Book review: GENESIS – Every Album, Every Song (On Track) by Stuart Macfarlane

Sonicbond Publishing [Publication date 5.07.19]

For those wishing to find out more about the prog rockers who went pop, this is a useful summary following the band’s progress from shaky beginnings in 1969 to their final studio album ‘Calling All Stations’ nearly 30 years later.

No doubt further volumes will highlight the band member’s solo careers, there’s too much to trawl in one sitting and this tome only mentions some side projects in passing.

Whilst these ‘On track…’ books are well researched they essentially distil “what’s out there” referencing (via the bibliography) previously published material rather than with any new interviews or real insight. Again, the lack of indexing prevents any ease of cross-referencing.

As ever, the narrative contains a fair amount of subjective view and may irritate some fans. Of course one man’s ‘Hold On My Heart’ (released as a single 1992) is another man’s ‘Who Dunnit?’ (a punk-influenced, somewhat throwaway song on 1981′s ‘Abacab’) which also gets a drubbing here.

For the former, Macfarlane opines “It is a mundane, quiet ballad that, if I’m honest, created the perfect opportunity to take a restroom break or go to the bar during live sets. It’s that dull.” This book may have you shouting at the pages, as you might shout at the TV during BBC Question Time. Stressful. ***

Review by David Randall

On track…ELP, Deep Purple/Rainbow
On track…Blue Oyster Cult
On track…Queen

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)