From paperlate-owner@atom.ansto.gov.au Fri Nov 18 11:13:56 1994 Date: Fri, 18 Nov 94 10:31:09 EST From: jerry@aip.org (jerry_mccarthy) To: paperlate@atom.ansto.gov.au Subject: Steve Hackett article 1978 Cc: jerry@aip.org Sender: paperlate-digest-owner@atom.ansto.gov.au Reply-To: paperlate@atom.ansto.gov.au Content-Length: 11152 X-Lines: 211 Status: RO ** Sent this on Wed. 11/16 and haven't seen it make a digest so I'm reposting it. If some of you already have seen it, my apologies for the redundancy and length ** (And happy 20th anniversary to The Lamb!) Since the volatility of the list lately has me rather schizoid (half of me is dying to unsubscribe, the other half is worried that the list might self-destruct if we don't get a grip), I thought I'd try to do my part in terms of providing something of substance. The following article appeared in Good Times magazine, April 11-24, 1978. (Good Times is a local Long Island, NY paper which specializes in entertainment, mostly music and films, and has been going strong for over 25 years.) Rereading it stirred some nice memories for me (at 37, I lived through this stuff in "real-time," and articles like this are not so much like reading a history book for me as like looking through a photo album, if that makes any sense to anyone). Bear in mind the time this was written. It was before Phil had become a superstar. I remember not agreeing with everything the writer said back then, and some of it is even more glaringly off-target now, but other parts have shown more wisdom with time, I think. And Steve's honesty is refreshing, as always. Enjoy. --Jerry Reprinted from Good Times, April 11-24, 1978 by David Fricke STEVE HACKETT: FROM GENESIS TO A NEW REVELATION ----------------------------------------------- As genial an English rocker as you're ever likely to meet, Steve Hackett continues fielding interview queries over a bit of late afternoon dinner at New York's Drake Hotel. The better part of the day has already been spent entertaining a host of journalistic types eager for any new scoop on Hackett's recent and highly publicized departure from the depleting ranks of Genesis. But the guitarist is just as eager to talk about "Please Don't Touch" (PDT), his second solo recording and one which he hopes will establish for him an identity separate from the art-rock axioms binding his former group. "I now think of myself much more as a writer, not just a guitarist," he ventures between slices of room service steak. "And I want to be able to work in other areas than just what my instrument is capable of doing. That's why I am pleased that people are telling me that this new album sounds different, that it is something they hadn't expected from me." The emphasis Hackett places on his new album's intrinsic element of surprise is forcefully underscored by the startling eclecticism on display throughout its ten surprisingly commercial selections. For someone who was often characterized as the quietest of Genesis' generally Faceless Four, Hackett has recorded an exuberant, extroverted record full of infectious melodic hooks that is still a marvel of typically English classicality. No one song would be out of place in the Genesis stage or studio repertoire. But as the sum total of Hackett's diversifying musical interests, PDT marks a step similar to that signaled by Peter Gabriel's first solo album. What might not be accepted as part of the Genesis scheme of things says a lot for Hackett as his own man. "A very large proportion of it," says the guitarist, referring to the album's song material, "had been written before I left Genesis. Because of the importance I placed on the material, I really wanted it to be recorded. With the band in the past, I found that certain things found favor and certain things didn't, the result being that I ended up scrapping a huge percentage of my material. But I felt that all of the songs on this album really deserved an airing. So my impatience, combined with the desire to work with some other people, brought me to the necessary turning point." That point was Hackett's decision to leave the group in which his distinctly personal style of contemporary rock guitar had been a cornerstone for well over 5 years. His was the intense, studied solo on "Firth of Fifth" and the sinewy drone characteristic of his pedal-altered sound often dominated the Genesis soundscape more than the gargantuan keyboard set-ups of Tony Banks. But Hackett denies the implication that he jumped ship just as the group was on the verge of mega-stardom because what he had to say was better said alone. In fact, Steve Hackett's first solo effort, 1976's Voyage of the Acolyte, could not, he says, have been completed without the inspirational and instrumental help of Genesis players Michael Rutherford and the impish Phil Collins. "I was really grateful that they, and all of the other people who played on it, helped me with the first album. I remember the first session. I walked into the studio and there it was, laid at my feet. I had the red carpet and didn't know what to do with it." What eventually resulted was a spacey, ethereal work that, despite the Genesis connection, sported a far more spontaneous, atmospheric feel contrary to the rigid arranging disciplines associated with the epic Genesis sound. This time, the guitarist deliberately set out to collect an album's worth of songs that were, in his words, "short, sweet, and accessible...something with an instant vibe. To me, the first album was very important, although THAT it was was much more important than WHAT it was. This time around, I decided there were going to be great performances or the people playing just wouldn't be on that album. And I ended up scrapping a lot of tracks as a result." What remains says a great deal for Hackett's abilities as a songwriter and an arranger, talents not immediately recognizable within the collective Genesis conscience, the suggestion of which triggers an immediate reaction. "The common bond between the people who played with me on PDT is that they liked playing spontaneous music as much as arranged stuff. I was after people who could do both. The brain is as important as the wrist and that's a quality I feel was lacking in Genesis, whereby the whole thought-out process of making music locked everybody in, as if everything had been worked and raked over the coals. And sometimes we ended up with charred remains instead of a blazing fire. "It was a weird thing for me. When I first joined the group (in 1971 for the recording of Nursery Cryme), I'd say 'well, they must know better. They're the group.' But it ended up with a thing where I would sit down and write a solo in the rehearsal room. I would then play it for everybody and they would say 'hmmm.' And they never looked pleased. They were very unresponsive people and most of the time I racked my brain to try and please them. "I confess it worries me when I'm asked about the Genesis thing. I'm forced either to disappoint the fans by letting the cat out of the bag or I'm dishonest by saying, 'yeah, sure, we got on all the time.' The truth is that there were ego problems and eventually it came to a point where I could do a solo album or I could do a Genesis album. But I couldn't do both. So I thought, well, if that's the way it is..." If Hackett held any doubts as to the success of a solo career, they have been totally dispelled by PDT and the intriguing combination of frantic guitar-led instrumentals and finely-tuned-and-produced pop songs. There are also the unlikely collaborations between Hackett and members of Kansas (the dramatic but tuneful "Narnia" and "Racing in A"), a sultry songstress with a smooth, smokey voice in Randy Crawford (a superb R&B-tinged ballad called "Hoping Love Will Last"), and the seemingly incompatible Richie Havens (a soft acoustic "How Can I" and the regal if uncharacteristic setting of "Icarus Ascending"). Hackett says he saw Ms. Crawford singing in a Chicago night club and he knew, on that moment's notice, that she was right for the song. In the case of the gravel-throated Havens, he admits with a straight face that Havens is his favorite male singer -- "He transcends color" -- and that he wrote "Icarus Ascending" with him in mind. "How Can I" was written "off the top of my head. I played it for Richie and he took it from there. Sitting in the studio and hearing him sing that song was really something. I felt very privileged to have my own private view of that performance and then for him to be doing my song as well." The case for Kansas is particularly curious considering that band's reputation as a typically American clone of things European. Hackett himself maintains that the idea of using vocalist Steve Walsh and drummer Phil Erhardt (sic) was rather fascinating, "that I would use musicians designated Genesis copyists as opposed to the real Genesis on my album. But basically, what defines Kansas on those two tracks is the vocal color. To me, that's Kansas, not what they aspire to in terms of European influences. To me, it was an ideal opportunity to cash in on a really amazing singer and a drummer with a fresh, youthful approach. I wanted the album to sound young and frisky as opposed to studied. And I got a unique cooperation out of them because they were so into what I've done in the past." As one who has been primarily recognized up to this point as a major innovator on guitar, Hackett is aware of possible criticisms that he has forsaken the musician's spotlight for the producer's chair. Not so, as he points out that there is, in fact, more guitar on this album than on Voyage of the Acolyte, disguised to sound like other instruments, but there nonetheless. "Also I don't think I'm gonna lose people who want more guitar. I'll actually be taking people who are interested in songs and introducing them to more guitar, which admittedly is the roundabout way of doing it. But right now, I am more interested in the songwriting and production end of things because they are areas I have yet to attain recognition in. People think of me as a guitarist, yet they don't realize that half of my time is really spent writing a song on guitar, not writing figures for it." His dinner finished, Steve Hackett sits back and takes a moment to collect the various points he has made in the course of the conversation, hoping to summarize them in the proper perspective. "It gives me," he finally says, "much more pleasure to hear Randy Crawford sing a song of mine with so much passion that I know it's going to move a lot of people as opposed to playing guitar which, by itself, has a lot more limited appeal. It's not enough to be a great guitarist. "But then again, the next album could be all guitar. I don't really know. Where I'll go next depends pretty much on how this one does. If this one does extremely well..." And here he shows off one very mischievous smile. "...then I'll never do anything like it ever again." ====================================================================== Jerry McCarthy e-mail: jerry@aip.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- How wonderful to be so profound when everything you are is dying underground. ======================================================================