1980 · Behind the Songs
A stadium chant hiding one of rock’s sneakiest time signatures.
Thirteen beats and a television
“Turn It On Again” opens Duke (1980), the album where Genesis fully committed to shorter songs — and it smuggles progressive rock into a pop single. The verse riff runs in 13/8 time, a lopsided groove most listeners never notice because the chorus lands so squarely. Tony Banks’s keyboards and Mike Rutherford’s guitar lock into the odd meter while Phil Collins drums and sings over it like the most natural thing in the world.
The lyric is about a recluse obsessed with his television — Collins has described the character as someone who believes the people on screen are his friends. It is a darker subject than the anthemic music suggests, which is exactly the Genesis trick: unease dressed up as a sing-along.
Charts and legacy
Released as a single in 1980, “Turn It On Again” reached No. 8 in the UK, becoming one of the band’s biggest British hits. It became a permanent concert opener and lent its name to a later compilation and tour — proof that fans never tired of counting along, whether they knew they were counting to thirteen or not.
What to listen for
Try counting the verse: the riff never quite lands where you expect. Then notice how the chorus releases all that tension in straight 4/4 — the musical equivalent of the TV flickering on.