Search - Genesis :: Nursery Cryme

WITH COLLINS & HACKETT AT THE HELM, GENESIS IS JOINED AS ONE

David Bebernick | Warren, Michigan United States | 01/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first time I bought a 'real Genesis album,' the CD was "Nursery Cryme" & I did not know what to expect. I was hoping to hear cuts like "Abacab" or stuff from "The Numbers Album," or "Duke." Was I in for a rude awakening! It was late June, early July 1995, I was 17 years old. I just finished up my junior year at East Detroit High School & was over a month away from beginning my final year as a Senior in High School. At that time, Green Day's 'Dookie'(released 'Insomiac' in 1995), Soundgarden's 'Superunknown', Pearl Jam's 'Vitalogy', & Alice In Chain's 'Jar Of Flies' were the albums that were the order of the day. People were still trembling from Kurt Corbain's apparent suicide a year later. The Eagles were on a comeback tour. The Smashing Pumpkins would release the double album, 'Meloncholy & The Infinate Sadness' that year. Korn & Rage Against The Machine came out of nowhere. The Red Hot Chili Peppers released 'One Hot Minute' which was a departure from their previous albums. However, Alternative/Grunge was at it's final death stages at this time (but we didn't know it then). 1995 was also the year of the Page/Plant Unledded show on MTV which was huge! The O.J. Simpson trial was still lingering in the presence of the media circus. Pantera's 1992 album, 'Vulgar Display of Power' was the album to have (if you didn't have that album in high school, you were considered that something was wrong with you). The beginning of New Year's Day, 1995 marked the 10 month countdown to the Beatles Anthology special on ABC. Z-Rock was THE radio station. Flannel, band shirts & faded different coloured jeans with sneakers or military boots & long hair was the fashion as well.



And so here I am at Record Time on 10 Mile & Gratiot (They now moved to 11 & Gratiot), buying a CD. When I saw "Nursery Cryme" I was like "What is this? An album cover with a Victorian Nurse w/ a mallet in her hands & severed heads on the ground? Interesting." I bought it for 10 dollars & took it home for a listen. Now mind you, I didn't even hear a note on this album at all....yet. Thinking that it would be only Phil Collins, Tony Banks & Michael Rutherford on this album, I was in for another surprise: "Peter Gabriel was in Genesis?" I said to myself. "And who's Steve Hackett? Oh this I have to listen to." The first song I played was of course, "The Musical Box." Right from those beginning chords, the song was like 'the performance had already started & we the listener have arrived late to the concert' type of feel. It was unusual listening to Peter Gabriel singing in Genesis (I was familar w/"Shock The Monkey", "In Your Eyes", "Sledgehammer"....but then again I was a sucker & naive in what to believe). When the quiet slumbers turned into explosive blasts from Rutherford's 12 String Rickenbacker & when Hackett's Gibson Les Paul comes flying in like a bottle rocket, my jaw hit the floor! I never heard anyone solo that different in my life. Let's just say that my life had changed forever. Now enough of my life story, let's go through all the songs.



THE MUSICAL BOX: This song is exactly like the tune "Stagnation" from their second album, "TRESPASS." However, with newcomers, Drummer Phil Collins & Guitarist Steve Hackett, it becomes immediately known that the final 2 pieces of the puzzle are finally in place & the 'Class of 1971' lineup is now complete. A somber tale about 'Old King Cole' as Gabriel desperately wants to be touched "NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW!" behind the roaring of Tony Banks' Hammond Organ L122 & Hackett's mournful outro solo.



FOR ABSENT FRIENDS: This is where Phil Collins makes his first lead vocal debut (Not "More Fool Me" from "SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND"). Phil's 'sensitive voice to 12-string guitar' was beautiful in blending his voice w/ the acoustic about 2 widowed ladies remembering about their lost loved husbands while going to church. The song title itself would be an errie forshadowing of what was to come within a few years down the road with this band.



THE RETURN OF THE GIANT HOGWEED: The title itself is hilarious when I first saw the name of this song. The opening of this tune was like a hogweed dancing through a distorted swriling pattern behind Hackett's fuzzed Les Paul & Banks' distorted Hohner electric piano. The song was based on an actual newspaper article when hogweeds were 'spreading' in English countryside. Gabriel has some unusual lines in this song like "They all need the sun to photosensitive their venom" and "They all are inmune to all our herbicidal batterings." Hackett's guitar tone is almost like an army of hogweeds that are "threatening the human race." Phil Collins tries to slash on through behind his Gretsch drumkit, but there is no hope-THE GIANT HOGWEED LIVES!



SEVEN STONES: A dreary tale about an old man who makes a living on greed & chance. Here's where Tony Banks' Mellotron MK II makes its presence adding more to the mournful landscape. When you hear this song, sit back, close your eyes, and hear "the old man tell his tale."



HAROLD THE BARREL: Here's where everyone, except Hackett but he makes his Black Beauty Les Paul sound voicelike, joins in on vocals. Here's where Peter Gabriel's dark disgusting sense of humor comes in. A quick story about a restarunt owner who flees & tries to leave town for 'cutting off his toes & serving them for tea.' Once the angry people surround Harold in a house, he threatens to 'take a running jump' from the upstairs of the house. His mother is brought in she begs Harold not to jump because "His shirt is all dirty & there's a man here from the BBC." This song could've been processed as a rock opera for it was a funny story.



HARLEQUIN: Another pretty song on this album where Phil & Peter take the lead on this one where 'all is not lost'. The tune has a hint of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young in a way, but still worth listening to.



THE FOUNTAIL OF SALMACIS: This was the song that really sold me. If there was one way to end this album this was the way. As the Hammond Organ & the Mellotron plays call & response in the opening of this tune Gabriel tells the tale of Hermophidites. Hackett & Banks once again develope their musical swriling patterns that would eventually become a trademark of Genesis. Lastly, the way this song ends the album, no other band created such an atmospheric ending to a wonderful album even before or after.



THE MUSICAL BOX & THE RETURN OF THE GIANT HOGWEED sound even better in the 1973 "LIVE" album. THE FOUNTAIN OF SALMACIS & the other 2 mentioned songs are also great when Genesis was on Belgian TV in 1972, otherwise known as "THE WHITE ROOM SESSIONS."



This is a great album from start to finish eventhough it's just over 39 minutes, but well worth it. For me, it finally grew on me & it was because of this album, it was the beginning of exploring progressive rock & the end of listening to 90's music, and mind you, this is coming from a 26 year old who 'shouldn't be listening to this.'"