Written by Thomas Schrage

Genesis‘ first album was not called Trespass but From Genesis To Revelation. Many fans tend to count it as their zeroeth album. It shows no or at best only the most minuscule traces of the style that would make them well-known later, and therefore frequently meets with a refusal and lack of affection. Justly so?

The band did not have the line-up they got known with yet. One could say they did not even exist. They came together to record demo-tapes in the first place. All of them knew each other from Charterhouse public school. The songwriter team Rutherford and Anthony Phillips asked Tony Banks to play the piano for them; Banks only agreed if he could bring his songwriting partner Peter Gabriel to record a song. Soon they were convinced that Gabriel’s voice sounded better than Phillips’ so he ended up singing on all the songs.

When he did not sing, Phillips played the guitar, a position he would retain up to Trespass. Initially, the drums were played by one Chris Stewart, though the drumming on the album would be done by John Silver. The drummer’s stool would not be filled permanently until Phil Collins joined Genesis. Only with him did the band find someone who was accepted as a full member and could incorporate himself.

These boys (most of them were around 17 at the time) managed to land a record contract with Jonjo Music in August 1967. That only meant that a single would be released. King was an alumnus of Charterhouse and had had quite a successful hit with Everyone’s Gone To The Moon. A shallow pop song though that may have been, he nevertheless seemed to be a person of success and influence, and they found it very promising that they could have him produce them.

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The year was 1969. Among the many discoveries made that year was something called "the import record" - albums from England that were either different from those released here, or just plain never released in Athens.

I remember pulling together a stack of domestic promotional albums and heading to a downtown rendezvous, near Acropolis to a place called Plaka, where in a small records shop they were traded for a decidedly smaller stack of imports. One of them was a little item that had a black cover with gold lettering proclaiming FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION. It was the first effort of a British group that couldn't decide on their name, although the music was much more decisive - I immediately vowed to become a fan once they figured out what to call themselves....

Genesis Group Members
Peter Brian Gabriel Gemesis 1970 - 1975

Peter Brian Gabriel

BORN: February 13, 1950, London, England
As the leader of Genesis in the early '70s, Peter Gabriel helped move progressive rock to new levels of theatricality. In his solo career, Gabriel was no less ambitious, but he was more subtle in his methods.
Anthony George Banks Gemesis 1970 - 1975

Anthony George Banks

BORN: March 27th, 1950, East Sussex, England
Tony Banks started his career with Genesis in 1967 as the pianist/keyboardist, after the emergence of the Charterhouse School Bands The Garden Wall, which Tony was a member,..
Michael John Rutherford Gemesis 1970 - 1975

Michael John Rutherford

BORN: October 2nd, 1950, Guildford, Surrey, England
A founding member of the long-running art-rock band Genesis, Mike Rutherford also made the occasional excursion into solo projects, most notably the pop combo Mike + the Mechanics.
Phillip David Charles Collins Gemesis 1970 - 1975

Phillip David Charles Collins

BORN: January 31, 1951, Chiswick, London, England
Phil Collins' ascent to the status of one of the most successful pop and adult-contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond was probably as much of a surprise to him as it was to many others.
Steven Richard Hackett Gemesis 1970 - 1975

Steven Richard Hackett

BORN: February 12th, 1951, England
Formerly a member of various minor bands, including Canterbury Glass, Heel Pier, Sarabande and Quiet World, the latter releasing a solitary album on Dawn Records in 1970, Hackett joined Genesis as guitarist in early 1971.

March 16th, 2015 By Jim Laugelli

I could have very easily chosen a number of other Genesis albums but I decided on this one simply because it features what is perhaps the most significant song in all of progressive rock: “Supper’s Ready.” My introduction to Genesis occurred 41 years ago and had one of the most profound impacts on my personal musical journey. On that night, in May of 1974, a friend asked if I wanted to see a concert. He had a few extra tickets for a Genesis show and no one to join him. I never heard of the band and for some reason thought they were probably some sort of acoustic act. As far as I recall, my friend knew little about the band as well. I believe someone just gave him the tickets. With nothing better to do I decided to check it out. When we arrived at the venue and had taken our seats I remember my curiosity ratcheting up when the pre-concert music over the P.A. was Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. This signaled to me that I was probably going to hear something unexpected. Sure enough, when the lights went down and the crowd quieted, the opening chords to “Watcher Of The Skies” begins. I immediately leaned forward in my seat totally consumed by the sound of the mellotron.

As that instrument eases, the staccato rhythm of the bass begins and in the darkness a pair eyes appear, they seem to be searching, radiating, only to reveal a figure in a cape with bat wings wrapped around his head. The vocals then begin and until the end of the show I remain completely and utterly captivated. My mind was officially blown. It was a revelation. I left that show a changed person. This was music that went beyond my imagination. It was presented like theater, it told stories. In fact, before many songs, Gabriel told surreal little tales as a way of introducing the tunes. The next day I bought Foxtrot, and then Selling England By The Pound, Nursery Cryme and Trespass all in short order. I immersed myself in their music.

Foxtrot begins the band’s high point of three consecutive outstanding albums. It was released in 1972, a banner year for progressive rock that also saw the release of Close To The Edge by Yes, Thick As A Brick from Jethro Tull, Trilogy by ELP, Three Friends from Gentle Giant and a slew of other incredible records. For Genesis, Foxtrot saw them tackle ideas they started with their two previous releases, Trespass and Nursery Cryme. The level of complexity in song structure, the emphasis on theatricality and drama, storytelling and extended song form all reached a new level of sophistication on Foxtrot.

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1967 - 1975
Discography Comments Compiled by Ikon Designing

Discography Comments

Aside from a portion of the box set, this is the only commercially available live document of vintage Gabriel-era Genesis.
Official Album Releases Compiled by Ikon Designing

Official Album Releases

That's it. Genesis' most ambitious work to date that ultimately led to the shock departure of their much loved singer Peter Gabriel.
Genesis Album Artwork Compiled by Ikon Designing

Genesis Album Artwork

The painterly texture of the album art is a very nuanced addition to the artwork., but with a plain light yellow-tan border, the artwork itself can feel a bit drab.
Jonathan King and the Name Compiled by Ikon Designing

Jonathan King and the Name

In 1963 Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks met at Charterhouse, a boarding-school, that layed in the English county Surrey in the middle 1960s.
Before Phil Compiled by Ikon Designing

Before Phil

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away. . . England, I think it was called. . . There lived four young men. . Their names were Ant Phillips, Michael Rutherford, Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel.
The Glory Years Compiled by Ikon Designing

The Glory Years

While recovering from this, he began writing Genesis' most ambitious project to date, "Supper's Ready," a 23-minute masterpiece
Touch of the Jaggers Compiled by Ikon Designing

Touch of the Jaggers

On every level the band transcend any kind of expected performance standard. Musically they are so proficient they make that part of the job look like a secondary exercise.
Man behind the Mask Compiled by Ikon Designing

Man behind the Mask

Genesis obviously differ from the dressed-up 12-bar that most bands unravel. And because of these very differences, the band have been slated over over their motives.
Hall of Mutant King Compiled by Ikon Designing

Hall of Mutant King

Lifeless was the performance of leader Peter Gabriel; the protagonist's name is Rael so it's surely no accident that Gabriel is a Roger Daltry sound alike.

On Feb. 25th of 1977, former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel released his solo debut album, his first of four untitled efforts (usually referred to as either "Peter Gabriel 1" or "Car," due to its rain-soaked-windshield cover image). The album was a commercial and critical hit, though Gabriel would go on to greater success on both fronts in the decade to come.

But the LP did spawn one of his best-remembered singles: "Solsbury Hill," a partly enigmatic, partly autobiographical personal statement that stands as one of the most immaculate pop/rock songs of the late '70s. Here are 10 reasons why the song still stuns today.

1. 7/4 Time. Writing a perfect pop song is hard enough, but writing one in an imperfect time signature is damn near impossible. The 7/4 stomp of "Solsbury Hill" is one of its indelible and striking features, that feeling of a beat missing in every measure giving the song a constant sense of struggle -- and subsequently, of endurance. The fact that it's always noticeable but never distracting is a tremendous accomplishment for Gabriel as a songwriter, and makes "Solsbury" a standout from the very beginning.

2. The heartbeat. Part of the reason the song's unusual time signature works is because it's all in the guitars -- that gorgeous spider web of an acoustic riff (played by Lou Reed and Alice Cooper guitarist Steve Hunter) circling the song's perimeter and providing its pristine, immediately recognizable framework. But if the guitars are undoubtedly the blood pumping through "Solsbury Hill," it still all stems from the beating heart of the drum thump, steady throughout, keeping the song even-keeled, marching forward and undeniably alive.

3. The flute hook. The list of iconic flute hooks in rock history is not a particularly long one, and is undoubtedly crowded with applicants from Jethro Tull, one of the few prog bands to match '70s Genesis for both popularity and pomposity. But "Solsbury Hill" keeps it simple: Four notes, a clarion-call sound-off at the beginning of each lyric, incandescent but not obnoxious. A lesser arrangement would've resorted to a trumpet, but the song is far too stately for such brassiness, and the flute's sturdy quiver is a perfect musical representation of the lyric's anxious confidence. Played by Gabriel himself, by the way, because he's just got it like that.

4. The scene-setting. Not even Martin Scorsese establishes the shot this well: "Climbing up on Solsbury Hill/ I could see the city light/ Wind was blowing, time stood still/ Eagle flew out of the night." Doesn't matter if you've never been within 500 miles of Somerset, England -- with those 28 opening syllables, you're right there with Gabriel, sharing in his moment of revelation. It's the first and only time the song's titular location is mentioned, but the mental image it invokes is burned in your mind for well longer than the four-minute runtime.

5. "My heart going, boom boom boom..." There's not really a chorus to speak of in "Solsbury Hill" -- a melodic shift at before the last four measures of each verse signifies the arrival of some kind of refrain, but there aren't many repeating lyrics, except for this line, which shows up in each of the three verses. (If you were to try to identify "Solsbury Hill" to a friend, you'd undoubtedly either try to sing the guitar riff or this lyric.)

It's a brilliant, understated through-thread for the composition: A moment of true fear and excitement, the onomatopoeic triplets resounding far greater than a more literal "my heart beating so fast" possibly could've. When performing the song live, Gabriel's drummer echoes the "boom"s himself; it's kinda redundant, since each word already echoes so loudly.

6. The guitar zooms. "Solsbury Hill" only builds in subtle ways. The song hits the round running -- launching right into its primary guitar riff, with its groove is already in cruise control by the end of the first measure -- and it stays relatively consistent throughout its runtime, with Gabriel and legendary producer Bob Ezrin merely adding thin layers of drums and synths for texture. But following the final verse and semi-chorus, a distorted guitar slide zooms in like a jet passing unexpectedly overhead, sending a chill down the song's spine -- a moment of release well worth the three minutes of acoustic tension leading up to it.

7. The outro yelping. The song closes by fading out on its central groove, though by then it's added enough new coats of flute, guitar and synth that it sounds more celebratory than ever before. That feeling of exhilaration and triumph is best demonstrated by the yelps, grunts and other non-verbals that start to scream out of each ear as the song draws to its end, like an entire village rejoicing in Gabriel's victory.

8. The trailers. Despite becoming a rock radio perennial, "Solsbury Hill" was only a minor hit upon its initial release, peaking at No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977. A big reason why the song lives on is due to its constant resurfacing in film trailers, particularly for coming-of-age dramedies like 2004's In Good Company, and more recently for 2016's blockbuster sequel Finding Dory. Because its melody and lyric have become such immediately identifiable shorthand for personal journey, the song always serves to make a film's central story feel inherently profound -- even helping to turn horror classic The Shining into a story of emotional growth and human connection in a viral faux-trailer from 2006.

9. It's about Genesis, but it doesn't have to be. The story of "Solsbury Hill" -- of personal epiphany, of hard decision-making, and of breaking free -- was unsurprisingly interpreted to be inspired by Gabriel's split from his old group, and the singer-songwriter has explained, "It's about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get, or what you are for what you might be. It's about letting go." It makes sense, and it certainly enriches the song to know just why Gabriel was worried about his friends thinking he "was a nut," for making the risky choice to leave his best-selling group to go his own way.

But it doesn't really matter. The beauty of Peter Gabriel's first solo single isn't in its backstory, it's in its foreground -- every word and every note carrying the tingling feeling of inspiration, of the entire world being right there at your fingertips. Really, the details of Genesis' career arc feel like small potatoes within the realm of the song's grandeur, as would any other such literal explanation. Some songs just feel like they're about something greater, and "Solsbury Hill" is one of them.

10. The single art.A bizarrely scowling image, with Halloween-esque credits and Gabriel brooding like Tommy Wiseaux, and the inelegantly titled "Moribund the Burgermeister" advertised as the B-side. If the single could become a classic with this as the cover, you know the song had to be goddamn good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYqJxlSv-Y

This montage of live performances of Solsbury Hill includes footage from Rockpalast (1978), Live in Athens (1987), Secret World Live (1993), Growing Up Live (2003), New Blood Live (2011) and Back To Front (2013).

Live concert releases available at PeterGabriel.com:
Back To Front Live ► smarturl.it/PG-BackToFrontLive
New Blood Live ► smarturl.it/PG-NewBloodLive
Growing Up Live ► smarturl.it/PG-GrowingUpLive
Secret World Live ► smarturl.it/PG-SecretWorldLive
Live in Athens 1987 ► smarturl.it/PG-LiveinAthens1987

Solsbury Hill was Peter's fist solo single and features on his debut, self-titled album, that was originally released in 1977. It's been a firm live favourite ever since as this video shows.

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