GENESIS - A Trick Of The Tail (Dougie-ized)
UPDATE: JUNE 2. After you read all this, come over to my Geocities page!
Genesis released their first album in 1969 after forming at Charterhouse, an English public school. They originally formed as a "songwriting collective", and it is this fact that is often overlooked when discussing the band's output. They always saw themselves as songwriters first, musicians and performers second. It is this distinction that made their early music what it was, and helps to explain much of the band's continuing history.
One factor not to be overlooked in their early history is the contribution of guitarist Anthony Phillips. Though he only appeared on the first two albums (From Genesis To Revelation and Trespass), his input as a writer and his use (along with guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford) of the acoustic 12-string guitar was an essential part of the Genesis sound that continued through their next several albums after his departure. Around the time that ATOTT was recorded, Anthony made The Geese And The Ghost with Rutherford, and it's interesting to listen to it alongside ATOTT.
Genesis had just suffered a major loss in 1975 when vocalist/writer/frontman Peter Gabriel decided to leave. The double album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway had been released and an elaborate tour had followed. The relationship between Gabriel and the rest of the band had become strained, though they made sure after the split to emphasize that they remained friends.
With Gabriel's departure, they lost not only a distinctive vocalist and bizzare frontman, but a brilliant writer. The band had rightly felt that too much attention was going in Gabriel's direction, and it must be stated that the band had always attempted to do their work as a complete unit - with all members contributing - but though Banks, Rutherford, Hackett, and Collins were all as vital to the band's success up to that point, Gabriel's contribution was strong and his input was a large part of the magic of the early "classic" albums.
Reading interviews with the band after Gabriel's public announcement that he had left, one is struck by their determination to prove that they could not only survive the loss, but would surpass their work with Peter. While they obviously were concerned about the future, they felt that they had something to prove to their audience and the press, and one has to believe that they wanted to prove it to themselves.
And they did quite a brilliant job. A Trick Of The Tail is a lovely, varied, powerful album that proves just how much the band had grown as musicians and as writers. There is a confidence and a vitality that shines through strongly, and as a complete album, it is arguably even stronger than the brilliant Lamb (surely Gabriel's own finest work with the band). What ATOTT lacks in lyrical bite or vocal delivery (and this is no criticism of the otherwise fine lyrics and Collins' admirable attempts at replacing an excellent singer) is more than made up for by the power and clarity of the music. The MUSICIANSHIP had gone to a new level, and this is also apparant on recordings of the band's first Gabriel-less tour (with former Yes/King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford filling in so that Collins could concentrate on vocals).
So, here's a song by song analysis of the album:
DANCE ON A VOLCANO - The album starts with Rutherford's 12-string guitar laying out an odd pattern that is suddenly joined by the rest of the band in a series of accents. The intro builds up into a 6-note melody and the band then launches into a powerful 7/4 riff.
It is interesting to hear Mike's powerful opening statement first, on his electric 12-string, since the acoustic 12 was still such a big part of the Genesis sound. The Lamb had been more electric than any Genesis album before, and this was a foreshadowing of the time soon to come when the band virtually abandoned acoustic textures in favor of increasingly synthetic sounds.
The 12-string guitar in the hands of Mike Rutherford was a unique instrument capable of bringing forth excellent textures in either acoustic or electric contexts. This was undoubtedly a by-product of his time working with the vastly under-appreciated Anthony Phillips (and Ant's solo work is a fascinating part of the Genesis catalog.)
The DOAV intro is a strong musical statement from Mike, and he performs his bass duties on bass pedals while handling the 12. This ability to switch from guitar to bass to bass pedals, often at once, shows a side to Mike's musicianship that isn't often found in rock music (a good example of another musician in a similar vein is Rush's Geddy Lee, who played bass, bass pedals, keyboards, and occasional guitar along with being the band's lead vocalist.)
DOAV is brilliantly constructed with great dynamics. The middle section quiets down to a sinister atmosphere with Hackett's guitar gurgling underneath, then back into the fray. Collins intones "Let's the dance begin" in an "evil" voice, then the band launches into a remarkable section of interplay with fast melodic lines thrown about in a lurching dance.
The song is credited to the entire band. It became a staple of the live show for years. On the Trick tour, it was performed in it's entirity, thereafter the ending was cut out and it was linked by a drum duet into Los Endos. The first few minutes were also performed on the 92 tour as part of a medley.
ENTANGLED - A lovely acoustic song. The acoustic guitar was a large part of the early Genesis sound, though it was used sparingly on The Lamb album. This song, written by Hackett and Banks has an amusing lyric set on the psychaitrist's chair. The intertwining, crystalline guitars and the lovely harmony vocals create a beautiful atmosphere that is taken higher at the end with a series of huge keyboard chords courtesy of Banks. Marvellous.
From interviews, it appears that part of Entangled was written by Banks on guitar in the early days of the band. I would guess that Hackett had a good deal of input into the music (and I understand that he wrote the lyrics), but Banks' contribution is notable. Tony is highly regarded as a prog keyboardist, and rightfully so, but he had some interesting ideas for guitar as well, and played 12-string live on certain numbers. On his first solo album (A Curious Feeling), Tony wrote a song called "You" that opens with an excellent 12-string guitar progression. His technique as a guitarist was limited, but his ideas were excellent.
Of course, Hackett was "the guitarist" for the band, and his input was an obvious necessity in situations like Entangled where various guitar parts were being performed. Entangled is an excellent example of guitar orchestration, with the different guitars playing off each other in tasteful, well-constructed counterpoint. Genesis' reputation as a "keyboard-heavy" band was definitely not in evidence on excellent pieces such as this, though Tony's fine work in the end is an essential part of the arrangement.
Entangled was performed live only on the Trick tour, and Banks would join Hackett and Rutherford on acoustic 12-string for the first half of the song.
SQUONK - A powerful Bonham-esque drum pattern from Collins drives this excellent song about a small creature who cries himself into a pool of tears. Mike's electric 12 (tuned with the low pair of strings dropped a whole step - Rutherford has recently stated that there was much experimenting with alternate guitar tunings on this album)
sets up a strong strummed chord riff, and he follows Collins' bass drum with his bass pedals. Mike also drives certain sections of the song with an excellent bass line (he performed this live on a double-necked instrument that had 12-string and bass.) Tony's keyboards provide a fine backing to Collins' impassioned vocals, and the song ends with a softer groove and a short melodic line from Hackett, perhaps musically symbolizing the death of the Squonk.
The song was performed live often, and the 1978 live album Seconds Out opens with a version from the 77 tour with Chester Thompson on drums. However, one of the true highlights in the massive canon of Genesis bootlegs is a stunning version of Squonk that exists on an audience recording from Berkeley, California on April 29, 1976. For Bruford's drumming alone, this is a must-have. Taking an already powerful drum groove to it's highest level, Bruford proves his status as a brilliant rock percussionist by turning in a massive, confident performance that finds him slamming the groove like a sledgehammer. His fills are brilliantly timed and executed throughout, and the opening gong crashes are an excellent touch. Genesis was extremely lucky to have this wonderful musician in their midst for this all-too-brief time, and Bruford has become one of the most consistently interesting drummers in all of rock music. Unlike Collins (whose drumming has lost much of the interest it had in the 70s) Bruford has continuously pushed his playing and his composition to it's highest levels, and has never backed down for long. His ability to fit his own distinctive personality into whatever musical situation he finds himself in has few equals. This version of Squonk is excellent testimony to that.
MAD MAN MOON - One of Tony Banks' most memorable compositions. MMM tells of living in a world of sun and sand praying for rain, and contrasts this with living in perpetual rain wishing for sun. A fine lyric, and the music is very appropriate to the content. The song opens with a soft piano theme, and the piano is the predominant instrument throughout. Banks' use of the piano in Genesis was often quite inventive (the brilliant intro to 1973's Firth Of Fifth being quite possibly his piano zenith), and this song is no exception, as Banks' makes creative use of one of his trademarks - using odd note choices in the bass of a chord, and stringing these altered chords throughout a progression. While this is a relatively common technique in both "progressive" and "pop" music, Banks had a very individual approach in this period of Genesis' music.
The vocal line weaves througout the progression as Collins sings Tony's thoughtful lyrics. Another factor in this song is the effect of Rutherford's bass work, which further emphasizes the harmonic content of Banks' writing. A bass player in a rock band has the job of "holding down the bottom", which means that the bass notes of the chords are played along with whatever other harmonic content is chosen. Banks would have to had spent time with Rutherford defining the chords of the piece so that the bass playing wouldn't clash with the piano. Most rock bass lines make use of certain fills and runs that wouldn't necessarily work in this context. And playing the "normal" root note of a chord would change the meaning of the progression.
An example is in the beginning of the verse, when Banks plays an E minor chord with Rutherford playing a D bass note. Playing an E (the "normal" note for the chord) would have a very different effect, as would playing additional notes around the D that are common in "rock" bass lines. This is a fairy simple example of what Banks was up to writing these pieces, and what Mike had to do to properly compliment Tony's ideas. (Or his own, or Hackett's, as the case may be.)
All this seems like a bit of over-analysis, but it is written as I have had the pleasure of doing something that Genesis themselves never did, when I performed this song live with Strictly Banks - a tribute to Tony's music. Learning the song on bass guitar and playing it in rehearsal and onstage with two keyboardists (in this case, there are mellotron strings along with the piano), I was struck by the intelligence of Rutherford's bass-work. Taking a series of chords, and working in expertly placed fills along with "holding down the bottom" and creating a "groove" with the drums, Rutherford demontrated why he was one of the most over-looked bassists in all of rock music.
The bass line does a masterful job of leaving space when needed, and filling space when appropriate. This is an excellent quality for a bass player to have - tastefulness as opposed to ego displays.
The middle section finds Rutherford placing bass pedal notes under Banks' piano arpeggios, and the song builds back up into a new section (with the lyric "Hey man, I'm the sandman".) Here, Rutherford shifts gears and lays down a strong groove with Collins, throwing in quick fills and bridging the chord changes with excellent and un-predictable note choices (along with accents from the piano.) Then we move back into the main body of the song again. Banks' excellent use of contrasting sections is matched by the changing nature of Mike's bass playing.
Listening to virtually any of the peak period Genesis work that Mike Rutherford plays bass on (in my view this period is from 1970-77), one is struck by the intelligence and taste of this fine player. With the change in Genesis' sound in the early 80s towards a much more simplified and ultimately less adventurous approach, Mike's bass playing also changed, and became an afterthought to his un-obtrusive guitar playing. This change marked the loss of one of the most eloquent bass guitar voices to come out of rock music. Mad Man Moon stands as an example of Mike Rutherford's superb musicianship in this period.
Mention must also be made of Hackett's guitar here - though it draws little attention to itself, his tasteful support adds color that brings another level to the music. More on Steve's approach later...
Mad Man Moon ends with a restatement of the introductory piano theme in a different key. A lovely ending to a lovely song.
This concludes side 1 of the album.
Follow the link below to part 2 of my Trick analysis.
Send E-Mail to: eraserhead667@yahoo.com
This page created using the webpage creation facilities of Webspawner.
Copyright © 2000 . All Rights Reserved
WebSpawner Page Machine