The one Genesis song that Phil Collins refused to sing live: “I don’t really want to sing this”
While it might seem like there are countless ageing artists still touring, the truth is, the icons of the rock and roll explosion are now slowly packing up their equipment and the notion you might see them perform live becomes simply a dream. If you missed your chance to see progressive rock gods Genesis on their most recent The Last Domino? tour, chances are you probably missed out on seeing them all together.
While the question mark in the tour’s title leaves the door slightly open, Phil Collins seemed adamant that there would be no more Genesis after the tour’s conclusion. Considering the health scares the members of the band have faced since then, there is a good chance that the band will never set foot on the stage again.
“This English and American tour, that will be enough for me,” Collins told Mojo at the tour’s outset. “The question mark was [keyboardist] Tony Banks’ idea.” Eventually, Banks and bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford had to agree.
“We thought the 2007 tour would be the end, and this was never planned, so it was a nice thing to have happened,” Banks told USA Today. “But it’s important to know when to stop something. I thought the other day, Ed Sheeran is playing four nights at Wembley Stadium and that’s a wonderful moment in his career. We hit that moment 35 years ago. So I’d say if you want to see Genesis, don’t put it off ‘til the next one. We’re not like the Stones.”
So with the proverbial nail likely already in the Genesis coffin, now fans can go back and see the patterns that emerged throughout the band’s six-decade-long career. Some songs never left the rotation once they were introduced, like ‘I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)’ and ‘Turn It On Again’. Other songs fell by the wayside.
“That happened with ‘Abacab’, which I’m sure everyone expects us to do,” drummer Phil Collins told Rolling Stone while being interviewed for the band’s 2007 tour. “Halfway through the first verse, I said, ‘I don’t really want to sing this. I don’t know what it’s about.'” It’s a big step for a new singer to refuse to provide a vocal for a track, but Collins was never afraid to take a strong step.
The group weren’t necessarily bound to convention. Genesis built a reputation on being progressive thinkers and forward-thinking creators, meaning their dedication was always to the evolution of their sound. Naturally, as the group approached elder statesmen ages, the chance to scale back some of the songs from the set was always likely to open up.
It wasn’t the only song that Genesis dropped from their live shows. Everything from classics like ‘Watcher of the Skies’ and ‘Supper’s Ready’ to pop hits like ‘In Too Deep’ and ‘Misunderstanding’ came and went from the band’s setlists. Of course, with two different singers and a wide variety of material from across their catalogue, you can’t get every piece of Genesis history into a single live performance.
There were plenty of prog-rock holdovers from the Peter Gabriel years in more recent Genesis shows, even as the band’s original frontman declined to participate. Parts of ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’ were included in the acoustic set for The Last Domino? tour. Hardcore fans might have been calling out for something like ‘The Musical Box’, but that probably would have been a bit of a stretch considering how it was such a Gabriel showpiece.
