"Turn It On Again"
Single by Genesis
from the album Duke
B-side
Released
  • 3 March 1980 (UK)[1]
  • August 1980 (US)
RecordedOctober – December 1979
Genre
Length3:50 (album version)
3:44 (UK single remix)
3:27 (US single remix edit)
LabelCharisma Records
Atlantic (U.S., Canada)
Songwriter(s)Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford
Producer(s)Genesis, David Hentschel
Genesis singles chronology
"Deep in the Motherlode"
(1978)		 "Turn It On Again"
(1980)		 "Duchess"
(1980)
Audio sample
"Turn It On Again"
  • file
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"Turn It On Again" is a song by the English rock band Genesis featured on their 1980 album Duke. Also released as a single, the song reached number 8 in the UK Singles Chart,[4] becoming the band's second top 10 hit. The lyrics, by Mike Rutherford,[5] concern a man who does nothing more than watch television. He becomes obsessed with the people he watches on it, believing them to be his friends.

The song is featured on the Flash FM station playlist in the game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, in which Collins appears as himself in several story missions.

Background

"Turn It On Again" was built from leftovers from projects by each member: The musical bit used as the chorus was conceived by Tony Banks for A Curious Feeling: "We kind of put [Rutherford's riff] – the bit he didn't use on Smallcreep's Day, curiously enough – with the bit I didn't use on A Curious Feeling, and put these two together. We made it much more rocky; both bits became much more rocky. My bit was a bit more epic, and Mike's bit was a bit slower and a bit more heavy metal. And then Phil gave it a much more straightforward drum part; perhaps neither of us would have thought that we would want that on that bit [...] We put on one or two other bits, too, that ended up from there".[6]

The song is characterised by a rhythmic structure uncharacteristically complex for pop music but common in the band's progressive rock back catalogue. The verse/chorus sections alternate time signatures, 6
4 to 7
4 (13
4), while the intro and bridge sections are in 4
4 and 5
4 (9
4). The riff written by Rutherford on which the song was largely based was originally much slower, but it was transformed with help from Phil Collins. Rutherford explains on the Songbook DVD: "I had this riff [plays lead riff on guitar], but at the time I was playing it like this: [plays slower]. And Phil said, 'Why don't you try it in a faster speed?' and then he said to me, 'Do you realize it is in 13
8?' and I said, 'What do you mean, it's in 13? It's in 4
4, isn't it?' 'No, it's 13.'"

Collins confirms: "You can't dance to it. You see people trying to dance to it every now and again. They get on the off beat but they don't know why".[7] Tony Banks adds: "You can't dance or clap along to it because of that time signature. When we play it live, you can always see the audience getting caught out."[8]

Banks also recalls the use of a duck call on the track to trigger brass hits from a Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer: "…oh Phil had a duck… A trumpet or it may just have been a duck call that he used to trigger the sample to trigger the CS80 to get the sound".[9]

"Turn It On Again" has been a favourite at Genesis's shows. Consequently, the group's 1999 compilation Turn It On Again: The Hits and its 2007 expanded reissue, subtitled The Tour Edition, were named after it, as was the band's 2007 Turn It On Again: The Tour reunion tour. In the 1980s, the band would attach a medley of 1960s pop songs (referred to by the band as the "Blues Brothers" medley, as the first song was "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"). The song would be returned to its album form for the We Can't Dance tour and the band would later regard the medley as a poor decision. Peter Gabriel played drums when he reunited with his former bandmates at 1982's Six of the Best show and found himself baffled by its time signatures. "It was typical Peter: 'Oh, I can play this'," observed Tony Banks. "But once he started playing, he kept looking around going, Oh fuck! 'Turn It On Again' does funny things – it's truly a Genesis song."[8]

Originally written and recorded in the key of B Major, it was transposed down to A for the 2007 tour and further down to G for the 2021 tour to compensate for Collins' changing vocal range.

The Duke Suite

"Turn it on Again" was originally a section of a long suite written by the band that was split up into individual songs before it was released. At the time, was just an interlude between the preceding and next sections of the suite.

Chart performance

"Turn It on Again" was a moderate hit in North America, but failed to reach the Top 40 except in regional markets such as Chicago (No. 31 on WLS-AM).[10] However, it was a bigger hit in Europe, particularly in the UK where it reached No. 8.[11]

Chart (1980) Peak
position
Canadian RPM Top Singles[12] 49
France[13] 32
Ireland (IRMA)[14] 12
Italy 8
Netherlands 38
UK Singles Chart[11] 8
US Billboard Hot 100 58
US Cash Box Top 100[15] 55

Personnel

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mulligan, Brian, ed. (25 February 1980). "advertisement" (PDF). Record Business. London, England, U.K. 2 (49): 16. ISSN 0144-0691. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2023. Release date: Monday March 3rd{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Duke - Genesis | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  3. ↑ Molanphy, Chris (31 May 2019). "The Invisible Miracle Sledgehammer Edition". Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia (Podcast). Slate. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  4. ↑ Genesis UK chart history, The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  5. ↑ Prasad, Anil. "Genesis: Turning it on again". Innerviews. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  6. ↑ Janisch, Helmut; Klinkhardt, Martin. "A Curious Interview". Genesis News Com [it]. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Genesis (2001). The Genesis Songbook (DVD). Eagle Rock Entertainment.
  8. 1 2 Blake, Mark: "The stories behind the songs"; Classic Rock #216, November 2015, p26
  9. ↑ Stuart Barnes and Frank Rogers (27 June 2015). "So this is what it does!" (Interview). Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  10. ↑ "wls110180". www.oldiesloon.com.
  11. 1 2 "Official Charts Company". officialcharts.com.
  12. ↑ "Library and Archives Canada". collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Turn It on Again". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Top 100 1980-10-11". Cashbox Magazine. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  16. ↑ Stuart Barnes and Frank Rogers (27 June 2015). "So this is what it does!" (Interview). Retrieved 25 March 2023.
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