary band

Absolutely.

Diminising returns for me after And Then There Were Three, but I like both bands, and Calling All Stations showed a lot of promise.

[Soundwaveseeker]

Genesis was/is one of my favorite bands. I wanted to see them when they came to DC, but couldn't justify paying $300/400 for a ticket. So it looks like they've become the next band-I'll-never-see-again, like Rush or ELP. The only difference is, they are all still alive and don't hate each other particularly. They probably could have given us an album in 2007. For me it's always about the music and the next album, so I always found it unfortunate that they ceased as a creative unit. Some thoughts on Genesis:

1) After Calling All Stations, there was the possibility of a follow up album in 1999/2000. Since the CAS album wasn't a smash success like the previous two, they bailed and scuttled the ship rather than build back up with a new era, scaling back to theaters and putting out eclectic albums with Ray Wilson. So no new album y2k. We'll never know what could have come of this line-up. A shame that Genesis may appear to have been spoiled by their success. Between 78-92, Genesis was on the up and up, and deservedly. Such a unique group. Those chords! There are times that I know I could have benefitted from a new album of Genesis tunes, be it prog, poppy stuff or whatever. I guess they just weren't driven to continue the 'brand' in a creative capacity. They probably should have given their Ray Wilson era a chance to grow instead of giving up so easily.

2) Where Yes alumni has solo albums, bands and projects coming out on a regular basis, many of which either sound 'Yessy' enough or tick some sort of Yes box, Genesis-sounding stuff is fewer and further between. The only one really still flying the flag with regular releases of new material, always touring and putting out new albums, is Steve Hackett. And the quality is generally consistent. In the long run, I think Hackett may have been the most successful former member. His was a slow-burn success, always visible and available. He seems happy to ply his trade. Mike & Mechanics surfaces now and then, but Phil and Peter Gabriel haven't had a new album in some time. And Tony Banks hasn't put out a pop/art-rock album since the 90's. His material was closest to the Genesis sound in places, and I would love a non-classical one from him, to get that Genesis vibe. It is what it is, and these guys have already done the work, so they don't owe anybody anything. But a new Genesis album is something that would enrich the listener - and it could be done.

3)A new Genesis album could have been done at some point if they really feel the itch to do it, but they would have to want it. It could be done - Phil can't play drums anymore, that's ok. He can still sing and write songs. Bring in Chester Thompson or his son on drums. Genesis started as a songwriters collective, and the others can still play. Write some songs and see what comes up.

4)A supergroup with Hackett, Ray Wilson, Chester, and Daryl Stuermer on bass and some guitar. Not sure who's on keyboards, just don't use Roger King. I love Roger King's work with Steve Hackett and know he's Hackett's right-hand man, but his involvement would make it sound too much like a Hackett solo album. Maybe use one of the neo-prog guys, they all study Tony Banks. Could it be called Genesis 2.0 without legal issues? Dunno. But such a project would turn heads.

5)They were great as a prog band but were also rather great as a progressive synth-pop/art-pop kinda group. As much as I like Suppers Ready/Firth Of Fifth etc, I admit they had some great long tracks from the hit years - Home By The Sea and Fading Lights in particular are very powerful. The shorter accessible tunes are cool too, and if they were never hits or were never played to death on the PA system in your local barber shop or K-Mart, they probably would have been reappraised.

Yes, it's time to admit Genesis were one of the best bands ever.

[downbyariver]

My favorite Genesis stuff is essentially the stuff that was the most commercially successful for them, but is not really considered hip to like on the Internet these days. Albums like Invisible Touch and We Can't Dance are kind of my jam (Though I like breaking up the latter into two parts for listening purposes because the length can cause it to drag a tad.).

With that said, though, I like almost every album in the Genesis catalog individually. As Yes does (With admittedly a different balance in terms of the number of albums in each era), Genesis goes from a progressive rock/classic rock vibe to an 80s pop-rock/80s prog rock vibe (In fact Genesis started doing what we'd now think of 80s style stuff several years before the 80s started and were thus likely a key influencer) over time, and I like music in all of those categories, so it basically all works for me to varying degrees.

The one exception might be From Genesis to Revelation , their debut album. If one keeps in mind that said album featured prep school kids trying to sound like the BeeGees, it is actually impressive in an odd kind of way, because they do manage to get in some stuff that shows a bit of promise here and there, but of course we don't enjoy music on a sliding scale where we go "Well, I don't like the style or the songs, but I enjoyed it anyway because the circumstances make it an impressive effort.". That doesn't make one want to listen to it more.

Other than that, though, it's all good to varying degrees (Including the two EPs). I actually thought Calling All Stations was, while not as strong as the Genesis albums that immediately preceded it, better than at least a few albums in the catalog. I guess, like a few other people on here, I'm a broken record on this, but I really wish that lineup had moved forward with more albums instead of packing it in just because they couldn't sell out arenas in the western hemisphere anymore. They were doing well in Europe in terms of both ticket and albums sales, and could have probably done alright in the US had they lowered their expectations and been willing to play theaters and such the way that Yes was doing.

Actually, one of the reasons I probably focus on Yes more than Genesis is that Yes kept producing new albums full of new content after the 70s and the 80s, whereas we really only have the one Genesis album in the last three decades. I definitely give points to bands for longevity if they keep creating new music for us to enjoy and aren't just touring without creating any new studio albums.

Genesis has more 80s style content, which is a plus in my book, but Yes' 70s style content was much better than Genesis' 70s style content, in my view, though both put out some very good 70s style content.

[Ash Armstrong]

For those of us who discovered Genesis in the early 70s, Trespass was the first Genesis album. I don't recall me or any of my like-minded school friends even be aware of Revelation existing. Its first appearance on our radar was the release of the budget-priced LP In the Beginning in 1974, after The Lamb came out. This release was From Genesis to Revelation repackaged and retitled in an attempt to cash in on their success by 74. As far as I'm aware, Jonathan King retained ownership of the music on it, and it was released without the band's consent. I can't remember anyone I knew buying it, and I've never heard it, even now.
I certainly consider Trespass to be the first Genesis album, in the same way I consider LA Woman to be the final Doors album.

[RelayerI]

1) After Calling All Stations, there was the possibility of a follow up album in 1999/2000. Since the CAS album wasn't a smash success like the previous two, they bailed and scuttled the ship rather than build back up with a new era, scaling back to theaters and putting out eclectic albums with Ray Wilson. So no new album y2k. We'll never know what could have come of this line-up. A shame that Genesis may appear to have been spoiled by their success.

4) A supergroup with Hackett, Ray Wilson, Chester, and Daryl Stuermer on bass and some guitar. Not sure who's on keyboards

This.

Just Hackett & Wilson would work for me. Nir Z on drums, Lee Pomeroy on bass, a keyboard player...