The River of Constant Change: The Genesis Album-by-Album Thread

Okay, now that the Moby Grape thread is done, I'm starting, by request, on a Genesis album-by-album thread. This will cover every studio and live album from From Genesis to Revelation up through Live over Europe 2007. I won't be including any of the compilations since the only "new" song anywhere is "The Carpet Crawlers 1999", which I'll provide time to discuss.

Without further adieu, let's get started!



From Genesis to Revelation
Released in March 1969 as Decca LK 4990 (Mono)/SKL 4990 (Stereo)

1. "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet"
2. "In the Beginning"
3. "Fireside Song"
4. "The Serpent"
5. "Am I Very Wrong?"
6. "In the Wilderness"
7. "The Conqueror"
8. "In Hiding"
9. "One Day"
10. "Window"
11. "In Limbo"
12. "Silent Sun"
13. "A Place to Call My Own"

In 1967, four boys at Charterhouse Public School - Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips - formed a band without much expectation of ever doing anything. That all changed, however, once a friend of the band's gave a demo tape to pop mogul Jonathan King, who had recently had a worldwide hit with "Everyone's Gone to the Moon". King, a Charterhouse alum himself, proceeded to sign the band to a deal with Decca Records and got them in the studio (now plus drummer Chris Stewart) to record their first single - "The Silent Sun" b/w "That's Me!". The single was a commercial flop upon its February 1968 release, but King was persistent and three months later the band released a second single - "A Winter's Tale" b/w "One-Eyed Hound". This single also bombed miserably, and it was at this point that King figured that the band might have better success on LP. Around this time, Chris Stewart was replaced with John Silver, and Genesis began recording what would become their debut LP.

King thought that doing a concept album would be an interesting idea, so he came up with the concept of the whole history and future of mankind (according to the Bible)...from Genesis to Revelation. Whether this album even comes close to that concept is a pretty contentious issue. The band gave all the songs titles that fit in with the concept (even though some of the songs were written long before and had totally different titles originally) and King added string bits that linked all the tracks together to provide a cohesive flow.

After the album was finished, King had what has got to be one of the stupidest marketing ideas ever. He decided "we'd put the album in a black sleeve with no name on it or anything, people would discover it, and it would become very important. Of course this went terribly wrong because when these albums reached the retailers with these black sleeves, they said 'From Genesis to Revelation...hmmm...must be religious music' they thought, and so they threw it in the bins with all the other religious music and it didn't do a thing. I'm afraid that little marketing ploy was the reason why it wasn't a much bigger album because it was packed with some absolutely sensational songs."

King's comments are well taken and while this album definitely has its moments, this was, for all intents and purposes, more product than it was art. Of course, There are plenty of melodic hooks and most of the lyrics deal with love or loss in some way. In additon, Genesis' prog rock foundations definitely were able to show in spots and the album is worth a listen as historical reference if nothing else.

Rating: 3/5

 

Somehow I got all excited by the essay that comes with the ""Music Club" CD written by Jonathan King.
I think the album is a very promising debut at least in the songwriting and especially the lead vocal by Peter Gabriel.
Of course we know it all: everybody including the band complains about the orchestrations, but the band wasn't all too interesting at that point.

Armando Gallo's book provides a very interesting insight into the drama surrounding the album. At one point Genesis were supposed to play at Top Of The Pops (and they spent all their money on clothes) but somehow it didn't happen. Luckily one might say in hindsight...

Actually when I think of it, this record contains a lot of songs that an avarage band would kill for to have as a single. "In The Beginning", "In The Wilderness" "In Hiding" sound like hit compositions. "The Fireside Song" sounds like a classic...

At the very least this album could be used as an argument that Genesis actually started out as a pop band...their pop abilities were fleshed out long before "Follow You Follow Me"...

 

Bravo! I will look forward to reading this thread.
I am still looking for the best cd version of the above album.

 

Take your pick. Steve Hoffman's DCC supposedly sounds good though I've never heard it. I have the 1990s US CD on Transluxe Records that includes the album, the singles, and an extensive interview with Johnathan King. I love that copy. Any copy you buy on CD is pretty much going to be made from the same tape. King has said that the 4-track tapes probably don't exist anymore and the master is probably long worn out considering how many releases this thing has seen over the years.

 

It doesn't sound all that good and Steve himself recommends you look for another version and stated it is his worst work ever:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=2737649&postcount=3

I have this on DCC and have not heard any other so have nothing to compare it to. I agree with the last paragraph in the inital post from OldJohnRobertson regarding this album as a whole. Overproduced pseudo-pop with some prog elements .
I don't know if I would rate the album 3/5, maybe 2/5 and have it mainly for completeness.

 

It's still the best CD version out there.

 

I like this album a lot. It is much more 'sixties' than anything else they did, which makes sense because it WAS the sixties. They always had a way with melody which always set them apart, I thought, from other bands in the prog era. You can really see where that comes from here, with the band playing very unadorned arrangements.

Well worth having, especially if you are a gothic pop nut like me.

3/5

 

As an Early Genesis fan, I think this 1st lp is almost complete garbage except for Silent Sun.
This band really begins with Trespass.

 

i like this album; I was a big gabriel Genesis fan and found some release of this (on London Records) on vinyl in the mid-80's called "In the Beginning" with a really awful Tolkien-esque cover and an overblown essay on the back of the cover. The record really recalls early Bee Gees more than anything else to me. Songs I still listen to: In Hiding, A Place to Call My Own, Silent Sun, and Am I Very Wrong (I'd love to hear Gabriel re-do that track)

 

I cannot get into this one at all. Funny though, Trespass knocks me totally out.

Dave

 

I completely agree. I've never been able to make it through this album... I just can't stand it. It's amazing to consider that they went from this album to "Selling England by the Pound" in just a few years.

 

I think it's a bit unfair to compare it to later albums. It was made when they were schoolboys, for crying out loud.

If listened to completely objectively, without unfair comparisons (after all, what else can stand up to Selling England?) it can be a completely enjoyable album.

 

This thread's gonna be a doozy...woo-hoo!

I have yet to get this album on CD. Probably should one of these days. I originally had it on vinyl years ago...and never really listened to it much. Maybe it just sounded too "formative" to my ears. That classic Genesis sound wouldn't really kick in until Trespass.

Which one is Steve's version (of the first one)?

 

I don't usually listen to this album. Got it the Disky version when I knew it used the same mastering as the DCC. It's an OK album. The best is yet to come

2/5

 

DZS-051
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/discography/DCC/3872

 

I will say that the best sounding version I've ever heard on any format is the UK DECCA stereo SKL 4990 vinyl pressing. Those sound awesome, and stereo is the only way to hear the album. The mono is supposedly a unique mix, but it sounds like a fold-down to me. There are no discernable mix differences that I've ever heard and the mix has that textbook "clutter" sound that is so common on stereo-to-mono fold-downs. The only reason the mono red label LK 4990 pressings go for so much jack is because of their rarity. I have one and I got a good deal on it from someone who was selling his collection. I needledropped it but I listen to the stereo version probably 3 times more than I listen to the mono.

 

I hear a bunch of guys trying to sound like the Bee Gees. With the exception of "The Silent Sun", this doesn't interest me. Trespass is Genesis' real debut.

 

This album is actually pretty impressive for a group of teenagers. It's what got me into the first couple of Bee Gees records.

 

It's also worth noting that FGTR didn't see release in the USA until 1974. It was released on London Records XPS 643.

 

Even if you have the extreme views expressed by some above, you have to admit that their development was nothing short of phenomenal. Trespass is less than a year later, is it not?

 

A little more than a year if you go by recording dates, but that doesn't dilute your point.

 

As someone with a more-or-less complete Genesis collection for over two decades, I only got around to getting this about a year ago, largely on the basis of the kind of negative word-of-mouth the album is mainly getting so far on this thread. I was actually shocked at how much better it was than I had expected. Perhaps because I knew going in that it would be a pop album, that aspect didn't bother me--in fact, I'm not sure that it's any less "prog" than any of the Moody Blues' "Classic Seven" albums, which I also love. I haven't heard any Bee Gees (aside from the disco stuff), but if it is as good as this, perhaps I should look into them.

Yes, I think Genesis became even better on Trespass, but I think this is a really wonderful debut, with great singing and catchy, atmospheric melodies. Jonathan King may have been right about its commercial potential--people who liked the Moody Blues or even the Zombies' Odyssey and Oracle might have really gotten into this as well. I was also surprised to hear Steve's comments about the sound--I have the Disky version (purportedly his mastering) and think it sounds wonderful for its era--the vocals in particular sound very lifelike on my system. In general, while certainly not Genesis's best album, I do find it to be somewhat of an overlooked gem.

 

This is a vastly underrated album I think. Sure, the production and performances pretty much stink, but buried underneath is a collection of potentially brilliant pop songs. The hooks, interesting chords and great melodies are all in place but it just sounds like a collection of demos, if you put this together with some of the stuff off Disc 4 of the Archive box it presents further argument that this is stuff that deserves to be heard more (and I don't mean being reissued again!)
I would love to have heard them doing some of these songs later on during the Gabriel years and if they ever reform with Gabriel (unlikely) i'd love for them to re-record some of these if not the whole album, a bit like Bowie did with 'Toy' a few years ago.

 

I agree that a live performance might be in order, but I'd hate for them to rerecord the album. Let history be just that.

 

Holy Mother of WTF?!

http://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Ocean...d_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1197905863&sr=8-1