20. Rock Goes The Gospel - Genesis "Follow You, Follow Me"

"Follow You Follow Me" is a 1978 single by Genesis. The music was written by Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford, with lyrics by Rutherford. Originally released as the last track from their 1978 album …And Then There Were Three…, the single was Genesis's first to reach the American Top 40 (peaking at number 23) and UK Top 10 (number 7). It paved the way for the more radio-friendly direction Genesis would take over the next decade. The slower, sentimental "Follow You Follow Me" was not intended to be a hit single and was a departure from most of their previous work as a progressive rockband, as well as much of the rest of the album, featuring a simple melody, romantic lyrics and a verse-chorus structure. Although previous albums contained love ballads, such as Selling England by the Pound's "More Fool Me" and "Your Own Special Way" from Wind & Wuthering, "Follow You Follow Me" was the first worldwide pop success by the group and gained the band play on adult contemporary and pop music stations. The band all agreed that their music was attracting mainly male audiences. This song was written specifically to redress the balance.

Stay with me,
My love I hope you'll always be
Right here by my side if ever I need you
Oh my love

In your arms,
I feel so safe and so secure
Everyday is such a perfect day to spend
Alone with you

I will follow you will you follow me
All the days and nights that we know will be
I will stay with you will you stay with me
Just one single tear in each passing year

With the dark,
Oh I see so very clearly now
All my fears are drifting by me so slowly now
Fading away

I can say
The night is long but you are here
Close at hand, oh I'm better for the smile you give
And while I live

I will follow you will you follow me
All the days and nights that we know will be
I will stay with you will you stay with me
Just one single tear in each passing year there will be

I will follow you will you follow me
All the days and nights that we know will be
I will stay with you will you stay with me
Just one single tear in each passing year...

"Follow you, Follow me" is all about the undying love between two people. With sentiments of "I will stay with you" "I feel so safe and secure" etc...It's a departure in the Genesis way. Normally up to this point they were more into singing about giant mice, or spaceships, or other weird things. But in this album Genesis front man Gabriel had gone. They went through 400 casting for a new front man only to come up with their drummer Collins. Gabriel was a baritone. Collins a tenor. Because it was going to be difficult for Collins to play the drums and be the front man. They went back to casting again for a new drummer. The song was produced to make them appealing to a more female audience.

The first time I heard this song I was hooked. It was a time in my own adolescence that I too was looked for girls and wanting that kind of love that was spoken of in this song "Follow You, Follow Me. This was the first Genesis song that I heard and was also hooked on the band after that. I bought an army jacket off of the back of this song and sewed rock patches all over it, started growing my hair long and went off looking for love. Did I find it........That's another story!

You could say that the over riding theme in the song is that of love, undying love, love that will always be there. That will never fade away or run dry, go stale or be robbed from you. I guess this is the kind of love that we all wish for at some time in our lives. This is essentially a love song and for my money a good one at that. I grant you it's not a guitar rifting anthem but in 1978 for me it was a winning combination then and still is now.

Paul the great apostle writes to a church in Corinth about many things but in the 13th Chapter of his letter to the church in Corinth he delivers these words about undying love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

"1If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

This is a passage I often use at weddings as an example of what love looks like. The kind of love that is PATIENT, KIND, NOT ENVIOUS, NOT BOASTFUL, NOT PROUD, NOT DISHONOURABLE, NOT SELF-SEEKING, NOT EASILY ANGERED, KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS, PROTECTS, TRUSTS, PERSEVERES. NEVER FAILING. This is the kind of love that is worth following after. this is the kind of love that stands the test of time. Sadly some have not found this kind of love and have become damaged in the looking. For others that have followed and found this kind of love. 

The Apostle John speaking about love says these awesome words "God is Love" 1 John 4:7-9. One way of understanding this is that the Love we seek is so awesome, so wonderful, so true that to have it and apprehend it is like capturing God and pursuing God should evoke the same passion as pursuing love. There are of course more ways to understand this passage than just this way.  

In the song "Follow you Follow" me we have these words"Right here by my side if ever I need you" These are words that speak of the companionship of love. To have that is treasure indeed. To know love is what we were all made for.