CREATORS - Peter Gabriel (left) and Phil Collins are now having their Greatest Hits collections promoted for the second time, and at the same time interest in their old band Genesis is being rekindled.

Genesis resurrected
It looks like a thought, which probably is a commercial coincidence, that we are currently seeing massive TV-commercials for - in reality old - 'Greatest Hits' products from Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins simultaneous with the release of a 4-CD boxed set from Genesis, the group they both used for much more than a launching platform for their own solo careers.

In an innovative way, Genesis mixed the best trends of the early seventies. "Progressive rock" it was called with a genre label that has since become almost an epithet.

Genesis sounded like a hybrid of David Bowie's glitter rock and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's mix of classical music and heavy rock in a "light" version. There were quiet, acoustic passages intertwined with almost Mahler-hysterical crescendi. And the whole was played with both supreme confidence and humour by Phil Collins, drums, Tony Banks, keys, Steve Hackett, guitar and Michael Rutherford on bass and 12-string guitar. And Peter Gabriel, who blew a little in a flute, played the bass drum and otherwise told stories and sang so that it sent shivers down the spine - both from fright and pleasure.

Ambitious rock opera
In December of 1974, the entire front page of the English weekly music newspaper Melody Maker was adorned with a extraordinary photograph of a strange character covered with large spherical warts all over its body. The caption stated that this was Genesis' lead-singer, Peter Gabriel. I had evidently read about Genesis before, but they had never really interested me. The article in the paper said that Genesis were touring with their recently released double-album 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' - an ambitious rock opera about a young Puerto Rican New Yorker, Rael, and his nightmarish experiences.

I don't quite know what it was that attracted me to the project. Possible it was really because I as a 15-year old didn't quite understand what it was all about. Sheer curiosity. The album arrived per mail order and turned out to be a revelation.

Unfortunately, Peter Gabriel left the group shortly after. Paradoxically Genesis became more and more popular after he handed the microphone over to Phil Collins, but at the same time they turned more and more mainstream, more and more boring. Instead I worked my way backwards in their catalogue and discovered albums like 'Selling England By The Pound' ('73) and 'Foxtrot' ('72).

The same backwards experience can now be had on 'Archive', the 4-CD boxed set which contains recordings from 1967-75. The set consists, in parallel with the three 'Anthology' albums from The Beatles, primarily of never previously released versions of known songs. The two first CD's have a complete live version of 'The Lamb' recorded on the 24th January 1975 in Los Angeles. The third CD has live-versions from 1973 of stage-favourites like 'Dancing With The Moonlit Knight' and the 23 minutes long kaleidoscopic tour-de-force 'Supper's Ready' (from 'Foxtrot'), plus rare tracks previously only released as singles. The fourth and last CD has primarily demo versions of songs that appeared on the very first almost folk-like album, 'From Genesis To Revelation', which was released in the beginning of 1969 and sold just under 600 copies.

For hard core fans
For hard core fans, this boxed set is a must. In the first half of the seventies, the group was completely unsurpassed, and it is fun and good to hear the live-versions.

But everyone else should be warned against the set. Firstly, the otherwise big and rich illustrated 80-page booklet that accompanies the CD's is filled with many very uninspired articles. Secondly, it is obviously the original studio-versions of Genesis' great songs one should start with. Luckily, Virgin released remastered versions in 1994, so they are readily available.

A good guess as to the reason to release this boxed set is that Genesis is in the process of being re-formed in the classical line-up.

When Phil Collins was in Copenhagen last summer in connection with the Jazz Festival, he more than hinted that he was ready to re-join; his solo career is not going quite as well as when he was a member - and Peter Gabriel has been so busy saving the rain forests that he hasn't released a studio-album for more than five years. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the money has to come from somewhere. [sic]

So it is not old acrimony that blocks the re-formation of Genesis in the super-constellation - in fact they appeared together at the launch of this boxed set.

Time will tell if they are still able to make people's hair stand on end.

Translated to English by Bernhard Fabricius - bf@DMU.dk

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