STEVE HACKETT - A Genesis In My Bed: The Autobiography review

[Progatron]

(And yes, there was something about the Hewitt book that seemed off; I am not sure I can put my finger on it.)

It's okay information-wise, but it's poorly written (IMO) and has far too much of the author's own life being injected into the story. At several points I was thinking "Why am I reading about this guy? I don't care about him, it's Hackett's life I'm interested in". It reminds me of some of those band documentaries where they waste time interviewing fans in the crowd or the concert lineup: "This is my 120th Rush show. Best band in the world!" - I'm not interested in hearing from fans, I already am one! Good information is there, but I found it a painful read, personally. And a huge chunk of it is rather dull reference material. So, good if you want to study the 1980 tour dates, but I don't, particularly.

[AncientChord]

I haven't watched this yet but new Hackett interview here:

Very nice Pete Bardo interview. And always nice to hear Mr. Hackett. I would have told Genesis to fuck-off if they told me I couldn't do solo albums or be fair on the amount of my own material I could contribute to the band. Quite an insight. Plus it was hypocritical since soon after they all did solo albums. Steve did the right thing. Plus he is into music, not just pop trash. Oh I do like Pardo's Selling England T-Shirt.

[Gizmotron]

It's okay information-wise, but it's poorly written (IMO) and has far too much of the author's own life being injected into the story. At several points I was thinking "Why am I reading about this guy? I don't care about him, it's Hackett's life I'm interested in". It reminds me of some of those band documentaries where they waste time interviewing fans in the crowd or the concert lineup: "This is my 120th Rush show. Best band in the world!" - I'm not interested in hearing from fans, I already am one! Good information is there, but I found it a painful read, personally. And a huge chunk of it is rather dull reference material. So, good if you want to study the 1980 tour dates, but I don't, particularly.

That's right; I remember that element.

Once I read Steve's autobio I will go back to the Hewitt book for a comparo.

[moecurlythanu]

I haven't watched this yet but new Hackett interview here:

Thoroughly enjoyed that, thanks.

[Paulrus]

Very nice Pete Bardo interview. And always nice to hear Mr. Hackett. I would have told Genesis to fuck-off if they told me I couldn't do solo albums or be fair on the amount of my own material I could contribute to the band. Quite an insight. Plus it was hypocritical since soon after they all did solo albums. Steve did the right thing. Plus he is into music, not just pop trash. Oh I do like Pardo's Selling England T-Shirt.

To be fair to the other guys in Genesis, their stance was "only the best material makes it onto an album", which IMO was perfectly reasonable. Were they being perfectly democratic? No. But you have to give them props for making quality the key criteria.

Now, they clearly disagreed with Steve about what qualified as "best material", and we can argue all day about whether or not stuff from Please Don't Touch stands up to what Tony, Mike and Phil were bringing to the table circa 1977. Steve clearly thought his stuff measured up. They didn't. It's no surprise then that he's still a huge fan of that 70s style symphonic sound while the others have largely turned their back on it. To me this is one of those classic "artistic disagreements".

But they even went so far to give him more songwriting credits on Wind & Wuthering than they otherwise would have. It looks to me like they tried to compromise with Steve, albeit not enough to satisfy him. But by then you also get the sense there were personality conflicts and Steve just needed to get out of that environment for his own health.

[AncientChord]

^^^^Well I guess it comes down to perspective. And who knows what the others really thought about Steve's material. IMO Voyage of the Acolyte and Please Don't Touch has songs that are far superior to the other members solo albums. But that's from my perspective, and as one who embraces the more progish, symphonic style of Hackett. I still don't get it. I remember in 1977 before Steve left, Genesis was voted as the greatest live rock band in the world, and that was the prog-Genesis. But I assume the others saw dollars signs in their eyes, and tired of creating challenging artistic music. Much simpler to write and perform boring pop ditties for the masses. At any rate I look forward to read Steve's book. And again I'll state that I admire him for looking at music artistically, not as something to stuff his bank account.

[Paulrus]

^^^^Well I guess it comes down to perspective. And who knows what the others really thought about Steve's material. IMO Voyage of the Acolyte and Please Don't Touch has songs that are far superior to the other members solo albums. But that's from my perspective, and as one who embraces the more progish, symphonic style of Hackett. I still don't get it. I remember in 1977 before Steve left, Genesis was voted as the greatest live rock band in the world, and that was the prog-Genesis. But I assume the others saw dollars signs in their eyes, and tired of creating challenging artistic music. Much simpler to write and perform boring pop ditties for the masses. At any rate I look forward to read Steve's book. And again I'll state that I admire him for looking at music artistically, not as something to stuff his bank account.

It's also easy to forget that the music scene in the UK was changing quickly by 1977/78, even though bands like Genesis, Yes, Tull, and UK were still producing some terrific prog. Most prog musicians back then were coming under increasing -- dare I say it, existential -- pressure from the label and management to make changes. I just think the other three guys saw the writing on the wall and were OK shifting gears long before Steve. Plus let's face it -- they were simply better at writing shorter format commercial songs than Steve was (or is.) Sure, we all appreciate Steve's principles (although he buckled a bit himself during the 80s.) It's just lucky for us progheads that he rediscovered his muse in the '90s.

[JJ88]

To be fair to the other guys in Genesis, their stance was "only the best material makes it onto an album", which IMO was perfectly reasonable. Were they being perfectly democratic? No. But you have to give them props for making quality the key criteria.

Now, they clearly disagreed with Steve about what qualified as "best material", and we can argue all day about whether or not stuff from Please Don't Touch stands up to what Tony, Mike and Phil were bringing to the table circa 1977. Steve clearly thought his stuff measured up. They didn't. It's no surprise then that he's still a huge fan of that 70s style symphonic sound while the others have largely turned their back on it. To me this is one of those classic "artistic disagreements".

Indeed. He wanted 25% of all their material going forward. With all due respect, I can see why they never went for that. There's an implication that 25% was almost regardless of its merit, from their perspective.

It's okay information-wise, but it's poorly written (IMO) and has far too much of the author's own life being injected into the story. At several points I was thinking "Why am I reading about this guy? I don't care about him, it's Hackett's life I'm interested in". It reminds me of some of those band documentaries where they waste time interviewing fans in the crowd or the concert lineup: "This is my 120th Rush show. Best band in the world!" - I'm not interested in hearing from fans, I already am one! Good information is there, but I found it a painful read, personally. And a huge chunk of it is rather dull reference material. So, good if you want to study the 1980 tour dates, but I don't, particularly.

I've read Hewitt's Opening The Musical Box book and it's too 'fannish' for me, not really professional. A pity the band doesn't instead have a true equivalent of, say, Mark Lewisohn.

[headcrash]

Really nice review; I will have to pick this up on Kindle when it's available. I've been a fan of Steve's solo work since seeing an epic show at NYC's The Bottom Line in September 1980, with Jan Hammer opening. Everything I've ever read about him, or every interview I've ever seen/heard, indicates that he is indeed a gent. I'm looking forward to reading about it in his own words. Plus, I learned about "Wine Gums"!

[Splicer]

To be fair to the other guys in Genesis, their stance was "only the best material makes it onto an album", which IMO was perfectly reasonable. Were they being perfectly democratic? No. But you have to give them props for making quality the key criteria.

There is no world possible where "More Fool Me" should have been given away with a box of cereal let alone been on a Genesis album. It is a B-side at best - perhaps a C-side. They clearly needed a short song to pad the album and also wanted to give Rutherford a nod to mollify him. That's my take on that.

On another note, will we ever learn the truth about anything in Genesis? A version of the truth, I suppose. Everything they say seems to me to be so massaged and manufactured as the official history they've all agreed to tell. I would say that Hackett is probably the most honest one of them all - the rest come across as keen on keeping the legend alive.

[Vic2012]

Enjoyed the Pardo interview. 30 minutes was too short. I could listen to Steve talk for another hour or more.

[moecurlythanu]

On another note, will we ever learn the truth about anything in Genesis? A version of the truth, I suppose. Everything they say seems to me to be so massaged and manufactured as the official history they've all agreed to tell.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is it.

[ThomasKDye]

Sure, we all appreciate Steve's principles (although he buckled a bit himself during the 80s.)

Yeah, go listen to Cured or Blues With a Feeling and then come back and tell me how he stayed true to 70s prog principles on every album.

[popeyebonaparte]

I mostly sense a vibe of jealousy and sour grapes particularly from Rutherford regarding Hackett's writing. He never misses a chance to say how he always thought his strength was "as a guitarist as opposed to a writer".

He even goes so far in his autobiography as to say he always found Hackett's writing to be "inside the box" which Genesis were trying to avoid. I found this laughable coming from someone whose writing from about 1976-78 mostly consisted of major block chords going up and down the guitar neck. Compare Squonk, the song section of Eleventh Earl Of Mar and Your Own Special Way to Star Of Sirius, Please Don't Touch or Blood On The Rooftops and tell me which is more "in the box".

Don't get me wrong, I love Rutherford's writing as well as post-Hackett Genesis but I think Voyage Of The Acolyte flows as a more well rounded musical narrative than anything Genesis ever did possibly except Selling England and Wind And Wuthering.

[JJ88]

Yes I've never agreed with those Hackett quotes from Rutherford. Banks gets a lot of flak but he's always praised Hackett's contribution to the band. Go back as far as the A History (where Rutherford says that 'stronger player than writer' thing) documentary. Banks says that he was surprised Hackett left when he did, because of how much he had contributed to W&W. Similarly later on, he says that after Hackett left, he lost a musical ally, in terms of doing slightly more offbeat things.

Yeah, go listen to Cured or Blues With a Feeling and then come back and tell me how he stayed true to 70s prog principles on every album.

Hackett has had peaks and valleys, definitely. (I quite like some of Cured but I've always avoided Blues With A Feeling.) I'd like him to shake things up a bit now, in fact. His more recent albums have attracted a wider audience as a result of the Genesis Revisited touring. I'd hope some of this audience would check out his 90s/00s rock albums, because IMHO they are far superior to Wolflight etc.

[Progatron]

Yes I've never agreed with those Hackett quotes from Rutherford. Banks gets a lot of flak but he's always praised Hackett's contribution to the band.

This is true. Banks hands out both praise and criticism for everyone including himself, which is something I think people tend to overlook, choosing to focus on his criticisms because he can sometimes deliver them quite frankly.

Rutherford does give a nod to Hackett now and then, though. Both in playing ("Steve's a great lead player, and I'm not.") and writing ("Blood On The Rooftops is a lovely song", "Voyage Of The Acolyte was a decent album", etc.) but yes, not as much as Banks does.

[JJ88]

I've always been amused by Banks' dislike of Rutherford's 'Alone Tonight'. I remember him saying it openly (albeit sheepishly) in a Record Collector interview with both him and Rutherford!

Rutherford's 'I'd rather do something new' quote RE; Hackett's Genesis touring also rankled a little, because Hackett has done rather a lot of 'something new' over the last decade. Ironically I noticed the last Mike and the Mechanics album was almost entirely made up of remakes.

I guess the book doesn't go into great detail on his later work? I vaguely recall someone on here saying Hackett was surprised that people rated 'Twice Around The Sun'. He gave the impression it was a bit of a throwaway. But I love that one too, one of the best instrumentals he did for me.

[Progatron]

I guess the book doesn't go into great detail on his later work? I vaguely recall someone on here saying Hackett was surprised that people rated 'Twice Around The Sun'. He gave the impression it was a bit of a throwaway. But I love that one too, one of the best instrumentals he did for me.

No, not really. Several of the post-Guitar Noir albums are just a paragraph or so each, and a few others maybe a bit more than that. This is where I feel the book could be more fleshed out, because I really like a lot of his latter-day stuff, but perhaps there just aren't that many interesting stories to tell about them... (I found the same thing with last year's Tull book, which suddenly sped up towards the last several albums, again about a paragraph each.) But I don't expect too many people will complain about that, most of them more interested in the Genesis/early solo period than anything else. Personally I enjoyed the first third of the book the most, his young days, because so much of that was brand new to me.

Ahh yes, Twice Around The Sun with Doug Sinclair on bass! I listened to Darktown recently and was reminded that it's a pretty solid one.

[JJ88]

I would imagine that Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth has the most dramatic story, given what was going on behind-the-scenes at that time.

'Tristesse' is another really great instrumental which is often overlooked.

[Steve983]

Maybe I missed it but is there any clue as to the meaning of the title? It might be just me but it seems a bit odd?

[Progatron]

Maybe I missed it but is there any clue as to the meaning of the title? It might be just me but it seems a bit odd?

It refers to something a groupie exclaimed during an amorous encounter. It's in the book.

[Steve983]

It refers to something a groupie exclaimed during an amorous encounter. It's in the book.

Aha, thanks.

[Top Cat]

Great review, thanks for posting this. Certainly stirs my emotional spot enough to consider picking up a copy.

[Steve983]

Got my copy a few days ago. Only 180 pages so halfway through it already, some LOL moments, some very honest personal stuff although Kim Poor is mentioned a bare minimum of times perhaps understandably, some things rather glossed over, but as I say only half way through. Anyone else got it yet?

[Progatron]

Kim Poor is mentioned a bare minimum of times perhaps understandably

As far as I understand, there are legal reasons why Steve cannot delve too deeply there.