Given the ending years’ of Genesis’ pop-based output, many people may not know their early sound was WAY different, with several more auteurs in the group (Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel most notably). One of the great (albeit probably copyright un-friendly) things about YouTube is the persistence of five bazillion music videos of all types and stripes. So of late I’ve been checking out a few ancient (early 70s) Genesis videos up there, specifically The Knife, Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (not long after this, Peter G. left the band, a couple albums later SH did, and Genesis morphed into a pop-outfit not long after that).

Historically I was really into Yes and King Crimson, two progressive rock peers of Genesis at the time – although both of them stayed ‘progressive’ arguably far longer. Each has a pretty different sound, although all of them (and others such as ELP) pushed the boundaries of what a rock song could be, including the scope, ambition and in some cases, pretentiousness of the music in the end – ELP ‘enjoyed’ probably the most slagging on this point during the punk era, pretty bad. But what’s interesting is to listen to other so-called ‘modern’ progressive bands since – I have been checking out Transatlantic on YouTube also – I like it, but I’m not sure if it ‘progresses’ beyond the 70s stuff – it almost sounds like they are largely paying homage to it in most cases, instead of trying to stretch the boundaries? As if I can tell anyway! 🙂 With Transatlantic specifically, the keyboards sound a lot like ELP or the big hammond organs of the time, if not played near as crazily or akin to classical music as the likes of Keith Emerson.

This music is definitely an acquired taste in many cases, but I’m definitely on the way to listening to more early Genesis to start – I already had nearly all the Peter G. stuff and/or Yes/King Crimson, so this will be a cool (old) new band to explore…..

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