October 3 – Sound Went Every Which Way, Album Went Up (The Charts)

The early-’80s were a busy time for the trio of musicians who made up Genesis. On this day in 1983, they put out their 12th studio album (and fourth since culling their roster down to just Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks) – the self-titled one. It came out about two years after Abacab and a year after 3 Sides Live, a double album with (not surprisingly) three sides of live music from their 1982 world tour, and one side of new tracks. As well, both Collins and Rutherford had put out solo albums in between.

Little surprise they were feeling a bit tired, and that might or might not have shown through in the record. Certainly it was reflected in how they made this album. For the first time, they recorded at “The Farm”, a studio they’d built on a farm in Surrey, and began the album from scratch. Whereas in past efforts, each of the musicians came in with rough takes of songs in progress and then had the others add and edit, they say this time out they wrote collaboratively and started many of the songs by just jamming together. It was a relaxing time for the three, as well as for producer Hugh Padgham in all likelihood. He’d just completed work on The Police’s Synchronicity, which of course was a smash hit but also was a near riot to put together, with that group all at each other’s throats and at times refusing to be in the same room together.

The result was interesting. It was almost universally viewed as the most “pop” record they’d ever recorded, which of course caused wildly differing opinions as to whether or not this was a good thing. To many, even though the band say it was their most collaborative, it sounded more like a solo Phil Collins record than a band effort. All in all the record, and opinions were a mixed bag. There were straight-ahead pop numbers like the Beatles-inspired “That’s All” (Banks started that one by playing what he figured was a Beatlesque-riff on the piano and Collins tried to emulate Ringo’s drumming), the goofy novelty song “Illegal Alien”, some nods to their prog rock past, like “Home by the Sea”, a two-part song, and the first single. “Mama”, with its creepy Collins laugh, heavily gated reverb drum sound Padgham was noted for producing, and disturbing lyrics (apparently about a boy obsessed with an old prostitute but interpreted by others as a lad turned on by his own mother) it seemed more suited to a Halloween movie than mainstream radio.

The band was surprised the record company picked it as a single, but Mike Rutherford approved. He says they decided “we should go with something that was a bit different.” Different it was, but it worked, going to #4 in the UK – their highest chart to that point – and was a top 10 in most European countries. The more typical radio-single, “That’s All” made it to #6 in the U.S., their best showing there to that point. The now politically-incorrect “Illegal Alien” (Rutherford says it’s “tongue in cheek” and supposed to show an empathy for the undocumented, not insult them) just missed out.

Genesis went on to put out three more albums (their pace slowed considerably as Collins became a major star in his own right ) and continued on, sporadically as a live act until wrapping it up last year.