Before Genesis had invisible touch, they were selling England by the pound. Between the years of 1973 when the Surrey based band really broke through with a misunderstood masterpiece in their fifth album (the aforementioned Selling England By The Pound) and 1991 when they were rendered into a bloated MTV parody, some of finest “art rock” of a generation was achieved at their fingertips.
Founded by future pop luminaries Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel, and maintained for a generation by Tony Banks and Michael Rutherford, Genesis saw a great schism in its history. When Gabriel split for solo success, it dawned the band’s second phase helmed by Phil Collins. Quickly, the lyrical concerns became more topical and contemporary, and the music, eventually more consumer friendly.
By 1978’s 11-track …And Then There Were Three…(an album’s whose title speaks definitively of a page turning) the band were well along the way to creating new memories. “Follow You Follow Me” might be Collins’ first really memorable songwriting (and a worldwide hit in its own right) a simple, mid-tempo rock love song appearing as the album’s final track. This appears to be the blue print for future solo and Genesis work. Immediately preceding it in the mix is “The Lady Lies” a track that lingers in the fantasy milieu, one of the band’s old staples. There are knights and demons in this exciting, fast paced track that was a live favorite during this performance vintage.
The album swirls between the two extremes illustrated in these two songs: easy love balladry and holdover, mythological revue. In the scope of the Genesis catalog …And Then There Were Three… isn’t the best, most representative album; the fence it sits on is just far too uncomfortable. There are glimmers of each “phase” however, and as a study of how a band changes leaders in midstream is fascinating.
The 2007 reissue has reissue interviews, videos (“Follow You Follow Me” and “Many Too Many”) and other extras that illuminate little of that transformation, one of the most interesting, extreme in the history of rock and pop music. |