A TRICK OF THE TAIL

Peter Gabriel left the band, and the "mystery" and the "theatre rock" were out of GENESIS (well, almost!). I prefer GENESIS without Peter Gabriel, because I am more interested in the music than in "theatre rock". So, for me, GENESIS became a "real" band in this album, after being considered Peter Gabriel`s backing band for several years. Phil Collins`vocals sound for me more "authentic" than Gabriel`s, who, at least for me, always seemed to be trying to impress the fans doing "strange things" (like David Bowie, Robert Fripp, David Byrne, REM`s Michael Stipe and other similar artists), being more an "enigmatic" character of a story than a "real" singer. Gabriel is another "musical chameleon", always experimenting, solo album after solo album. I respect Gabriel and his fans, but I prefer more the music than the theatre.I bought this album (for the first time, the L.P.) some hours before John Lennon`s death (8-December-1980). I remember that in that day I went to a record shop in the evening.Later I arrived to my parent`s house, played the album once, I liked it a lot, so I played it again. During the second playing of this album, one of my brothers was watching T.V. (an American Football match) and suddenly he went to my bedroom and told me that in the T.V. they announced that John Lennon was murdered a few minutes before. So, this album is linked to that day, but as the years passed the album still shines by itself. I like every song in this album. "Dance on a Volcano" is one of the best songs, with Hackett`s guitar sounding like "burning lava" in some places, in good interplay with Banks`s keyboards. "Entangled" is more influenced by Steve Hackett, with very good 12 string guitars (maybe played by Hackett, Banks and Rutherford) and a very good keyboards solo at the end. "Squonk" has very good drums by Collins, and it seems that this is the first song Phil sang in rehearsals, and with this song he convinced his mates in GENESIS to become the lead singer. "Mad Man Moon" is a very good song by Banks, with piano, mellotron, Steve Hackett`s very original guitar sounds, and Collins`percussion (a marimba?) playing along with the piano in the instrumental section. Collins`vocals have a lot of feeling, something that Gabriel lacked. Theatre Rock is almost gone, because "Robbery, Assault & Battery" has some "acting" by Collins in his vocals (after all, he was a child actor, with more experience than Gabriel, maybe!). "Ripples" is a nostalgical song, one of my favourite songs of the band, with 12 string guitars, and an instrumental section again with an interplay of the lead guitar and the keyboards. "A Trick of the Tail" is a fantasy story by Banks. "Los Endos" has a lot of influence of Collins`drums, a very good instrumental piece. All the songs were credited for the first time to the individual composers of the songs, to avoid confusion in the fans about who wrote which song. Banks appears as composer or co- composer in all the songs. This album started the most interesting period in GENESIS`history , which for me it is from 1975 (the recording of this album) until 1982 ("Three Sides Live", with "abacab" still sounding "progressive" in some songs).