Luís M B Cabral: index

“The time will come when the real Genesis will be recognized as the most creative contribution to progessive rock and one of the greatest events in the history of music.”

-- L Cabral, Some Predictions for the New Millennium, New York, 1999

This page is a small contribution to the understanding of the rock phenomenon Genesis. The band personnel has evolved significantly over the years, and so has its style. As a result, different people mean very different things when they talk about Genesis.

The time line below describes, in broad strokes, the main changes in the band's composition. The main thing to keep in mind is that the real Genesis correspond to Phase 2, 1971-1974. Frequently, people will refer to this formation (pictured above) as the original Genesis. However, as the chart shows, they are really not the original Genesis. They are what I and other people refer to as the real Genesis.

Identifying the real Genesis is important when it comes to judging the value of the recordings produced by the band. After years of intense study and research, I have developed an empirical regularity which I expect to be of some value to those interested in this field--the Cabral law of exponential decay:

The Cabral Law of Exponential Decay. The value of a Genesis recording is inversely related to the time distance with respect to the 1971-1974 period. Formally,

V = 100 exp(-c | t - t* | )

where

         V = value of a Genesis recording
         c = 61.0608, the Cabral constant
         t = record publication date
         t* = value in interval [1971,1974] that is closest to t

Consider the following illustrative examples. Take the record Selling England By The Pound. In this case, t = 1973. Moreover, t* = 1973 too. It follows that V = 100 exp(0) = 100. Take instead Duke, released in 1980. We now have t* = 1974, and thus V = 100 exp [-61.0608 (1980-1974) ] = 7.76E-160. In summary, Selling England by the Pound is worth 100, whereas Duke is worth 0.000000 ... 150 zeros ... 000775. (In technical terms, this is called a “tiny” number.)

By repeated application of the Cabral Law of Exponential Decay, the following records are found to have value 100: (*)

Nursery Cryme (1971)
Foxtrot (1972)
Selling England By The Pound (1973)
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)

“I know what I like and I like what I know.” --A lawnmower.

So, don't waste your time with lesser Genesis recordings. Go check out the real stuff. If you're interested, here are links to sound clips and lyrics. If you have any comments, suggestions, corrections, etc, please drops us an email.

_________FOOTNOTES_________
(*) The album Live, while released in 1973, has a value lower than 100. This is the only known case when the Cabral law is violated.