Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited

Steve Hackett | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 21, 1997)
• Original Release Date: October 21, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002SII
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,144 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Watcher of the Skies

2. Dance on a Volcano

3. Valley of the Kings

4. Déjà Vu

5. Firth of Fifth

6. For Absent Friends

7. Your Own Special Way

8. Fountain of Salmacis

9. Waiting Room Only

10. I Know What I Like

11. Los Endos

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars W O W ! A worthy addition to the Genesis Canon, October 22, 2002

By 

718 Session (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited (Audio CD)

I did not want to like this album.

I thought to myself: "Who does Steve Hackett think he is cashing in on the old Genesis stuff? What, the solo career isn't working? Need to put the kid through college?"

Forget about it. Genesis Revisited is the real thing. Not covers of the old tunes, exactly... reworking? reimagining?

Well, whatever you want to call it, this is incredible. Like a Genesis' Greatest Hits from a parallel universe where the 60s prog rock pioneers had access to sophisticated 90s production qualities, a full orchestra, Bill Bruford, Paul Carrack, Chester Thompson, Ian MacDonald and John Wetton.

Breakout tracks:
"Watcher of the Skies" is incredible. Right up there with the original. Mellotron plus orchestra plus incredible vocals.

"Your Own Special Way." was never one of my favorite tracks. It always seemed a little treacly to me. This version is better. Paul Carrack's vocals sound both more authentic and restrained.

"Fifth of Firth" is a great song. This version is different, not better than the original.

"Dance on a Volcano" is vastly improved by the HUGE sound of the full orchestra and techno percussion. Then it's diminised by electronic vocals. (It seems SOMEONE couldn't leave those vocoders alone, or didn't give the result enough of a listen.)

The rest of the album is, at worst, interesting. There's a new/old tune that Genesis wrote and never recorded, and a new composition in the spirit of the atonal organic experiment of "The Waiting Room" from Lamb Lies Down.

The only clunker is "I Know What I Like", which strives for kitch or camp and doesn't quite make it.

The album is much more of a tribute to pre-pop Genesis than an attempt to cash in. Forgive me, Steve, I take back everything bad I thought about you.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The spirit of the "old" Genesis lives on, May 29, 2000

By 

joe_n_bloe (Ester AK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited (Audio CD)

Steve Hackett and an entourage of other terrifically talented musicians (including Tony Levin, Bill Bruford, and Chester Thompson) cover the sturdy old wheels of 1970s Genesis tunes with some sticky new tread. Now, Hackett has done his turn in the supergroup arena, and to a limited extent (perhaps because of John Wetton's presence) this album sounds a tiny bit like "Asia Does Genesis." But just a tiny bit.

Mostly it sounds great. The reworked "Watcher of the Skies" has more punch and pow than the original, still retaining its Morse code beat (no doubt still fit to punch a message through the hydrogen band to some waiting intelligence elsewhere in the universe, if played loudly enough). "Dance on a Volcano" is gloriously overblown, albeit with very peculiar vocals. Another standout is "Fountain of Salmacis," which gets off to a soaring, cinematically broad start that makes you wonder if you might have been transported into the titles of a movie filmed somewhere south of the equator.

Watcher of the Skies remains true to the original spirit of its songs. And even the sound. Mellotron and fat synthesizer bass abounds. The production is first rate. The overall sound is thick and wet but almost always on the proper side of muddy. The percussion is invariably crisp. If you've grown jaded with Genesis's own increasingly perfunctory and smoothed-out medleys of its earlier works, you MUST get hold of this album.

It might have been nice to see other members of the band participate, but I think you'll agree that Hackett and company have gotten along nicely without them. Overall it comes across as a project where all of the participants, Hackett included, have sacrificed a bit of ego and habit in the interests of rendering the best possible versions, at least one more time, of some of art rock's most idiosyncratic songs.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lost Gabriel Track Worth Price Of Admission., November 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited (Audio CD)

Obviously a risky proposition, Steve Hackett's Genesis Revisited project is full of hits and misses alike. However, there are two cuts that make it well worth having - Valley Of The Kings and Deja Vu. Valley Of The Kings is a new Hackett instrumental in his classic style, lush and majestic with those hallmark chill-inducing guitar melody lines. Deja Vu is the real treat here. Originally composed by Peter Gabriel and actually rehearsed by Genesis during the Selling England By The Pound sessions, the song was ultimately shelved until Hackett dusted it off some 26 years later (with Gabriel's permission) to be "revisited" on this CD. It's an absolutely beautiful gem. Had it been included on Selling England, it would now be considered a Genesis classic. Plunk down your hard-earned money and get this CD for these two cuts alone. You won't be disappointed.