1973 (mix CD of every year of my life series):
1. Dream On (Aerosmith)
2. Get Up, Stand Up (The Wailers)
3. Jet Airliner (Paul Pena)
4. La Grange (ZZ Top)
5. Karn Evil 9 - 1st Impression, Part 2 (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) (unofficial upload)
6. Over the Hills and Far Away (Led Zeppelin)
7. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John) (audio only (official))
8. Angie (The Rolling Stones)
9. American Tune (Paul Simon)
10. Band on the Run (Paul McCartney & Wings) (audio only (official))
11. Money (Pink Floyd)
12. 5:15 (The Who)
13. Piano Man (Billy Joel)
14. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace) (George Harrison)
15. Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing (Stevie Wonder) (audio only (official))
16. The Cinema Show (Genesis) (audio only (official))

1972:
1. Superstition (Stevie Wonder) (audio only (official))
2. Tumbling Dice (The Rolling Stones)
3. You're So Vain (Carly Simon)
4. Take It Easy (Eagles)
5. Heart of Gold (Neil Young) (audio only (official))
6. Wot's ... Uh, the Deal (Pink Floyd)
7. Spirit in the Night (Bruce Springsteen)
8. Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed) (audio only (official))
9. All the Young Dudes (Mott the Hoople) (audio only)
10. Honky Cat (Elton John)
11. Celluloid Heroes (The Kinks)
12. Can-Utility and the Coastliners (Genesis) (audio only (official))
13. From the Beginning (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
14. Join Together (The Who)
15. You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder) (audio only (official))
16. And You and I (Yes)
17. Suffragette City (David Bowie)

"Can-Utility and the Coastliners" was the first "old" Genesis song I recall hearing and was the start of a lifelong love, appreciation and sometimes obsession with the band. I was already a fan of Genesis with Phil Collins as lead vocalist, but totally unaware of their history or who Peter Gabriel was.

I have my memory, but the circumstances of that memory are so outlandish in retrospect that I've come to doubt it. It was spring 1985 towards the end of my sophomore year in high school. Me and my oldest brother, home from Brown, were driving west on Rte. 4 and something on the radio caught my ear. When we got to the store we were going to, I told him to go ahead in, I wanted to hear the rest of the song. When the song ended, the DJ announced that it was that afternoon's "perfect album side", side A of Genesis's Foxtrot.

That's suspect right there. This is the mid-80s and both Genesis and Phil Collins solo are huge. Prog rock is an unfashionable backwater (albeit still represented on radio playlists) and a major commercial New York radio station chooses side A of Foxtrot, an obscure prog album on which Phil Collins is not even the singer, as its perfect album side?! Not even side B with the epic, now-classic, 20 minute "Supper's Ready"? Wut?! (a possible explanation is that perfect album sides may have been listener requested and in this one singular moment in the history of the entire universe, it resonated with the DJ that it was a good idea.)

Anyway, it just so happened by huge coincidence a friend of my other brother had just lent him the Foxtrot LP. I had seen the album in his room and hadn't given it much attention despite the Genesis name. The album cover was rather weird. It had a gatefold sleeve with photos of the band members inside. Why were there five of them? I initially thought Peter Gabriel's picture was Phil Collins since his hair at the time, shaved three inches back, gave him a huge forehead, which squared with the 80s image of the balding Phil Collins. I was confused when I saw the actual picture of Phil Collins. Young, thin, good looking, with hair!

When I listened to the album, side A, I wasn't sure this was what I heard on the radio. To the uninitiated ear conditioned to Phil Collins' voice, the lead vocal sounded like Phil Collins. Who was this Peter Gabriel character, the supposed vocalist? When the album got to the arpeggiated keyboard solo on the last track, that unmistakably confirmed it was what I heard in the car. And although I wasn't sure I was getting it (aside from that keyboard solo, little was catchy or memorable), if I was so transfixed by it in the car, it deserved further listening, and I listened to it until Genesis became a revelation.

1971