Nursery Cryme is the third studio album by Genesis and was recorded and released in 1971. It is also the first album to feature the lineup of Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Steve Hackett; the latter two replacing John Mayhew and Anthony Phillips, on drums and guitar respectively, in 1970. This lineup would remain consistent until Gabriel's departure in 1975.
Though not as polished in production terms as the albums that followed (most of the songs were only recorded on 8-track), Nursery Cryme was still a large progression from the group's second album Trespass. Although the folky feel was still retained on songs such as "Harlequin" and "For Absent Friends", other tracks displayed a more aggressive and strident sound. Hackett's lead guitar playing contributed a lot to this, with strong solos contained within "The Musical Box", "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" and "The Fountain Of Salmacis".
Banks also contributed towards the more aggressive sound in various ways: for some time before Hackett's recruitment, Genesis had performed live as a four-piece, with Banks substituting for guitar by playing lead solos on his Hohner "Pianet" electric piano, played through a fuzz box. This technique can be heard on "The Musical Box" and the intro to "The Return of the Giant Hogweed". In addition, the band purchased their own Mellotron Mark II (from King Crimson). Banks employed the Mk II "three violins" sound to great effect in "The Fountain Of Salmacis" and "Seven Stones", whilst the climax of "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" used fuzzed Mk. II "combined brass".
A further element in the band's growing sound was Rutherford's use of the stand-alone electronic bass pedal unit Dewtron "Mister Bassman". Even a song such as "Harold the Barrel", which used none of this new instrumentation, was possessed of a sprightly energy quite unlike anything on Trespass.
"The Musical Box" is a story with Victorian overtones and was indeed presented as a Victorian fairy story. The song is a ten minute epic touching on themes of death, reincarnation and lust; set in Victorian England, the story told of two small children in a country house. The young girl, Cynthia, killed the young boy, Henry, by removing his head with a croquet mallet. The lyrics of the song itself start at the moment when Cynthia discovers Henry's musical box, which played the nursery rhyme "Old King Cole" when she opens it. As this happens, Henry's soul returns in a restored body. However, Henry starts aging very quickly but retaining a child's mind and vision. The life that he will never have, and its desires, start to pass before his eyes. As Henry was attempting to have Cynthia pursue his romantic desire, his nurse heard the noise and went to the nursery to see what was going on. Acting on instinct, she threw the musical box at the now elderly looking child, destroying them both. (This story can be found in the inside booklet of the Nursery Cryme album.) The album cover is also a depiction of this song and story: Cynthia, holds a croquet mallet- there is a hoop visible close by- but instead of croquet balls, there are a few heads lying on the ground.
The climax to the song concerns itself with Henry's feelings towards Cynthia, representing his lustful view of her, shown by the words 'She's a lady, she is mine!' and in the finale when Gabriel sings, 'Why don't you touch me? Touch me, NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW!'. In live performances, Peter Gabriel would wear an "old man" mask for the final verse and unzip the chest part of his black jumpsuit. Creepy lighting would be used each time he shouted "NOW!" At the end of the song, Henry, the old man, would die.
This song includes uncredited writing contributions from former member Anthony Phillips, having been based on a 1969 demo by him and Rutherford called "F Sharp". It is also said to include some guitar parts written by transitional member Mick Barnard.
This became one of Genesis's more famous songs, acquiring status as of one of the band's signature tunes from their progressive rock-era and was featured in their live repertoire right up to Phil Collins' departure after the We Can't Dance tour in 1992, albeit only the closing section being part of a medley. It was also released on 1973's Genesis Live.
"For Absent Friends" is a short and understated folk-based song about two widows going to church and praying for their deceased loved ones. It is also the first song by the band to feature drummer Phil Collins as the lead vocalist.
Guitarist Steve Hackett recorded a waltz version of this song for his Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited album, with vocals by Colin Blunstone.
Peter Gabriel's lyrics to "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" tell an apocalyptic story about a "regal hogweed" being brought from Russia by a Victorian explorer to the Royal Gardens at Kew. Later, after being planted by country gentlemen in their gardens, the hogweeds take on a life of their own and spread their seed throughout England, preparing for an onslaught. The citizens attempt to assault the hogweeds with herbicide, but the plants are immune. After a brief instrumental (subtitled "The Dance of the Giant Hogweed"), the song ends in a crashing climax where the hogweed reigns victorious over the human race.
The inspiration for the subject of the song is a large, phototoxic weed, Heracleum mantegazzianum which poses a hazard in the United Kingdom and other countries.
The song was a staple of Genesis' live performances and appears on the Genesis Live album.
"The Fountain of Salmacis" tells the story of the nymph Salmacis who in Greek mythology attempted to rape Hermaphroditus. In the story Salmacis and Hermaphroditus become joined as one, which is mirrored in the lyrics where Peter Gabriel sings:
"We shall be one,
We shall be joined as one."
The album version features much lead guitar work from Steve Hackett, and is remarkable for the epic sound of mellotron, in the beginning and the end. A live version is included on Three Sides Live.
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
Genesis formed in 1967 in Godalming, Surrey, United Kingdom was one of the most popular progressive rock bands in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. During the 1970s, Peter Gabriel was the lead singer until his departure, when drummer Phil Collins stepped up to the mic and replaced him.
Starting as an amalgam of two bands formed by schoolboys attending Charterhouse School in Godalming, England, the original lineup consisted of Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Chris Stewart, though Stewart was soon replaced as drummer by John Silver and then John Mayhew. By the end of 1970, Phillips and Mayhew had left the band, with Collins joining as drummer, and by early 1971, guitarist Steve Hackett had filled the gap left by Phillips. The lineup of Gabriel, Banks, Hackett, Rutherford, and Collins remained in place until Gabriel's departure in 1975.
During the period of 1970-1975, the band produced some of the most widely-acclaimed albums of the progressive rock era, including "Nursery Cryme", "Foxtrot" (featuring the side-long epic "Supper's Ready") and the seminal album "Selling England By The Pound", which generated Genesis' first foray into the charts with "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)". This lineup culminated with the band's magnum opus "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" in 1974. Following the tour promoting the album, frontman Peter Gabriel left the group in mid 1975.
Genesis decided to continue on as a four-piece, producing two albums, "A Trick Of The Tail" and "Wind & Wuthering", which found the band proving to themselves and to the world that they could move on after Gabriel's departure. Collins stepped up to fill the role of lead vocalist after countless auditions for a new singer proved fruitless by the completion of recording for "A Trick of the Tail". Hackett quietly departed after the "Wind & Wuthering" tour in 1977, feeling that his creative input for the band was being repressed.
In 1978, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford contributed music to a British movie called "The Shout" based on a short story by Robert Graves, directed by Jerzy Skomilowski and produced by Jeremy Thomas. (More credits and info here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078259/combined)
Genesis then became a trio which began to move away from the dying embers of progressive rock. They established themselves as a more commercially-friendly outfit with the release of their 1978 album "...And Then There Were Three...", finding their first US hit with the single "Follow You Follow Me".
Banks, Rutherford, and Collins became more adept at writing radio-friendly songs in the 1980s. This reached a peak with the release of 1986's "Invisible Touch", in which more than half of the album's eight songs made it to the singles chart, including the title track, "Land Of Confusion" and "In Too Deep". All three band members produced solo albums during Genesis' downtime in the 80s and 90s - most notably Collins' increasingly successful solo work, and Rutherford's sideline group "Mike And The Mechanics" which found moderate success - with evolving styles reflected both solo and when recording together as Genesis.
Collins left the group in 1996, and was replaced vocally by Ray Wilson, the former lead singer of Scottish band "Stiltskin". Israeli born drummer Nir Zidkyahu and "Spock's Beard" drummer Nick D'Virgilio stepped in to fill the drumming role. Their 1997 album "Calling All Stations" was unable to find worldwide success, and despite scoring a minor U.K. hit with "Congo", the group slowly faded out of public consciousness. In 1998, after the "Calling All Stations" tour (the US leg of which was cut short due to poor album sales), Wilson was released from the band, and Zidkyahu and D'Virgilio, having never been "official" band members, went their separate ways. The band, now down to only Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, took a break from performing and recording.
In 1999 Banks, Rutherford, Collins, Gabriel, and Hackett collaborated to re-record "The Carpet Crawlers" for greatest hits compilation "Turn It on Again: The Hits".
During the latter part of 2005, rumors spread that the band would reform again in its most famous five-man configuration. Genesis management stated that there were no current plans at that time, and that nothing would change in the following twelve months. Phil Collins then said in a radio interview in April 2006 that the classic Genesis line-up was considering a new live-staging of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", but it was not to be. On 7th November 2006, Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford announced they would be doing a twenty-date tour of Europe in the summer of 2007, with a North American tour to follow.
A Live DVD of the final European concert in Rome, where the band performed free for 500,000 fans, was released May 26th 2008: "When In Rome - Live 2007".
In April of 2011, Phil Collins, after completing a reunion tour with Genesis, said in a newspaper interview that he has no plans to tour or make another album, effectively retiring after over 40 years in the music business.
Official website: www.genesis-music.com
Similarly named bands:
In 1967-8, there was an American band that was also named Genesis. It was a psychedelic rock group based in Los Angeles which released one album In the Beginning in 1968. The name conflict was known to the record label of UK Genesis, which is why their debut album From Genesis to Revelation coyly omitted the band's name except in the album title. While both bands suffered poor sales for their debuts, the US band broke up in late 1968 not long after one of their members was drafted into the army. This more or less ended any significant confusion except in situations like Last.fm or lazy Googling.
A Colombian group called Génesis also exists. If you are scrobbling songs by that group and have ended up on this page, please fix your tags to Génesis with the first "e" accented.
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
| Our friends: | Hotmixmedias | Koid9 | ProgArchives | Todae |
| Try: | Google Chrome | iTunes | Winamp |
| We make in social: | Facebook | Twitter | LastFM | Myspace |
