Published on Jul 24, 1999
When I seriously got into the British prog-rock band Genesis,
like any other group I found myself pulled towards, I decided I had
to own every single record they had ever put out. But for the
longest time, one disc seemed to be just beyond my grasp — their
debut effort,
From Genesis To Revelation.
When I finally acquired it some years later, I listened to it,
and quickly decided that the search hadn’t been fruitful. Many
years later, I still feel that way about this record, no matter how
many times I listen to it.
(Before we go into the critical drubbing, one note: I’m working
off of the 1969 release on London Records; I am aware that a CD
version exists with more tracks than are on this record. So if you
wonder why I don’t mention a specific track, it might be that my
vinyl copy doesn’t have that track.)
The group — Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, Anthony
Phillips and John Silver — seemed to be plowing new ground in
1969. I’d be hard-pressed to call some of the songs on this record
as progressive, but then again, they’re neither folk nor rock.
Confused yet?
Now, I recognize that the age of band members should have no
bearing on how good or bad an album is. But it really seems like
such a tremendous musical undertaking is a lot to ask of musicians
who were barely out of their teens. Gabriel’s vocals don’t have the
bite that would make his later contributions sound much more
urgent. Sometimes, it doesn’t seem like the band knows when to use
Phillips’ guitar or Silver’s drums, making this sound like poorly
laid-out hippie elevator music.
I do believe that Genesis was trying hard to make a good album
with
From Genesis To Revelation; the evidence is there in the
song “One Day,” one of the few bright moments of this album. But on
tracks like “Where The Sour Turns To Sweet,” “The Serpent” and “In
The Beginning,” it all just seems to be a tangled mess that doesn’t
know which musical direction it wants to follow.
Oh, I can imagine that the diehard Genesis fans will be up in
arms over comments like that — hey, if you dig the album, that’s
fine. But if you’re someone who is curious about what lies beyond
the radio-friendly single, you might want to steer away from
From Genesis To Revelation until you’re really comfortable
with early Genesis. Either way, this is definitely not the album to
start exploring the group on, and it’s one that needs to be
purchased only by the true fans.