Continuing my look at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2010, the next featured inductee is Genesis.
The English rock band is one of the few acts that could reasonably earn Rock Hall membership for two different lineups and eras. The band started as a prog rock act with Peter Gabriel on lead vocals and ended as a pop band fronted by dummer Phil Collins. Combine the two over the band’s 28-year recording career and Genesis surely deserves its spot in the Hall of Fame.
Even so, it took 16 years from the band’s first eligibility window (1994) for it to be nominated. Once nominated, Genesis was a first-ballot inductee.
The band was started in 1967 by Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, guitarist Mike Rutherford, drummer Chris Stewart, and guitarist Anthony Phillips. Stewart and Phillips were soon replaced by Steve Hackett and Collins. That core released several albums and established Genesis as a prog rock pioneers, recording epic theatrical songs and putting on equally elaborate stage shows.
When Gabriel left the band in 1975, Collins, Banks, and Rutherford took the music in a more radio-friendly direction, writing shorter songs with more of a pop sound. This proved to be the band’s most successful lineup, recording a string of Platinum and multi-Platinum albums from the late 80s through the early 90s.
Collins left to embark on a solo career, and Genesis released a final album in 1997 with Scottish singer Ray Wilson handling vocals. Banks and Rutherford were the only members to belong to every incarnation of the band.
There is lambswool under my naked feet
The wool is soft and warm, gives off some kind of heat
A salamander scurries into flame to be destroyed
Imaginary creatures are trapped in birth on celluloid
The fleas cling to the golden fleece hoping they’ll find peace
Each thought and gesture are caught in celluloid
There’s no hiding in my memory, there’s no room to avoid
[Verse 1]
The crawlers cover the floor in the red ochre corridor
For my second sight of people, they’ve more lifeblood than before
They’re moving in time to a heavy wooden door
Where the needle’s eye is winking, closing on the poor
[Chorus]
The carpet crawlers heed their callers
“We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out”
[Verse 2]
There’s only one direction in the faces that I see
It’s upward to the ceiling where the chamber’s said to be
Like the forest fight for sunlight that takes root in every tree
They are pulled up by the magnet, believing they are free
[Chorus]
The carpet crawlers heed their callers
“We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out”
[Verse 3]
Mild mannered supermen are held in kryptonite
And the wise and foolish virgins giggle with their bodies glowing bright
Through the door, a harvest feast is lit by candlelight
It’s the bottom of a staircase that spirals out of sight
[Chorus]
The carpet crawlers heed their callers
“We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out”
[Verse 4]
The porcelain mannequin with shattered skin fears attack
And the eager pack lift up their pitchers, they carry all they lack
The liquid has congealed which has seeped out through the crack
And the tickler takes his stickleback
[Chorus]
The carpet crawlers heed their callers
“We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out”
[Outro]
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
The carpet crawlers heed their callers
“We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out”
