"I wandered lonely as a cloud"

Some of you may be wondering why an essay about an art rock group would be named after a line stolen from Wordsworth. The reason is that this line was also stolen by Genesis in their magnum opus "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", which gives you an idea of the scope of the literary allusions employed by the band in its Peter Gabriel incarnation, circa 1967-75.

Those of you who have read my art rock reviews know that I consider Genesis to be one of the "Big Four" progressive rock bands of the 1970's (joined by fellow English art rockers Yes, King Crimson, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, see my reviews on each). Genesis arguably became the best known of these bands, although unfortunately in its 1980's Phil Collins version which, having concluded a Mephistophelean bargain, in exchange for extraordinary popularity and untold riches it surrendered the right to play anything remotely resembling interesting music.

Maybe that's not such a bad deal.

Reviewed here is a wonderful 4-CD Genesis retrospective entitled "Genesis Archive 1967-75". (Also included is an excellent 80-page booklet containing articles by band, photographs and assorted scraps.)
As you will discover, this is a must-buy for anyone remotely interested in the band's work during this years.

The CD's are in reverse chronological order, so let us begin with CD 4, which twenty rare tracks from 1967-70, including some demo's, TV appearances, and rough mixes. For example, included is a demo of "When the Sour Turns to Sweet", which was on "From Genesis to Revelation". It's historical value aside, I personally don't find this music very interesting. It's immature, derivative, thinly produced, and sounds a lot like early Moody Blues (with a splash of Fairport Convention thrown in), which is not much of a recommendation. This disk is for completists only.

Things change drastically with CD 3, which contains nine tunes including live versions of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "Firth of Fifth", "More Fool Me", "I Know What I Like" (all from "Selling England By the Pound") and "Supper's Ready", as well as the single version of "Watcher of the Skies". This stuff is just terrific. There is enough difference between the live and album versions to warrant repeated listenings, especially in Gabriel's singing and Collins's drumming. It's also interesting to compare this version of "Supper's Ready" (an amazing 20-plus suite of prog rock, dance hall music, and mythological allusions) with the "Seconds Out" version, the latter being a slightly stronger performance.

The centerpiece of the release, however, is CD's 1 and 2, which contain the complete "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (except for the last tune, which was re-recorded in the studio because the tape ran out), recorded in Los Angeles in 1975, just before the band broke up. (I saw this show in Chicago a few days later, the last show Gabriel ever played in the States with the band.) This is an undeservedly-forgotten piece of art rock, in my mind perhaps the best art rock album of the decade. It recounts the adventures of Rael, a Puerto Rican teenager who lives in New York, and his adventures when he is swallowed by a mysterious cloud one evening. This tale is a bit hard to follow, made all the more so because it is generously littered with allusion after allusion after allusion. (Mix Marshall McLuhan with Burt Bacharach with Wordsworth with the Drifters and you'll get the picture.)

Literary considerations aside, however, this is an extraordinary suite of music. It ranges from rather traditional prog rock to English hunting tunes, heavy metal, and Schonbergian dissonance. It's amazing. The live performance is faithful to the studio version, but for my money what really drives it is Collins's consistently inventive drumming. He just drives the music along, switching times and meters with reckless abandon.

As I said, for Genesis fans this is a must-have. Listeners who are relatively new to the band's early years might want to start with "Selling England" or "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", which are have a lower entry price. Be advised that this music is drastically different from the swill that the band sold in the beer hall years of the early eighties.

Five stars. I can't wait for the second volume.