If you grew up in the 1980s and heard songs on the radio by Genesis such as "Invisible Touch" and "That's All," you might have thought those were decent tunes, but not exactly great art. You might have moved on to whatever else you were listening to at the time.
What you might not know and miss out on is that Genesis was once a full-on prog rock band. So much so that they made albums without any obvious singles because the idea of creating a tune that intentionally would be played on the airwaves would have been offensive to what the band was trying to do.
This was a time when Peter Gabriel was still the lead vocalist and Phil Collins was mostly only the drummer. The main players who would form the Genesis trio in the 1980s, Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks, were all part of the group.
Fans of Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway should be excited
They were great. The band wasn't always a fun listen, but their concepts were brilliant.
Here is the great news if you are a long-time fan of the band. Their 1974 opus, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, appears to finally be set for re-release. Fans have been promised this for months, but there have been delays. But the 50th anniversary edition (really, 51st anniversary at this point) will arrive soon.
Gabriel and Banks have been working diligently on remixes and making sure the sound is just so, well...Genesis. According to Louder Sound, Gabriel and Banks have learned that their own input is valuable, of course, but have learned that other members of the band can also give great input.
Gabriel said, "Bob (Mackenzie) did a brilliant job bringing it into ATMOS and it was good to be back in the mixing chairs with Tony. It brought back many good memories of being in a band. We were still wearing our ‘More Me’ T-shirts, however, we have both matured enough to (very) occasionally ask for ‘Less Me’ - would never have happened 50 years ago."
For those unfamiliar with the concept album, one thing to know is that it is dense. Extremely dense. The project is a double LP with 23 songs, seven of which last for five minutes or more. You won't want to set aside an hour to listen to the album, but an entire day.
In 1974, the album received mostly extremely positive reviews, and it has aged well. This is what happens when a band such as Genesis, with talents such as Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, is in peak form. Gabriel is the voice of the main character on the album, a person who has moved to New York City and has a violent and extroverted nature.
The only struggle is the Side 3 instrumentals, but it's easy to look past those. Come September, when the 50th anniversary edition of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is released, you can decide for yourself.