It’s always tricky when a band known for a particular niche of music tries to branch out, potentially alienating diehard fans in an effort to court new ones. Genesis experienced that on their 1981 album Abacab. The ambitious title track, meanwhile, seemed to beautifully straddle both worlds.
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What is the song about? Why did Genesis want to change their approach? And what the heck is an “Abacab” anyway? Well, watch out for that cellophane and read on to find out.
A New Home and a New Sound
Even though Peter Gabriel had departed Genesis in 1975 and the band had dented the pop charts a couple of times in the years following that, the trio of Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks still hadn’t quite transformed completely away from their prog-rock beginnings as they entered the ’80s. Truth be told, they didn’t quite shed all that on Abacab, either. But they made significant changes to the way they did things, and that reflected in the sounds on the album.
They bought a farmhouse in England and turned it into a recording studio. In addition, they decided to self-produce the album instead of working with longtime collaborator David Hentschel. Hugh Padgham, who had worked on solo records by both Gabriel and Collins, came aboard with his signature gated drum effect in tow.
There seems little doubt that Collins’ solo record, which was soaring in the charts as the band was recording Abacab, likely impacted the band’s output. In addition to their own single successes on songs like “Follow You Follow Me” and “Misunderstanding,” Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” proved there was a way to be musically inventive in bite-sized form and still score big.
Leaving the Past Behind
Banks described to Songfacts how the band wanted to leave behind the past with Abacab: “On that particular record, we were trying to get away from what was, at that point, traditionally Genesis, which was quite flowery and fantasy, and to go to something that was much more stark and abstract. That’s why we went for an abstract art painting on the front and gave it this abstract title, Abacab, so that it didn’t conjure up any particular emotion at all. We started with a kind of blank canvas. It worked well as both a song and an album title, I think.”
Well, what about that bizarre title? It’s based on the original structure of the song. “That was the original idea and we went through various combinations of the song,” Banks remembered. “In other words, you had Part A, Part B and Part C. We had various orders, and one order we had spelt A-B-A-C-A-B, you know, ‘Abacab,’ like that. But, it wasn’t the final version of what we used. The final version was unpronounceable, so ‘Abacab’ kind of stuck.”
They created a propulsive track, one which started with an extended jam based on a programmed drum pattern. Perhaps the most thrilling part was when Banks went into an extended synth solo both rhythmically invigorating and melodically intriguing. As such, “Abacab” delivered both rock-song punch and progressive exploration, all in a modern-sounding package.
What is the Meaning of “Abacab”?
Banks mentioned “abstract” in terms of the band’s approach, and you can hear it in the lyrics to “Abacab,” which were penned by Rutherford. There’s a general sense of unease and even paranoia running through the lyrics, although it’s never specifically mentioned in the song what’s causing it.
The best guess: relationship stress. Now do you think I’m to blame, Collins barks out after telling us of a crack in the mirror and a hole in the window pane. In the second verse, these implications become more overt. Collins sings, When you’ve taken someone else’s girl, and then worries, Don’t you think they’ll find out.
It’s an illusion / It’s a game, Collins sings in the final verse. The final bit of imagery suggests it isn’t pretty to be on the losing end: Wake and find you’re covered in cellophane. “Abacab” might have a nonsense title and strangely elusive lyrics. But it still felt like Genesis hitting with a greater sense of urgency than at any previous time in their career.
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Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
