The Genesis Discography

TTHHEE GGEENNEESSIISS DDIISSCCOOGGRRAAPPHHYY “The scattered pages of a book by the sea…” 1967-1996 Page 2 The Genesis Discography The Genesis Discography January 1998 Edition Copyright © 1998 Scott McMahan, All Rights Reserved The Genesis Discography Page 3 THE EXODUS ENDS “And then there was the time she sang her song, and nobody cried for more…” “I think that in the end, if all else is conqured, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First, and then Night will come.” … from the Council of Elrond, in Lord of the Rings Indeed, since its beginning in 1993, The Genesis Discography has been a fixture on the Internet much like Tom Bombadil was in Middle Earth. It has endured in the face of the changing times, without itself changing much, isolated off in its own world. Glorfindel had the opinion that Bombadil would be the last to fall, after all else was lost, last as he was first. In Tolkien’s story, that opinion was never tested. Good triumphed over evil, and everyone lived happily ever after. Not true on the Internet. Since 1993, the forces of evil have created a desolation and oppression that Sauron even with the help of his ruling ring could not imagine perpetrating. From the days of the Internet as an academic research network until today’s Internet I have witnessed ruination unbelieveable. The decay, corruption, and runiation of the Internet boggles my mind. Like Tom Bombadil in his carefully demarcated borders, The Genesis Discography has been an island in the storm, surrounded on all sides but never giving in. Like the Duchess in the Genesis song, however, I have found myself besieged by apathy. I’ve kept it going myself to keep a piece of the olden days of the Internet alive, and can’t quite bring myself to continue. People on the old Internet shared information and explored common interests. It was a network where people interested in various topics could find one another and exchange information. The academic roots of the Internet were obvious: an air of exploration, curiosity, and pooling resources existed. The lack of geographical boundaries meant that people with somewhat obscure interests (such as Genesis, particularly the early days) could find other people with the same interests, something difficult to do if you are limited to your immediate vicinity. The new Internet is the exact opposite. Its chief characteristics are shallowness, commercialism, and image over substance. The final kick in the teeth would have to be Genesis’ own “official” web site. It went up without me even knowing about it, and when I did visit it I was appalled at how shallow and uninformative it was. It looked like a record company, with no particular interest in the band other than making money, did a half-hearted job. After keeping Genesis fans connected with one another on the net for years with the mailing list, and doing the Discography, you’d think they would at least send me a note telling me they were on the Internet, even if they did not want to use any of my material to give the site some (desperately needed) depth and history. (The new sans-Phil Genesis the Web site described has only history going for it, after all. The band’s commercial appeal has left for greener pastures.) After years of trying to contact Genesis’ management (if not the band itself) to try to get feedback and answers to unanswerable questions, I’ve given up. The true irony is that the only thing Genesis themselves have ever said about this Discography is that they’re embarrassed by it! Now, one of the last surviving institutions from those old days of the Internet is over. I feel it is time to close the book and gracefully decline any further editions. Although I’ll keep The Genesis Discography up on the Internet as long as I can, still freely available, this is the last edition ever. For my swan song, I have created this fully typeset version, the first typeset version of the Genesis Discography ever. This was the last thing I wanted to do to the Discography, when I finished it, and now I have. The apathy towards the Discography though the years has kind of surprised me. But it has not been that hard to take. This has always been a rather selfish labor of love (I wrote the Discography I wanted to read! – even if it isn’t what other people want to read) which I still enjoy thumbing through remembering details and rediscovering forgotten treasures. But it’s got everything I want in it. I’ve satisfied myself. It’s time to just quit. It’s true that I simply don’t have the time anymore to devote to this Discography. I carried on through 1996, and then demands on my time became so great I couldn’t continue. I began this project when I was in college. I had more free time than I do now. In fact, I wonder how I ever had time to write this. I think of the Discography as my own scholarly swan song, my last and best research project. The Genesis Discography January 1998 Edition Copyright © 1998 Scott McMahan, All Rights Reserved Page 4 The Genesis Discography The fires have gone out. I’ve become increasingly interested in other music besides Genesis in the past few years, most of which I’ve gotten into through Genesis connections of some sort. I don’t have much enthusiasm for Genesis anymore, and I think that’s because I’ve used them as a stepping stone into other musical areas, and because of their own decline. My own tastes have changed. But, at the same time, Genesis’ decline has been remarkably swift. From 1986 to the present, they’ve lost it. I don’t know how much my perception is based on my own changing musical interests, and how much is based on their actual decline. Tony Banks has been Genesis’ backbone. As he goes, so goes Genesis. And he’s really lost a lot of the magic of earlier times. The thing which made Tony unique throughout his entire career was the way he used unique sounds and musical instruments to create his sound. He never sounded like anyone else. He got more mileage from just the organ in the early years than most of the “progressive” keyboardists buried behind stacks of synthesizers could ever hope to. He used the ARP Pro Soloist as his lead sound in a time when the Moog was a staple. He made the Yamaha CP- 70 electric piano his sound at a time when the Fender Rhodes ruled the musical world, and stuck to it long after the homogeneous digitally sampled electric pianos became the mainstay of modern sound. He used the Synclavier when everyone else used the Fairlight. He innovated with the Emulator when everyone else used it as a source of stock sounds. Starting about the time of Still and We Can’t Dance, though, Tony became very unremarkable sounding. He adopted the Korg Wavestation at exactly the same time everyone else on the planet did. He switched to a generic digital piano. Sequencers and drum machines paralyzed his music. Strictly, Inc and Still left me cold, and when Tony Banks doesn’t light my fires anymore, then Genesis sure won’t. I never throught I’d come to a time when I didn’t like Tony’s music, but the last two albums have been exactly that for me. Mike Rutherford has always had two things he does really well: play acoustic guitar riffs, and heavy metal. The Mechanics were a straightjacket around Mike that stifled both these elements. No trace of his soft, acoustic 12-string sound or his heavy metal side made it into the Mechanics. The production on the Mechanics albums took Mike’s raw ideas and watered them down with syrupy overproduced synthesizer accompaniment; the popified arrangements of Mike’s initial song ideas, with their canned, stale, studio-produced sounds, make the songs unlistenable. Mike’s heavy metal side only shows through on a few rare songs, mostly on Acting Very Strange and a few like Compression from the first album. The 12-string may be passe, but a good passe sound beats a bad modern one. Phil Collins, poor old Phil, just lost it. First of all, he quit playing drums. His best songs through the years were always founded on drums. The drums were the songs. They gave them their character. Even his early drum machine patterns were innovative. Starting at about But Seriously, Phil put down his drumsticks and quit being a drummer. This sucked the life out of his songs. Secondly, Phil quit writing good melodies. He used to, on the first three solo albums, write very interesting melodies, but the recent stuff has been very flat and uninspired. Third, Phil’s heart was obviously not in Genesis after Invisible Touch. To an outsider looking in, WCD appeared to be Phil going through the motions. He did the right thing by leaving. Lastly, Phil’s backing band has gone from awesome to awful. The likes of Peter Robinson, Mo Foster, and others have been replaced by technically competent but uninspired folks. And Phil has added the almost obligatory but still hard to take backing vocalists. Phil has always been Genesis, at least to the record buying public who can’t really tell his solo career apart from Genesis, and without him the new post-Phil album went exactly where I thought it would, nowhere.

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