Genesis Crashes Top 40 With 'Follow You Follow Me'

Genesis had been flirting with the mainstream for years with the psych-pop singalong of “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe),” the crystalline refrain of “The Carpet Crawlers” and the belted balladry of “Ripples.”

The prog rock masters made their first actual business transfer, nevertheless, in March 1978: “Follow Follow Follow Me,” a supple, mid-tempo love tune from their ninth album, … And Then There Were Three … , grew to become Genesis’ first worldwide hit — a pivot level of their evolution, emphasizing groove over grandiosity.

Looking again, you’d suppose it was an apparent single — notably on an album that elsewhere featured loads of the band’s signature prog showmanship (“Down and Out”) and fantasy-themed mini-epics (“The Lady Lies”). Instead, it was type of a fluke that “Follow You Follow Me” wound up a compact soft-rock basic.

The tune is constructed round a hooky Mike (*40*) guitar riff, a repetitive determine that he palm-muted and bathed in a flange impact. Originally, he figured it will be a launching pad for a prolonged piece; as soon as the others joined in — keyboardist Tony Banks along with his velvety chords, Phil Collins along with his craving vocal melody and extra soul-oriented drumming — they fell right into a tighter association with minimal effort.

It was a pure development: Now a trio, following the latest exit of guitarist Steve Hackett, Genesis inevitably discovered more room of their music. Plus, having already written so many meandering, multi-part songs, they have been already wanting to cut back. “Follow You Follow Me,” Three…‘s easygoing nearer, was essentially the most dramatic instance of this purpose — notably with Rutherford’s romantic lyric.

“I will follow you; will you follow me? / All the days and nights that we know will be,” Collins croons on the refrain. “I will stay with you; will you stay with me? / Just one single tear in each passing year.” (Remember: We’re solely three years out from “Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist.”)

Watch Genesis’ ‘Follow You Follow Me’ Video

“Easiest song to write lyrically in my life,” (*40*) famous throughout an interview on the album’s 2007 reissue DVD. “It took about 10 minutes. I sat down, and it just came out very easily. They’re not astounding words, but being simple and not being embarrassing is often quite hard. I thought, ‘It can’t be that easy. They’re so simple. I don’t know.’ We came from a much more complicated background of lyric writing, and I thought, ‘I can’t just do that, can I?’ But it’s an interesting song because it’s a simple song and the way Phil sang it kept a certain simplicity and mood.”

Not everybody was satisfied of its charms: “When we were recording it, our engineer-producer at the time, David Hentschel, didn’t rate it at all, so he was a bit dismissive of it,” Banks stated in the identical DVD function. “We did a mix of it, which wasn’t terribly good, I don’t think. Then we played it to the record company, and they said, ‘That’s a hit!’ So we went back and remixed it and got it a bit better.”

Some of essentially the most hardened prog-era Genesis followers might have resisted, however “Follow You Follow Me” discovered its viewers: In his 2014 memoir, The Living Years, (*40*) recalled listening to Pete Townshend reward the tune throughout a radio broadcast; within the DVD function, Collins stated future Genesis touring drummer Chester Thompson remembered jazz-fusion icons Weather Report enjoying the tune on their tour bus.

“Follow You Follow Me” additionally clicked with the general public at giant, changing into Genesis’ first high 10 hit within the U.Okay. (No. 7) and first high 40 single within the U.S. (No. 23). Most crucially, it helped Genesis survive, and keep artistic, via the punk and new wave years, when so a lot of their friends have been dying off — pivotal stuff, particularly for a easy love tune that got here collectively nearly by chance.

“It’s an up, happy song that makes you smile without being sweet,” (*40*) wrote, precisely, in The Living Years – and that is “not an easy thing to achieve.”