Who wrote what

  • He must have been joking. I recall reading that the lyrics to I&O are by Mike, and that there wasn't a Genesis song where Phil wrote all the lyrics until ATTWT.

    I don't ever remember reading that Mike wrote the lyrics to Inside And Out. Steve has recently confirmed it was Phil who wrote the lyrics to that song. Phil also wrote the lyrics to Match Of The Day which is on the same EP. Pigeons is by Mike.

  • There is also an interview out there where Hackett indicates that he used a piece that his brother John had written for a section of "Get 'Em Out by Friday" - sorry I can't find it now, but I think it was the "after all this time they ask us to leave" bit. Other than that, I want to say that the waltz that takes up most of the second half sounds like Banks chords, and Gabriel must have written the lyrics at the very least. Whether Rutherford and Collins contributed anything, though, I couldn't say.

    Get Em Out By Friday has been cited in several books as being rescued from "the bin" thanks to Phil's contributions to the arrangement. Lyrically, it's Peter's lyric, inspired by some problems he was experiencing at the time with his landlord.

  • Never A Time - Mike Rutherford

    Dreaming While You Sleep - Mike Rutherford

    Feeding The Fire - Tony Banks

    On The Shoreline - Tony Banks

    Feeding The Fire - Tony Banks

    Living Forever - Tony Banks

    Anything She Does - Tony Banks

    Just A Job To Do - Mike Rutherford

    Illegal Alien - Mike Rutherford

  • I don't ever remember reading that Mike wrote the lyrics to Inside And Out. Steve has recently confirmed it was Phil who wrote the lyrics to that song. Phil also wrote the lyrics to Match Of The Day which is on the same EP. Pigeons is by Mike.

    Indeed, as SH was mentioning I&O, it didn't come across as his cracking a joke.


    Re Pigeons, do you mean lyrics? I recall TB saying about that track that he wanted to see if he could "write a song with only one note in".

    Abandon all reason

  • Speaking of PC's lyrics, at a Hackett gig last year, introducing Inside & Out SH said Collins wrote the lyrics, "before he started writing songs about ex-wives".

    He said the same thing at the show I saw too. FWIW, looking at the lyrics, they strike me as Phil-composed.

    Stepping out the back way, hoping nobody sees...

  • I don't ever remember reading that Mike wrote the lyrics to Inside And Out. Steve has recently confirmed it was Phil who wrote the lyrics to that song. Phil also wrote the lyrics to Match Of The Day which is on the same EP.

    So whatever happened to "Scenes From A Night's Dream" being the first song Phil wrote all the lyrics to? I thought that was confirmed somewhere, anyway.

    Little known fact: Before the crowbar was invented...


    ...crows simply drank at home.

  • So whatever happened to "Scenes From A Night's Dream" being the first song Phil wrote all the lyrics to? I thought that was confirmed somewhere, anyway.

    Dunno. It was confirmed some time ago (around the time of the second Archive set being released) that Phil wrote the lyrics to Match Of The Day. He vetoed its re-release because he was embarrassed by the lyrics he wrote for it. As for Inside And Out, Phil is listed on the credits and Steve has now confirmed Phil wrote the lyrics so that, presumably, is that.

  • "The Brazilian": I've read somewhere - possibly the Bowler and Dray biog - that it was started by Tony sampling Phil AND Mike playing together then all 3 jammed over the top of the loop.


    "Hold On My Heart": Definitely seen Tony quoted as saying he deliberately wrote this a Phil-type song. Not clear if he was referring to the music or the lyrics.

  • "The Brazilian": I've read somewhere - possibly the Bowler and Dray biog - that it was started by Tony sampling Phil AND Mike playing together then all 3 jammed over the top of the loop.


    "Hold On My Heart": Definitely seen Tony quoted as saying he deliberately wrote this a Phil-type song. Not clear if he was referring to the music or the lyrics.

    Yes, that's how The Brazilian came about. Hold On My Heart, though, was inspired by Burt Bacharach. Phil wrote the lyrics, Tony the music.

  • I'm not sure if that is the same forum on which someone claims that SEBTP is the first album to not having anything that was in some way contributed to by Phillips.


    Re Hackett's credit for Apocalypse, I think later in that thread someone says he wrote the flute-led bridge between Willow Farm and Apocalypse, which is apparently counted as the latter segment.

    Abandon all reason

  • Thanks for this bit of info - I totally agree about Viva La Vida being streets ahead of any other Coldplay album, and this is an interesting tidbit! I think there's much more musical ambition on that album - especially with the likes of "42" and "Death and All His Friends".


    Err anyway, sorry for posting about Coldplay in a Genesis thread!

    Yes Death and All His Friends in its mid-section sounds very like Hackett in fact. While the break in 42 is very Radioheady.

    Abandon all reason

  • Excuse me, this is one of these myths that shows very nicely what problems we're facing here: if I'm not mistaken, Tony said one singular time in his lifetime in some interview that "Mick Barnard laid out the guitar lines for The Musical Box". Given how vague this statement is and that neither Tony nor anybody else from the band ever mentioned anything close to this ever again I can't understand how this could become such a gospel-like factoid among fans. From all we can know for sure, Mick was only part of the live lineup for a couple months and the song was already worked out when they performed it; if you listen to Ant's "F#" track on his Archive Vol. 1 you can hear he had finished nearly the entire song, all that was missing were some elaborate chord changes in the first half, the vocal lines, the solos and the outro. For whatever Tony was trying to say when he uttered that statement, I doubt we will ever get behind it.

    This ‘Mick Barnard’ claim for the guitar lines sounds dubious to me. I wonder if TB was talking of the lead guitar solo. It’s the blistering centrepiece of the song and clearly absent from Ant’s acoustic instrumental ‘F sharp’ that TMB developed from and which was later released under the title ‘Manipulation’ on the box set remaster.

    So..lyrics: PG, music: AP et al

    Here’s a link to ‘F sharp’ where TMB’s origins are clearly heard.

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    And to ‘Manipulation’ where the TMB really begins to take form

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    ~ My talents may not be obvious but they are always...always...delicious! ~

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  • This is no back of an envelope stuff eh. Fascinating to see how a complex work like this develops over time. Would be interesting to hear the intermediate stages in One For the Vine, which Banks took a whole year to develop.

  • mike contributed a lot to many genesis hits and classics, even though he wasn't as bossy as tony.


    the cinema show: first half is mainly mike's (if i'm not mistaken)

    dance on a volcano: lyrics by mike

    ripples: mainly written by mike

    squonk: same as above

    follow you, follow me: guitar riff and lyrics by mike

    turn it on again: same as above

    behind the lines: lyrics by mike

    abacab: idem

    mama: drum machine by mike

    invisible touch: guitar riff by mike

    throwing it all away: lyrics and guitar riff by mike

    land of confusion: lyrics (and probably something else) by mike

    i can't dance: guitar riff by mike


    ...just to name a few.