FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

Having read most of the comments left before about this debut album, I can see there is much disagreement as to the quality (or lack thereof) of the production and musicianship. Some call FGTR forgettable, some like it just fine and some are in between. I had discovered Genesis back in 1973, when they appeared on The Midnight Special. This was right smack in the middle of the classic Gabriel era, their heyday as a prog-rock band, and I was blown away by their style and Gabriel's histrionics. It was two years before I could find copies of Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot in a head shop, cutouts selling for $1.88 each. I was totally in love with the sort of gothic-victorian-dark comedy sense of these albums, and I played them over and over until I knew most all of the lyrics to each song. One day I happened to come across a copy of FGTR, intrigued by the black cover with the Old English titling... The date coinfirmed for me that this was the earliest recording of the band Genesis that I had found so far. I was surprised at the naivete and popishness of the songs (but one must bear in mind that I knew VERY little about the actual history of the band at this point and therefore unaware of the circumstances of the production of this debut), but drawn in to it anyways. I did notice the similarities to the Bee Gees sound of that time, so I assumed they were under the Aussie brothers' influence during that period.

For people who actually remember the 60s, FGTR could be enjoyed as a pop-influenced concept album, somewhat reminiscient of musically ambitious attempts by such people as Zager & Evans, Amboy Dukes, The Nice, Dick Hyman (of 'The Electric Eclectics of...' fame, the first Moog dominated album) and countless others... These were schoolboys with the desire to break into the music business and a former fellow classmate on the inside. Peter slipped Jonathon King a demo tape and hounded him for a shot, which he finally gave them. King asked them to write a concept album based on the Bible, and make it Bee Gees-like. His thought was to cash in on the current popularity of the boys from Australia by grooming a group of unknowns to emulate their musical style but with original compositions. After Tony, Peter, John and Anthony finished their recording sessions, King went back and added the strings and brass, obstensibly to flesh out the flattish sound. Most Genesis fans resoundly bash that decision because of their view that it ruins the band's production. I see it somewhat differently. Considering the production seemed to lack fullness, King's decision was understandable, if not forgivable. Strings and brass backgrounds were typical of the period, and so not unusual for such a recording. I don't mind it so much as others, althoug I wouldn't mind hearing the songs without the strings and brass just out curiosity.

Yes, the Genesis sound we all know and love seems to be missing in this album, and yes the production values were abyssmal by comparison to later albums, but as a music lover who remembers the British Invasion of the mid-60s, with the influences of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Bee Gees (yessssss the Bee Gees) and many other bands, I find that this album was an ambitious, hopeful, naive, sincere attempt at a then-still-novel idea of a concept album. Many of the songs have some good hooks, and the Gabriel voice gives it the uniqueness it needed to stand out from the crowd. I occasionally like to listen to it just to get that feeling I enjoyed back in '68, young and naive and just liking what I heard on the radio... It is worthy for the nostalgia value to us who remember that period of rock music history, and educational for the younger of us who wish to understand where the band Genesis came from. For a debut album by a group of schoolboys under the influence of an ambitious young record producer messing with their original compositions, I'd still say close to 3.5 stars!