Duke (album)

Untitled

Overview

Duke is the tenth studio album by British band Genesis and was released in 1980. It 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 80s 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 (i.e. 'Misunderstanding') as well as lengthy progressive rock suites (i.e. '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" 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.

A SACD / DVD double disc set (including new 5.1 and Stereo mixes) is planned for release in March 2007.

Analysis and Conclusion

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"), which provide much of the back story for Collins's more direct dramatizations of emotional turmoil ("Man of Our Times"). 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 Genesis giving their final full airings to scores of classic songs from the previous decade. Following the next year's Abacab, they would increasingly rely on their new material, condensing older songs into medleys.

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.

1. "Behind the Lines" – 5:31
2. "Duchess" – 6:26
3. "Guide Vocal" (Banks) – 1:35
4. "Man of Our Times" (Rutherford) – 5:34
5. "Misunderstanding" (Collins) – 3:13
6. "Heathaze" (Banks) – 4:59
7. "Turn It On Again" – 3:50
8. "Alone Tonight" (Rutherford) – 3:56
9. "Cul-De-Sac" (Banks) – 5:05
10. "Please Don't Ask" (Collins) – 4:01
11. "Duke's Travels" – 8:40
12. "Duke's End" – 2:08

• Phil Collins would re-record "Behind The Lines" for his debut 1981 solo album Face Value.

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

Notes

• 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 vocorder to get a horn sound.
• The track Duchess is the first Genesis song that used a drum machine.

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1980	Billboard Pop Albums	11

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1980	"Misunderstanding"	Billboard Pop Singles	14
1980	"Turn It On Again"	Billboard Pop Singles	58

Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
BPI – UK	Gold	March 28 1980
BPI – UK	Platinum	July 3 1980
RIAA – USA	Gold	July 21 1980
RIAA – USA	Platinum	March 11 1988