Genesis Abacab released

Abacab Genesis

Released: September 14, 1981 Peak: 7 US, 12 UK, 3 CN, 18 AU, 13 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.3 UK, 6.5 world (includes US + UK), 7.6 EAS Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Abacab [6:58] No Reply at All [4:33] Me and Sarah Jane [6:02] Keep It Dark [4:33] Dodo/Lurker [7:28] Who Dunnit? [3:22] Man on the Corner [4:28] Like It or Not [4:58] Another Record [4:38] Total Running Time: 47:03 Other Songs from This Era: Paperlate You Might Recall Me and Virgil The Players: Phil Collins (vocals, drums, percussion) Mike Rutherford (guitar, bass, backing vocals) Tony Banks (keyboards, backing vocals)

Rating: 3.787 out of 5.00 (average of 19 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Another Transition 1981 was a pivotal year for Genesis. They experienced their greatest transition in 1974 when founding member Peter Gabriel left for a solo career. Phil Collins took over duties as lead singer and the band would gradually move away from their progressive rock roots to a more pop and album-rock-oriented sound. They experienced another major shake up in 1978 after the departure of guitarist Steve Hackett. This left the band as a trio – and marked the beginning of their first top-40 success in America with the single “Follow You Follow Me” from their album And Then There Were Three. Their next album, Duke, produced album rock staples “Turn It on Again” and “Misunderstanding.” Phil Collins then decided it was time to embark on a solo career. He released his first solo album, Face Value, in early 1981 and nabbed a couple of top-20 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 with “In the Air Tonight” and “I Missed Again.” Genesis fans would be understandably nervous that with Collins now experiencing the biggest success of his career, the band might be over. Tony Banks nailed the nervousness the band felt about its future with his comment that “We wanted Phil to do well. Just not that well.” SM-90 And the Band Moved Forward Instead, the band stayed together. In fact, Collins alternated between solo albums and Genesis albums for a decade, becoming one of the biggest names of the 1980s. Abacab, the first Genesis album after Collins’ solo outing, showed the momentum would just keep moving forward. It became the group’s first double-platinum, top-10 album in the United States, featuring three top-40 hits. Previous album “Duke showcased a new Genesis – a sleek, hard, stylish trio that truly sounded like a different band from its first incarnation – but Abacab was where this new incarnation of the band came into its own.” AM They “cut back on complexity, solos and big choruses.” SM-88 It was a “stripped-down pop/rock album.” BE Mike Rutherford said that the band needed to change or die; otherwise he would have become bored. SM-88 “Straining to feel like virtuosos while staying terse, Genesis piled up staccato, minimalist keyboard patterns behind some of their bleakest lyrics.” JP “Working once again with producer Hugh Padgham, the group escalated the innovations of Duke, increasing the pop hooks, working them seamlessly into the artiest rock here.” AM “This is still art rock at its core, or at least album-oriented rock, as the band works serious syncopations and instrumental forays into a sound that’s as bright, bold, and jagged as the modernist artwork on the cover.” AM Most of the album “is truly modern art rock, their last album that could bear that tag comfortably.” AM The Cover “Bill Smith designed the cover, and an undefinable shape was chosen as the main motif to match that abstract aim of the material. Not only were there four different versions of the cover, all with different colour schemes released, but the Genesis logo was replaced by one hand-drawn in pencil.” SM-90 Additional Tracks “Although there was more than enough material recorded for a double album at the time, the band decided to abandon anything that sounded like their previous material. Three of those tracks were released later on the 3 x 3 extended play single.” SM-90 The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Abacab Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Released: 8/14/81 (single), Abacab (1981), Turn It on Again – The Hits (compilation, 1999), Platinum Collection (compilation, 2004), Turn It on Again – The Hits (Tour Edition) (compilation, 2007), The Last Domino? (compilation, 2021) B Side: “Another Record” Peak: 26 BB, 40 CB, 17 G, 31 HR, 22 RR, 4 AR, 9 UK, 11 CN, 35 AU, 7 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 22.55 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “The rampaging title track [is] possibly their hardest-rocking song to date.” AM It features “an up-front drum sound, pounding bass and exciting keyboard stabs” SM-90 although “later the song wanders into a somewhat bland jam session.” SM-90 Phil Collins even said that “halfway through the first verse…that he really didn’t want to sing it, as he had no idea what the song was all about.” SM-90 “As a live track, however, the song came into its own.” SM-90

No Reply at All Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Released: 9/9/81 (single), Abacab (1981), Turn It on Again – The Hits (Tour Edition) (compilation, 2007) B Side: “Dodo” (US), “Naminanu” (EU) Peak: 29 BB, 28 CB, 16 GR, 28 HR, 13 RR, 2 AR, 7 CN, 74 AU, 9 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 12.32 streaming About the Song: “The brash, glorious” AM “No Reply at All” was “a precise piece of nearly new wave pop” AM “powered by the percolating horns of Earth, Wind & Fire.” AM It was the first Genesis song since their debut, From Genesis to Revelation, to feature guest musicians. SM-90 The song “echoes the funk…Collins was savoring on his smash solo debut, Face Value.” JP In fact, the song “is reminiscent of ‘I Missed Again’ from Face Value.” SM-90 Over the next few albums, the line between Collins’ solo work and Genesis albums would become increasingly blurred.

Me and Sarah Jane Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks Released: Abacab (1981) Peak: 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.15 streaming About the Song: On Abacab, Genesis “dabble in other genres, lacing Me and Sarah Jane with a reggae beat, for instance, which often adds dimension to their sound.” AM Banks said, “I poured all this flowery stuff into one song and reminded myself to keep it simple on the rest of the album. It is probably my last Genesis song that had thousands of those chord changes.” SM-91 “Banks brings us one of his renowned chord fests in this song, written before the band gathered to work on the album, so it sounds more like previous material before the mantra of simplicity became the daily chant of the band. It moves slowly with a drum machine pattern, and the simplistic staccato playing style from Banks feels somewhat uncomfortable, but the song quickly opens up after the tempo change” SM-91 at nearly the one-minute mark. “The verse jogs along until a long chord progression takes us to an uplifting section at 3:11. It feels like we were now at the best part of the song, but once again Banks takes us up a level at 3:30, and once again at 4:05, and these last sections are spectacular. Even as the end of the piece fades out, Banks throws in a few new chords just for good measure.” SM-91

Keep It Dark Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Released: 10/23/81 (single), Abacab (1981), Platinum Collection (compilation, 2004), Turn It on Again – The Hits (Tour Edition) (compilation, 2007) B Side: “Naminanu” Peak: 40 CL, 33 UK, 28 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.21 streaming About the Song: This “is the story of a person who is abducted by aliens and sees many fantastic sights, but on his return can’t tell anyone as he fears they wouldn’t believe him.” SM-91 In the book On Track, Stuart Macfarlane says the song exposes the drawbacks of the trio writing the majority of the album together in the studio. He says, “With an eagerness to adopt new technology, but without the time to tame and bottle it, tedium is created around the overuse of the rhythm loop.” SM-91 He goes on to argue that without the peer pressure within the band, they might have modified the song or not even recorded it at all. SM-91 Ouch.

Dodo/Lurker Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Released: “Dodo”: (9/9/81 as B side of “No Reply at All”), Abacab (1981) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.85 streaming About the Song: The song starts “with a huge keyboard chord blast and soaring lead guitar. The song moves through several sections with Collins singing one of them in a lower register making him almost unrecognizable. The lyrics are written from the perspective of someone who is not a native English speaker. The solo from Banks in the ‘Lurker’ section when Collins sings ‘and then something spoke, and this is what it said to me’ is very simple but it works beautifully in the context of the song.” SM-92 Meanwhile “Dodo rides a hard funk beat and greasy organ synths yet doesn't become obvious; it turns inward, requiring active listening.” AM

Who Dunnit? Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Released: Abacab (1981) Peak: 36 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.03 streaming About the Song: While “the Mockney jokes of Who Dunnit? could count” AM as one of the album’s more “immediate and accessible” AM songs, “it’s too much of a geeky novelty to be pop.” AM In the book On Track, Stuart Macfarlane called it the band’s “attempt at a punk-style song.” SM-92 He said Banks acknowledged how many called it the worst song ever recorded by the band. SM-92

Man on the Corner Genesis

Writer(s): Phil Collins (see lyrics here) Released: 3/5/82 (single), Abacab (1981), Turn It on Again – The Hits (Tour Edition) (compilation, 2007) B Side: “Submarine” First Charted: March 13, 1982 Peak: 40 BB, 45 CB, 30 GR, 64 HR, 14 AR, 41 UK, 28 CN, 3 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.9 video, 10.64 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Genesis had finally broken through to the top 40 with 1978’s “Follow You Follow Me” and then repeated the trick with “Misunderstanding” in 1980. Abacab pushed the band to even greater heights with three top 40 hits. “Man on the Corner,” the third of those, felt more akin to “In the Air Tonight,” the top 20 hit from Phil Collins’ Face Value album released earlier in 1981. The song is “sleek and spooky” AM and “hides a real melancholy heart underneath its glistening surface.” AM It is “about a man who spends every day on a street corner, apparently homeless or mentally disturbed, staring vacantly and shouting at random people.” SF Collins wrote the song “about the homeless epidemic and society’s reluctance to help the homeless or find a resolution.” WK He returned to theme again on his solo #1 hit “Another Day in Paradise” in 1989. “Rutherford says it was tricky getting the timing right to spot the upbeat when to come in when playing on top of it. It has a nice, simple keyboard pad through the verse but the song opens up halfway through when the drums come in, and the mood lifts.” SM-92

Like It Or Not Genesis

Writer(s): Mike Rutherford Released: Abacab (1981) Peak: 31 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.65 streaming About the Song: With its “simple, slow, swing beat, the opening of this song is reminiscent of ‘Misunderstanding.’ Rutherford was always a good writer of short, catchy, commercial songs even before the formation of his other band Mike + the Mechanics.” SM-92 “The track is only let down by the use of the saxophone synth ‘solo’ by Banks. It would have been much better with a more standard synth sound, or even…an actual sax player.” SM-92

Another Record Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Released: 8/14/81 (B side of “Abacab”), Abacab (1981) Peak: 27 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.14 streaming About the Song: Banks delivers “some great Yamaha piano and lush synth pad in the introduction, leading into what sadly becomes another drum-heavy track. The chorus, which tells the listener to put another record on, seems very appropriate at this point.” SM-92

Paperlate Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Recorded: May – June 1981 at the Farm in Surrey Released: 5/15/82 (single), 3 x 3 (EP, 5/21/82), Three Sides Live (live, 1982), Platinum Collection (compilation, 2004), Turn It on Again – The Hits (Tour Edition) (compilation, 2007) B Side: “You Might Recall” Peak: 32 BB, 31 CB, 33 GR, 2 AR, 10 UK, 25 CN, 73 AU, 8 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.44 streaming About the Song: This track “used the Phoenix Horns to create a 60s soul vibe.” SM-94 The tile is taken from a lyric in Genesis’ ow song, “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”: “Paper late, cried a voice in the crowd.” SM-94 While recorded during the sessions for Abacab, this song didn’t make the cut because of its similarity to “No Replay at All.” SM-94

You Might Recall Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Recorded: May – June 1981 at the Farm in Surrey Released: 5/15/82 (B side of “Paperlate”), 3 x 3 (EP, 5/21/82), Three Sides Live (live, 1982) Peak: 40 AR Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.39 streaming About the Song: “Rutherford says this is reminiscent of ‘Alone Tonight’ and ‘Say It’s Alright Joe,’ though it is more upbeat than either of those songs. Collins’ drumming is great on this, and the only disappointment is Banks’ selection of a twee, squeaky patch for the short solo. The fade out at the end…seems to start mid-verse as if they gave up on the end of the song.” SM-94

Me and Virgil Genesis

Writer(s): Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford Recorded: May – June 1981 at the Farm in Surrey Released: 3 x 3 (EP, 5/21/82), Three Sides Live (live, 1982) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: “Collins calls the song ‘a dog’ and cites this as the worst example of his songwriting…Such was his dislike for the song it was omitted from the Genesis Archive Two: 1976-1992 release which included the other two tracks” SM-94 from the 3 x 3 EP.

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine SM Stuart Macfarlane (2019). On Track…Genesis: Every Album, Every Song. Sonic Bond Publishing: United Kingdom. JP Jon Pareles, Blender magazine (10/07). Pages 118-9. SF Songfacts page for “Man on the Corner” WK Wikipedia page for “Man on the Corner” Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/3/2010; last updated 6/25/2026.