From Genesis to Revelation

From Genesis to Revelation is a debut studio album by Genesis. Released in March 1969 it was met with lukewarm reviews and disappeared without a trace. Some stores placed it in their religious record racks, due to its visual nature — the cover included Gothic-style typeface that made it look like something very religious.

As Chris Welch writes, this "was an unknown, inexperienced bunch of schoolboys, attempting to launch themselves with a remarkably ambitious recording project. Their theme was the creation of the world, as told in The Bible and the subsequent evolution of Mankind. It was a bit like a local film club attempting to re-makeBen Hurfor their first movie project. It’s commercial failure almost broke up the group and the album remained an unmentionable topic for many years. Few fans were even aware of its existence when the band achieved success in the early Seventies."

Despite its faults, the album gave an indication of Peter Gabriel vocal qualities, the imaginative scope of his lyric writing and the musical capabilities of Tony Banks, whose piano playing was really prominent.

History
The album originated from 1967 sessions, when Charterhouse public schoolboys band sent a demo tape to Jonathan King at Decca Records. Jonathan was impressed by the tape, combined of two groups songs — The Garden Wall and The Anon, now combined and renamed to The New Anon. They were now signed to Jonathan's company and given a sum of £40 for four songs. Recording at London's Regent Sound, Banks and Gabriel came up with a song they thought would have more pop appeal. It was a Bee Gees-style track titled "The Silent Sun", coupled with "That's Me" on the B-side when released as a single, in February 1968. It failed to get into the charts and the next one, "A Winter's Tale" was disastrous.

King kept his faith in their potential and during August they were invited to prepare a full album. With the new drummer, John Silver, they had done hardly any real gigs, though they have rehearsed quite much. Impressed by their studio work Jonathan came up with the idea of doing a conceptual album, with all the tracks connected to the world creation as told in the Bible.

Reissues
From Genesis to Revelation has been re-issued many times, always including the first two singles and their B-sides. A 2000 edition included a bonus disc containing King's interview and 2005 Deluxe CD has a facsimile of the original 1969 Decca LP cover, with a slipcase package featuring, for the first time since the vinyl release, Peter Gabriel’s sleeve notes with lyrics and drawings. Disc 1 contained the original 13 song album, while Disc 2 comprised four non-album single sides and a further nine tracks — demos, single A and B sides and rough mixes from 1967 and 1968 — arranged chronologically.

Notes: None of these reissues have been completely endorsed by the band as they don't have any control over this material.

Track listing

 * 1) "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet" (Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel) – 3:16
 * 2) "In the Beginning" (Gabriel, Anthony Phillips) – 3:44
 * 3) "Fireside Song" (Banks, Phillips, Mike Rutherford) – 4:58
 * 4) "The Serpent" (Banks, Gabriel) – 3:58
 * 5) "Am I Very Wrong?" (Banks, Gabriel) – 3:31
 * 6) "In the Wilderness" (Banks, Gabriel, Phillips, Rutherford) – 3:39
 * 7) "The Conqueror" (Banks, Gabriel) – 3:22
 * 8) "In Hiding" (Gabriel, Phillips) – 2:38
 * 9) "One Day" (Banks, Gabriel) – 3:21
 * 10) "Window" (Phillips, Rutherford) – 3:33
 * 11) "In Limbo" (Banks, Gabriel, Phillips, Rutherford) – 3:30
 * 12) "Silent Sun" (Banks, Gabriel) – 2:13
 * 13) "A Place to Call My Own" (Gabriel, Phillips) – 1:59

Bonus tracks
The following list aims to demonstrate some notable differences between some editions. While there are many other variations, not all of them can be included, so the Discogs entry for the album is the best way to browse through different releases.

1986/1987/1990 release bonus tracks

 * 1) "A Winter's Tale" – 3:28
 * 2) "One Eyed Hound" – 2:30

1990 DCC release bonus tracks
Previous bonus tracks plus:
 * 1) "The Silent Sun" – 2:13
 * 2) "That's Me" – 2:31

1993 Music Club release

 * 1) "A Winter's Tale" – 3:31
 * 2) "One Eyed Hound" – 2:31
 * 3) "That's Me" – 2:38
 * 4) "The Silent Sun" (Mono Single Version) – 2:12

1996 TransLuxe release
Same as the 1993 release plus:
 * 1) "Interview - Kenneth King Becomes Jonathan King" – 1:03
 * 2) "Interview - Earth To Moon" – 3:51
 * 3) "Interview - Butchering Of The Sacred Cow" – 1:54
 * 4) "Interview - The Genesis Of Genesis" – 3:57
 * 5) "Interview - Peter Gabriel" – 1:03
 * 6) "Interview - The Sessions" – 2:19
 * 7) "Interview - Irony Of Drummers" – 0:50
 * 8) "Interview - The Black Album" – 1:35
 * 9) "Interview - Beyond The First Album" – 4:25
 * 10) "Interview - Sgt. King's LHCB" – 0:58

1996 Disky release

 * 1) "A Winter's Tale" – 3:28
 * 2) "One Eyed Hound" – 2:31
 * 3) "Image Blown Out" – 2:48
 * 4) "She's So Beautiful" – 3:44

2000 Original Masters release
"A Place to Call My Own" moved to disc 2, followed by:
 * 1) "A Winter's Tale" – 3:29
 * 2) "One Eyed Hound" – 2:31
 * 3) "That's Me" – 2:37
 * 4) "The Silent Sun (Single Version)" – 2:12
 * 5) "Image Blown Out" – 2:11
 * 6) "She Is Beautiful" – 3:46
 * 7) "Try A Little Sadness (Demo)" – 3:18
 * 8) "Patricia (Demo version of "In Hiding")" – 3:04

2005 Edsel release
Bonus disc:
 * 1) "Patricia" – 3:05
 * 2) "Try A Little Sadness" – 3:18
 * 3) "She Is Beautiful" – 3:45
 * 4) "Image Blown Out" – 2:46
 * 5) "The Silent Sun" – 2:11
 * 6) "That's Me" – 2:37
 * 7) "A Winter's Tale" – 3:29
 * 8) "One-eyed Hound" – 2:31
 * 9) "Where The Sour Turns to Sweet" – 3:13
 * 10) "In the Beginning" – 3:29
 * 11) "In the Wilderness" – 2:56
 * 12) "One Day" – 3:05
 * 13) "Image Blown Out" – 2:12

Notes for Edsel release:


 * 2-1: Demo, 1967
 * 2-2: Demo, 1967
 * 2-3: Demo, 1967
 * 2-4: Demo, 1967
 * 2-5: Single version
 * 2-6: Single version
 * 2-7: Single version
 * 2-8: Single version
 * 2-9: Demo, 1968
 * 2-10: Demo, 1968
 * 2-11: Rough mix, 1968
 * 2-12: Rough mix, 1968
 * 2-13: Rough mix, 1968

2007 Vintage Vinyl, CD cardboard case
This CD release has the somewhat changed tracklist:


 * Disc 1


 * 1) "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet	3:16
 * 2) "In the Beginning	3:47
 * 3) "Fireside Song	4:20
 * 4) "The Serpent	4:40
 * 5) "Am I Very Wrong	3:34
 * 6) "In the Wilderness	3:29
 * 7) "The Conqueror	3:42
 * 8) "In Hiding	2:40
 * 9) "One Day	3:22
 * 10) "Window	3:36
 * 11) "In Limbo	3:32
 * 12) "The Silent Sun (Single Version)	2:11


 * Disc 2


 * 1) "A Place to Call My Own" – 1:59
 * 2) "A Winter's Tale" – 3:29
 * 3) "One Eyed Hound" – 2:32
 * 4) "That's Me" – 2:39
 * 5) "Image Blown Out" – 2:12
 * 6) "She Is Beautiful" – 3:47
 * 7) "Try a Little Sadness (Demo Version)" – 3:20
 * 8) "Patricia (Demo Version of 'In Hiding')" – 3:06
 * 9) "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet 2006" – 3:18
 * 10) "The Silent Sun 2006" – 2:14
 * 11) "In the Wilderness (Rough Mix)" – 2:56

Personnel
Credits according to the original 1969 release.


 * Genesis
 * Peter Gabriel – lead vocals, flute
 * Tony Banks – piano, Hammond organ, backing vocals
 * Anthony Phillips – guitars, backing vocals
 * Mike Rutherford – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals
 * John Silver – drums (except "Silent Sun")


 * Additional musicians
 * Chris Stewart – drums (only "Silent Sun")
 * Arthur Greenslade – conducting, strings and horn arrangement
 * Lou Warburton – conducting, strings and horn arrangement


 * Production
 * Jonathan King – producer
 * Tom Allom – recording engineer
 * Brian Roberts – recording engineer
 * Robert Stace – printing