{"id":801,"date":"2016-04-01T08:23:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T08:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/the-classic-era-of-genesis-examined-1971-1975\/"},"modified":"2016-04-01T08:23:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T08:23:34","slug":"the-classic-era-of-genesis-examined-1971-1975","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/the-classic-era-of-genesis-examined-1971-1975\/","title":{"rendered":"The classic era of Genesis examined: 1971-1975"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ken Downie<\/em><\/h4>\n

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\"\"When the uninitiated think of Genesis, what comes to mind is often a slightly edgier version of Phil Collins\u2019 gazillion-selling 1980s pop. But the legacy that has endured with musicians and the group\u2019s most dedicated fans belongs to the band\u2019s earlier incarnation: the classic lineup of vocalist Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist and guitarist Mike Rutherford, lead guitarist Steve Hackett, and, of course, Phil Collins playing the heck out of the drum kit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 40 years since the quintet recorded \u201cNursery Cryme,\u201d, the album that cemented the early Genesis sound, and one considered by many to be among the greatest artistic achievements of progressive rock\u2019s golden era. Along with contemporaries Yes, King Crimson, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Genesis pushed the boundaries of rock music both lyrically and instrumentally. All of the essential elements of what has since come to be known as \u201cprog\u201d were present on \u201cNursery Cryme\u201d: fantastic, often bizarre lyrics; long, thematic songs; an obvious classical influence and departure from blues-based traditions; and unparalleled musical virtuosity.<\/p>\n

The band married some of the heaviest jams of the day to acoustic, pastoral passages to create a tapestry of light and shade, which confused some American audiences at first, says guitarist Steve Hackett. \u201cOur idea of a guitar-based tune usually meant that the 12-string [acoustics] carried it,\u201d he says. \u201cOften we would have three 12-string guitars playing at once \u2014 Mike, Tony and me \u2014 which created a sound like a harpsichord, and you couldn\u2019t really pin down what you were hearing. Mike Rutherford was very into Joni Mitchell at the time, which also influenced our acoustic side. Unfortunately, we tended to get shouted down in America on our first tours during some of our quieter moments, because people wanted to hear boogie music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of Genesis drew their inspiration from classical and folk music as much as rock and blues, says Hackett, who began his musical journey as a blues harmonica player. \u201cI grew up listening to the blues and Bach, and I never thought that they would meet and create a third thing,\u201d he says. \u201cThe two styles seemed to be at odds with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s hard to hear much overt blues influence in early Genesis, Hackett points out that most of the innovation sonically and musically on the electric guitar in the 1960s and early 1970s came straight out of the blues. Even the most eclectic rock guitar heroes of the day were still firmly rooted in the blues. The music of Genesis\u2014and Hackett\u2019s guitar playing in particular\u2014offered an enticing alternative for rock fans who were becoming bored with standard beats and I- IV-V chord progressions. \u201cNursery Cryme\u201d explored odd time signatures, modal compositions, and introduced a new technique to rock music that would redefine electric guitar playing in the next decade: two-handed tapping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came upon the tapping technique when I was trying to play Bach\u2019s famous Toccata and Fugue,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cI realized that I couldn\u2019t play it the way I wanted to hear it using standard technique, so I started tapping onto the fretboard with my right hand. I used that technique all over \u201cNursery Cryme including parts of \u2018The Musica Box\u2019 and \u2018The Return of the Giant Hogweed.\u2019\u201d Tony Banks sometimes harmonized Hackett\u2019s legato lead guitar lines on the keyboard for dramatic effect, often using a distorted amplifier or fuzz box to achieve a similar sound. \u201cWe had a guitarist who was trying to sound like a keyboard player and a keyboard player who was very good at sounding like a guitarist,\u201d Hackett observes.<\/p>\n

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Part of the reason that the English progressive rock bands of the early 1970s drew from such varied influences was the wide variety of music broadcast on British radio prior to the deregulation of the airwaves. \u201cRadio was in very different shape when we were young, and I think that that helped to color the progressive music that followed,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cToday, many stations only play one style of music, and I suspect the people who grow up listening to this stuff may be subject to less-wide musical tastes than the ones that we had while developing our musical base. We were listening to blues, rock and jazz from America, and we were also hearing our European roots, all on the same station.\u201d<\/p>\n

An essential ingredient in the Genesis sound that was shared by other progressive rock bands is the use of the Mellotron, an electro-mechanical ancestor of the modern synthesizer, to achieve an orchestral sound. \u201cWe weren\u2019t trying to sound classical, but the spooky, eerie quality of the Mellotron flutes and violins became a big part of our sound,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cI was in love with the sound of it for a very long time \u2014 although they were incredibly temperamental and took four men to lift, like pallbearers.\u201d Gabriel also occasionally played flute with the band, adding yet another dimension to the sound.<\/p>\n

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Faux harpsichords and orchestras aside, however, there are musical passages on \u201cNursery Cryme\u201d (e.g., the screaming guitar in the middle section of \u201cThe Musical Box\u201d) that are as prototypically heavy metal as anything by Sabbath, Zeppelin or Purple. To achieve those heavy guitar sounds, Hackett used his trusty Les Paul Custom through a Hiwatt stack with various fuzz boxes and an octave divider. He also used a volume pedal to precisely control the dynamics of his guitar to fit the album\u2019s many moods. \u201cSometimes I\u2019d be playing distorted rock guitar weaving through these delicate textures, so I had to play very quietly,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cI\u2019d be playing pastoral rock guitar, if that\u2019s not an oxymoron.<\/p>\n

Often I had to play almost like a reed instrument. At times, I even tried to sound like a synthesizer or like a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complex music of Genesis required a team player approach from Hackett, which usually led him far afield of pure bombast. \u201cWith the core team of Mike, Phil and Tony forming the nucleus of the sound and turning out those dense, very beautiful textures, it was often difficult to be able to impose anything on the music that was relevant,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cSo sometimes I\u2019d beef up the bass line; other times I would highlight part of what was going on with the piano. I think that approach helped to create interesting textures, and it did enrich the sound. I was trying to think like a producer or an arranger, which has little to do with guitar heroics. I was very concerned with subtlety, perhaps more than I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyrically, Genesis usually shied away from \u201cthe mating ritual,\u201d as Hackett dryly puts it, in favor of fairy tales and mythology\u2014a direct contrast to the approach that the Rolling Stones and other English groups were taking at the time. Some critics complained that the band\u2019s lyrical approach felt more like research than soul-searching. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we weren\u2019t writing romantic music,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cIt was just romantic in a different way\u2014we were romancing something else. Our lyrics were often third-hand and not based on personal experience, which is quite typical of the progressive approach. That\u2019s not the approach I\u2019ve taken post-Genesis\u2014personal experience is much more in evidence\u2014but these were early days, and we took a lot from literature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cprogressive rock\u201d label did not exist at the time, Hackett points out, and the emerging style was often tagged \u201cart rock\u201d or \u201ctheatrical rock.\u201d Indeed, Genesis was one of the first groups to combine rock and theater, a strategy that made the band\u2019s surreal lyrics easier for audiences to digest. \u201cOnce we got our own light show and stage set and took control of the visual aspect of our performances, Peter decided that he wanted to be the literal depiction of the action,\u201d says Hackett.<\/p>\n

Gabriel\u2019s thespian talents helped differentiate Genesis from the other prog acts of the day, and he used masks and bizarre costumes to bring the songs to life. \u201cPeter had always approached lyrics rather like an actor, so it was a natural evolution,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t a decision he ran through the band in committee. He just showed up one night and that\u2019s the way it was on stage.\u201d Audiences loved it, or at least paid attention. \u201cWhen we were starting out, often we would be second or third on the bill, and people would be milling about, ignoring us, going to the bar,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cThat changed as the show became more theatrical, with Peter acting out the parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFoxtrot,\u201d the follow-up to \u201cNursery Cryme,\u201d continued in the same musical vein and generated better sales as Genesis started to make a name for itself in the UK. By 1973\u2019s \u201cSelling England by the Pound,\u201d the group had earned itself some high-profile fans. Hackett describes an enthusiastic Peter Gabriel bouncing into the rehearsal room after hearing that John Lennon had mentioned in an interview that he \u201cloved\u201d the new Genesis album. \u201cWe were incredibly proud of that,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cAt a time when we could still hardly get a gig in the States, we had a good review from a great man. We thought, \u2018Wow, maybe we\u2019re good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In hindsight, the group may have reached its creative zenith by 1973. \u201cSelling England,\u201d most critics agree, perfected the blueprint that \u201cNursery Cryme\u201d had established two years earlier. The musicians were at the top of their game, and compositions flowed easily despite the stylistic shifts and challenging subject matter. \u201cA song like \u2018Dancing with the Moonlit Knight\u2019 really runs the gamut stylistically,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cIt goes from a Scottish Plainsong to English hymnal to jazz fusion to something we used to call \u2018Disney,\u2019 or more of a tone poem approach.\u201d
Although Genesis toured relentlessly, the band was not focused on success as an end game in its early years. \u201cOur concern was quality, and we had a lot of support from our management and record company behind the premise that if we aimed for excellence, success would follow as natural consequence,\u201d Hackett explains.<\/p>\n

One common misconception about early Genesis is that Gabriel wrote all of the lyrics. This was not the case until his last album with the group, 1975\u2019s \u201cThe Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.\u201d \u201cWe all contributed lyrically, until Peter decided that he wanted to write all the words he would sing, and that\u2019s understandable \u2014 things often tend to sound best when a singer is singing his own lyrics,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cI was quite happy to concentrate on being the guitarist. You have to be very flexible if you\u2019re in a band, especially when it\u2019s a band of writers; you\u2019ve got to be prepared to wear certain hats and take the hats off, from time to time, to make room for someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLamb Lies Down\u201d also marked a major change in the group\u2019s sound, taking Genesis out of the English countryside and into more modern, chaotic, urban imagery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little closer to mainstream rock, and I was concerned about how that would go over in America \u2014 you know, taking New York to the New Yorkers,\u201d Hackett recalls.<\/p>\n

He needn\u2019t have worried, as the album still stands as one of the group\u2019s most critically acclaimed works. \u201cOf course, we had our equipment stolen and ransomed at the beginning of our U.S. tour in true New York fashion,\u201d Hackett quips. \u201cWe had to fight for it every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Hackett would stay on to record two more excellent albums with Genesis, the now-classic \u201cTrick of the Tail\u201d and \u201cWind and Wuthering,\u201d the band\u2019s sound changed as Collins ably carved out his identity as lead vocalist. \u201cGenesis spanned a lot of eras, and as the lineup changed, the sound went in an increasingly commercial direction,\u201d says Hackett. \u201cThe earlier stuff was more idealistic, I feel, in that what we were trying to do was original music\u2014and that\u2019s what seems to turn on musicians the most. It\u2019s been 40 years, and those early albums keep selling. I\u2019m happy to have been a part of that history.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By Ken Downie \u00a0 \u00a0 When the uninitiated think of Genesis, what comes to mind is often a slightly edgier version of Phil Collins\u2019 gazillion-selling 1980s pop. But the legacy that has endured with musicians and the group\u2019s most dedicated fans belongs to the band\u2019s earlier incarnation: the classic lineup of vocalist Peter Gabriel, keyboardist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":498,"parent":0,"menu_order":21,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-801","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.ikon2023.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}