Today I am going to touch on the eternal debate among all Genesis fans. Which is the best era: Gabriel’s or Collins’?

To answer this question I will use the reasoning to respond to my girlfriend, when a long time ago she asked me an even better question: “Why can’t Genesis do a full group reunion?” The moment she finished her sentence, my answer flowed as if I had been asked why can’t it snow in Aruba. I said to her:

“It’s unviable. A setlist of a Genesis reunion with both Pete and Phil would be weird, odd, and would produce more detractors than satisfied fans.”

“Why?” – she inquired.

“Because it would be like watching two completely different bands.” – I said.

If you are not well educated on Genesis’ history, the short story is that Peter Gabriel started the band. After going through a couple of line up changes, they settled with keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist Mike Rutherford, guitarist Steve Hackett and drummer Phil Collins. This is the line up known as “the Gabriel era”, which features a repertoire exclusively concentrated on progressive rock. Gabriel’s era songs are philosophical, with profound lyrics, sometimes mythological, other times abstract, other times filled with surrealism. The music is complex and the staging of their concerts featured Gabriel using his full powers as a front man by impersonating -in full costume and make-up- a multitude of characters from their even more intellectually complex songs that included:

  • A Victorian era friendship broken by a brutal decapitation, followed by a sexual attack by the decapitated ghost.
  • A mythological tale about Hermaphroditus and a nymph.
  • A couple of lovers who travel through time and end up witnessing the apocalypse.
  • An invasion of giant poisonous plants that aim to eradicate the human race.
  • An new Yorker Puerto Rican who sees people around him trapped in cages.

The remaining members equally shone showcasing their talents on their instruments: Banks playing quasi-symphonic arrangements on the keyboard, Hackett soloing with techniques way ahead of his time, and Rutherford by bringing lively musically independent bass lines. However, special attention must be given to Collins who, unbeknownst to many people, excelled as an absolute superb drummer both in terms of skill and technique. In fact, I rank Collins in my top three best rock drummers of all time -only surpassed by Bonham and Peart-. If you listen to every Gabriel-era, and pay attention to Phil’s marvelous talents, you will end up agreeing with me. Apart from being an amazing drummer, Collins also provided vocals on several songs (and not just as filler background, but as a very harmonious valuable vocalist in contrast to Gabriel’s passionate but -generally speaking- dissonant voice). So one could make a case that Collins was not just a drummer: he was arguably equally ranked as Banks, Hackett and Rutherford in terms of importance after Gabriel, which meant that he was a talented musician that added value to the band. Then one day, when Genesis were at their peak, Gabriel left the band citing personal reasons.

Left without their front / showman, main lyricist and attention grabber, the band scouted a replacement for months, only to realize that one cannot simply replace Peter Gabriel. Given Collins being able to simultaneously sing and play drums, and given that Collins’ voice, while not the same style as Gabriel’s- was actually worth of a front man, the band felt Phil could be the new vocalist and front man, a role that he initially timidly accepted, but as time went on, grew more comfortably in until he fully adapted and embraced it. Fans refer to this period as the “transition era”. During this time, the band noted that Phil’s softer, smoother and more harmonious voice did not go inline as well as Gabriel’s, especially with the band’s catalogue of progressive songs. More importantly, they probably also found themselves without the create output that Peter brought with his lyrics, so they began experimenting with a softer prog that flirted with soft-rock, something that was not the direction the more artistic oriented Hackett signed up for back when he had joined in 1970, so he left the band in pursuit of other ventures.

“And then there were three…” was released in 1978. It was an album with a title that reflected the band’s situation from a musical and personal standpoint. With Gabriel and Hackett out of the way, Rutherford, Banks and Collins shifted the direction of the band to reach a wider audience and achieve more commercial success. This is the beginning of the “Collins era”, which features the popular hits that made the band reach stratospheric heights and filled stadium tours all over the world.

With Banks and Rutherford being on the background -along with regular tour drummer Chester Thompson-, Collins became the face of the group and carrier of the band, especially when he launched a solo career parallel to his ventures with Genesis, which was equally successful as his group gig. So the Gabriel-era fans took offense on Collins’ success and this is where the strain among both group of fans began: blaming Collins for destroying an artistic-oriented band, and turning it into another commercial sell-out pop group. What a lot of people do not know is that while Collins took a lot of the blame, it was the three of them who equally drove the group into that direction. An example is their hit song “Follow you, follow me” commonly entirely attributed to Collins, when in reality it was Rutherford who wrote it. Interestingly enough, neither Gabriel nor Hackett had any strains with the other members. They just kept pursuing their individual projects witnessing both groups of fans fight each other over which era was the best.

Back to the original question of today’s entry, the feasibility of having a reunion and a tour with all five members, while interesting is completely unviable. I am quite sure Gabriel and Hackett probably have a lot of appreciation for “That’s all“, “Invisible touch” and “Mama“. However a setlist that featuring “The return of the Giant Hogweed“, followed by “Follow you, follow me“, “Musical box“, “In too deep“, “Tie lamb lies down on Broadway“, “Tonight, tonight“, ending with “Supper’s ready“, would make a David Lynch film look like Michael Bay’s.

The bottom line is, Gabriel’s era is a more art-oriented, and Collins’ era is more pop-oriented, and while Collins’ era featured live performances from Gabriel’s with Phil as lead singer, there is something… that “it” factor in Gabriel’s persona and voice, that Collins’ simply did not have. They are two completely different approaches, two completely different catalogues, generated by craftsmanship from two different set of talents.

Not only Genesis is an interesting band, they are an interesting case study. Their musical career is the antithesis of The Beatles: an initial period studio-oriented in which their ideology was to be as creative and artistic as possible; and their latter period comprised of sell-out elemental straight-forward pop music.

Whichever era you prefer, is the best for you.

HR