{"id":5222,"date":"2019-01-05T11:26:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T16:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=5222"},"modified":"2023-04-29T19:28:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T23:28:43","slug":"genesis-together-and-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/genesis-together-and-apart\/","title":{"rendered":"The documentary Together and Apart tells the genesis of Genesis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This feature-length BBC documentary on the band <a href=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/tag\/genesis\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"533\">Genesis<\/a> comes with more asterisks than a typical rockumentary. First is the lack of occasion &#8212; there being no significant milestone in 2014, unless the band&#8217;s 47th-ish anniversary means something to somebody. Second is a befuddling marketing strategy: the doc was released in different regions as <em>Together and Apart<\/em> or <em>Sum of the Parts<\/em>, accompanied by the hits compilation album <em>R-Kive<\/em>. Truly a trifecta of inexplicably terrible names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike previous reunion projects in 1983 (a one-off live performance), 1998-99 (a VH1 <em>Behind the Music<\/em> documentary and re-recordings of &#8220;The Carpet Crawlers&#8221; and &#8220;It&#8221;), and 2007-08 (individual interviews for a complete catalogue reissue), the only new material on offer here is a new on-camera simultaneous interview with core members Tony Banks, Phil Collins, <a href=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/tag\/peter-gabriel\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"814\">Peter Gabriel<\/a>, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-1974-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Genesis 1974\" class=\"wp-image-5224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-1974-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-1974-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-1974-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-1974-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-1974.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The classic Genesis quintet lineup circa 1974: Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, and Phil Collins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The other main selling point is a smattering of rare or apparently unseen live footage, including at least one new to me: a tantalizing glimpse of the very young band live at The Atomic Sunrise Festival, at the groovy London venue The Roundhouse in 1970, where they shared a bill with <a href=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/tag\/david-bowie\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"816\">David Bowie<\/a>. Much of the rest the live footage will probably be familiar to any fan with access to YouTube. Looking back at all this vintage footage now, how much do you think Collins wishes he could have told his younger self to sit up straight while playing, considering his later back and nerve damage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iDeOtQCr5SE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The only footage released so far from The Atomic Sunrise Festival, at London&#8217;s Roundhouse in 1970, featuring Genesis, David Bowie, and others<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Compared to many of their infamously dysfunctional peers, Genesis has a relatively boring back story, with no salacious deaths, lawsuits, or arrests to whip up an exciting narrative. Well, with the exception of &#8212; trigger warning &#8212; self-aggrandizing original manager (and convicted sex offender) Jonathan King, granted a minute or two here to inflate his role in the band&#8217;s first recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story of a few driven young men who form a band, work hard, succeed, then retire, isn&#8217;t in and of itself very thrilling. This documentary plays up the drama by emphasizing the comings and goings of members as more earth-shattering than even they themselves seem to think. That said, the new group interview does reveal some lingering bad vibes and resentment. Banks speaks with warmth towards original guitarist Anthony Phillips, but still reacts with real negativity to the topic of Gabriel and Hackett attempting to assert themselves within Genesis in the mid-70s. In Banks&#8217; defense, it must have been difficult to accept his school friend Gabriel simultaneously seizing the creative reins while also retreating into family life around the time of the ambitious <em>The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway<\/em> album and tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Banks&#8217; attitude towards Hackett seems out of proportion to the situation. Long story short, it seems Hackett had been presenting a number of compositions that the band vetoed, so he used much of it on a solo album. Shortly thereafter, when the other members didn&#8217;t have enough material to shape into a new Genesis album, they were pissed that he didn&#8217;t have anything. From the outside perspective of a fan, it sounds to me like Hackett was wronged. Especially so, as he is the one currently carrying the torch for classic Genesis material while still creating original new music on his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Banks also snipes at Collins&#8217; ubiquity in the mid-80s, but in this case he does seem to be joking (to paraphrase, he laughingly says something like &#8220;he was our friend and we wanted him to succeed, but not too much&#8221;). Gabriel seems the most diplomatic and positive, and the most relaxed and jocular during the group interview. Perhaps for him this is all ancient history after his rich and varied solo career, whereas Genesis was more of a lifelong investment for the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-2014-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Genesis 2014\" class=\"wp-image-5225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-2014-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-2014-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-2014-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-2014-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-2014.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Genesis reconvened in 2014 for the documentary <em>Together and Apart<\/em> (aka <em>Sum of the Parts<\/em>): Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Peter Gabriel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As a longtime fan, I have certain strongly held opinions that don&#8217;t seem to completely align with fan consensus or the bands&#8217; own self-estimation. Genesis is long-misunderstood and due for a reevaluation, but I&#8217;m not sure this was the right documentary at the right time. It pushes Hackett to the edges (sometimes literally cropping him out of frame), and leaves other significant members like Ray Wilson totally unmentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also think it does a disservice by not placing the band in context; some influences are mentioned (particularly Gabriel&#8217;s love of Otis Redding and Collins&#8217; appreciation of Grandmaster Flash), but it would have helped illustrate Genesis&#8217; significance by showing how they fused the nascent progressive rock movement (I suspect King Crimson&#8217;s <em>In the Court of the Crimson King<\/em> and The Moody Blues loomed large in their minds when working on the <em>Trespass<\/em> album) with a real pop sensibility. Their aptitude for concise hit singles in the 80s is treated as an unexpected metamorphosis, when to my ears it&#8217;s the natural culmination of everything they were building towards since their earliest 1967 pop songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The venerable band Genesis reconvenes to tell their own story, from progressive rock outsiders to mainstream pop success story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2,13],"tags":[1855,1857,1294,27,533,1204,814,1201,535,1856,98,1205,1203],"class_list":["post-5222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2-stars","category-movies","category-music","tag-1855","tag-anthony-phillips","tag-bbc","tag-documentary","tag-genesis","tag-mike-rutherford","tag-peter-gabriel","tag-phil-collins","tag-progressive-rock","tag-ray-wilson","tag-rock","tag-steve-hackett","tag-tony-banks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-sum-of-the-parts.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1me","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":792,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-musical-box-highline-ballroom-new-york\/","url_meta":{"origin":5222,"position":0},"title":"The Musical Box recreates Genesis&#8217; Black Show at Highline Ballroom, New York","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Musical Box is a Canadian group that stages elaborate recreations of entire concerts given by the English progressive rock band Genesis in the early 1970s. They perform closely-observed note-for-note cover versions of the original songs, in the original set list order, with full recreations of the set design, props,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Denis Gagn\u00e9 of The Musical Box","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1446,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/sigur-ros-heima\/","url_meta":{"origin":5222,"position":1},"title":"Sigur R\u00f3s Comes Home to Iceland in Heima","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Dean DeBlois' documentary film Heima (meaning \"coming home\" or \"at home\") follows the band Sigur R\u00f3s on their summer 2006 tour of their home country Iceland. The tour consisted of mostly free, unannounced concerts, and with the band in three basic configurations spanning the continuum of the purely acoustic to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sigur R\u00c3\u00b3s Heima","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1802,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/decemberists\/","url_meta":{"origin":5222,"position":2},"title":"The Decemberists Live at Radio City Music Hall, June 10, 2009","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"June 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 (including Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Bill Rieflin of Ministry, R.E.M., and The Humans) opened with an enjoyable 30-minute set. I was unfamiliar with Hitchcock, but by total coincidence had just days before seen his appearance in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married. His quirky\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Decemberists","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/decemberists-light.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/decemberists-light.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/decemberists-light.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/decemberists-light.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/decemberists-light.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/low-in-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":5222,"position":3},"title":"Sebastian Schrade&#8217;s tour documentary Low in Europe","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I came late to appreciating Low, but they have since become one of my favorite bands. I was vaguely aware that trainspotting music critics had christened a genre to categorize bands like Low: slowcore, the distinguishing characteristics of which being playing very quietly and slowly. An overgeneralization, it turns out,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Low in Europe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":309,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/coachella\/","url_meta":{"origin":5222,"position":4},"title":"Drew Thomas&#8217; 2006 documentary Coachella","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"July 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't normally review music DVDs on this blog, but since Drew Thomas' 2006 documentary Coachella received a theatrical release in Europe, I thought it deserved a mention. It's a rare concert film that is as interested in the concertgoers and the character of the event itself as in simply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Coachella","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4269,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/radiohead-meeting-people-is-easy\/","url_meta":{"origin":5222,"position":5},"title":"Radiohead: Meeting People is Easy&#8230;","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"August 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"...but being invited to your own party is hard. I remember liking Grant Gee's Radiohead documentary Meeting People is Easy when I first saw it in the late nineties, but now it just looks like a simplistic feature-length expos\u00e9 of how music journos are twits that ruin everything.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Radiohead Meeting People is Easy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/meeting-people-is-easy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/meeting-people-is-easy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/meeting-people-is-easy.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/meeting-people-is-easy.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/meeting-people-is-easy.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5222"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8656,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5222\/revisions\/8656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}