'''Duke''' is the tenth studio
album by
British band
Genesis, was released in March 1980.
Overview
''Duke'' became the trio's first UK #1 album, while broadening their US audience even further, reaching #11 there and going Gold immediately and eventually Platinum.
"Duke" may be regarded as a transitional album, incorporating both elements of dense and elaborate instrumentation associated with the band's 1970s era material and glimpses of their future 1980s pop melodies and hooks, and therefore became regarded as the album where many Genesis fans would draw the line between the "old" and "new" Genesis. This was a somewhat tricky drawing line - as ''Duke'' was a mixture of extremes, containing both short radio-friendly pop tunes (e.g. "Misunderstanding") as well as lengthy progressive rock suites (e.g. "Duke's Travels"). Hence, Duke enjoys the anomaly of being simultaneously regarded as either the band's last progressive outing or first pop-oriented release.
''Duke'' came on the heels of solo albums by
Tony Banks and
Mike Rutherford.
Phil Collins had departed to
Vancouver with his first wife to try to salvage their failing marriage. With the group's future uncertain, Rutherford recorded ''
Smallcreep's Day'' while Banks issued ''
A Curious Feeling''. When Collins' marriage finally ended, he rejoined the group, bringing a batch of introspective new songs. Most of these made up his solo ''
Face Value'' album when released in early 1981, but two of them—"Misunderstanding" and "Please Don't Ask"—were donated to ''Duke''.
Once ''Duke'' was released, the song "
Turn it on Again" became the band's second UK Top 10 hit, while "Misunderstanding" made considerable strides in the US, reaching the Top 20, and providing growing songwriter
Phil Collins with his first self-written hit. "Turn it on Again" (On Genesis - The Way We Walk DVD 1992) musically was written by Mike Rutherford, while Phil Collins contributed to the lyrics) was revealed on the US radio show ''In the Studio with Redbeard'' (which spotlighted the albums ''Duke'' and ''Abacab'' in one episode) to have an unconventional time signature of 13/8.
A digitally remastered version was released on CD in 1994 on Virgin in Europe and Atlantic in the US and Canada. The remastered CD's booklet features all of the original album's artwork and complete lyrics.
An
SACD / DVD double disc set (including new 5.1 and Stereo mixes) was released on
April 2,
2007 (although it will be a CD / DVD double disc set for the US and Canada).
Analysis
''Duke'' is considered to be a turning point in Genesis's career. While continuing to move away from
progressive rock, a medium that often found Collins, Banks and Rutherford working in tandem to create some of their most acclaimed themes, the trio found that the group-written compositions on ''Duke'' were what lit the fire beneath the album. While ''Duke'' had its share of successful solo songs, it marked the point where the group would conspire to increasingly compose songs together.
''Duke'' is often cited by aficionados as a key Genesis album. While clearly different from the somewhat disjointed album which preceded it, ''Duke'' employs repetitions of key themes throughout the album as a way of unifying songs which could be listened to either as separate entities or as parts of a larger whole, and many fades and segues between songs add to this sense that the album is an elaboration on a unified musical idea. As a song cycle, ''Duke'' starts and ends with the exact same musical strains, and closes, like many classic Genesis albums, with an extended instrumental ("Duke's Travels/Duke's End"). While dealing more with personal issues and less with existential, philosophical, or mythical themes, this shift in direction seemed to fill the creative void which many felt had dominated the previous album. While many have claimed that the turn towards relationship oriented themes presaged Collins' later pop influence on the band, the musical complexity remains, even while the overall palette of instruments changed to fit the album's more introspective mood. Collins's interest in the new sonic possibilities offered by drum machines, Banks's use of the highly expressive Yamaha CP-80
electric grand piano, Rutherford's use of non-distorted guitar parts, and an overall more "open," less reverb-inflected production produces a sound which seems stripped down and less orchestral than previous recordings, but also gives the band a more direct sound.
Also pertinent is Collins's increased role in the band's songwriting, leading to a lyrical focus on personal emotions, as well as the occasional musical influence of classic soul (see, for example, the main section of "Behind the Lines" or the popular "Misunderstanding"). That said, Banks continues to provide highly orchestrated songs of lyrical darkness and compositional complexity ("Heathaze," "Cul de Sac"), while Rutherford creates more direct dramatizations of emotional turmoil ("Man of Our Times," "Alone Tonight"). Some of the opening songs, such as "Duchess" and "Behind the Lines," which became concert favorites for years, were a synthesis of the writing styles of all three members, and presaged the more collaborative writing efforts which were to dominate the band in the future.
Interestingly, there is a suite of songs hidden in this album—"Behind the Lines", "Duchess", "Guide Vocal", "Turn it on Again", "Duke's Travels" and "Duke's End"—which were reportedly intended to appear on a single side of the album until fear of comparisons to ''
Foxtrot's epic "
Supper's Ready" made the group decide to separate them. Notably, the group performed the suite in that configuration on the tour for this album. "Misunderstanding" was added to the setlist for the US leg of the tour.
Additionally, the Duke tour found the Genesis set list in transition; many songs were performed in full for the last time, as later tours would tend to feature medleys of older material in truncated form.
More than any other Genesis album, ''Duke's song-cycle provides the moment of delineation between Genesis' art-rock past and
Top 40 future, straddling each arena in equal measure.
Track listing
All songs written by
Tony Banks,
Phil Collins and
Mike Rutherford, except where indicated.
#"
Behind the Lines" – 5:31
#"
Duchess" – 6:26
#"Guide Vocal" (Banks) – 1:35
#"Man of Our Times" (Rutherford) – 5:34
#"
Misunderstanding" (Collins) – 3:13
#"Heathaze" (Banks) – 4:59
#"
Turn it on Again" – 3:50
#"Alone Tonight" (Rutherford) – 3:56
#"
Cul-De-Sac" (Banks) – 5:05
#"Please Don't Ask" (Collins) – 4:01
#"Duke's Travels" – 8:40
#"Duke's End" – 2:08
★ ''
Phil Collins would re-record "Behind The Lines" for his debut 1981 solo album
Face Value''.
★ For their 2007 , Genesis played a
medley of
Behind the Lines and Duke's Travels.
2007 SACD/CD/DVD Release
A new version of ''Duke'' was released in the U.K. and Japan on
April 2,
2007. It was released in the US and Canada as part of the ''
Genesis 1976-1982'' box set on May 15, 2007. This includes the entire album in remixed stereo, the entire album in surround sound, and related video tracks.
★ Disc 1, in the
European and
Japanese releases, is a hybrid
SACD/
CD disk. The stereo layer includes the remixed tracks, and the SACD layer is a multichannel
surround sound remix.
[1]
★ Disc 1, in the
Canadian and
U.S. releases, is a standard
CD, containing the stereo remixes. No SACD layer is included.
[2]
★ Disc 2, in all releases, is a
DVD-Video disk containing both audio and video tracks. This DVD includes three audio mixes of the album:
DTS ,
Dolby Digital , and
Dolby Digital stereo.
[3] The DTS surround sound is a slightly compressed version of the surround sound on the SACD,
[2] and the Dolby surround sound is of slightly inferior quality to the DTS.
[5]
★ Disk 2 also includes the following video tracks:
#Band interview about this album (2006).
#Promotional videos: "Duchess", "Misunderstanding", "
Turn it on Again".
#Live At The Lyceum, London 1980. Songs include "Behind the Lines", "Duchess", "Guide Vocal", "In the Cage", "Afterglow", "Dance on a Volcano" and "Los Endos".
#World Tour program, from 1980 tour (16 page gallery).
Personnel
★
Phil Collins –
percussion,
drums,
vocals,
drum machine
★
Tony Banks –
keyboards, vocals, background vocals,
12 string guitar
★
Mike Rutherford –
basses,
guitars, background vocals
Additional personnel
★ David Hentschel – vocals, background vocals
Trivia
★ Banks and Collins are credited with playing the "Duck" - they were once asked what this meant on a call-in talk show, and explained they played a duck call through a
vocoder to get a horn sound.
★ The track Duchess is the first Genesis song that used a drum machine.
Charts
'Album'
'Singles'
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|
| 1980 | "Misunderstanding" | Billboard Pop Singles | 14 |
| 1980 | "Turn it on Again" | Billboard Pop Singles | 58 |
Certifications
Footnotes
1. Formats described at http://www.genesis-news.com/genesis/reviews/sacds/1976-1982.htm
2. Explained in interview with producer and remixer Nick Davis, at http://www.genesis-news.com/genesis/reviews/sacds/interview-with-nick-davis.htm
3. The DVD interface has two audio choices: Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1. If the Dolby 5.1 option is chosen on a system that does not support surround sound, the Dolby stereo mix is played.
4. Explained in interview with producer and remixer Nick Davis, at http://www.genesis-news.com/genesis/reviews/sacds/interview-with-nick-davis.htm
5. Comparison from ''Sound and Vision'' magazine article online at http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/musicreviews/2285/genesis-in-surround.html
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