Genesis Forum Italia

...ho letto qualche tempo fa online una intervista abbastanza recente ai magnifici 3, durante la quale veniva posta loro questa domanda: qual'è il migliore e il peggiore album della storia dei GENESIS?

Alcune risposte sono piuttosto sorprendenti, almeno per me...

- Tony conferma la sua predilezione per l'amatissimo Duke.
- Mike glissa inizialmente, poi dice che il meglio è rappresentato dalla prima facciata del "yellow one", ovvero Genesis 1983.
- Phil ritiene che il top sia stato raggiunto da "The lamb", in quanto lo ritiene il lavoro più creativo e ricco musicalmente.

Sul peggiore le opinioni sono più concordi: "From genesis" per quanto riguarda i vecchi tempi, "And then there were three" fra i lavori più recenti, giudicato troppo frammentario...

...l'intervista è del 2001, ecco comunque i passaggi più interessanti


Tony Banks: I don't think we've ever been asked that one.

Mike Rutherford: It makes a change doesn't it.

Tony Banks: The one I find least satisfying? I tend to like everything. 'Genesis to Revelation', I don't tend to rate that very highly, it's got some good moments on it. If you want one from a later period then one that I find the least satisfying would have to be 'And Then There Were Three', although it's got two or three songs that I love on it. As an overall thing it doesn't quite get there.

Mike Rutherford: I agree with 'And Then There Were Three', barring a couple of tracks. It was the album on which we decided not to do any long songs in the same way as normal and it suffered because I think the contrast between the long songs and the short ones is a great contrast. But I haven't heard it for about 15 years.

Phil Collins: 'The Battle of Big', 'Down and Out'...

Tony Banks: They're are all right...

Phil Collins: They've all got bits in them... there's lots of little bits...

Mike Rutherford: (Hums snatch of a tune)

Webmaster: How do I transcribe that? (laughter)

Phil Collins: It's a moment in time, they felt right at the time. They just didn't feel right any other time (laughter).

Webmaster: On a more positive front then, what about the favourite albums that you did?

Tony Banks: This is a bit easier because we tend to get asked this question a lot and one answers a certain way and of course one has done for many years not having heard anything meanwhile. I always come back to 'Duke', which was the most up and positive album we did. Many times I've said 'Duchess' is amongst my favourite Genesis tracks which surprises some people because it is quite simple, but if you can get it right in a very simple and short space of time there's something special about that. But also it's got things like 'Behind the Lines', 'Turn It on Again' and 'Duke's Travels' which I also find seem to work for me.

Phil Collins: I think 'The Lamb' because 'The Lamb's' got a lot of music. You can't listen to it all in one go, well I can't but the fans do, but there's a lot of music that was improvised and I couldn't tell you what was going to happen next unless I listened to it three or four times. So in terms of listening to something and being surprised by it I think 'The Lamb' would be my favourite. It might be the way it was recorded, it was a little rougher audio-wise.

Mike Rutherford: I don't know really, I change everyday.

Tony Banks: But you'll give the same answer you always give, won't you?

Mike Rutherford: What do I normally say then?

Tony Banks: You normally say the first side of the 'Genesis' album.

Mike Rutherford: Oh yes, I'll say that then (laughter).

Tony Banks: I speak on behalf of Mr Rutherford

Mike Rutherford: The yellow one, 'Mama', 'Home by the Sea'. Yes, the first side of the 'Genesis' album I think is really good.

Tony Banks: Side two is better than you think...

Phil Collins: Someone sent me a six CD set, a drummer fan, and they send me the stuff they like that I've done and one of these tracks was 'Silver Rainbow'. Then you know when you play a song and you say "What's that bit? That's a really great bit". And this song kept on coming by me. I'd never even thought of it since we did it, but it sounded really, really great.

Tony Banks: 'Silver Rainbow' was a lot of people's favourite track after 'Mama'. I've always rated the song and the other one that is quite good on side two is 'Just a Job to Do', that's a pretty good song when you hear it now.

Mike Rutherford: We should tell you that we haven't heard a lot of this stuff for many years.

Tony Banks: Phil phoned me up and said, "its ('Silver Rainbow') got to be on the Archive album" and I said, "it can't, its already been on an album, but what a great song". Another one that was on the Archive album was 'Naminanu' which is one of those forgotten tracks but I think is really good too.