If you could buy 2 to 4 CDs prior to “Abacab”, which would you recommend (in order of preference)? Your picks, please?
1 - Selling England by the Pound - their best; one of the best-loved albums from the heyday of progressive rock.
2 - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - the big conceptual masterwork; sprawling and ambitious, but the individual songs are mostly concise and accessible.
3 - Wind and Wuthering - the best of the post-Peter Gabriel period.
4 - Foxtrot - featuring the epic “Supper’s Ready.” An alternate choice would be Genesis Live, which lacks “Supper’s Ready” but otherwise provides a nice précis of the band’s early period.
Same as above, but replace W & W by Nursery Cryme, mostly for The Musical Box.
Selling England by the Pound
Foxtrot
Nursery Cryme
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
…which is not to say that Trick of the Tale, Wind and Wuthering, Seconds Out, Duke and Trespass are worthless, just that I think these are the best of a very good lot.
Same as the above, but I’d substitute Trick of the Tale for either Selling England or Nursery Cryme. Not sure which, though.
But definitely Foxtrot and Lamb Lies Down.
1: Duke - their best album
2: **Seconds Out ** maybe the best live album ever
3: A Trick of the Tale
4: Selling England by the Pound
Thanks, all! Please keep the opinions coming! I should have mentioned I personally don’t care for live albums. At best, they are low priority. …would you argue that Genesis is even better in concert?
Duke, Nursery Cryme (largely for “The Return of the Giant Hogweed” and “Harold The Barrel”) and A Trick Of The Tail.
Finally, someone got it spelled correctly.
I’d go for that and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. I’m not a big fan of progressive rock, but I do like these two albums. Well, Selling England by the Pound, too.
Oops, that last post was supposed to be me.
For sure:
- Lamb…
- Foxtrot…
3 Selling England
Need to think:
4. Nursery Crime, TotT, or WW.
Probably WW. Even though it’s more Collins-ish at this point, that album as a whole is very cohesive and flows so well as an album. NC scored a big point though with Fountain of Salmacis.
Although if you were to only ask for 1 CD I’d probably say Seconds Out because it’s a good best-of for that era.
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Trick of the Tail.
Those are the two I go back to more often than any others.
If you were to ask 1000 serious Genesis fans what the band’s* two* best albums before Abacab were, and then ranked the aggregate selections I’m almost positive those albums would be:
**1. Selling England By the Pound
- *The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway ***
(Though not necessarily in that order)
If you asked that same group what were the two best albums by Genesis ever, you’d probably come up with the same two albums, and I would agree with those selections. Although paradoxically, if I could choose only* one *Genesis album, it wouldn’t be one of those two. (See below for explanation.)
To select four albums prior to Abacab I would start with the above two, then base the other two on a couple of considerations. For instance, you say you don’t particularly care for live albums so if I were to choose from only their studio albums I would go with:
**1. Selling England By the Pound
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*The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway *
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Foxtrot
-
Trick of the Tail**
However, it would be a grievous mistake to leave live albums off the list for one really big reason:
Seconds Out
This double-live tour de force was recorded in 1976-77 with Phil Collins as the frontman (Gabriel had, of course, left by then). For fans of Gabriel-era Genesis, the fact that this album featured Phil instead of Peter might, at first glance, rank Seconds Out well behind Genesis Live as Genesis’ best live album because the latter was recorded in 1973 with Peter Gabriel singing.
Now, I mostly prefer the Gabriel-era stuff myself. But Seconds Out is a far, far more impressive and more fulfilling album than Genesis Live for a number of reasons. First of all, the recording quality/technology itself is better, and more importantly, so is the musicianship. Banks, Collins, Rutherford and Hackett (as well as Chester Thompson and Bill Bruford) were at the very peak of their performing careers (in terms of playing as Genesis). Secondly, by 1976 Genesis had a lot more fantastic material to perform than they did in 1973.
Thirdly… well, let’s get to the ticklish discussion of the different lead vocalists (only considering their work on the live albums). It’s interesting to note that Peter Gabriel once remarked (while commenting on the execution of bringing the band’s studio work to the concert stage)–that Phil Collins “does a better Gabriel than Peter Gabriel did” (paraphrasing). I tend to think PG mostly had Collins’ superb performances on Seconds Out in mind when he said this.
I’ll also say that I’ve always felt that–in terms of live performances–the loss of guitarist Steve Hackett was a whole lot more damaging to the band than the loss of Peter Gabriel. Phil Collins could do a fine job singing the Gabriel material (as PG himself said-- see above), but no one could replace the inimitable guitar work of Steve Hackett (no offense to Daryl Stuermer–a fine guitarist, but never able to match Hackett’s unique playing style).
Hmmmm… the more I think about it, the more I start thinking that Seconds Out might be the single best representation of Genesis’s music (even if it doesn’t include Peter Gabriel(!)), and my choice if I could only own one Genesis album.
Finally, here’s my “Definitive List of Four pre-Abacab Genesis Albums to Own” (in order of preference)
**1. *Selling England By the Pound
*
2. *The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
*
3. Seconds Out
- Foxtrot**
[ol]
[li]Selling England by the Pound: If you only ever buy one Genesis album, make it this.[/li][li]The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway: Both brilliant and frustrating, but such a monumentally important album that it can’t be avoided if you’re talking essential Genesis albums. That said, Hackett is largely absent and it’s not a warm-sounding album; it does, however, point to Gabriel’s early solo career.[/li][li]Wind & Wuthering: Actually my second-favourite Genesis album, above The Lamb…, but not as significant. Steve Hackett has some really great moments and the 1-2-3-4 punch of the final four tracks makes a great case for why Genesis were a great band (with and without Peter Gabriel).[/li][li]Foxtrot or A Trick of the Tail: If you want more progressive rock, pick the former; if you just want a rock-solid album with startling moments of haunting beauty, go for the latter. I much prefer Trick and tend to think Foxtrot’s epic “Supper’s Ready” is overrated, but that’s not a popular opinion and I’d hesitate to steer anyone away from Foxtrot due to my personal preference. Nursery Cryme is also great fun.[/li][/ol]
In general, you can’t go wrong with any Genesis album featuring Steve Hackett. With Gabriel and Hackett, Genesis were very much a band for people who appreciated British eccentricity and great musicianship; with Hackett but without Gabriel, Genesis were free to be whimsical without letting the concept overpower the music.
IMHO, they matured greatly as musicians up to and including Wind & Wuthering, and listening to the six Hackett albums in succession is very satisfying. Duke comes close, but Tony Banks without Steve Hackett just isn’t the same.
This is what insomnia does to a person…
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The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - Epic and surreal, a total mind fuck movie in your head. There’s so much more to it than just what the lyrics tell. The LP had a story with far more details, written by Peter Gabriel, but I haven’t found it on the net*. If you see an LP for sale, it’s worth picking up just for the story. Picking favorite songs is torture, but they’d include the title track, “In The Cage,” “Anyway,” and practically the entire last “side” of the 2nd disc, especially “The Colony of Slippermen (The Arrival/A Visit To The Doktor/Raven)” (as a woman, the castration aspect doesn’t cause me to cringe, I just love the weird singing and fun music), and “Riding The Scree.”
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Selling England By The Pound - All great, but “Firth of Fifth” is one of their greatest. “After The Ordeal” has a special place in my heart, as does the instrumental parts of “Cinema Show”, well, all of it really.
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Foxtrot - All great, but hey, “Watcher of the Skies”** and “Supper’s Ready”!
I was lucky enough to see the first two (Lamb and SEBTP) tours, and Foxtrot was the first album I bought and learned, so those have to be first. Tough to say what’s next because I’m so biased but for today I’ll side with Biffy and go with
- Wind and Wuthering - Favorites include "Wot Gorilla?", “All In A Mouse’s Night” and “Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers…/…In That Quiet Earth/Afterglow” A great ending to a great album.
Ask me tomorrow and I might say something else, but probably not. Every album has so many great moments.
Trick of the Tail (favorite songs “Los Endos” and “Squonk”) or even, yes,
Duke - Favorites are “Dukes Travels/Duke’s End” and yes, I do love their instrumentals. “Behind The Lines” and “Duchess” too - (links to specific songs tend to suck when the songs flow into each other, sorry) if I’m in my Duke mood. I followed them on this tour, but not in a creepy way, honest.
These wouldn’t be in my Top 4 but there will always be spots in my heart for
Trespass (So good, all of it. “White Mountain” is so cinematic, and I love “Visions of Angels.”)
Nursery Cryme (favorite song “The Fountain of Salmacis”)
And Then There Were Three (sue me, I think there are many great songs on here too, like “Burning Rope” and “The Lady Lies” and the lullingly creepy “Snowbound”)
I think most of the songs on their first album From Genesis To Revelation are outstanding. Even though, IMO, they were largely ruined by producer Jonathan King’s adding horns, strings and other bullshit orchestral flourishes after the fact :rolleyes:, I think the songwriting and musical talent was quite clear. Unfortunately the boys were not in a position to protest. “One Day” is my favorite of a ruined lot.
I stayed with and loved all the post-Gabriel albums up to and including Abacab (favorites are “Me and Sarah Jane” and the delightfully weird “Keep It Dark”). I stopped listening not because I thought they got bad but because my tastes changed and I became obsessed with different types of music. Some fans SAY they got bad but I can’t say that because I don’t know the post-Abacab albums at all. I will always dearly love the albums up to then.
- Man, I was linking randomly, but right before hitting Submit I realized that on YouTube, this guy’s Lamb playlist includes what I assume is the whole story, broken up in pieces and placed in front of every song. You have to look at them all to read the entire thing, but it seems to be there. I haven’t looked at every song and compared it to my LP to make sure, but I have to try and sleep now.
** Forgive the terrible video and audio quality of these (I’d suggest turning down the volume before clicking the links), but they’re dear to my heart. I was a Top 40-listening, ig’nant Kansas farm girl when I saw this most very bizarre thing on Midnight Special. Then this. I was still reeling from the first when the second was shown. I guess I was in the right mood for my entire musical mindset to be changed. They blew me away, rocked my world and, quite literally, changed my life. Because of so many things that came from being a Genesis fan, the last 30+ years of my life would have been wiped away had I not been watching TV that night. (first and foremost becoming a Kate Bush fan because of her work on Peter Gabriel’s albums, and meeting my Kate Bush fan husband. Just from being with him sent my life rocketing off into worlds I never would have glimpsed, places I never would have visited, music I never would have heard, movies I never would have seen, and, ha, message boards I never would have discovered because I wouldn’t have had a computer or be on the internet, had we not met)
This should forever be referred to as THE Quintessential Genesis post
Here’s the whole story, not broken up with song lyrics (so it’s exactly as it appears on the LP).
Ah, there’s the problem.
I’m content to enjoy their music in an unserious way. 
- **Duke **- the best Collins-era album, bar none.
- Wind & Wuthering - eclectic and introspective at the same time. Much better than ATOOT in my opinion.
- The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - one big fuck-all double concept album that’s too long to even fit on one CD. The story is whack, and the instrumentals become rather aimless and overblown towards the end, but with big fuck-all double concept albums that’s the whole point, ain’t it??
- **Foxtrot **- really a tossup between this or Nursery Cryme. But Foxtrot has some amazing mellotron work, as well as one of my favorite of all Genesis songs, the short-but-sweet guitar instrumental “Horizons” by Steve Hackett. (HA! You thought I was gonna say “Supper’s Ready”, didn’t you?)
Personally, I don’t see what was so great about Selling England by the Pound. “Firth of Fifth” kicks ass but the rest is rather meh, and “Cinema Show” pales in comparison to the live version(s).