The curious case of a Nina Simone song that led to the formation of Genesis
When artists talk about their inspirations, one thing becomes clear: influence rarely follows neat or predictable paths. It doesn’t stay in one lane or respect genre boundaries. Someone from one end of the musical spectrum can be deeply inspired by someone from the other, just as Genesis were inspired by Nina Simone.
I’d argue that there is absolutely nothing that connects the sound of Nina Simone to the sound of Genesis. Any tethers are loose and limp, like the odd melody or the use of piano or the fact that both could write ballads and rousing tunes alike.
But beyond that, there is nothing concrete to bind the British rock band, which formed in 1967 at their private school, to Simone, the piano virtuoso and songwriter who became an essential voice in the civil rights movement.
Across the board, things are different: Genesis were undeniably born into and forged from privilege, Simone was not, both from a family money perspective and from the fact that racism was still rife, and especially rife in the classical music space she first entered.
The vast differences go on as the band was an ever-changing act in both lineup and style, and the soulful singer seemed to know herself from the start, finding her voice and being uncompromising about it, even as her musicality involved all kinds of genres. The bottom line spells it out, which is, Genesis was a rock band, and Simone was uncategorisable.
But that’s exactly why Genesis seemed to hook onto her. To Tony Banks, without Simone, there might not have even been a Genesis, as he recalled, “Peter and I had been close friends for a long time, ever since we had been at school. He was less shy than me, but he was also quite shy. So whenever we could, we used to get around the piano, and Peter would try to sing.”
As two kids who clearly wanted to make music but didn’t really know how yet, Simone represented a tentative first step as one of the key artists who united the boys and intrigued them. “There were certain songs that appealed to both of us, and I remember working out things on the piano like ‘Change Gonna Come’ and ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ by Otis Redding, and ‘I Put A Spell On You’ by Nina Simone’,” Banks said, with her being included in that essential early songbook.
However, this story isn’t uncommon. A staggering number of artists, spanning all genres and eras, reference her as a vital influence. “Secretly, I think I wanted to be Nina Simone,” Jeff Buckley once said, covering her songs over and over as part of his musical education. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis talk about meeting her and seeing her perform as the best day of their lives, with Ellis even carrying around her chewing gum as a talisman of talent and luck for decades. In modern music, Cameron Winter is a devotee of Simone.
She defies all genre limitations in her influence. Even though she likely would have absolutely hated Genesis, it’s no real surprise that she played a part in inspiring them.
