The musical box (Genesis) (LP 2595 - 2606)

Genesis  Nursery Cryme (Vinyl, Charisma Records, 1971) ** 

Genesis  Foxtrot (Vinyl, Charisma Records, 1972) ***  

Genesis  Live (Vinyl, Charisma Records, 1973) ** 

Genesis  Selling England By The Pound (Vinyl, Charisma Records, 1973) ***  

Genesis  A Trick In The Tail (Vinyl, Atco Records, 1976) ***  

Genesis  Wind & Wuthering (Vinyl, Charisma Records, 1976) ** 

Genesis  Seconds Out (Vinyl, Charisma Records, 1977) *** 

Genesis  ...And Then There Were Three... (Vinyl, Charisma Records, 1977) ** 

Genesis  Duke (Vinyl, Charisma Records, 1980) ** 

Genesis  Live/The Way We Walk Vol 1: The Shorts (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 1992) ***

Genesis  Live/The Way We Walk Vol 2: The Longs (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 1993) **** 

Genesis  ...CALLING ALL STATIONS... (CD, Virgin Records, 1997) **** 

Genre: Prog rock, art rock

Places I remember: Little Red Bookstore, Chaldon Books and Records (Caterham on the hill), Real Groovy Records,

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Home By The Sea (The Way We Walk Vol 2: The Longs)

Gear costume: Dance On A Volcano (A Trick Of The Tail); I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) (Selling English By The Pound)

Active compensatory factors: Genesis. For most of my life I have been, at best, quite ambivalent about them, and at worst quite dismissive of them. It has only been in the last 30 years that I have been bothered to listen to them at all.

That started, slowly, when Roger gave me a copy of their live album from 1992 - The Way We Walk Volume one: The Shorts. It was okay.

I hadn't been impressed with the Phil Collins mega hit years of the eighties and I found Peter Gabriel's earlier vocals very mannered. I just couldn't connect - even with The Shorts.

Then I saw them doing Home By The Sea on TV and I absolutely loved it! Maybe I'd been missing something after all? So I bought a CD copy of The Way We Walk Volume 3: The Longs, because Home By The Sea was on it.

Lo and behold - I loved that CD. That then interested me enough to dip further toes in the pool, and while I am still not a huge fan, I do enjoy listening to many of the songs from their back catalogue.

My Genesis collection starts at Nursery Cryme and, apart from the brilliant cover, it's a bit ho-hum. 

Foxtrot from 1972 is a lot better. Phil Collins is an excellent drummer (see Brand X - a band I do love) and he drives things along well on songs like Watcher In The Skies. Plus, it has good use of the mellotron! And, another great prog cover!

Split Enz were clearly soaking up this album in 1972.

The Genesis Live album features songs mainly from those two albums. It's a okay summing up of their tentative start but the versions stick pretty closely to the originals, and there's not a lot of a live atmosphere, so I'm not sure what the point of the album was in 1973.  

Then it's on to one of their classic albums - Selling England By The Pound (love a good pun, I do). It features I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) - a very successful single and a song that I loved then and now.

The art-rock touches work for me, but I can see how other people might find them precious and a little naff. 

Again - Split Enz were paying careful attention.

Their double album concept album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, has never enticed me much, and I always felt that Phil Collins and Gabriel sounded quite similar so it's not much of a jolt for me.

So, we now need to jump forward three years to the period after Peter Gabriel departed.

The sound is a lot heavier than Selling England By The Pound on A Trick Of The Tail. They all sound pretty confident with Collins as the new lead vocalist.

Wind & Wuthering followed quickly on the heels of A Trick Of The Tail in 1976 - the Year Zero of punk! Genesis was having none of that malarky though. Quiet, pastoral sounds and loads of synth was their response.

The problem with both of those albums is the lack of a big number like Wardrobe. So, when it comes to the live album, Seconds Out, it has longish proggy noodling songs but no BIG songs (and I'm not talking about hits - perish the thought, just a few ear worms would do thanks).

It is a consistently fine performance of these songs, building to an excellent version of Dance On A Volcano, one of my favourites from A Trick Of the Tail.

The ...And Then There Were Three... title is a nice reflection of where the band were at membership wise, with only Collins, Rutherford and Tony Banks left in the band.

It doesn't sound too much different to the previous couple of studio albums in truth, maybe a bit more reliant on Tony Banks' keyboard arsenal. He's no Wakeman or Emerson so he's not a huge drawcard for me.

Song wise there is a nice variety, and there was a hit - Follow You Follow Me. Which is nice. Crap cover though.

Duke is their first record of the eighties from the threesome, so I approached it with caution.

I was wise to do so. Although, perversely, the critics seemed to like this one, and it was a big seller -I'm lukewarm on Duke.

Phil Collins' marriage had fallen apart, and the guys regrouped after a brief hiatus to work up stuff left over from their solo albums and then mucked in together to write some songs.

I think for me - this is where the dire Phil Collins commercially led Genesis of the eighties starts to wind up. 

I know this is for many people their favourite decade for the band - the albums were certainly all big sellers, but I think they lost their way to some degree.

The nineties, however, that's my favourite period in many ways.

First there are those two great live albums - Vol 1 and 2 of The Way We Walk, cunningly marketed as the short songs and then the longs.

In this context songs like Land Of Confusion, Invisible Touch, Tonight Tonight, No Son Of Mine all make greater sense. They sound like they are having fun too.

Then, perversely, one of my favourite Genesis - ...CALLING ALL STATIONS... with the new vocalist, Ray Wilson. 

I think he's great and this is a vastly under-rated album. 

I acknowledge that they are in danger of sounding a bit like Mike and The Mechanics at times, but I happen to like Mike and The Mechanics.

Where do they all belong? I find the triple CD best of - R-Kive a really good overview of their best bits. 

Other than that I'd opt for Foxtrot, A Trick Of The Tail, and ...CALLING ALL STATIONS...as the best of the Gabriel/Collins/Wilson versions of Genesis.