Early Genesis albums

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I grew up with kind of a minimalist punk rock-type aesthetic as far as music goes (although I've always liked a fair amount of older rock stuff as well), so prog rock wasn't something I was really attracted to as a teenager or whatever. A year or two ago, though, I heard a couple of early Genesis albums - "Selling England By the Pound" and "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" - and I was really blown away by them. I loved all the different moods and textures on those albums, sometimes in the same song. I think they're definitely some of the best stuff I've heard from the early 70's. I think Genesis would have to go down as one of the bands that has changed the most over the course of their career. Their early 70's stuff is about as far as you can get from their late 70's and 80's mainstream pop albums.

Actually, I wasn't completely new to prog rock when I came across those Genesis albums; I have owned a couple of early King Crimson albums before, but it wasn't a genre I had ever really spent a lot of time with.

So I was just curious if anyone else has heard those albums or is into prog rock in general. For some reason it seems like kind of an Aspie thing to me.

That is my kind of music. Have you ever listened to the British prog rock band IQ? I think you will like them. Check their album Subterranea.

Or how about the Groundhogs!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViOMiPL7kb0[/youtube]

I second IQ. One of my favorites. If you're big into Genesis I actually would recommend starting with their album "Dark Matter". It's basically a modern take on the classic Genesis style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzClIH9idIg

Thanks a lot for those suggestions. Those are bands I've heard of but haven't actually heard yet. I'm not in a place right at the moment where I can listen to music, but I want to check those out as soon as I get a chance.

Thanks!

Well, I got a chance to listen to those songs by IQ and the Groundhogs and I thought they were both really good. I'll be looking up more stuff from those bands.

Here's something I came across a couple of days ago that I thought was also quite good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8bH9XXTfk

And here's the full album that that song came from (unfortunately it doesn't have the times listed for the individual songs):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTMQ25yzsFU

Also, I don't know if anyone has seen this site before, but it seems pretty good (lots of info. about all kinds of prog rock):

http://www.progarchives.com

I used to be quite active in the progarchives community at one point. It really is a great resource for learning about a lot of bands, especially lesser known artists.

I am a huge fan of early Genesis, as well.

A couple of years ago, a Genesis tribute band did a full recreation of their famous "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" stage routine in the town I reside in, and I found out about it immediately after the night it happened. I was pissed.

Tried it. Did not enjoy.

In addition to their early music, I've always thought the story of Genesis as a band was kind of interesting as well. I'm not an expert on the band's history (in fact the only members I can recall off the top of my head are Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins), but I do know a little about them. I got the sense that (as in most bands I suppose), some members leaned more towards the "experimental" side, and others had more conventional sensibilites as far as songwriting, etc. I thought that Peter Gabriel was sort of the most "out there" as far as pushing the envelope conceptually, musically, and with costumes:



Wasn't "Lamb" the last album Peter Gabriel did with the band? I've been curious to hear some of the early solo albums he did after leaving Genesis, before he became a huge rock star (although I guess he was pretty big while in Genesis).

Another thing I thought was interesting about the "Lamb" album was that Brian Eno apparently contributed some of his "treatments" to it (I assume that's referring to production elements and maybe playing some instruments here and there). I guess Eno has kind of a tangential connection to prog rock in that regard, and through his association with Robert Fripp. I've listened to lots of Eno's stuff and have really liked most of it. I like how he's kind of a common thread running through glam, prog, punk, new wave, no wave, etc. That's what really interests me the most - how the different genres are connected.

Those early Genesis albums are also interesting in that they really show what a good drummer Phil Collins is. You don't get much of a sense of that from his later music. The stuff he does on "Lamb" and "Selling England" is really impressive.

Yes, "Lamb" was the last one Gabriel did with them. The other members at that time were Mike Rutherford (bass), Steve Hackett (guitars) and Tony Banks (keyboards). Hackett left two albums later. Gabriel told the band he was leaving right before they set out on the "Lamb" tour.