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And Then There Were Three 1978 - Genesis Remember...
MIKE: We thought of adding another guitarist. I was so preoccupied with trying to play lead guitar on that album that I can't remember what we were doing. Our direction was almost secondary. I couldn't play fast, it's probably something I never will do. I wouldn't have felt bad about bringing someone in, but we learned you can do so much more in your camp than if you bring in someone from outside. There are so many problems that come with that.

TONY: It was a relief to come down to a three-piece. Rhythm guitar and all the picking and acoustic stuff was mainly Mike anyhow. We hadn't used that much lead guitar. It wasn't like we were Van Halen - lead guitar wasn't that important in the group. I don't want to underestimate Steve's contribution, but we could do it differently. Mike could play a bit more lead guitar and I could do some things on guitar I might not have done otherwise.

PHIL: When it comes down to it, you write within your own capabilities. It was the first time I'd written a lyric on me own - 'Scenes from a Night's Dream'.

MIKE: We missed not having some humorous, lightweight moments, like 'Match of the Day' and 'Pigeon' on 'Wind and Wuthering'. So we said to ourselves, 'Let's not make the songs quite so long to get more variety on it'. I feel that set the mood of the album more than Steve's departure.

PHIL: 'Follow You Follow Me' was not intended to be a hit single. Lots of lovely blowing on that. It came from one of Mike's chord sequences. I think it has a great rhythm track.

TONY: It was our only truly group-written number. Mike played the riff, then I started playing a chord sequence and melody line on it, which Phil then centralized around. It worked so well as a very simple thing, it was enough as it stood.

MIKE: We used to jam with an uptempo version of that riff. I wrote the lyrics in about five minutes - literally.

TONY: I'd just written a simple love lyric for 'Many Too Many' and I think Mike was keen to try the same thing. Maybe 'Follow You Follow Me' was almost too banal, but I got used to it. I think we find it much easier to write long stories than simple love songs.

MIKE: By doing all short songs to get more variety, we ended up with a narrower framework. That's why 'Down and Out' was never a good live song - over so quickly.

TONY: I think of all the albums I have heard in recent years I'm always surprised by 'And Then There Were Three'. I like it more than I think I'm going to. I sometimes dismiss it from my mind, but it contains three of the best songs I've written for the band. The heavier tracks, like 'Down and Out' don't sound so good. That kind of song needs more room to stretch out.


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