Genesis - Foxtrot

Year of Release: 1994
Label: Virgin Records
Catalog Number: 8 39779 2
Format: CD
Total Time: 51:10:00

I have a particular feeling with Genesis' Foxtrot (Charisma/Virgin, 1972 (CAS 1058)): it was my first prog album in 1992, when I was fourteen. I think that I never had a better start. In fact this is one of the works that made the story of progressive rock [possible].

Foxtrot is a very long disc, if you consider that it was recorded in 1972, but there are no weak points on it. Some pieces have become prog legends, and they are appreciated a lot by recent musicians. For example, if you have Transatlantic's Live In America, it can be noticed Neal Morse plays the organ intro to "Watcher Of The Skies." The words to this song were written by Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks in Italy, on a rooftop in Naples. This one is a great opening track with a solid rhythmic basis and organ in evidence.

However, all the songs are masterpieces: from "Horizons," a piece for classic nylon guitar only, where Steve Hackett shows what he can do (he will play it in concert as a soloist), to "Get 'Em Out By Friday," a very complicated composition, with many variations, and that has an interesting text. It speaks of the "Styx Enterprises," a building firm that buys all the houses on a street and makes the residents four feet tall to earn space.

The most famous track is "Supper's Ready," a long twenty-three minute suite in seven parts that speaks of the eternal fight between Good and Evil. My favorite part of this piece is "Apocalypse In 9/8" where Tony Banks is the master of the field, playing a successful organ solo.

My final consideration is: unfortunately Genesis don't write music all together.

Also reissued by Atlantic in 1994 (cat no. 82674)

[Aug 2007: Still not sure what Davide means here? other than if he means as a group effort? -ed.]

Tracklisting:
Watcher Of The Skies (7:19) / Time Table (4:40) / Get 'Em Out By Friday (8:35) / Can Utility And The Coastliners (5:43) / Horizon's (1:38) / Supper's Ready (22:58)

Musicians:
Tony Banks - organ, Mellotron, piano, electric piano, 12 strings guitar, vocals
Steve Hackett - electric guitars
Phil Collins - drums, percussion, vocals
Peter Gabriel - lead vocals, flute, percussion, oboe
Mike Rutherford - basses, bass pedals, 12 strings guitar, vocals, cello

Discography:
From Genesis To Revelation (1969)+
Trespass (1970)
Nursery Crime (1971)
Foxtrot (1972)
Live (1973)
Selling England By The Pound (1973)
Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)
Wind And Wuthering (1976)
Trick Of The Tail (1976)
Seconds Out (1977)
And Then There Were Three (1978)
Duke (1980)
Abacab (1981)
Three Sides Live (1982)
Genesis (1983)
Invisible Touch (1986)
We Can''t Dance (1991)
The Way We Walk: The Shorts (1992)
The Way We Walk: The Longs (1993)
Calling All Stations (1997)
Turn It On Again - The Hits (1999)
Archive #1 (1999)
Archive #2 (2000)

The Genesis Songbook (2001) (DVD/VID)
Live At Wembley Stadium (2003) (DVD)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin UK

Added: February 11th 2003
Reviewer: Davide Guidone
Score:
Artist website: www.genesis-path.com
Hits: 4853
Language: english