Nursery Cryme

After the upheaval that followed their last album, the core members of Genesis-Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford-forged ahead, adding two members who would be crucial to their future. Drummer Phil Collins, previously in Flaming Youth, was recruited at the recommendation of Charisma boss Tony Stratton-Smith. The band then spent a brief period as a four piece before the bearded and bespectacled guitarist Steve Hackett arrived, virtually without audition, from a Melody Maker advert. After six months on the road, including the Charisma “Six Bob” tour, the recording of Nursery Cryme commenced in the summer of 1971 at Tony Stratton-Smith’s Luxford House. Most of the songs had been written while Anthony Phillips was still in the band, and certainly “Seven Stones” would not have been out of place on the previous Trespass album. The contrast of light and dark on “The Musical Box” kicks off the album and is a triumph. The band exhibits a harder edge here than they had previously exploited on record, and one more indicative of their live potential. “The Return of the Giant Hogweed,” an odd tale about killer foliage, is typical of Gabriel’s storytelling from the era, while Banks’s keyboards add significant punch; just witness the Mellotron on the mammoth finale. Hackett’s guitar also favors the new edge. In particular, his solo in “The Fountain of Salmacis” highlights his emerging style. Collins is effective throughout, even taking a lead vocal on the gentle “For Absent Friends.” The album—and to a lesser extent its successor—offer a peculiar production and mix; which, along with their highly idiomatic song structure, add to their enduring charm. Paul Whitehead, Charisma’s resident artist, illustrated the album’s cover. Like labelmate Van der Graaf Generator, Genesis spent the bulk of 1972 touring throughout Europe. The album did particularly well in the Italian charts, rising to No. 4.