And we’re back! By now you’ve had plenty of time to digest our words of wisdom from the first installment of Platters That Matter, but just in case you haven’t, we’ll wait.
For our sophomore podcast, we’re jumping ahead a few years. 1980 to be precise. In March of that year Genesis released their tenth studio album — and fourth without Peter Gabriel — Duke. The record found the trio of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford moving further away from the bread and butter progressive rock sound and more into mainstream pop. But the full transformation had not yet happened, and the result is a brilliant blend of the two styles.
It was a tumultuous time for prog rock royalty Genesis, who released their second album as a trio. In part a concept album, in part not, the songs reflect the marital strife of Phil Collins (who was on the verge of becoming a solo superstar); the desire to take the band from respected British art rock circles to the top of the charts; and to finally break free of the long, long shadow cast by Gabriel (who was himself experiencing a career surge during this time period).
Aided in part by producer David Hentschel (engineer, with producer Gus Dudgeon, on Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, as well as the man who played the ARP 2500 synth preamble to “Funeral for a Friend”), Genesis took the gains made by …And Then There Were Three‘s “Follow You, Follow Me” and scored two significant hits with “Misunderstanding” and “Turn It On Again.”
Your humble hosts, Chris Holmes and Dw. Dunphy, delve into the prog fan backlash that picked up steam with this record and dogged the band throughout the ’80s (but not too severely), as well as the initial plans for the larger “Duke’s Suite.” They also heap praise on one song that didn’t make the cut, and try to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding this photo:
Any ideas?
Sound interesting? Turn Platters That Matter on again… and when you’re done, head on over to Twitter to tell Chris and Dw. what you think!
Platters That Matter, Episode 2: Genesis – Duke (1:27:24, 80.0 MB)
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