Genesis' first album listenable, but not on a regular basis

This was Genesis' first album, recorded when they were teenagers at the Charterhouse School (the British equivalent of a prep school). They were more of a folk ensemble than rock group at that point, hardly able to do more with their guitars than strum. Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford were already on board, with Anthony Phillips on guitar and John Silver on drums. They sent demo tapes to producer Jonathan King, hoping to parlay a songwriting career, and found that King preferred to have the boys record their own songs. After which he slapped a bunch of orchestration on it, hoping for a success in the style of the Moody Blues' "Days of Future Passed". Instead, the album only sold 600 copies, though it has been re-released in a hundred different versions over the years and has probably sold in the hundreds of thousands by now. In addition to the original 13 songs, this version includes a couple of early singles with Chris Stewart on drums, and a couple of demos: "Image Blown Out", which is pretty good, and "She Is Beautiful", which was revised into "The Serpent".

Several songs are pleasant in a wildly naive way, but other than "In the Wilderness" (with its "Music/All I hear is music/Guaranteed to please" chorus) and "One Day", nothing here is good enough to deserve frequent listening. The songs are short and poppy, unlike anything else they would do during the Gabriel Era. Much of it is vaguely reminiscent of what the Moodys were doing at the time. The lyrics are like the poetry you wrote when you were 16 and can't stand to look at now. On the single, "Silent Sun", they purposely tried to sound like the Bee Gees because they knew King liked the Bee Gees. This is a two and a half-star album; I'm rounding down.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

In the Beginning is right...

Well they look like kids on the cover of the cassette of this I own. The music sounded at different times like Syd Barrett-Floyd, Davey Jones (Bowies first act), Simon and Garfunkel and the Association. The writing is rudimentary, most tunes have no drums, just acoustic guitars being strummed and some poorly-recorded upright piano with strings and horns sprinkled here and there. One thing is obvious though, Peter Gabriel can sing. Though he likely had not realized even a small percent of his ability, he is the main feature of this collection. The lyrics are typical teen-philosophy, unlike the mythical story-teller he later became. Banks also gives a few moments on mainly a bad-sounding piano. I listened for clues to their later writing and found a few tunes had contrasting sections that made them interesting. The song "Window" has definite similarities to parts of Trespass, and notably features backup vocals very much the same as "Dusk" and "Visions of Angels" (sung by Banks and Rutherford). The version I have is mixed so that the tunes all run together, which creates a pleasant effect. The production values are low, and if you've been listening to Genesis since the early 70's like me and haven't heard this, then it's time you did. Otherwise I don't think you will get much out of it. Again, the main feature is Gabriel's teenage voice sounding very recognizeable, and is the main delight in listening to these otherwise rudimentary recordings. The other feature is being totally amazed at the difference between this material and what became their first real album, the great album Trespass.

The album that started it all

Originally released on Decca in Spring 1969. Went nowhere. Decca dropped them (they wouldn't even sign the Beatles!). This album is reissued frequently because producer and fellow Charterhouse old boy Jonathan King owns the rights to it and he can reissue it as much as he wants.