Genesis Revisited II is the 22nd studio album by musician Steve Hackett, released on 22 October 2012 by Inside Out Music label. It is a sequel to his 1996 album Genesis Revisited and largely consists of reworked versions of songs originally by Genesis with a variety of guest vocalists.
"I would like to repaint the Mona Lisa“... No, that is not Steve Hackett about Genesis Revisited II, it is what Phil Collins said in 2010 when he had created a work of art with Going Back. 29 Motown classics were carefully recorded afresh – but the goal was to make them sound like they did when Motown ruled the charts. Collins had not set out to do new interpretations, he wanted to revive the era. Earlier that same year, his former band-mate Peter Gabriel had done exactly the opposite. In Scratch My Back, he challenged himself by moving as far away from the originals as possible in his „no drums, no guitars, only orchestra“ concept. Steve Hackett took the middle ground in 1996 when he brought out Genesis Revisited. Some things sounded familiar, others had been done over in a thoroughly idiosyncratic way. And unlike Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel Hackett dared to look back at that sacred cow, the early years of Genesis. To Genesis fans that is something very different from paying respect to a style of music or trying out an alternative concept. Hackett took some criticism for it. Some said he had strayed too far from the originals, other fans felt he had castrated the best parts of the song, e.g. Firth Of Fifth, where he all but dropped the Banks solo. It was these songs, however, that made Genesis Revisited controversial and therefore interesting.
More than 15 years later here he comes with a second part. He tries his hand at many more songs than on the first volume. He also offers some of his own songs, but only those that were, in his words, influenced or inspired by Genesis. For this recording he has brought in an illustrious list of musicians, and he himself sings very few songs.
Steve Hackett has this to say about the album:
"I sympathise with Hitchcock's need to re-make an earlier film. The vision is clearer, techniques improve inwardly and outwardly. For all us musicians songs of innocence are now inevitably songs of experience. I love the original Genesis music so much that I want to highlight it even more. The temptation to infuse those tracks with more detail and enriched clarity was irresistible.
Musos set the ball rolling by passing it to one another as a means to carry forward combined ideas. The songwriters then necessarily move on to the next project, but the avid listener knows it's really a chariot of fire, a bow of burning gold or a dark satanic mill... It's emblazoned into the mind with a life of its own that moves way beyond the dreams of the original perpetrators. But sometimes dreams need to be re-lived!
On these versions I've altered the detail within the songs whilst aiming to preserve the authentic spirit of the originals. Real string instruments are often used either with or instead of Mellotron, there are several new introductions, plus many additional effects recorded on Apple Mac Logic with amp plug-ins instead of going the traditional route. You'll also find changed guitar and other instrumental solos, as well as additional vocal parts.
Every time I change a solo I feel I'm in danger of messing with people's childhoods, but sometimes the muse just has to have her way with me..."
(genesis-news.com/c-Steve-Hackett-Genesis-Revisited-II-2CD-review-s499.html)