'Many, too many' was the follow-up to 'Follow you, follow me', the band's first worldwide success. By contrast, this single didn't do much, chart-wise. It reached number 43 in the UK and number 41 in Germany, but it didn't chart anywhere else.
My collection: 7" single no. 7357
Found: Record fair, Rotterdam, 5 October 2024
Tracks: 'Many, too many' / 'The day the light went out', 'Vancouver'
'Paperlate' was actually part of an EP that clocks in at over 15 minutes of music. They were part of a session for the album 'Abacab' but according to the blurb on the back of the sleeve they didn't fit on the album - remember when LP's forced artists to stick to a maximum of 45 minutes?
My collection: 7" single no. 6333
Found: Discogs.com, received 23 December 2020
Cost: 50p
Tracks: 'Paperlate', 'You might recall' / 'Me and Virgil'
'Throwing it all away' was released as the last single from the Genesis album 'Invisible touch' in the summer of 1987. It reached number 22 in the UK singles chart and number 4 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
'Hold on my heart' is one of the few ballads released as a single by Genesis. Taken from their 1991 album 'We can't dance', it was released as the third single in April 1992.
'No son of mine' was released as the first single from Genesis' 1991 album 'We can't dance'. The lyric tells the story of a boy who runs away from his abusive home, and - after some reconsideration - attempts to return, only to be rebuked by his father. In interviews, Phil Collins has said that the lyrics are deliberately vague as to whether the narrator or his mother is the victim of the abuse.
'In too deep' was recorded for Genesis' 1986 album 'Invisible touch'. It was released as the second single from the album in the UK and the fifth single in the USA. It was to be the band's final single in the USA until 'No son of mine' (1991).
The nicest feature of this single is the sleeve: the label which carries a photograph of flowers is visible through a larger hole at the front, whereas the back cover is entirely brown and doesn't have a hole in it.
'Mama' was written and recorded by Genesis on their 1983 album 'Genesis'. Phil Collins commented at the time: 'Our manager, when he first heard it, thought it was about abortion, the kind of feeling of the foetus saying to the mother 'Please give me a chance, can't you feel my heart, don't take away my last chance'. All those lyrics are in the song but in fact what it is, is just about a young teenager that's got a mother fixation with a prostitute that he's just happened to have met in passing and he has such a strong feeling for her and doesn't understand why she isn't interested in him.'
If you're wondering what 'Abacab' means: you're not alone. In an interview, Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford explained in an interview that the band labeled various sections of the song with letters of the alphabet, and at one point the sections were ordered A-B-A-C-A-B. Rutherford commented that the completed song no longer followed this format, but the name was kept nevertheless.
I didn't hear 'Follow you follow me' until the second half of the Eighties, and I couldn't believe this was a song from 1978. The track was taken from Genesis's ninth studio album 'And then there were three...', a title to reflect the departure of band member Steve Hackett, reducing the band to a trio. This lineup would last until 1996, and give them their biggest mainstream successes.
'Land of confusion' was composed by Genesis, while the lyric was written by band member Mike Rutherford. It discusses the greed and uncertainty of the Cold War-era Eighties, but also evoke a sense of hope for the future. The song is remembered by most people for its music video, in which puppets from the Eighties show Spitting Image were used to portray the band and several contemporary politicians.
'Tonight, tonight, tonight' is a track on the 1986 album 'Invisible touch' by Genesis. It is the second longest song on the album at 8 minutes and 53 seconds. When it was released as the fourth single from the album, the track was edited down to 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
The lyric of 'Illegal alien' are a humorous depiction of the frustrations an illegal immigrant faces, leading up to the chorus: 'It's no fun/Being an illegal alien'. Even though the lyrics are intended as a satire and to be taken in jest, it can easily be misinterpreted as making light of the problem of illegal immigrants.
The Italian promo single is a strange phenomenon. There are several in my collection, and without exception they are white label promos, released in a custom white sleeve, with two A-side tracks from different artists on them. In this case: 'Don't give up' by Peter Gabriel and 'In too deep' by Genesis.
'Invisible touch' was the title track of Genesis' 1986 album and released as its first single. The song came about during a jam for the second parts of another album tracks 'Domino/The last domino', Mike Rutherford apparently playing a riff while Phil Collins improvised the line 'She seems to have an invisible touch'. It was recorded at the band's studio Fisher Lane Farm during 1985 and 1986.
As Genesis had been recording and touring constantly in 1977 and 1978, it was decided by the members Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford to take the majority of 1979 off. Banks and Rutherford started working on solo material, while Collins made an attempt to save his marriage by following his wife to Canada. This didn't work, and so Collins returned to the UK and started working on solo material of his own, as well as new songs for Genesis.
