6.03: Album of the year 1976 - Trick of the Tail - Genesis
This is my favorite Genesis album and like most of the stuff I am posting, still gets lots of steady play at my house. Probably my wife's favorite album ever.
I am a big Gabriel fan and even though this is the first album without him, the style is much more like the Gabriel-led band than the rest of the Genesis albums to come.
A Trick of the Tail is the seventh
studio album from the English
progressive rock band
Genesis. It was released in February 1976 on
Charisma Records and was the first album to feature drummer
Phil Collins as lead vocalist following the departure of
Peter Gabriel. It was a critical and commercial success in the UK and U.S., reaching No. 3 and No. 31 respectively.
Following Gabriel's decision to leave the band, the remaining members wanted to carry on and show they could still write and record successful material. The group wrote and rehearsed new songs during mid-1975, and listened to around 400 audition tapes for a replacement frontman. They entered
Trident Studios in October with producer
David Hentschel to record the album without a definitive idea of who was going to perform lead vocals. Eventually, Collins was persuaded to sing "Squonk", and the performance was so strong, he sang lead on the rest of album.
Upon release, critics were impressed by the improved sound quality and the group's ability to survive the loss of Gabriel without sacrificing the quality of the music. The group went out on tour with Collins as frontman and
Bill Bruford as an additional drummer, and the resulting performances in the US raised Genesis' profile there. The album has been reissued on CD several times, including a deluxe package with bonus tracks in 2007.
Contents
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7Personnel
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8Certifications
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9References
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10External links
Background[SIZE=small][[/SIZE]
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Founding member and lead singer
Peter Gabriel decided to leave Genesis in late 1974, midway through
the tour for the album
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
[1] The other members hoped he would reconsider, as they were still in debt and felt his departure could destroy the band's future, but ultimately accepted that he would leave.
[2] The remaining members felt they still wanted to collaborate musically, and show journalists and critics they were primarily a song writing team that could still produce good music.
[3]Keyboardist
Tony Banks had been close to Gabriel personally, and did not want the band to split up on top of seeing less of one of his best friends.
[4] He had written a number of songs for a possible solo project before deciding they should be used on the new Genesis album.
[5]
Following the end of the tour, guitarist
Steve Hackett recorded a solo album,
Voyage of the Acolyte with guitarist/bassist
Mike Rutherford and drummer
Phil Collins, feeling unsure that Genesis would survive.
[6][3] He reconvened with the remaining group members in July 1975.
[7] Banks and Rutherford were particularly keen to write and record new material so that critics and fans would accept Gabriel's departure.
[4] The group began rehearsals in a basement studio in
Acton, and quickly wrote material they were happy with, but had not yet found a replacement lead singer. They placed an anonymous advertisement in the music paper
Melody Maker for "a singer for a Genesis-type group", which received around 400 replies. Some applicants sent photographs of themselves in costume and wearing masks, as Gabriel had done on stage. A few weeks into rehearsals,
Melody Maker managed to find out about Gabriel leaving the band, and their story made the front page of the 16 August issue, where journalist
Chris Welch declared Genesis dead. The group spoke to the music papers to deny they were splitting up and explaining they had an album finished and waiting to be recorded.
[8][6]
Recording[SIZE=small][[/SIZE]
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"I didn't want to not be the drummer ... this is what I did. This is my territory."
Phil Collins recalling the choice of a new lead singer to replace
Peter Gabriel[9]
Recording began in
Trident Studios in October 1975 with producer
David Hentschel. Hentschel had served as
tape op and then engineer on earlier Genesis albums and Collins had become a fan of his album
Startling Music, a re-recording of
Ringo Starr's album
Ringo on an
ARP 2500synthesizer.
[10] Collins thought the group could carry on as an instrumental act, but other group members felt that it would be boring without vocals.
[6]The group had still not decided on a replacement singer, so they decided to start recording backing tracks and audition singers as they went.
[10]
Some songs such as "Ripples..." were written with the intention that Collins could sing them, similar to "More Fool Me" on
Selling England by the Pound, but he did not want to take over as a permanent replacement, opting instead to teach potential lead singers the songs.
[11] The group still wanted a regular frontman for live performances, as they thought Collins would not be able to handle all the material, and it would be problematic trying to sing Gabriel's vocal parts while drumming on tour.
[12] One of the auditionees, Mick Stickland, was invited into the studio to sing, but the backing tracks were in a key outside of his natural range and the band decided not to work with him.
[13][14] Having failed to produce a suitable vocalist, Collins reluctantly went in the studio to sing "Squonk". His performance was well received by the band, and they decided that he should be their new lead vocalist.
[14] Hentschel stayed on as co-producer for future Genesis albums up to 1980's
Duke.
[15]
Songs[SIZE=small][[/SIZE]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Squonk.png
"Squonk" is based on the
mythical creature from the U.S. as illustrated here from
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts (1910).
The opening track, "Dance on a Volcano" was the first song written for the album. Rutherford felt in contrast to the material on
The Lamb..., it was easy to write, and was intended to show how Genesis would move forward.
[6] "Entangled" was mostly written by Hackett, with help from Banks. Rutherford recalled that Hackett "started writing verses which were very airy-fairy and then he came down with a bang."
[14] "Squonk" is based on the North American tale of the
Squonk which, when captured, dissolves in a pool of tears.
[16] The song combines a main theme written by Rutherford against a middle section written by Banks, and was designed to sound like
Led Zeppelin's "
Kashmir".
[6][4]
"Robbery, Assault and Battery" was mostly written by Banks, in an attempt to capture some of the humorous lyrics that Gabriel had written for earlier albums. Collins sang the song in character, inspired by his earlier role as the
Artful Dodger in
Oliver! before he became a professional musician.
[17] "Ripples..." was a combination of a 12-string guitar piece composed by Rutherford and a piano-led middle section written by Banks.
[4] The title track was inspired by Banks reading
William Golding's
The Inheritors and described an alien visiting Earth and the reaction to it.
[17]
The closing song, "Los Endos", was written by the whole band. Collins came up with the basic rhythmic structure, inspired by his work in side project
Brand X and wanting to take the looser playing style into Genesis, while Banks and Hackett wrote the main themes, including reprises of "Dance on a Volcano" and "Squonk". The opening piece was recorded for a completely different song, "It's Yourself", which was later released as a B-side.
[18] The track became a live favourite, and continued to be played through to the 2007
Turn It On Again tour.
[19] In 2014, Hackett added the song to the playlist of his extended
Genesis Revisited II tour.
[20]
Reception[SIZE=small][[/SIZE]
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Professional ratings
Review scores
Source
Rating
AllMusic
[21]
Q
[22]
Uncut
[23]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
[24]
The Music Box
[25]
"It was very satisfying for us to show that we could carry on ... It was great not to have to involve another person too."
Tony Banks discussing the positive critical reception to the album
[26]
A Trick of the Tail had a positive reception from music critics, who were impressed that the group could not only survive the loss of Gabriel but still deliver a good album.
[27] The sound quality had improved from previous albums as a result of Hentschel's production skills.
[28] The album reached No. 3 in the UK, remaining on the charts for 39 weeks, and No. 31 in the U.S.
[29] It was certified Gold in the UK by the
British Phonographic Institute in June
[30] and in the US by the
RIAA in March 1990.
[31] The album remained in the UK charts for 39 weeks and recouped a significant amount of $400,000 worth of debt they had accumulated by the time Gabriel left.
[32]
For the first time in their career, Genesis filmed promotional videos for their songs. The first to be filmed was the title track, which features the band playing to the song together around a piano, including
composite shots of a miniature Collins hopping around on a piano and a guitar.
[13] The group also produced promotional films of "Ripples..." and "Robbery, Assault and Battery".
[33]
Tour[SIZE=small][[/SIZE]
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Main article:
A Trick of the Tail Tour
Even after the album had been completed, Collins was unhappy about leaving the drumkit to sing lead, and the band were unsure he would be comfortable as frontman on tour.
[6] The group decided to try anyway, and needed someone to drum while Collins was singing. Collins insisted on choosing the touring drummer himself, selecting
Bill Bruford, who he had already worked with in Brand X. Collins continued to drum during instrumental sections.
[27]
The new line-up rehearsed in
Dallas for a North American tour, starting in
London, Ontario. Collins was nervous about what to say to the audience between songs, so Rutherford and Hackett helped with some announcements. Unlike Gabriel's theatrical approach, Collins developed a humorous rapport with the audience, and it was immediately successful.
[34] Audiences were happy for Collins to sing old material such as "
Supper's Ready" in concert as he had been recruited as frontman from within the group. The resulting tour raised Genesis' profile in the U.S., where they had been relatively unknown while Gabriel was in the band.
[35]