Keep It Dark
"Keep It Dark" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Single by Genesis | ||||
from the album Abacab | ||||
B-side | "Naminanu" | |||
Released | 23 October 1981 | |||
Recorded | 1981 | |||
Genre | Progressive Rock | |||
Length | 4:32 | |||
Label | Charisma/Phonogram | |||
Songwriter(s) | Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford | |||
Producer(s) | Genesis, Hugh Padgham | |||
Genesis singles chronology | ||||
|
"Keep It Dark" is a song by British band Genesis, released on 23 October 1981 in the UK as the second single from Abacab. [1] It reached number 33 in the UK Singles Chart.[2]
Song information
"Keep It Dark" describes a man who has been to the future and has seen a bright, happy world where everyone is filled with joy, cities are filled with light, with no fear of war, and all exploitation has ceased as all creatures have happier lives. Once he returns, however, he is pressured to lie about the incident. The cover depicts the three wise monkeys.
In the DVD interview accompanying the 2007 re-release of Abacab, the album from which the song comes, composer Tony Banks said that "the idea was that this character had to pretend that he'd just been robbed by people and that's why he'd disappeared for a few weeks, and in fact what had happened [was] he'd been to the future and gone to this fantastic world where everything was wonderful and beautiful and everything... but he couldn't tell anybody that, because no one would believe him and the powers that be kept him silent."
The song's unusual structure (the rhythm is in a 6/4 time signature) kept it from being released as a single in the US.[3]
Music video
A music video supported the single release of the song, featuring Collins, Tony Banks, and Rutherford in two different settings. In the first and second verses and the fade out, the band walks along bleak city streets (in Amsterdam) wearing trenchcoats and fedoras. When the chorus comes in, it shifts to the band wearing all-white suits and sunglasses, and walking through a field, with the sun shining. In both settings, Banks mimes with a mini Casio keyboard and Rutherford with the neck from a guitar, while Collins keeps the beat of the song with drumsticks, mostly hitting air, or the walls of the Amsterdam houses.
Credits
- Tony Banks – keyboards
- Phil Collins – drums, percussion, vocals
- Mike Rutherford – electric guitar, bass pedals
References
- ^ Bowler, Dave; Dray, Bryan (1992). Genesis: A Biography, UK discography. Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 9780283061325.
- ^ Genesis UK chart history, The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ^ Reed, Ryan; Stone, Rolling (10 October 2014). "20 Insanely Great Genesis Songs Only Hardcore Fans Know". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
- v
- t
- e
- Tony Banks
- Mike Rutherford
- Phil Collins
- Peter Gabriel
- Anthony Phillips
- Chris Stewart
- John Silver
- John Mayhew
- Mick Barnard
- Steve Hackett
- Ray Wilson
- Genesis Live
- Seconds Out
- Three Sides Live
- The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts
- The Way We Walk, Volume Two: The Longs
- Live over Europe 2007
- Turn It On Again: The Hits
- Platinum Collection
- The Last Domino? – The Hits
- Genesis Archive 1967–75
- Genesis Archive #2 1976–92
- Genesis 1976–1982
- Genesis 1983–1998
- Genesis 1970–1975
- Genesis Live 1973–2007
- R-Kive
- BBC Broadcasts
- "The Silent Sun"
- "The Knife"
- "Watcher of the Skies"
- "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)"
- "The Carpet Crawlers"
- "A Trick of the Tail"
- "Follow You Follow Me"
- "Many Too Many"
- "Go West Young Man"
- "Turn It On Again"
- "Duchess"
- "Misunderstanding"
- "Abacab"
- "No Reply at All"
- "Keep It Dark"
- "Man on the Corner"
- "Paperlate"
- "Mama"
- "That's All"
- "Home by the Sea"
- "Illegal Alien"
- "Taking It All Too Hard"
- "Invisible Touch"
- "Throwing It All Away"
- "In Too Deep"
- "Land of Confusion"
- "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"
- "No Son of Mine"
- "I Can't Dance"
- "Hold on My Heart"
- "Jesus He Knows Me"
- "Never a Time"
- "Tell Me Why"
- "Congo"
- "Shipwrecked"
- "Not About Us"
- "The Carpet Crawlers 1999"
- "The Silent Sun 2006"
- "The Musical Box"
- "Get 'Em Out by Friday"
- "Can-Utility and the Coastliners"
- "Supper's Ready"
- "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight"
- "Firth of Fifth"
- "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"
- "The Lady Lies"
- "Behind the Lines"
- "Domino"
- "Anything She Does"
- "Driving the Last Spike"
- "Fading Lights"
- In Concert
- Three Sides Live
- The Mama Tour
- Live at Wembley Stadium
- The Way We Walk
- The Video Show
- Live in London
- When in Rome 2007
- Genesis Movie Box 1981–2007
- List of Genesis medleys
- Brand X
- Flaming Youth
- Mike and the Mechanics
- GTR
- Stiltskin
- Simon Collins
- Sound of Contact
- Jonathan King
- Tony Smith
- The Musical Box
- Six of the Best
- Genesis: Together and Apart
- The Farm