Today in Music (1969): Genesis From Genesis to Revelation released

From Genesis to Revelation Genesis

Released: March 7, 1969 Peak: 170 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Genre: progressive rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Where the Sour Turns to Sweet (6/27/69, --) In the Beginning Fireside Song The Serpent Am I Very Wrong? In the Wilderness The Conqueror In Hiding One Day Window In Limbo Total Running Time: 43:25 Other Songs from This Era: The Silent Sun (2/2/68, --) * A Winter’s Tale (5/10/68, --) * * on reissues The Players: Peter Gabriel (vocals, flute) Anthony Phillips (guitar, backing vocals) Mike Rutherford (bass, guitar, backing vocals) Tony Banks (keyboards, backing vocals) John Silver (drums)

Rating: 2.618 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings)

About the Album “Every band has to start somewhere” JP and with Genesis’ “members barely past their 18th birthdays… [they were] still working out what they wanted to sound like.” AM As “produced by English impresario Jonathan King,” JP “they sound like the Bee Gees… (picture something similar to the…Odessa album)” AM “trying to be the Moody Blues.” AM The latter was because of orchestration added by King, which made the band sound like “an earnest, mushy, cliché-spouting knockoff.” JP The album received little notice from critics or the public. Genesis were “too pop-oriented in its melodies, spirit, and approach to fit in with the heavy psychedelia of the period; but also too complex to appeal to those listeners enamored of the Bee Gees and other pop/rock acts; and not nearly hard-rocking enough to appeal to the fans of the likes of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, et al.” BE When the band’s contracts with King and Decca Records ended in June 1969, it looked like the members might go their separate ways. Phillips and Gabriel were planning to go to college. Rutherford was already at Farnborough Technical College and Banks was at Essex University studying physics. BE “The Silent Sun and Where the Sour Turns to Sweet are pleasant enough, but scarcely indicate the true potential of the group or its members. A pleasant enough piece of pop-psychedelia/art rock, but not a critically important release, except to the truly dedicated.” AM “The most amazing thing about this album – a true relic of late-1960s hokum – is that Genesis didn’t change the band name out of embarrassment.” JP Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review JP Jon Pareles, Blender magazine (10/07). Pages 118-9. Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/3/2010; last updated 9/14/2025.