* Replying to a message in : SAVEAREA
Hi Kenneth,
28-Jun-97 19:17:11, Kenneth Newman wrote to Robbie Wilson Subject:
Genesis
 RW>> Well Genesis has always been Tony's band, even before they
 RW>> were called Genesis (-:
 KN> "L'etat, c'est moi!" Hey, Banks even looks a little bit like
 KN> Louis XIV, not as much as Pat Moraz does, of course.
Well I suppose that's one of the pitfalls of success, or should that be
the `flabbiness` of success (-;
 RW>> They asked `old boy` Jonathan King to produce the first
 RW>> album `From Genesis To Revolution`
 KN> This was when they we're very influenced by the student riots
 KN> in Paris '68? I'm sorry, even I can't resist a good spelling flame.
 KN> ;-)
Hmm, I must remember to make sure my brain is in-gear before I let my
fingers to the talking (-: Mind you, it could've been worse - `From
Genesis To Retribution` perhaps?
 RW>> and, due to a lack of name, JK told Decca that the band was
 RW>> called `Genesis`.
 KN> Stupid git should have checked to see if there weren't already
 KN> a band by that name, eh?
Aye, well he's just got back from the moon at that time after all (-:
 RW>> I agree with you on this wholeheartedly. Ray Wilson is not
 RW>> Peter Gabriel, just as Phil Collins wasn't.
 KN> Actually, just after Gabriel left, Collins *was* Gabriel, and
 KN> what's more, he was able to continue being Gabriel long after
 KN> Gabriel couldn't anymore. Gabriel went on to do commercial pop
 KN> whereas Collins and Genesis went on to do two more, three if you
 KN> count the live one, prog albums. Part of the reason Collins was so
 KN> convincingly Gabriel after Gabriel left was because to some extent
 KN> he had been Gabriel all along. Their voices are so similar that a
 KN> lot of the vocals Collins had been doing, especially harmonies and
 KN> such, were assumed by many (well, maybe just me) to be Gabriel
 KN> multitracked. In retrospect, and we can hear it very clearly on the
 KN> albums now so it must have been there all along, Collins' voice is
 KN> all over those "Gabriel era" albums. Cheers, Kenneth
I would consider the first two Peter Gabriel `Peter Gabriel` albums
amongst my top 30 of all time - I take it you don't rate those?
Mind you I thought at that time the Gene-four continued to be prog
mainly because of Steve Hackett - and also contained at least 5 of the
best prog songs of the '70`s - look at `and then there were three` for a
swift u-turn in musical direction if not quality of musicianship and
songwriting.
I agree with you about the `soundalike twins` though, I always thought
the vocal on _More Fool Me_ from `Selling England` was Peter 'til I
bought the album!! The point I think I was trying to make ( (-: ) is
that Genesis continued writing `Gabriel era` works only as long as it
took the band to come out of their singer's shadow. Although I still
would argue that you can tell even from reading the lyrics that the
person who wrote `Foxtrot` and `Nursery Cryme` didn't write `A Trick of
the Tail` and `Wind & Wuthering`.
This may sound bitchy after he's just left, but the other reason could
be that it took Collins that long to realise the singer wasn't just
`the one who wiggled his bum` and actually had real power. After all,
he made his acting debut as an extra in The Beatles `Hard Day's Night`
((-:
TTYL!
Robbie
email : rgwilson@compura.com
.!. NP: _Atlantis_ -  Pallas `The Sentinel`
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