On 07-03-97 ROBBIE WILSON wrote to KENNETH NEWMAN... 
 
 KN> Gabriel went on to do commercial pop 
 
 RW> I would consider the first two Peter Gabriel `Peter Gabriel` albums 
 RW> amongst my top 30 of all time - I take it you don't rate those? 
 
        I think they're excellent albums, but I would definitely 
        call them commercial pop, whereas _Trick of the Tail_, 
        _Wind and Wuthering_ and _Seconds Out_ are all prog 
        albums and the only commercial pop tune on them is "Your 
        Own Special Way." 
 
        I just chafe at the conventional wisdom that says Gabriel 
        was the anti-commercial factor and left Genesis so as to 
        not become commercial. It may actually have been his 
        intention, though I think having a family and being a 
        depressive were probably bigger factors, but it's effect 
        was Gabriel went onto the commercial route and Genesis 
        stayed on the prog route for a couple more years. 
 
 RW> Mind you I thought at that time the Gene-four continued to be prog 
 RW> mainly because of Steve Hackett 
 
        I don't know that he was the decisive influence on this 
        but you're right in that he was the decisive factor. As 
        long as he was in the band they were a prog band, and 
        when he did a solo, _Voyage of the Acolyte_, it was the 
        proggiest of all the Genesis solo projects. However, on 
        the last couple of years he got rid of his geek look and 
        his geek glasses and cut his geek hair and starting 
        wearing tight pants tucked into shiny leather riding 
        boots with billowing white shirts open at the vest and 
        blow dried highly styled hair and contact lenses. In 
        short, he was trying to transform himself from a geek 
        into Fabio, which kind of paralleled a movement away from 
        prog towards commercialism. Gabriel got rid of his 
        reverse mohawk, Collins shaved his beard. Clearly they 
        all wanted to get laid. 
 
 RW> I agree with you about the `soundalike twins` though, I always thought 
 RW> the vocal on _More Fool Me_ from `Selling England` was Peter 
 
        Lots of people still think "For Absent Friends" is 
        Gabriel. 
 
 RW> would argue that you can tell even from reading the lyrics that the 
 RW> person who wrote `Foxtrot` and `Nursery Cryme` didn't write `A Trick 
 RW> of the Tail` and `Wind & Wuthering`. 
 
        Oh definitely, the lyrics immediately went downhill upon 
        Gabriel's departure, no question. None of the stuff on 
        _TotT_ is as good as "Los Endos" and the same goes for 
        its analog on _W&W_. 
 
 RW> This may sound bitchy after he's just left, but the other reason could 
 RW> be that it took Collins that long to realise the singer wasn't just 
 RW> `the one who wiggled his bum` and actually had real power. 
 
        I think Collins did _Face Value_ for fun and to his 
        tremendous shock it made him a superstar, and after that 
        there was no turning back. "Follow Me Follow You" had 
        kind of set the stage for it, but it was the sheer 
        babe-appeal of "In the Air Tonight" that changed things 
        forever. They didn't want to attract pimple-faced 
        adolescent geek boys when they could draw hot little 
        bimbos (Collins words, not mine, btw). Personally I think 
        that's the only legitimate reason for going commercial. 
                                Cheers, 
                                Kenneth 
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