A TRICK OF THE TAIL

I'd like to pay homage to the No. 1 album in my 2000-cd collection of rock and jazz, and - in my humble estimation - the greatest album of all time: "A Trick of the Tail".

Superlatives tossed about carelessly? No. Blind praise done in isolation? No. Irrational band fanatic? Please....

Yeah, I was a newly-independent college freshman in 1975 when I first heard this album that dared to compete with any Gabriel-era album, so there may be some emotional and sentimental bias in my regard for this album. But let's look objectively at this brilliant album on the whole: 1.) A beautiful canary yellow album cover and inner sleeve (with the original vinyl, anyway) that portrayed many of the characters from the songs. 2.) Complete lyrics spread out across the original fold-out album cover, printed in a suitable scroll (and what INCREDIBLE lyrics they are!) 3.) A true "concept album" (How come nobody else mentions this?!) where virtually every song relates the paradox of a person (or thing) that doesn't realize how good they already have it, and instead long for something different. (The grass ISN'T always greener on the other side.) And I detect in many songs the presence of a devil figure who preys on the doubts and weakness of the song's character, who winds up making a "deal with the devil" to get their perceived needs. I mean, to me, that's a devil figure singing "Dance on a Volcano", right? ("The lava's the lover...", and what about "the evil of a snowflake in June..." etc.)

And I haven't even mentioned the music itself yet!

Tony Banks writes or co-writes every song, and they drip with his trademark sense for subtly changing keys from major to minor to harmonic to new keys, etc. His wall of sound arsenal of keyboards dominates on this album. Phil Collins' voice and harmonies on this album suit the lyrics perfectly (sorry, I did not miss Peter), and his drumming is often a tour-de-force, especially important in the near jazz-fusion of some of the instrumentals.

Steve Hackett gets a good chance to show off on this album with acrobatic guitar licks and solos that sometimes get overlooked because of the unusual tone of his guitar that almost sounds like a keyboard. And aside from his usual fine bass work, Mike Rutherford strums along with Hackett and Banks (just like in the earlier days) on a couple of classic slower songs - the dreamy "Entangled" and the inspirational "Ripples". (Banks also supplies some great backing vocals on the album. NOT Mike Rutherford, though ;-)

The lyrics frequently intone a sense of regret, even though things may not really be as bad as the character perceives them. Were regret and pity the initial overall feelings of the remaining band members when Gabriel decided to leave them, only to later realize that maybe instead of feeling sorry for themselves and drowning in their pity, they should put all of their forces together to show the music world something definitive? Hmmmm....

Peter Gabriel was viewed by many as the "head" of Genesis; I believe that the remaining members of the group were determined to make a statement with this album, and perform a kind of "trick" that only the "tail" of the group could pull off. And they did. Perfectly. They even managed to pay homage to PG in the closing lines of the last song: after tying many of the major themes of the album together in "Los Endos" (like any great work will recapitulate its themes), Collins salutes Gabriel as he wails in the background a line from "Supper's Ready" - "There's an angel standing in the sun...Free to get back home."

Not a weak track to be found, not a bad moment to be had. Few other artists have ever achieved such a level of overall perfection as Genesis did on this album - great songwriting, inventive solos and instrumentals, virtuoso performances, interesting lyrics, great production, super artwork, and a great and original concept that tied the group's real world situation to the world of imagination and stories to which staunch Genesis fans had already become familiar in earlier albums. I love the moral and resolve of this album.

As I write this, "A Trick of the Tail" is nearly 45 years young, and I'll keep listening to this album frequently for many years to come. I admit that musical tastes are intensely personal, and it's often tough to find common ground among lovers of the various genres of rock (or even among the many progressive rock camps). But this album does EVERYTHING right; for MY tastes, it is the oft-sought "perfect album"!