Chords for Genesis VH1 Rock Honors (inducted by Robin Williams)

_ There are just a few names that strike fear into the hearts of entertainers everywhere.
This next presenter is one of them.
Being on stage with him is like doing a math test against Albert Einstein.
Like stepping into the boxing ring with Muhammad Ali.
Like strapping on a guitar to jam with Eric Clapton.
You can't win.
You don't do it.
So I'm gonna get the hell out of here as I give you Robin [Fm] Williams. _ _
[Ebm] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [Db] _ [Ab] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ [Ab] _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [Abm] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [N] Thank you. _
Yes indeed.
_ _ _ _ Brothers and sisters.
_ _ _ Rockers and rollers.
_ _ _ Cats and kittens.
Ladies and gentlemen and assorted creatures from Cirque du Soleil. _
_ _ _ _ I have traveled here tonight to the desert to be in this great land of confusion.
_ _ _ _ _ This, _ this sin city. _ _ _
_ The original Silicon Valley. _
Yes.
_ _ I'm here tonight to preach the book of Genesis.
Can I have an amen? _
Amen. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
But no friends, I am not here to debate Darwin.
No.
_ I'm not here to talk about intelligent design.
No.
_ _ Intelligent design you just have to look at a human body and see a waste processing plant near a recreation area.
_ _ Yes.
I'm not here to talk about the ages of rock.
_ I'm here to talk about the rock of Asia.
_ _ Yes. _
_ _ _ I'm here to spread the good word about my favorite band also called Genesis.
_ _ _ _ Tonight VH1 is rightly honoring an enduring band that has changed our rock history.
_ _ _ _ I'm talking about a group over the past 40 years that's had more hits than Willie Mays _ _ or Willie Nelson on a good weekend.
_ _ A _ _
_ [Db] band that I believe has had nearly as many members come and go as Britney Spears or Paris [N] Hilton before jail. _
_ Yes, indeed. _ _ _
Let us rejoice that these three kings of rock and roll have finally come back together to turn it on again to heal the wounds.
And most importantly to pack the arenas around the world once more. _ _ _ _
Yes, indeed.
_ _ This is a group that pulled off the single most surprising lead singer swap in all of rock history.
_ _ _ _ Their first great front man Peter Gabriel decided to stop dressing like vegetables _ and little furry woodland creatures and win solo to shock his monkey. _ _
_ _ And instead of asking another studly qualified singer or having a talent contest so Simon Cowell could go, I'm sorry darling you suck.
No, _ they just looked to their brilliantly gifted drummer _ and said, _ yo _ Collins, you Bob Hoskins look alike. _ _
_ Get your ass up to the microphone and sing your bullets off.
_ _ _ And so Phil did and it was good and the goodness began greatness.
And that greatness is what VH1 so rightly honors this very night.
So good and not so good people have lost wages.
Remember what happens in Las Vegas pretty much is known around the world.
_ _ Yes, _ _ indeed.
_ _ Please take a moment to consider the revelations of a bookish band that had the power of Deuteronomy and the numbers to back it up.
Ladies and gentlemen, here's a look at one of rock's greatest stories ever told.
The story of Genesis.
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ [Bb] _ _ _
You actually know what's going on inside the band in the [F] spirit of Genesis is these two [B] guys.
Frankly, our ambitions was to write [E] songs for anybody who would have it actually.
And we realized that no one actually was interested in doing any [Ab] of our songs.
And so the suggestion was we should do [B] them ourselves.
_ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ It [Eb] started with Peter.
[B] He just dressed up as [E] the character on the front of the album Foxtrot.
Put on [Gb] the dress and the fox's head and [Abm] came out and he didn't tell us he was going to do it before he did it.
That next [Ab] week he was on the front page of Melody Maker.
So I think we [Db] thought, well, he's on to [Ab] something here. _ _
_ _ _ The making of the lamb Peter left for a bit during that album.
[E] I think we sensed then that [Ab] the chains are foot.
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] It's been said that there are 400 auditions, you know.
Well, there was maybe 400 tapes, but it was whittled down quite quickly.
And I think that Phil said, let me give it a try.
[Eb] And he did [Ab] it and it sounded pretty [Eb] good.
_ [Ab] _ _ [Bb] _ [Ab] I _ [Eb] think in a way, the Venetree album, we were [G] lucky because I think Follow You, Follow Me came out as a really nice [D] little _ [G] classy little song. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Duke was [D] the album we started writing together [G] again a bit more like how we started.
And Abacab was even more so that way.
So I think in a way, the most important thing then was to kind of getting back to writing as a band that we used to do.
It was time to maybe cut with the past a bit and make a point not to do some of [Cm] those songs that were becoming sort of like a caricature of each album. _
[Bb] _ _ [F] _ _ [Gm] _ _ [F] As _ [G] _ _ _ [F] well as wanting to sort of [Abm] little bit of reinvention, little bit of scaling [Dm] down, punk had [G] started.
So it was kind of there was lots of little [C] reasons _ why we wanted to sound a bit different.
[D] _ _ [E] _ [F] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [E] _ [F] _ _ _ [G] We seem to find our feet [Bm] with the sound and the ability to get to write _ _ better [G] songs, better single.
[B] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [E] [B] It all kind of came together.
MTV was sort of taking [G] off, you know, videos were sort of [Dm] it all seemed to happen [Db] at the same time, really, I think.
Well, I think the videos, the humor is to sort of like disguise the fact, well, we can't act [Gb] because Phil can act.
[B] _ _ [Db] _ _ _
[Bbm] _ [Ebm] _ _ [B] _ _ [Db] _ _ [Bbm] _
Looking [Ab] back, I'm always amazed how that time period, all the solo albums and Phil's huge success, [Abm] the band carried on kind of like it always did.
[E] We rehearsed a couple of weeks last October and it was like falling off a log, you know, _ painful.
_ _ No, falling off a log.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _