Does anyone know what the very first recorded song is by the band? I'm not sure where I got this info but I have in my spreadsheets that the song "Patricia" is the very first recording by Genesis. My notes say it was an Easter 1967 demo. Maybe they recorded it during Easter break? I think I got that info from the first Genesis archive boxset. Anyone know more about this song? and if it's the first (that we know of)?
Very first song/recoding by Genesis?
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Patricia was part of a six song demo recorded at school friend Brian Roberts' home studio in Chiswick, London, that also included That's Me, Try a Little Sadness, Listen on Five, Don't Want You Back (aka Don't Wash Your Back) and She's Beautiful. Patricia was later re-worked as In Hiding while She's Beautiful morphed into The Serpent. This was the infamous tape that they got their friend John Alexander to leave in Jonathan King's car when he was visiting Charterhouse as they were too nervous to hand it to him in person. I would be very surprised if anyone could actually remember which of these was recorded first though.
Strictly speaking it wasn't really a Genesis session though, the band didn't exist at that point, they were just four songwriters trying to get someone interested in covering their songs. It was organised by Ant as a way of he and Mike getting some of their material down on tape. Ant asked Tony to come along and play some organ on it and he brought Peter with him and they talked Ant and Mike into recording one of their songs (She's Beautiful) with Peter singing - Ant was originally down to do all the singing. In the end it was agreed Peter had the better voice and he ended up doing all the vocals.
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It is interesting that "Try a little sadness" was even sung as a duet of Peter and Ant.
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That was great info Serpent. I love those old songs, I’m sure there aren’t many Genesis that don like them.
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Kind of following on from this, is there a good source of information on everything recorded as Genesis, including known unreleased stuff and publicly available bootlegs of other material that never got released on an album or b-side etc?
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Kind of following on from this, is there a good source of information on everything recorded as Genesis, including known unreleased stuff and publicly available bootlegs of other material that never got released on an album or b-side etc?
I would love to know that as well - great question
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I would love to know that as well - great question
Thanks. It's an intriguing one isn't it. Elsewhere here I said I yearned for a Genesis book that takes the same approach as Revolution In The Head does for The Beatles. If it doesn't exist, I'm thinking of writing it. I'd need to co-write it with someone, ie a musician and fan of Genesis, who has the depth of technical music knowledge necessary for the same level of analysis as McDonald brought to the Fabs. Just putting it out there!
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I agree.
There is so much information out there about those early days. I loved the feature about their first concert at Mrs. Balmes dance in Chobham. Amazing reading and a copy of the setlist too. All the Genesis books I have are poor with information on the pre Charisma days.
