From Genesis to Revelation

The founding line-up of Genesis consisted of guitarist Anthony Phillips, bassist Mike Rutherford, lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, and drummer Chris Stewart, all pupils of Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey. The five had played in the school's two active bands; Rutherford and Phillips were in Anon while Gabriel, Banks, and Stewart made up Garden Wall. During the Christmas holidays of 1966, after both groups had split, Phillips and Rutherford wrote some songs together at Rutherford's grandmother's house and asked Banks to play piano on a demo they were planning to record. Banks agreed under the condition that they also record a song he and Gabriel had written, "She Is Beautiful". During the Easter school holiday they entered a primitive recording studio run by Brian Roberts in Chiswick to record the material. Some sources claim all five members of what became Genesis were present, while others say Stewart was not involved at this point and that the drums on the demo were played by Gabriel. They assembled a tape of six songs originally intended for someone else to perform as the group saw themselves foremost as a collection of songwriters. This included five songs from Phillips and Rutherford: "Don't Want You Back", "Try a Little Sadness", "That's Me", "Listen on Five", and "Patricia", an instrumental, plus one from Gabriel and Banks, "She Is Beautiful". "Patricia" was later reworked into "In Hiding" and "She Is Beautiful" was later known as "The Serpent". Banks described the material as "straight pop music" as it was the direction the band wanted to explore. The second was sent to former Charterhouse pupil Jonathan King who had scored commercial success as a singer-songwriter and producer with his UK top five single "Everyone's Gone to the Moon" in 1965, and therefore seemed a natural choice. King visited the school during Old Boys Day, so the group had a friend give the tape to him. He listened to the tape in his car on his drive home and, despite its roughness, was immediately enthusiastic, particularly about Gabriel's vocals. ==Recording and production==

King offered his support to the band and paid them £40 to record four songs. He pressed for more simple arrangements, but maintained that his suggestion for the group to avoid playing electric instruments was because acoustic instruments were cheaper, rather than his personal taste. These early sessions took place between August and December 1967 at Regent Sound Studios on Denmark Street, London, with the intent on releasing them as singles. The four tracks put down were new arrangements of "She's Beautiful" and "Try a Little Sadness", with "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet" and "The Image Blown Out", the latter ultimately rejected from the album. King noticed the band's tendency to expand and complicate their arrangements, which he disliked and suggested they stick to straightforward pop songs. This culminated in King either trimming Banks's solo spots or removing them entirely, much to his annoyance. King later explained that because Genesis were still learning to play their instruments, he felt that they were not ready to take on longer works yet. In response, Gabriel and Banks wrote "The Silent Sun" as a pastiche of the Bee Gees, one of King's favourite bands, though King later claimed the Bee Gees pastiche description was inaccurate. The song was recorded at Regent Sound studio A in December 1967, with a section arranged and conducted by Arthur Greenslade added later in production. King came up with the group's name, thinking it marked the beginning of a "new sound and a new feeling", and that it was the true start of his career as a producer. and the album was put together in ten. King was the producer, and brought in Brian Roberts and former Charterhouse pupil Tom Allom as recording engineers. The sessions involved two four-track recording machines, and marked Banks's first time playing an organ. The material put down, Greenslade and Lou Warburton then added more string and horn arrangements to one stereo channel while mixing the band's performance on the other. This was done without the band's knowledge, which they thought compromised the strength of the songs. Phillips was particularly angered at the decision and was the only member to express his feelings towards it by stomping out of the studio on the last day. In a 2011 interview he said that in retrospect he understood why King thought the recordings needed the extra instrumentation, and explained that the problem was that due to the limitations of recording technology of the time, adding orchestration meant that everything else on the recording had to be reduced to mono. ==Release ==

The album was released in March 1969 and failed to chart. "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet" was released as a single on 27 June 1969 in an attempt to stimulate new interest. The album was released in the U.S. in 1974 after the group had grown in popularity, and peaked at No. 170 on the Billboard 200 in October of that year. Prior to its release, Decca discovered that an American act had also called themselves Genesis and asked the band to change its name to avoid confusion. King reached a compromise so the band's name would be omitted from the sleeve, leaving the album's title written in gold text in a Gothic style in order to evoke mystery when presented in music shops. Banks later deemed the material as merely poor renditions of their songs, rating "Silent Sun" and "In the Wilderness" as the strongest cuts. ==Reception and legacy==

When the album failed to become a success, the group decided to split and resume education. This marked the end of their association with King, who had grown increasingly dissatisfied with the band directing their material away from mainstream pop. In addition, Genesis had fulfilled their contractual obligation with Decca with the release of "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet", and neither they nor King were interested in renewing the deal. ==Reissues==

Although King initially had From Genesis to Revelation licensed to Decca Records on a short-term basis, he continues to hold the rights to the album and has re-released it several times under a variety of titles. He chooses to reissue it when there is demand for it, and claimed that Genesis have not attempted to purchase the rights from him. The album was not included in their Genesis 1970–1975 box set which covers the rest of the band's era with Gabriel. Some material that was put onto tape during 1967-1969 but remained unreleased was included on 1998 box set Genesis Archive 1967–75. This included tracks on From Genesis to Revelation without the string arrangements. On 25 October 2010, the album was released as a special edition on iTunes. It includes the bonus tracks from the 2000 reissue. ==Track listing==

All songs written by Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips, and Mike Rutherford. ==Personnel==

Credits are adapted from the original 1969 release. Genesis • Peter Gabriel – lead vocals, flute • Tony Banks – Hammond organ, piano, backing vocals • Anthony Phillips – guitars, backing vocals • Mike Rutherford – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals • John Silver – drums (except on "Silent Sun") Additional musicians • Chris Stewart – drums on "Silent Sun" • Arthur Greenslade – strings and horn arrangement, conducting • Lou Warburton – strings and horn arrangement, conducting Production • Jonathan King – producer • Brian Roberts – recording engineer • Tom Allom – recording engineer • Robert Stace – printing ==Charts==