One of the most influential Progressive Rock musicians of all time, Ian Anderson was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England back in 1947 and started his musical career in 1962. Five years later he would co-found the band Jethro Tull, which became one of the best-selling of the music genre. He is the only member of the group who was part of all their releases during the past five decades.
So he had the chance to see many other incredible bands playing over the years. He gave his opinion on some of them, including Genesis. Which is the influential group famous for having names like Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford.
What is Ian Anderson’s opinion on Genesis
Although Jethro Tull and Genesis were part of the same music genre, at least during the Peter Gabriel years, Ian Anderson was never a big fan of them. But the musician recognized their importance and told Vintage Rock in 2002 that they are part of the “Big Four” of Progressive Rock, in his opinion.
In an interview with Oswaldo Marques from Stay Rock Brazil in 2021 he said: “I was never a fan of Genesis. But their musicianship is amazing”. One of the things that didn’t make him like Genesis that much is that the group, at the time led by Peter Gabriel, used to take Prog Rock music too far. For Ian, as he told Live Music News & Review in 2019, they were “becoming rather self-indulgent.”
“That was 1972 that is where I guess I was getting those notions from, to be A, surreal, and B, beyond reality and to parody and send up certain institutions of Britishness. In doing so, under the umbrella of prog rock. I was in a way sending up the whole notion of the concept album and prog rock as it had become known in that period of time. Having started off in 1969 with the more gentle sound of progressive rock.”
He continued:
“Once it became prog, there was an element of send up and perhaps certain bands. Perhaps Yes or ELP and Genesis having taken it to a bit of an extreme. Where it was becoming rather self-indulgent. Musically great but self-indulgent and perhaps pompously setting themselves apart from rank and file musicians. Like the rest of us who were still learning to play our instruments,” Ian Anderson said.
Just like Jethro Tull, Genesis was also formed in 1967. During their career, the group released 7 studio albums with Peter Gabriel on vocals. Then from 1976 to 1991 teh band had Phil Collins as the vocalist. Their final album “Calling All Stations” was released in 1997 with Ray Wilson as the singer.
But obviously, what really made them one of the best-selling bands of the history of music was the years with Phil Collins. It was when the band adopted a more commercial sound.
Ian Anderson felt Genesis and other bands were doing arrogant and overblown music
In the mid-70s many Progressive Rock groups were already quite famous. They were pushing the music genre a little bit further, making more complex and long tracks. That was something that bothered Ian Anderson who felt they were making “arrogant” and “overblown” music. He explained that in an interview with Jim Rowland in 2012.
“Well yes, you’re paraphrasing, not entirely incorrectly, what I thought at the time. ‘Aqualung’ was perceived by the critics, rather than the audience, as a concept album. It gave them something to write about. There were two or three songs on there that were connected in some way. But there were a whole bunch of songs on there that had nothing to do with the other songs.”
“So I don’t think it’s really fair to call it a concept album. But the term ‘Progressive Rock’ I never had any problem with. I was more than happy to be thought of as a progressive rock musician that was fine. It was just later when the word ‘prog’ had rather dark overtones of bombastic, pompous, arrogant, overblown, selfish music. That was the spaghetti noodling of some of our peer groups like Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Genesis who tended to drone on a bit, and at that point we didn’t,” Ian Anderson said.
The musical direction those Progressive Rock bands adopted was a big inspiration for Punk Rock groups at the time. They felt that Rock music was losing its soul, as the songs had become very complex, long, and played by highly trained musicians. One of Punk’s main ideas was to bring Rock back to its basics.