‘Squonk’: The song that gave Genesis their new lead singer
Any rock band trying to replace their singer has to deal with some serious questions before they even start auditions. For many, the vocalist is the one person people identify with every time they see you in concert, and now that the face of the group is gone, is it really worth it trying to continue on if all the personality got sucked out of everything? A group like Genesis didn’t necessarily have small shoes to fill when Peter Gabriel left, either, but when performing ‘Squonk’, they realised that the next best option for a vocalist was already in the group.
No matter who they went with for a potential replacement, though, Gabriel had already cast a firm shadow over all of their lives. After all, Gabriel had helped start the group back in the late 1960s, and considering his habit of dressing up like a flower or performing with a fox’s head on his face during the show, their shows went from prog rock concerts to borderline theatrical productions with him out front.
By the time The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was underway, though, Gabriel felt they had done all they could together. Now, with his newborn baby at the house, the frontman figured it was time to step down, leaving the group right after the accompanying tour and turning them into a four-piece.
While Phil Collins had sung a few tracks for the group to take the edge off of Gabriel’s antics, it’s not like he was itching to get in front of the stage. Let’s face it: The Beatles didn’t get to where they were by having Ringo Starr up there singing all the songs, so how would this be looked at differently?
But after one too many failed sessions with new singers, Collins was at the end of his rope when he asked the rest of the group if he could try his hand at singing, telling Behind the Music, “[The last singer] didn’t sound that great, and I said, ‘Can I have a go? I know I can do better than this.’ So I went down to the studio and sang the song, and everybody went, ‘Yeah, it sounds great.’”
Listening to A Trick of the Tail, though, there are a lot of similarities between Collins’s and Gabriel’s vocal tones as well. While ‘Squonk’ is a lot heavier than the other tracks that Genesis would create, Collins’s knack for cutting through the mix had the same soaring quality that Gabriel brought to ‘Supper’s Ready’ years before.
And it’s not like they forgot about their progressive rock roots. While everyone and their mother talks about how Collins is the one who ruined Genesis by stepping up and turning them into a pop group, that didn’t get started until And Then There Were Three, leaving the next few albums to be massive exercises without having to be tied down by Gabriel’s antics.
If anything, Collins brought the more authentic progressive edge back to Genesis after spending years silent behind the drum stool. So next time people try to use tracks like ‘Invisible Touch’ as ammunition to use against Collins, just play them ‘Dance on a Volcano’ and see if they change their tune.
