Steve Hackett – Recording Compendium – Introduction

When the name Steve Hackett is mentioned, most people think of the ‘former Genesis guitarist’, which is certainly true. After all, he is the only member of the Genesis family who has carried the ‘classic Genesis’ flag in later years, celebrating the music of his time with the band from 1971 to 1977 extensively on stages around the world. However, many forget that he is not ‘just’ a guitarist (which would be enough with his very independent sound), but also had a lot to contribute in terms of composition – after all, he was the first Genesis member to not only immortalise a pure solo track on a Genesis album with Horizons, but also to release a solo album… and that already in 1975!

Nearly 30 solo albums have followed, documenting both the full band sound and his love of the acoustic sound, and covering the most diverse facets of classical, blues, rock, pop, jazz and ethnic music. There are also important albums with Quiet World, GTR, Squackett and Djabe. He has worked with many big names on his own and other projects, including many members of King Crimson, Yes and Marillion. He has been and still is often asked to play guitar and harp features for other artists.

With this chronological compendium, we have attempted to classify the many recordings and productions (excluding Genesis material) from over five decades into the original eras of their creation, regardless of the date of release. This is primarily studio material, but also includes non-album tracks that were only played live, as well as all released professional live recordings. Additional information is limited to the bare essentials, such as date of recording and first release, as well as the best current recording source. Bootlegs are also included. We do not provide detailed descriptions of individual tracks/versions.

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Structure

The tracks are usually listed in chronological order of creation (not release date!). The sections usually end after the tours for the respective albums and start from the period when new material was being worked on.

Each listing is usually subdivided as follows:

1. collaborations following the previous tour
2. demos
3. album tracks
4. outtakes that were created during the album sessions but did not make it onto the album
5. different versions of the album tracks and outtakes
6. live tracks of which no published studio versions are known to date
7. official live releases
8. collaborations that were created before the end of the tour.

Due to the sometimes very dense sequence of publications, this structure cannot always be applied consistently. In addition, we consider all parts to be ‘living documents’ that can be further developed at any time.

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Explanation of terms and formatting

There are different versions of many tracks. Additions to the track name were recorded according to the following scheme:

(Addition in round brackets and bold font) = officially published title addition

[Addition in square brackets and normal font] = unofficially used title addition – used for differentiation in this list

In order to differentiate between them, all versions of individual tracks were listed with additional names. If there was no official title addition, it was labelled as follows:

[demo] = song or version of a track that was recorded in the embryo stage
[original version] = different version/recording of a track that was professionally recorded before its album release
[original mix] = a slightly different mix of the album track that was released before the album was released
[alternate mix] = slightly different mix of a track
[instrumental] = track without vocal tracks, but which otherwise corresponds to the album version
[instrumental mix] = track without vocal tracks that was mixed differently from the original
[full length version] = track in a longer version than the album version
[edit] = shortened version of the album version in the same mix
[remix] = remixed / edited version

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