Friday, April 17, 2009

An Awakening of the Mind

A fellow editor and I were walking back to our computers after a nice walk to Homeland, and she asked, "Bruce Springsteen or Huey Lewis?" I had to go with Huey Lewis. I don't know much Springsteen but grew up with The News. Then she said, "Huey Lewis or Billy Joel?" I had to go with Billy Joel. Then somehow Phil Collins came up, and she said, "He beats 'em all!"

I realized that growing up I thought that every Phil Collins song I heard on the radio was just a Phil Collins song. I knew of a band called Gensis, didn't I? But weren't they just a side project for Phil Collins for some short period of time?

Well, no. Duh.

I then realized that I now knew that Genesis was something bigger than I'd always suspected, but that I'd still never learned much about the band. So, I finally took to Wikipedia tonight and learned about Genesis, and whoa...what a project. I had no idea. Basically every Phil Collins song I ever loved growing up (aside from "In the Air Tonight" and "Sussudio" and the song about the homeless lady) was indeed a product of Genesis. Even less did I know that Peter Gabriel (holy cow) was the original singer of this band.

I am now up to speed on Genesis, at age 30.

1 comment:

Kathleen A. Ryan said...

"Follow You, Follow Me," has been my all time favorite song since the 70s. "Throwing It All Away," was a great one in the 80s, too. When Peter Gabriel left the band (a huge talent), they auditioned about 100 singers, then chose their drummer, Phil. I've been a Bruce fan since the early 70s, too. Love Huey Lewis and BIlly Joel, too. I met Billy Joel at a bar in Huntington called The Lion's Cage in 1980, he was there to see his favorite Long Island band at the time; I was 18, and he bought me a drink (I think I ordered a 7 Up; he ordered a creme de menthe).
Thanks for bringing up some great musicians!