History Trivia / GenesisBand

* OldShame: Given the size of their discography and the number of people who have been members throughout the years, it follows that band members have expressed dissatisfaction with a fairly large number of works:
** Despite the song as a whole being nearly universally considered SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic, the ''lyrics'' to "Firth of Fifth" are considered by Music/TonyBanks to be some of the worst he's ever written. On the reunion tour, they cut the lyrics out entirely and just played the [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic epic middle section]] as an instrumental.
** The entire band has been similarly negative about ''Music/AndThenThereWereThree'', recorded in the midst of Hackett's departure and Collins' divorce; the three recording members felt they were making an album simply to make an album.
** "Who Dunnit?" from ''Abacab''. It was written [[{{Bathos}} more or less as a joke]], then the joke was taken even further by incorporating it into the tour setlist. To drive the point home, in live performances of the song, Mike Rutherford [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments plays the]] ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments drums]]''.
** The band doesn't look fondly at its entire first album, ''From Genesis to Revelation''. The only reason they haven't deleted it is because they don't own the rights to it; even so, they still exclude it from their official discographies. They have mentioned, however, that part of their dissatisfaction is with the saccharine string arrangements forced on the songs by ExecutiveMeddling; they presented demo versions of some of the songs on the first ''Archives'' box set that they said were closer to their actual artistic vision.
** Also, "Illegal Alien" pokes fun at a rather serious problem; the poverty of Latin American would-be immigrants attempting to enter the USA. Unfortunately, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_61hzuGGJX0 video]] took it up to eleven, with the band sporting stereotypically Mexican outfits and engaging in allegedly comic south of the border shenanigans to the point of racist caricature.
** Phil Collins has mentioned in internet postings not to be a fan of 'Match of the Day', from the ''Spot the Pigeon'' EP, which is probably why that track was left off of 2000's ''Genesis Archives #2'' boxset, where 'Pigeons' and 'Inside and Out' were included. As a consequence, the song was extremely hard to find for a while. However, all three songs are included in the ''Genesis 1976–1982'' boxset and the EP was repressed on vinyl in 2012, making the song easily available again.
** Collins wasn't very proud of "Me and Virgil" from the ''3 x 3'' EP, either.
** He also hasn't spoken fondly of the music video for "A Trick of the Tail", mentioning in a 1994 Creator/{{VH1}} interview that he considers it one of the most embarrassing videos of his career.
** The band as a whole regards their final studio album ''Calling All Stations'' as this, as well as Ray Wilson's time as lead vocalist (whom the album boasted). In both of their one-off reunions, they refused to play anything from the album, and their greatest hits album ''Turn It On Again: The Hits'' only includes the song "Congo," the only UK Top 40 hit from the album. Tellingly, their ''R-Kive'' box set from 2014 doesn't include any song from the album.

** Also, "Illegal Alien" pokes fun at a rather serious problem; the poverty of Latin American would-be immigrants attempting to enter the USA. Unfortunately, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_61hzuGGJX0 video]] took it UpToEleven, with the band sporting stereotypically Mexican outfits and engaging in allegedly comic south of the border shenanigans to the point of racist caricature.

** The band doesn't look fondly at its entire first album, ''From Genesis to Revelation''. The only reason they haven't deleted it is because they don't own the rights to it; even so, they still exclude it from their official discographies. They have mentioned, however, that part of their dissatisfaction is with the [[TastesLikeDiabetes saccharine]] string arrangements forced on the songs by ExecutiveMeddling; they presented demo versions of some of the songs on the first ''Archives'' box set that they said were closer to their actual artistic vision.

* TheOtherMarty: Between Anthony Phillips' departure and Steve Hackett's arrival, the band had another guitarist named Mick Barnard. Since he never performed on any official albums, and was only in the band for a few months, he is largely forgotten by most fans. An appearance on British TV in November 1970 includes Barnard in the band, but the recording of the broadcast has since been lost.

* CreatorKiller: While the writing had been on the wall since the late '80s, the double whammy of Music/PhilCollins' 1996 departure and ''Calling All Stations'' the following year damaged the band's reputation to the point of no return. They were already facing heat for abandoning their prog rock roots in favor of mainstream pop rock since Music/PeterGabriel and especially Music/SteveHackett left, and the overlap between Genesis' newer music and Collins' solo works became apparent with the release of ''Invisible Touch''. But with Collins deciding to focus on his solo work, [[Music/MikeAndTheMechanics Michael Rutherford]] and Music/TonyBanks were the only original members left, and the group had to hastily assemble ''Calling All Stations'' in order to stay afloat. The result was a complete mess from top to bottom, resulting in one of the most critically-panned albums of the '90s. The group broke up not long after their concert tour to promote the album flopped.

** In 1979, Gabriel asked Collins to play drums on ''Music/{{Melt}}''. Upon recording "Intruder", their producer Hugh Padgham, testing out his new recording console, accidentally recorded Phil's drums and it picked out [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxz6jShW-3E a thick, punchy reverb that disappeared in an instant]]. That is how the "gated reverb", the sound of TheEighties, was born.

* CreatorKiller: While the writing had been on the wall since the late 80's, the double whammy of Music/PhilCollins' 1996 departure and ''Calling All Stations'' the following year damaged the band's reputation to the point of no return. They were already facing heat for abandoning their prog rock roots in favor of mainstream pop rock since Music/PeterGabriel and especially Music/SteveHackett left, and the overlap between Genesis' newer music and Collins' solo works became apparent with the release of ''Invisible Touch''. But with Collins deciding to focus on his solo work, [[Music/MikeAndTheMechanics Michael Rutherford]] and Music/TonyBanks were the only original members left, and the group had to hastily assemble ''Calling All Stations'' in order to stay afloat. The result was a complete mess from top to bottom, resulting in one of the most critically-panned albums of the 90's. The group broke up not long after their concert tour to promote the album flopped.

** The jam band Music/{{Phish}}, who are known for doing "musical costume" complete album performances at their Halloween shows, reached out to Peter Gabriel in 2010 about possibly staging a performance of ''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'' with him. The band's music features a strong prog-rock influence, and their leader Trey Anastasio had inducted Genesis into the UsefulNotes/RockAndRollHallOfFame that same year, so the idea was both more fitting and more likely than would first appear. Gabriel told ''Rolling Stone'' that Phish's proposal was the only time he had ever seriously considered performing ''Lamb'' in its entirety again, but ultimately the idea fell through, and Phish did a cover of Music/LittleFeat's ''Waiting for Columbus'' for their 2010 Halloween show instead.

* NoExportForYou: The Definitive Edition remaster of ''Trespass'' was never released in North America, thanks to the fact that the album was owned by Creator/{{MCA}} in that region, who operated under a different parent company than Creator/VirginRecords (who owned the international rights to the Genesis catalog post-''From Genesis to Revelation'') and Creator/AtlanticRecords & Creator/AtcoRecords (who owned the North American rights to the Genesis catalog from ''Nursery Cryme'' onwards). Likewise, the 2007 remaster of ''Trespass'' never saw a CD release in North America for the same reason, only a digital and LP release (both of which are now unavailable).

* ReferencedBy: In ''Webcomic/KnightsOfBuenaVista'', Adriana is singing one of the band's songs, and Ilene jokes that they are known as "[[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Mega Drive]]" in the rest of the world.

** While Steve Hackett's leaving was amicable (both Collins and Rutherford contributed to his first solo album, ''Voyage of the Acolyte'', released before he left the band) the 2014 documentary ''Together and Apart'' (broadcast as ''Sum of the Parts'' in the US), a film supposedly meant to touch on both the band's long life and the noteworthy solo careers of all the band members, gives Hackett's solo career, which spans over ''twenty'' records, the barest of mentions. Hackett went on social media and to [[http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/genesis-guitarist-steve-hackett-blasts-biased-documentary-20141005 Rolling Stone]] to voice his displeasure. Hackett was much more positive towards the ''R-Kive'' box set that accompanied the documentary, because it gave equal time to every member's side-projects.
*** What makes the documentary even more tone-deaf is that Hackett at the time of the documentary's broadcast was currently in the middle of a nearly ''two-year'' tour behind his ''Genesis Revisited II'' record, that continued into early 2015, playing many classic Genesis songs which hadn't been performed live for decades. (For the tour for his 2015 solo record, ''Wolflight'', each show's second set was comprised of nearly all Genesis songs, going as far back as ''Nursery Cryme''.)

** In 1979, Gabriel asked Collins to play drums on his third self-titled solo album. Upon recording "Intruder", their producer Hugh Padgham, testing out his new recording console, accidentally recorded Phil's drums and it picked out [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxz6jShW-3E a thick, punchy reverb that disappeared in an instant]]. That is how the "gated reverb", the sound of TheEighties, was born.

** Celebrated indie songwriter/musician Kevin Gilbert, who had much respect and love for the "classic" Genesis ([[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome he performed the entire ''Lamb Lies Down'' album live on stage]] with his band Giraffe in 1994), was invited to audition to replace Phil Collins in 1996. Unfortunately, Gilbert [[http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/More-Than-The-Piano-Player-Dumped-by-Sheryl-2966770.php died during an autoerotic asphyxiation session gone wrong]] before his management received the invitation. Considering Gilbert's prog-rock credibility and rising career as a songwriter at the time, there's no telling what his talent could've done to help invigorate the band.

* BigNameFan:
** Jeremy Clarkson of the BBC's ''Series/TopGear'' provided liner notes for the 1997 remaster/reissue of ''Music/ATrickOfTheTail'' and the box set ''Genesis 1970-1975'', gushing about how much he loved Genesis' prog-era work despite his parents' disapproval back in the 1970's. His co-host Richard Hammond however has been vocal of his notorious '''dis'''like for Genesis's music, to the point where Clarkson sometimes uses their work (Particularly "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1tFQMjc-IE I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)]]") to {{Troll}} the living shit out of him.
** Similarly, Music/JohnLennon praised ''Selling England by the Pound'', from which the band members took great encouragement at the time. Other musicians who have praised it include Music/{{Rush}}'s Neil Peart, Music/{{Marillion}}'s Fish (who even covered "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" during his solo career), and Music/GuidedByVoices' Robert Pollard.

* BigNameFan: {{Inverted|Trope}} with Richard Hammond of the BBC's ''Series/TopGear'' and Amazon's ''Series/TheGrandTour''. He's known to have been vocal of his notorious '''dis'''like for Genesis's music, to the point where his co-star Jeremy Clarkson sometimes uses their work (Particularly "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1tFQMjc-IE I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)]]") to {{Troll}} the living shit out of him.
** On the other hand, Clarkson himself plays the trope straight; he even provided liner notes for the 1997 remaster/reissue of ''Music/ATrickOfTheTail'' and the box set ''Genesis 1970-1975'', gushing about how much he loved Genesis' prog-era work despite his parents' disapproval back in the 1970's.

** Similarly, Music/JohnLennon praised ''Selling England by the Pound'', from which the band members took great encouragement at the time. Other musicians who have praised it include Music/{{Rush}}'s Neal Peart, Music/{{Marillion}}'s Fish (who even covered "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" during his solo career), and Music/GuidedByVoices' Robert Pollard.

** On the other hand, Clarkson himself plays the trope straight; he even provided liner notes for the 1997 remaster/reissue of ''A Trick of the Tail'' and the box set ''Genesis 1970-1975'', gushing about how much he loved Genesis' prog-era work despite his parents' disapproval back in the 1970's.

* CreatorKiller: While the writing had been on the wall since the late 80's, the double whammy of Collins' 1996 departure and ''Calling All Stations'' the following year damaged the band's reputation to the point of no return. They were already facing heat for abandoning their prog rock roots in favor of mainstream pop rock since Gabriel and especially Hackett left, and the overlap between Genesis' newer music and Collins' solo works became apparent with the release of ''Invisible Touch''. But with Collins deciding to focus on his solo work, Rutherford and Banks were the only original members left, and the group had to hastily assemble ''Calling All Stations'' in order to stay afloat. The result was a complete mess from top to bottom, resulting in one of the most critically-panned albums of the 90's. The group broke up not long after their concert tour to promote the album flopped.
* FakeAmerican: Rael, the protagonist in ''Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway''. A half-Puerto Rican street kid from [[BigApplesauce New York City]] would be unlikely to refer to money as "notes and coins," with "cash" being more common. But in the song "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging", he does anyway.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: While ''Selling England by the Pound'' is the album you're most likely to hear cited as Genesis' best (for example, it's their best-rated album on Prog Archives), some of the band members themselves have reservations with it. They don't think it's a ''bad'' album, but they think it could have been better (it is, however, Hackett's favourite album). Some of the band members also feel that ''Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway'', another candidate you're likely to hear cited as their best recording, gets progressively weaker towards the end.

** The entire band has been similarly negative about ''...And Then There Were Three...'', recorded in the midst of Hackett's departure and Collins' divorce; the three recording members felt they were making an album simply to make an album.

* TheOtherMarty: Between Phillips' departure and Hackett's arrival, the band had another guitarist named Mick Barnard. Since he never performed on any official albums, and was only in the band for a few months, he is largely forgotten by most fans. An appearance on British TV in November 1970 includes Barnard in the band, but the recording of the broadcast has since been lost.

* ShortLivedBigImpact: Being one of the most influential of ProgressiveRock, the classic lineup of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford surprisingly lasted 4 years.

** ''Literature/TheLittlePrince''-inspired tracks on ''Duke'' were meant to be a suite taking up one side, yet in the end the band didn't want the composition compared to similar songs such as "Supper's Ready" and felt leaving the tracks together would have given the record a noticeably weaker B-side, and make the songs harder to release as potential singles.

** According to an interview in ''Guitar World'', when David Lee Roth left Music/VanHalen in 1986, Eddie Van Halen began writing many of the songs that would ultimately appear on ''5150'' with the idea of using different vocalists on each track. He had reached out to both Rutherford and Collins to work on the record, and wrote the song "Right Now" with the late Joe Cocker in mind.

** On the other hand, Clarkson himself plays the trope straight; he even provided liner notes for the 1997 remaster/reissue of ''A Trick of the Tail'' and the box set ''Genesis 1970-1975''.
** Similarly, Music/JohnLennon praised ''Selling England by the Pound'', from which the band members took great encouragement at the time. Other musicians who have praised it include Music/{{Rush}}'s Neal Peart, Music/{{Marillion}}'s Fish, and Music/GuidedByVoices' Robert Pollard.

** Celebrated indie songwriter/musician Kevin Gilbert, who had much respect and love for the "classic" Genesis ([[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome he performed the entire ''Lamb Lies Down'' album live on stage]] with his band Giraffe in 1994), was invited to audition to replace Phil Collins in 1996. Unfortunately, Gilbert died of an [[http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/More-Than-The-Piano-Player-Dumped-by-Sheryl-2966770.php accidental suicide]] before his management received the invitation. Considering Gilbert's prog-rock credibility and rising career as a songwriter at the time, there's no telling what his talent could've done to help invigorate the band.

** The liner notes for the Definitive Edition Remaster of ''Nursery Cryme'' list the lyrics for the songs in an alternate order from the album's running order.

*** When listened to in sequence, this provides an interesting alternate running order for the album that some listeners may end up preferring to the official one. For one thing, it ends less abruptly.
** The non-''Little Prince'' tracks on ''Duke'' were leftovers from the solo albums the members had just finished recording, as those albums had drained them all creatively. One of the songs Phil offered was "In the Air Tonight," about which Tony has said that he regrets turning it down.

** The evangelist character in the video for "Jesus He Knows Me" has a DeepSouth accent, at least until his [[OohMeAccentsSlipping accent slips]].

** Also in the song "Back in NYC", Rael says "your progressive hypocrites". An American would probably have called them "liberal hypocrites".

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* AuthorAppeal: The music video to "Jesus He Knows Me" features young bikini-clad women because Genesis never had them in a video before and the group decided that the song's topic [[ThrowItIn seemed as good a reason as any]] to include them.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Attempts were made to make a movie out of ''The Lamb'' since the late 1970s, including talks with ''Film/TheExorcist'' director William Fredkin, but nothing came to fruition.

::: When listened to in sequence, this provides an interesting alternate running order for the album that some listeners may end up preferring to the official one. For one thing, it ends less abruptly.