After more than a decade of binge listening I had to give myself a break from their music. I guess that hiatus lasted several years, assisted by my one-year near exile from quality stereo during last year's disappointing sojourn in disappointing Oregon. But now I'm back in the Midwest where I belong and I've begun listening to my English friends again.
In the beginning... the first full Genesis song I remember hearing is the title tune of the above album, played as a "pick of the week" on a top 40 station. I thought it was Cat Stevens. The song didn't catch on and I wouldn't hear it again until I bought the album. I wasn't captured right then. I also saw a clip of Peter Gabriel in his flower headgear on a PBS documentary but didn't catch the band's name. And when I later heard "Return of the Giant Hogweed" it sounded familiar, as if I'd heard it before.
But the real change in my life, the moment I became hooked, was when I heard the song "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" on the radio. It was like when I first heard "Roundabout" or "Birds of Fire" but this was even more revelatory. This music spoke more personally to my taste, my soul. It was as if I'd been asleep and this sound had awakened me. I called the station, got the name of the group and the album, and fled immediately to the record store. I did little else for a solid week than to play that album over and over.
When I needed more I returned to the record store and bought "The Best... Genesis" which was actually "Nursery Cryme" and "Foxtrot" re-packaged as a double album. By the end of "Supper's Ready" I thought I'd died and gone to the new Jerusalem.
This was in late 1976. I was still trying to catch up on their back catalog when "Wind and Wuthering" was released. I, of course, went to the accompanying concert, not expecting the band to sound as good live as they did on record. They sounded better!!! My whole life's musical experience had been shaken free from the earth and sent flying. Nothing would ever be the same again. I almost gave up playing guitar and singing because they made me feel like a talentless slob.
Back to the present... I started my recent refamiliarization with the band with the first album of Genesis 2.0, "A Trick of the Tail." Moving forward, I'm now listening to "Duke." I don't know when I'll return to the PG years but I'm in no hurry. I'm savoring every note. For the record, I like every Genesis album, including the first and last. (Well, I like them all except "Invisible Touch.")
I'm a superfan, I guess. I ate up every bit of Genesis related media until "Invisible Touch" and the eventual Phil Collins overexposure. I even have dreams now and then of being places with Tony, Phil and Mike, although they seem to tolerate me more than accept me as a friend. How weird is that?
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