It Sure Is Tough To Be A Post Gabriel/Hackett Fan Of Genesis

When you read the comments in the Genesis forums, they can be pretty brutal regarding the modern era. Phil is crap, Mike and Tony are assholes, the list goes on and on. If you like all 3 eras, you will never get a break from the criticisms. It is what it is to be a fan of the entire Genesis catalog.

The dilemma for Genesis modernists is you can not explain yourself to progressive fans. You will be immediately dismissed, criticized, and downright insulted. It is offensive to them to like anything after Steve left. Even though "And Then There Were Three" earns some praise, for many Progressive listeners, this album was the beginning of the end of Genesis.

Fans of all eras are valid that many great songs and albums came after Wind and Wuthering. The band changed, no doubt about it. The important thing is they stayed relevant. They kept a delicate balance of long songs to compliment the short songs. They also honored the past and kept the 70s Genesis alive and well through medleys and reinventions of the prog-era music catalog. The band never ran away from their past as they made new music. They had to play a shortened catalog as new albums were produced. It only makes sense that some songs were not going to be played every tour.  And it made sense to have medleys that combined favored songs by fans.

Many progressives will never enjoy Domino, Home By The Sea, Duke's Travels and Dreaming While You Sleep. That is their loss and our gain. Whenever I hear they produced horrible music after ATTWT, I just dismiss their criticism, as I love all of the songs. I just categorize them in a different light. Even Invisible Touch is a great song. It is part of a pop category that I allow to exist in an long overarching career. It was a song written to entertain, just like Harold The Barrel. However much more of a hit because the fan reached a larger audience.

I recently saw Steve Hackett. While I am the first to admit he is brilliant, that does not mean that the modern five day trio were any better or any worse. I loved that Steve played Afterglow, but I missed the extended version with the amazing double drum ending of Phil and Chester. I loved the Musical Box, but can say Phil's screaming and theatrics were also a fun take on the song. When you see Steve in person, you realize Daryl added more of a fusion/jazz component to Genesis classics. I realized that there are subtle creative differences that both eras have that are simply brilliant. If you are a fan of all eras, you will notice the greatness of the modern era of Genesis by paying respect to Steve and Peter's era of Genesis. Unfortunately, by dismissing the modern era, you miss out on the greatness of each tour. Phil, Mike and Tony provide changes to the Progressive Era music that were fresh takes on the older material. In 2007, I loved Phil's romanticizing of Ripples with repeated choruses of sail away.....He was brilliant. It was haunting in some ways. Each tour has a unique take whereas Steve stays loyal to the original recording. It is each band members prerogative how to honor the music.

I have learned to ignore or incite those who limit themselves to one or two eras of Genesis. They are missing out, not me on the future catalog of music and concert tours. It is too bad they do not want to recognize or respect other people's opinions. Nor is it right in my opinion to speak so harshly about the band in the modern era. It will not stop them, but at least we who like he modern era can enjoy a much larger catalog of music, and recognize the genius of great songs that were created after Steve left the band.