08-09-2019, 20:40
Ray Wilson was born on this day in 1968, in Dumfries, Scotland. He has the dubious distinction of being the lead vocalist on the very last album recorded by Genesis which I have never listened to before now. It’s titled Calling All Stations and those words are displayed in ever decreasing font size on the front cover, which is kinda telling, although I doubt it was intended to be! It was also heavily panned by various critics, one of whom refers to it as a ‘formless blob of synth sounds’ - jeez – no mercy, but I reluctantly concede that he might have had a point!
To be fair, it wasn’t Wilson (who is no relation to Steven, but who does have a cousin named Steve, who is also a musician, lol!) who beached the band – they had just come to the end of their time. Nothing wrong with his voice which is at times reminiscent of both Gabriel and Collins, and which is no doubt why he was chosen to begin with, after Phil’s departure.
The title track from Genesis’s Calling All Stations … (circa 1997) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgAqSvhNxbc
He’d been with a grunge band called Stiltskin prior to Genesis and he recorded with them after the fact too. They went on to become a lot less grungy – this from Unfulfillment, their 2011 album …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4MrolP7SI
And the title track of his 2016 solo album Makes Me Think of Home …
To be fair, it wasn’t Wilson (who is no relation to Steven, but who does have a cousin named Steve, who is also a musician, lol!) who beached the band – they had just come to the end of their time. Nothing wrong with his voice which is at times reminiscent of both Gabriel and Collins, and which is no doubt why he was chosen to begin with, after Phil’s departure.
The title track from Genesis’s Calling All Stations … (circa 1997) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgAqSvhNxbc
He’d been with a grunge band called Stiltskin prior to Genesis and he recorded with them after the fact too. They went on to become a lot less grungy – this from Unfulfillment, their 2011 album …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4MrolP7SI
And the title track of his 2016 solo album Makes Me Think of Home …
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson