Thursday, March 23, 1978

3/23/1978: Genesis And Then There Were Three…

And Then There Were Three…

Genesis

Released: March 23, 1978

Peak: 14 US, 3 UK, 11 CN, 12 AU Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.1 UK, 5.5 world (includes US + UK), 7.54 EAS

Genre: progressive rock/classic rock

Tracks:

Down and Out [5:28]
Undertow [4:47]
Ballad of Big [4:51]
Snowbound [4:31]
Burning Rope [7:31]
Deep in the Motherlode [5:16]
Many Too Many [3:32] (6/23/78, 42 CL, 43 UK)
Scenes from a Night’s Dream [3:30]
Say It’s Alright Joe [4:21]
The Lady Lies [6:08]
Follow You, Follow Me [4:01] (2/24/78, 23 US, 22 CB, 27 HR, 21 AC, 4 CL, 7 UK, 25 CN, 16 AU, 10 DF)

Total Running Time: 53:35

The Players:

Phil Collins (vocals, drums, percussion)
Mike Rutherford (guitar, bass, backing vocals)
Tony Banks (keyboards, backing vocals)

Rating:

3.457 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings)

About the Album

On the eve of the band’s release of live album Seconds Out, Steve Hackett announced his departure from the band. Genesis used Daryl Stuermer in concert, but Rutherford stepped up to cover guitar parts in the studio. The trio “released the appropriately titled And Then There Were Three, which abandoned any efforts at progressive rock in favor of a softer pop sound.” ^BE The album gave them their first full-fledged taste of success in America with a gold album and a top-40 single in “Follow You, Follow Me.”

“Adios to Steve Hackett’s lead guitar.” ^JP The new lineup, now “dwindled down to Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins, a situation alluded to in the title,” ^AM “made its most anthem-laden album, with keyboardist Banks seizing the foreground.” ^JP “And Then There Were Three, more than either of its immediate predecessors, feels like the beginning of the second phase of Genesis.” ^AM

There are still songs with “high-concept scenarios – one seems to be about a killer snowman – but the music sets aside most of the old digressions in favor of pop discipline.” ^JP Overall, “the group’s aesthetic was…shifting, moving away from the fantastical, literary landscapes that marked both the early Genesis LPs and the two transitional post-Gabriel outings, as the bandmembers turned their lyrical references to contemporary concerns and slowly worked pop into the mix” ^AM and making sure “the songs stay grounded in melody.” ^JP

Never is the new pop sound more apparent than on Follow You, Follow Me. It gave Genesis “its first U.S. hit, even if old fans started to feel betrayed.” ^JP “Its calm, insistent melody, layered with harmonies, is a perfect soft rock hook, although there’s a glassy, almost eerie quality to the production that is also heard throughout the rest of the record.” ^AM

“These chilly surfaces are an indication that Genesis don’t quite want to abandon prog at this point, but the increasing emphasis on melody and tight song structures points the way toward the group’s ‘80s work.” ^AM