Genesis - 1970 1975

A flower? The whole florists!

The Genesis reissue project has been, on the whole, faultless (unless you’re a fan of Calling All Stations, that is). Here is the crowning glory, their first five Charisma albums, aka the Peter Gabriel ones, remastered in 5.1 with celebrity sleevenotes and all the bells and whistles imaginable in a big beautiful green box.

Let’s look first at what we know. Although the maypole dance-mosh of The Knife continues to overshadow the rest of Trespass, it is full of naïve, pastoral charm. The ambition of Nursery Cryme (with new members Steve Hackett and Phil Collins replacing Ant Phillips and John Mayhew) isn’t found on the well-known key tracks. For that look at the overlooked cuts, such as Seven Stones and its soulful, mournful edge.

From the drone of Tony Banks’ mellotron and the nagging insistency of Mike Rutherford’s bass on Watcher Of The Skies, Foxtrot ushered in a new Genesis. Obviously, the rather large elephant in the album’s corner – the side-long Supper’s Ready – is still the greatest single piece of music this line-up recorded.

Selling England By The Pound has an astonishing hit rate – Firth Of Fifth, Cinema Show, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, I Know What I Like, even the crowd-splitting Battle Of Epping Forest are shining examples of how tightly-knit Genesis had become. People commented on the Beatlesy pop-funk of I Know What I Like, but it bore some similarities to the soul sketches of their earliest work. The much-missed leader of Earl Brutus, Nick Sanderson, and RC once had a long debate about who was the soul of Genesis; eschewing the obvious route of Banks or Gabriel, we decided after several pints that it was Hackett. Certainly, when he stopped emulating Ant Phillips on Nursery Cryme, he proved the unmistakable glue to this era. His solo on Banks’ tour de force Firth Of Fifth is incredible.

There was little fol-de-rol attached to The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. It demonstrated that the group had teeth, especially on tracks such as Back In NYC and In The Cage. The punchy, febrile sound, now better than ever thanks to the remaster, attacks and soothes in appropriate measure. Although Disc Two labours slightly, it’s up there with their best work. It’s also the only Genesis album to mention Evel Knievel, Groucho Marx and Marshall McCluhan.

If hearing all this in 5.1 is not enough, have some bonus material as well. Though the usual suspects have all been heard before: Happy The Man, Twilight Alehouse, Pacidy, Let Us Now Make Love, the barrel-house boogie of Going Out To Get You; we also have Provocation, Frustration (an early version of Anyway), Manipulation (a dry run for The Musical Box) and Resignation from the long-lost documentary they scored about the painter Mick Jackson.

The visual extras are astounding. We see this strange bunch of merry men sitting in chairs while master Peter does his jig performing the classics. Long bootlegged gems such as Fountain Of Salmacis from Pop Shop 1972 are here with the best possible picture quality. The glam-prog interface is writ large. Though no satisfactory live performance of The Lamb exists, what we do have is its complete slideshow and some teasing 16mm footage. Meanwhile, the new interviews show the bunch of irascible toffs (and Collins) all deeply in love and, yet, mildly disgruntled with each other.

1970-1975 is beautifully packaged and truly indispensable. If anyone is amused by those who still carry the early Genesis torch, they should hear this. Of course, there is some wankery and juvenilia here but, simply put, it’s a body of work that’s up there with the very best produced in British popular music.

Virgin CDBOX | 14 (7 CD+6 DVD)

Reviewed by Daryl Easlea
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