Reopening the musical box - January 12

Reopening a musical box

Now, how did I cast that spell?

For the past two weeks I've been starting work on a successor to the Genesis revisited project. Choices abound with such a wealth of great material from the work with my old pals.

The Pandora's box (I mean Musical Box) has been reopened... I still hold this stuff and the guys who were involved in considerable affection. Genesis in all its incarnations was a band that held a light. I realise I'm wearing my curator's hat in a museum of my own making but I refuse to dismiss the band's early work as the musings of five earnest young men playing mainly to bearded students. I'm sure I saw women there!

Early Genesis had its own take on romance. It was a romance of place, of time and most importantly, of story. Drawing on direct experience is a great way to write a song, but it's not the only way. Fiction can transcend the limits of ourselves and through metaphor can also plunge deeper into that rich inner world we all long to access. Many songs from those early times were like little vignettes and came across as a kind of film for the ear and the inner eye.

It's likely that a number of singers will be involved and several people have already expressed an interest. In the meantime, Roger King and I are recreating the yellow brick road and preparing the way...

Right now we're working on The Musical Box track. Indeed I'll be playing the same song with the band of that name when I join them as a special guest in Zurich at the weekend.

I sat in with them at the Albert Hall some years back and started something of a tradition, as I'm told that Phil joined them on stage at another bash. So, let's waltz in and out of the past, join the spirits of our earlier selves in dimension X, and visit those streets once more...

The games we played