Duke (album)

Duke is the tenth studio album by British band Genesis, and 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 is regarded as a transitional Genesis 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. It's therefore become regarded as the album where many Genesis fans would draw the line between the "old" and "new" Genesis. Duke showed both sides of the band's music, 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 their 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" (whose music was written by the group, with Mike Rutherford contributing the lyrics) has 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, as the band continued to move away from progressive rock, and into a more streamlined, accessible rock sound. "Duke" also marked the last time the band members would contribute a wealth of solo compositions to their Genesis albums, as they would focus a lot more on group compositions beginning with their next release, 1981's Abacab.

Duke is often cited by aficionados as a key Genesis album. While clearly different in mood and feel from its predecessor, And Then There Were Three, Duke employs repetitions of key themes throughout the album as a way of unifying songs which could be listened to either separately, or as parts of a larger whole. 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 many have claimed that the turn towards relationship-oriented themes presaged Collins' later pop influence on the band, the musical complexity of the group remains firmly intact. 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 produced a sound which was less orchestral and more down-to-earth than previous Genesis recordings.

Collins' maturation as a vocalist was noticeable by the time Duke was recorded. This would benefit the singer immensely, as it gave him the confidence to record Face Value shortly after the conclusion of the Duke tour. Also pertinent on "Duke" is Collins' stepping up to the plate as a full-fledged songwriter for the first time, with his debut pair of solo compositions for the band, "Misunderstanding" and "Please Don't Ask." 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", and the prospect of creating a much weaker side B by putting almost all the group-compositions on side A, 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. 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.

Track listing

All songs written by Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Behind the Lines" – 5:31
2. "Duchess" – 6:26
3. "Guide Vocal" – 1:35
4. "Man of Our Times" (Rutherford) – 5:34
5. "Misunderstanding" (Collins) – 3:13
6. "Heathaze" (Banks) – 4:59

Side two

1. "Turn it on Again" – 3:50
2. "Alone Tonight" (Rutherford) – 3:56
3. "Cul-de-sac" (Banks) – 5:05
4. "Please Don't Ask" (Collins) – 4:01
5. "Duke's Travels" – 8:40
6. "Duke's End" – 2:08
7. Phil Collins would re-record "Behind The Lines" for his debut 1981 solo album Face Value''.
8. For their 2007 Turn It On Again: The Tour, Genesis played a medley of Behind the Lines and Duke's End.
9. For their 2007 Turn It On Again: The Tour, Genesis played a medley of a segue version of "Duke's Travels" as a transition in the medley of "In the Cage". The 2007 Version of the "In the Cage" Medley includes: "In the Cage"/"The Cinema Show"/"Duke's Travels"/"Afterglow"

2007 SACD/CD/DVD Release

A new version of Duke was released in the UK 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.
• Disc 1, in the Canadian and U.S. releases, is a standard CD, containing the stereo remixes. No SACD layer is included.
• 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 5.1-channel surround sound, Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound, and Dolby Digital stereo. The DTS surround sound is a slightly compressed version of the surround sound on the SACD, and the Dolby surround sound is of slightly inferior quality to the DTS.
• 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

Production

• Recorded at Polar Studios, Stockholm Sweden

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 popular track "Duchess" is the first Genesis song that used a drum machine.
• Duke was the last album with producer David Hentschel, and the only album where David Hentschel served as a backup singer (most notably on the song "Man of Our Times").

Tour

Genesis toured in support of the Duke album between March and July 1980.

Setlist

1. Deep In the Motherlode*
2. Dancing With the Moonlit Knight (Intro only)
3. The Carpet Crawlers (dropped for U.S. leg)
4. Squonk
5. One For the Vine
6. Behind the Lines
7. Duchess
8. Guide Vocal
9. Turn It On Again
10. Duke's Travels*
11. Duke's End*
12. Say It's Alright Joe (dropped at end of May, 1980 in favour of "Misunderstanding")
13. The Lady Lies
14. Ripples
15. Misunderstanding (US leg only, replacing Say It's Alright Joe)
16. In the Cage
17. The Colony of Slippermen (Raven Section excerpt)
18. Afterglow
19. Follow You Follow Me*
20. Dance On a Volcano
21. Drum Duet
22. Los Endos

Encore:

1. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
2. Back in N.Y.C. (briefly opened shows on the UK leg and was part of the encore in New York in July 1980)
3. The Knife (performed occasionally in the UK leg)

Tracks 6 - 11 comprised of "The Duke Suite" performed on the tour.

Personnel

• Phil Collins - Lead Vocals, Drums, Percussion
• Tony Banks - Keyboards, Vocals
• Mike Rutherford - Electric six and Twelve String Guitars, Bass guitar, bass pedals, vocals
• Daryl Stuermer - Guitars, Bass guitar*
• Chester Thompson - Drums, percussion

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

Footnotes