Rank your favourite Genesis members outside of Genesis.

  • During the Sum Of The Parts thread people were starting to list their favourite Genesis members. I thought it would be good to find out what your favourite individual Genesis members music is, outside of Genesis. Not saying solo works because some of them have been group efforts.

    Not strictly Genesis music I know but can't see where else to put it.


    My list is

    1.PG

    2.SH

    3.RW

    4.PC

    5.MR

    6.AP

    7.TB.

    I like all of them. Smallcreeps Day is one of my favourite albums but the rest of Mike's stuff along with Tony's for me is nice but never special. Don't know that much stuff of AP but what I have has nice tones. I was a fan of Stiltskin before Ray joined Genesis and really like his solo stuff. He ranks highly amongst mine and Mrs farmers joint faves. I wouldn't call myself a big fan of Phil's output but there is no question he has created some great songs. I see him as a songs artist rather than albums artist. Favourite song AAO. I am a big fan of both PG and SH. I don't think there is anything PG has done that I don't like and to me there is not much of his stuff that is not special.

  • My top 3:


    Steve - One of the best-represented artists in my whole collection. There's not much solo material by him (other than live albums) that I don't have.


    Ant - I have the majority of his output, but there are also several of his albums that I either passed on after one listen or never bought to begin with.


    Tony - I have all of his rock material, but never got into his classical stuff.


    The rest are a little harder to rank.


    Of these, I have the most material by Phil, but overall I'm not a huge fan of his solo stuff.


    I have all of Mike's proper solo stuff (what little there is), and am a big fan of SMALLCREEP'S DAY. But the Mechanics stuff, past the 1st album, has never caught my interest.


    I've never been a fan of solo stuff by either Peter or Ray, although I have one album by each, plus a handful of individual tracks (1 by Ray, the rest by Peter).

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


    ...crows simply drank at home.

  • A tough one..as i think they have all had a mixed bag with some high spots and varied quality

    Probably the most 3 albums i listen to are Spectral mornings...face value ..and Curious feeling

    Seen SH on various occasions from early 80's...but not really bothered with others live shows

  • PG leagues ahead, that much is easy.


    After that, a mixed bag. Probably AP next for the varied nature of his work. PC some good stuff, SH for Spectral and Defector, TB the Fugitive and the odd track here and there, MR neutral to uninterested, don't know RW's stuff.

    Abandon all reason

  • Equal top 5.

    Hackett esp Please don't touch CD through to the more recent stuff. Seen him many times.

    Gabriel esp CD number 3.

    Rutherford esp Smallcreeps.

    Banks especially Island in the darkness and the very camp Queen of Darkness.

    Phillips: The Geese and the Ghost.

    Don't really know Ray but I love his voice.

  • 1. Gabriel

    2. Hackett

    3. Phillips


    Pete, Steve and Ant are by far my favourites. I find most of what they've released highly enjoyable.


    4. Banks

    I love Tony's debut album. And I generally like the rock albums that followed though a couple of them I would concede to being uneven. His classical music doesn't appeal to me.


    5. Collins

    I generally like Phil's first four albums though I think he's the only one who never produced an album that I could enjoy in its entirety. And by the time we got to the fifth album, I felt the tide had turned and the cons began outweighing the pros.


    6. Rutherford

    I love Mike's debut album but I am just not a fan of anything he has done since.

  • 1. Phil. I've been a fan of his too long to honestly say anyone else.

    2. Peter. The most challenging music & for the most part the most varied.


    And then the fact is I didn't start getting into the music of the others until about five years ago when I became a massive fan, so...


    3.Steve (although the reality is I only have a couple of albums, including an archive concert of a show in Newcastle which hubby attended). The first three I've also seen live.

    4. Tony. I love A Chord Too Far & the classical work.

    5. Ray. Have been listening to the Upon My Life compilation, and I love it.

    6. Mike. While I like the Mechanics a lot of it is too bland.

    7. Anthony. I don't know it well enough, though I like Wise After The Event.

  • Steve: Far bigger fan of Steve than Genesis, TBH, though the last 3 albums (post GR2) have been massive disappointments, but got everything studio album wise, and only stopped the live albums at Live in Liverpool.


    All the others about equal. Gave up on TB after Soundtracks, which is good, and ACF is excellent bar the instrumentals, Gave up on MR after AVS, but I like it and think Smallcreeps day is the best solo effort not by Steve. Gave up on PC after Hello, it and FV are ok, but not regular listens. Gave up on PG after 4, like the first 2, 3 is a curate's egg, and 4 has 2 great songs, dislike the rest. Never got into AP, the first album wasn't very appealing, to me.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • 1.PG

    2.PG

    3.PG

    A bit of an overkill, I realise that but as far as I'm concerned none of the others gets nowhere near in terms of consistency and a blend of artistic recognition, commercial success and innovation.

    Once that is settled, I must say that, apart from Phil but that's a kind of consistence I really don't like, all the others lacked imo some sort of evenness in their solo output.

    Tony is one if my favourite songwriters but his solo career to me sounded too much like Genesis, only without Phil or Peter and the others. Not really a versatile musician and as such he stuck to his guns, without the input from the others, his music sounded like a Genesis byproduct but not as good.

    Mike, like Tony has a wonderful debut album and Beggar is imo quite strong but again, I find the rest uneven. Ant, again a fantastic debut, some good songs and pieces here and there but for my money, also a lot of forgettable noodling.

    Steve, love to this day Spectral Morning, paradoxically I have more albums of his than any other members' which goes to show how much I wanted to like him and how prolific he is . One of my favourite guitarists, I love his sound but not much of a songwriter imo, more a texture and colouring kind of artist, not much ''meat'' to his music or to be more precise, to his songs .

    Phil, well, again stunning debut then he lost me progressively, no pun intended. I have a problem with mid/late 80' music and he came to embody that not sure to this day whether he was a victim or a perpetrator, perhaps a chicken-egg argument but I often wondered what his career would have been like, had he gone sólo in the 70s, instead of a decade later. Be as it may, imo, together with Peter the most consistent but of course you have to like what he does and I truly don't, apart from the odd song.

    Edited 2 times, last by Fabrizio ().

  • I'd have to say PG. Up is one of my favorite albums ever. I really love it. I also listened to 3, 4 and so a ton many years ago. There are some really terrific songs like intruder, wallflower and red rain in there.


    Second favorite is PC. Along the lines of other folks here I like the first two albums, hello! in particular, I love stuff like I don't care anymore and thru these walls. I'm less a fan of his commercial songs, but there are some interesting songs on his biggest albums, like long long way to go and doesn't anybody stay together on no jacket.


    After that MR and TB tied. Smallcreep's day and the first mechanics album are way stronger than anything banks put out, but after that there's mega blandness in Rutherford's canon. TBs albums are fairly weak in terms of the singing and production, and there's some terrible songwriting in there too but there are enough glimpses of his strengths here and there to make them curiosities worthy of a hardcore fans attention. I like quite a lot of the fugitive but am aware that if I played it to an acquaintance they would probably look at me funny and say something along the lines of 'this is terrible'!


    Haven't been able to get into Hackett at all, though I have tried and been surprised at my failure. There's something inaccessible about his work even though trick and w&w are among my top genesis albums.


    I haven't listened to any Anthony Philips. I'm looking forward to trying some given the generally high regard his work is held in here.


    And I like pretty much any Ray Wilson stuff I've heard because I like his voice. That said I haven't listened to all of his material, or even the majority.

  • Like several others, PG is number one for me. I have enjoyed all his main releases and the Passion soundtrack. 3 through So rank with my favourite albums period.


    Next is PC, primarily the first 3. After that, my interest wanes as I found his work increasingly bland (although the big band stuff was cool).


    The remainder I have listened to various solo albums and even seen SH live. I have liked some of what I have heard, but not enough to commit to purchasing albums. The ones that I liked most were SH's first 3, TB's ACF, and MR's SD.

  • SH - met him twice, lovely bloke, first four albums brilliant then uneven, now a little samey but superb live and VOTA the great lost Genesis album

    AP - first album superb- maybe the second great lost Genesis album. Lots of lovely stuff and good variety after that

    PG - first four and So excellent and the rest a mixed bag becoming too intense and a bit dull

    TB another superb first album and some good classical stuff. Still is a good pop album. Rest uneven and sometimes very poor

    PC yet another brilliant opener and some classic hits after that, too bland for me much of the time

    MR again brilliant first album very poor second and M&M too bland for me

    RW great voice - didn’t like CAS and haven’t listened to other stuff yet


    The first albums by all of the above (don’t know about Ray) make a superb little collection in my opinion.

  • Everyone loving Smallcreep. I don't think I've heard it since about 1980, if indeed at all. I'll seek it out and give it a bash.


    I struggled with A Curious Feeling. Again, one I haven't revisited for decades. I recall it as a distillation of every airy swirly wispy thing I disliked about 76-78 Genesis.

    Abandon all reason

  • 1. Steve Hackett - have always loved his varied solo career. I like his rock based albums but particularly love his 'guitar composition albums'. Wish I could see him again on one of these acoustic/classical only tours.


    2. Anthony Phillips - such a talented guy that does not get the plaudits he deserves (apart from on this forum). Could listen to his guitar playing for hours - and often do.


    This is where it gets more difficult....


    3. Peter Gabriel - first four albums are my favourites although I do like every one of them.


    4. Ray Wilson - I was a fan of Ray before he joined Genesis. Was with a band called Stiltskin and often played in Edinburgh where I live. His solo albums are excellent, best for me being Changes. He puts on a great live show.


    5. Tony Banks - I really enjoy his rock albums although he did not not have much success. As you will notice from my top 2 I like instrumentation so for me his classical albums are brilliant.


    6. Phil Collins - bit like with Peter I prefer Phil's first few albums. Even though I like all his albums I get a little bored part the way through them.


    7. Mike Rutherford - this is a strange one for me because I find his albums with the Mechanics a little 'samey' yet I have lost count how many times I have seen them live and the shows are superb and the songs come to life in a live setting. Would like to hear him do another solo album.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake”

    Edited once, last by genesis1964 ().

  • Everyone loving Smallcreep. I don't think I've heard it since about 1980, if indeed at all. I'll seek it out and give it a bash.


    I struggled with A Curious Feeling. Again, one I haven't revisited for decades. I recall it as a distillation of every airy swirly wispy thing I disliked about 76-78 Genesis.

    Smallcreep is superb, side 1 in particular. I've said it before: the guitar playing is very good, yet Ant Philips is on keyboards, allegedly. ;)

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • Smallcreep is superb, side 1 in particular.

    Agreed, the album sort of peters out a bit, I'm not crazy about the last 2 songs for instance, still a very strong album and while I generally have a strong preference for Tony, I think Mike got the edge in their respective debut albums.

  • I've just been listening to Smallcreep.


    I remembered Working In Line and still quite like it, and the line 'without blood on my hands in my hair'. Apart from that the only other standout one is After Hours - I think? It follows Working and a brief keyoard interlude and has a textural similarity to Back in NYC (which I think is primarily Rutherford?). Anyway, that I liked, liked a fair bit actually. Everything else in the suite left me cold. I especially disliked the really naff keyboard interludes. I don't think you can come up with a handful of songs, sling some synth noodling between them and call it a 'suite'. Lyrically it's very disappointing apart from WIL. A shame he didn't have the conviction to include the rather unsettling conclusion of the novel, or convey its macabre and sometimes surreal and grotesque nature. Rutherford always comes across as a nice affable chap and it seems he took this dark novel and Rutherfordised it into something more safe and anodyne.


    The side 2 tracks emerged and then just dissipated like your breath on a cold day, not grabbing me at all and totally unmemorable. Overnight Job started sort of vaguely quite promisingly - but then collapsed back into sounding like everything else apart from the odd moment here and there (and is a very weak closer). The overall sound is very late 70s soft rock, except for the NYC-ish one, and a bit like a very diluted Genesis. I think the vocals overall are also quite a problem for me.


    At the moment I'm feeling like Acting Very Strange might edge it for me, not great though it is. Similar syndrome with Banks - 2nd album self-sung, not brilliant but at least giving a bit more character and a personal stamp.

    Abandon all reason