Why Bill Bruford thought Genesis would never make it
While he is most commonly associated with King Crimson, Bill Bruford is a versatile drummer who seamlessly transitions across diverse genres, including symphonic rock and unconventional jazz. Although Bruford complemented the sounds of Genesis during their 1976 tour and played a pivotal role in propelling Yes to new heights, he eventually ventured into solo endeavours.
As with most percussionists, Bruford also had opinions on those he found talented and those he did not. In an interview with Far Out, he once shared who he considered to be his musical heroes. “I grew up with jazz,” he recalled, “so of course I was all the great jazz drummers of the day, such as Max Roach, Joe Morello from Dave Brubeck Quartet and perhaps Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.”
“I watched these guys playing and wondering how they never seemed to go wrong. How they seemed to control the three or four guys in front of them. And if you were in Art Blakey’s group in 1965, the music didn’t go anywhere until the drummer said so. Really put on the power behind you.”
However, on the other hand, Bruford also previously shared his opinion on other musical groups, including one in particular who he thought wouldn’t make it: Genesis. In 1976, Phil Collins and Bruford collaborated in Brand X, with Collins on drums and Bruford on percussion. Genesis had conducted numerous singer auditions, but none left a lasting impression. Bruford vaguely recalls expressing, “Why don’t you stand up front and sing, and I’ll cover for you on the drums? Then, you know it won’t fall apart.”
He volunteered to fill in temporarily until they found a suitable replacement and became familiar with the band’s music. “I was just concerned with doing a good job on drums as a kind of ‘hired gun’,” he explained, adding, “I behaved badly, sniped critically and impotently from the sidelines”, for which he later apologised.
In the book Genesis: Chapter and Verse, Bruford also shared the reasons why he didn’t think the band would make it in the early days. He stated, “I think everybody in Yes and King Crimson thought that Genesis would never make it because they sounded like a combination of the two groups. We thought they might be too late — we’d been there and done it. We saw them along the lines of ‘Genesis are quite fun, but they’ve got a guitarist who sits down like Robert Fripp and a drummer who plays a bit like Bill; the Americans have already had that.”
At the same time, he never felt a real connection with Genesis due to an inherent difference in musical approaches, as he puts it: “I like to wing it a bit on stage, but Genesis were very, very precise. I’m much more accustomed to making it up as I’m going along.” As most musicians know, if you don’t see eye-to-eye or understand what a band is all about, it just simply won’t work.
In fact, the overall ambience within Genesis presented a stark contrast to the tumultuous atmosphere of Yes. Bruford acknowledged the perplexing nature of how any of the members managed to get any work done in such a chaotic environment. Nevertheless, contrary to early predictions, Genesis established a successful following, and many of their hits continue to endure.
