Genesis — A Trick of the Tail
I’ve completed the Genesis Mark 1.5 three album catalogue* with a purchase of Trick of the Tail. I have to say on only the first or second listening I can tell this is going to be pushing for my favourite Genesis album of all (currently The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway). It’s got it all and frankly I’m amazed to be hearing me say that after I first pondered the merits (or otherwise) of post Gabriel Genesis back in log #67. I was clearly making unfounded assumptions without researching the facts. Sorry readers.
The mix is tremendous (I don’t know if this is the result of the remaster — this is the 1994 edition) — clear, sharp and powerful. The bass is really deep, the guitar thick, and Collin’s vocals are a revelation. Apparently it was his rendition of Squonk that convinced the rest of the band he could step out from behind the drum kit and into Gabriel’s mighty shoes. I wonder what Gabriel must have made of this record when he first heard it. Do you think he was delighted for them, or was there a feeling of regret?
The whole concept of The Lamb was darker, longer, and it was a real uphill battle to finish. That’s why A Trick of the Tail was easier to make. It was lighter, Phil was singing, and we had a whole new scenario with a breath of fresh air.
Tony Banks
Unlike some of the earlier albums there are no instrumental fillers where a member of this group of egos are granted a solo piece which ill fits the whole concept. For example Hackett’s poor Bach imitation Horizons from Foxtrot, {Ed. Can you say that a bit quieter?} This is perhaps unfair on Hackett, probably the most modest member of the band. As the late joining guitarist it seems that his playing was generally so side-lined by the overwhelming keyboards of the dominant Tony Banks that he was merely and reluctantly granted the odd instrumental instead.
I was getting tired of bringing ideas into the group, which I felt they weren’t going to do.
Steve Hackett
Furthermore Banks has been at pains to recall that it was himself who wrote and played the guitar introduction to Supper’s Ready suggesting further that Hackett’s input was not that crucial. That series of Genesis album reissue interviews on youtube is so revealing. Fans would disagree and many argue the Genesis sound suffered more after the departure of Hackett than it did even with Gabriel.
This sort of behaviour represented the worse excesses of prog rock when it became more important to demonstrate the technical skill of each musician rather than create great music itself. It’s almost as if the musicians have to demonstrate that although they are playing rock and pop music they are very serious musicians and were actually originally classically trained. The trouble is the real classical musicians see (or hear) through this.
Yes were also most guilty of this where many of their albums have a solo Steve Howe or Rick Wakeman piece shoehorned in amongst the prog epics.
More kudos to Robert Fripp (a guitarist to whom Hackett is sometimes compared) — a classical guitarist originally who said that hearing one chord of Jimi Hendrix meant more to him than the entire classical repertoire. He also says Wimborne in Dorset is the centre of the universe.
Anyway, pleasingly it’s not such an issue on A Trick of the Tail where a balance and equilibrium between the individual musicians and the overall music is achieved throughout the album.
*Trick of the Tail (1976), Wind and Wuthering (1976), …And Then There Were Three (1977)
