Top 10 Genesis tracks

  • My next vote is Follow You, Follow Me because it's the Genesis song I've loved the longest. It was such a thrill to see Phil play drums on it in When In Rome - I thought for this of all songs he would have stayed down the front. I never tire of the line 'just one single tear in each passing year'. I am impressed by Gabble Ratchet's eloquent reviews but I can't even attempt to match them.

  • No. 5

    Supper's Ready


    Some of my favourite moments in Genesis are featured in this song. It's a 25-minute journey that I'm always happy to venture into. Taken as a whole, however, it does have its peaks and plateaus and for that very reason it is not my No. 1.

  • I was away for a week so I missed #6, so I'll do both.


    #6 - Ripples


    I guess enough has been said about this track in this thread already. When I was first getting into Genesis, through the Platinum Collection, the middle section really blew me away as something so different from anything I'd ever heard before and it was definitely my #1 track for a short while. The first part of the song, however, with its interweaving guitar and piano lines, is really what I appreciate most these days.


    #5 - Dancing with the Moonlit Knight


    Just an extraordinary song. The build-up from that evocative a capella intro right the way through to the massive chorus and the rocking instrumental section is one of my favourite things in the world. An exceptional piece of art.

    Was it you or was it me? Or was it he, or she?

  • #5 - Dancing with the Moonlit Knight


    Just an extraordinary song. The build-up from that evocative a capella intro right the way through to the massive chorus and the rocking instrumental section is one of my favourite things in the world. An exceptional piece of art.

    In addition to everything you highlighted, I also like the fact it was one of the few times they would allow for some improvisation when the song was performed live.

    I sort of wish Genesis did more of that in concert.

  • In addition to everything you highlighted, I also like the fact it was one of the few times they would allow for some improvisation when the song was performed live.

    Now that I would find interesting. Do you have a link you could share?

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

  • 5. Mama


    It’s a great album opener, and great live song when used with cool lighting. It’s simple, creative and has an awesome Phil vocal performance. Love this song!

    Totally! Mama is a runner and rider with me bouncíng around with a couple of others just outside the top ten. Some say Genesis were "descending into pop" about now but Mama is as original and imaginative a song as you could imagine ever hitting the charts. Collins claims he ripped the spooky laugh from Grandmaster Flash but he's doing himself a disservice - it's a different sound completely.

  • Totally! Mama is a runner and rider with me bouncíng around with a couple of others just outside the top ten. Some say Genesis were "descending into pop" about now but Mama is as original and imaginative a song as you could imagine ever hitting the charts. Collins claims he ripped the spooky laugh from Grandmaster Flash but he's doing himself a disservice - it's a different sound completely.

    Yeah, I agree with you. We are Philly boys together! The pop era with Phil Collins is the best one but Mama is number 1 Song not number 5.

  • Some say Genesis were "descending into pop" about now but Mama is as original and imaginative a song as you could imagine ever hitting the charts.

    Personally, I love Mama and the whole first side of Shapes. I don't regard it as Genesis descending into pop at all, besides pop isn't a bad word and there's any sort of pop. Mama to me was Genesis finding the perfect formula to remain true to themselves, while renovating and remaining relevant in a new decade. It was a sort of grown up, edgy pop. Had they kept this course, I would have been more then happy but they didn't, instead they descended into whatever you want to call the bland, soulless, diet-coke pop of Invisible Touch.

    Edited 2 times, last by Fabrizio ().

  • Totally! Mama is a runner and rider with me bouncíng around with a couple of others just outside the top ten. Some say Genesis were "descending into pop" about now but Mama is as original and imaginative a song as you could imagine ever hitting the charts. Collins claims he ripped the spooky laugh from Grandmaster Flash but he's doing himself a disservice - it's a different sound completely.

    Mama is a classic Genesis song. It came out just before I really got into the band, and I loved it on first hearing on the radio. I hadn't heard anything like it. The spooky intensity alongside that strange drum machine ryhthm make for a really unusual musical brew! I'm surprised and was very pleased that it made it to number 2 in the UK charts. Well deserved.


    As for the Grnadmaster Flash infleunce.... Genesis were always influenced by other artists from The Beatles to Led Zep. When inpspired by John Bonham, Collins still didn't sound like him. I was inspired to take up the drums by listening to Phil Collins and Neil Peart... I promise you, when I play In the Air Tonight, it don't sound much like Phil Collins :D My point being, just because he was influenced by GMF on Mama, doesn't mean the intention was for it to sound like GMF. The challenge to the band was making it 'sound like' Genesis, in a context relevent to the times. With Mama they achieved that.

  • Yeah, I agree with you. We are Philly boys together! The pop era with Phil Collins is the best one but Mama is number 1 Song not number 5.

    Now there’s a limit how far I’ll go down this road with you! My top ten and probably my top twenty is mainly composed of material from albums up to and including ATTW3. But Shapes has a great side one. And maybe I need to give WCD another airing because people keep mentioning tracks from it and when I hear them they sound good.

  • Personally, I love Mama and the whole first side of Shapes.


    they descended into whatever you want to call the bland, soulless, diet-coke pop of Invisible Touch.

    Completely agree on Shapes. Home by the Sea was my #9. Which of the band members said Side 1 of this album was the best thing they did - and Side 2 was the worst?


    I.T! Occasionally I feel I ought to spin it again, put it on, skip this one, skip that one, 5 mins later I’m done. And it’s their bestseller!

  • Completely agree on Shapes. Home by the Sea was my #9. Which of the band members said Side 1 of this album was the best thing they did - and Side 2 was the worst?


    I.T! Occasionally I feel I ought to spin it again, put it on, skip this one, skip that one, 5 mins later I’m done. And it’s their bestseller!

    I was listening to side 2 of 'shapes' last weekend for the first time in ages. On re-evaluation it's really not that bad. Just a job to do, Silver Rainbow and It's gonna get better are all a least listenable....Illegal Alien, however is an abomination, and a complete musical aberration! The worst thing they ever committed to tape!

  • So it's that time of the week again..


    At #4 I have The Cinema Show from Selling England by the Pound.


    I wonder who else we can compare Genesis too in their choice of complex or intellectual themes. Two albums previously they interpet the myth of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, now they are alluding to TS Eliot's "The Waste Land" and its use of the figure of Tiresias from the Odyssey. Tiresias, originally male, offended the goddess Hera to the extent that she forced him to become female for seven years ("I have crossed between the poles"). As such this seer is uniquely qualified to comment on relationships between men and women.


    Let's think of some lyrically equivalent candidates here. Leonard Cohen, Cat Stevens, David Bowie? Who else chooses such complex and difficult themes? What is staggering is the fact that these boys are, at the time of this release - boys. None of them have even gone to university, sacrificing the opportunity of proffered places at prestigious institutions in a desperate attempt to get their careers as musicians on the road. A year earlier they're exploring themes of repressed sexuality in the Musical Box, able to detach it from their own raging hormones, when most rockers of their age are limited to screaming "I want yer baby!".


    But if we just wanted the poetry we would turn to Eliot or Homer. We're interested in the musical expression of the themes, and particularly the mesmerising instrumental sections. It's no wonder this is a firm fans' favourite.

  • Number 4: Dukes Travels


    The beginning of the closing section of the excellent Duke album. A tense and exciting semim instrumental, and argubaly the band farewell to prog rock. Collin's percussion is incredible, as are Banks swirling keys and Rutherfords melodic lead guitar. The live version at the Lyceum in 1980 is also brilliant with the dual drums.

  • No. 4

    Cinema Show/Aisle of Plenty


    I’ve always regarded Aisle of Plenty as the coda to Cinema Show – a separate track on disc, but part of the same song as far as I’m concerned. For me, they just blend in perfectly and belong together.


    Among the things that elevate Genesis to my ears are the vocal harmonies featuring two of my favourite singers of all time. If I need an exquisite example of the beauty created by those two voices, this is the song that immediately pops to mind.

  • I can get on board here, my first 4 favorites are always the same ones. At #4 I have The Carpet Crawlers. Simple enough but not trite, palatable to different fans, very atmospheric and the chorus is simply beautiful. No wonder they chose this one when the 5 of them got together. I am not crazy about the new arrangement but I thought it was an obvious choice.

    Edited once, last by Fabrizio ().