Genesis was the first band I got into BIG time. Not content with buying all their albums, I quickly spent gobs of cash buying all their singles, bootlegs, promo recordings, international pressings of records I already had, plus solo albums by Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Michael Rutherford, Steve Hackett, even brief member Anthony Phillips, plus any albums I could find where these guys appeared as guest musicians or producers. I think the ultimate peak of insanity was when I bought a record by a band which on a previous album had covered a song from an album that Phil Collins had produced...well, as I phased out my crappy vinyl collection, I wound up selling everything except the singles and a few bootlegs, and upgraded whatever I could to CD.

"From Genesis to Revelation"

1. "The Silent Sun"--mono version (2:15)
2. "That's Me" (2:40)
3. "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet" (3:15)
4. "In the Beginning" (3:44)
5. "Fireside Song" (4:57)
6. "The Serpent" (3:57)
7. "Am I Very Wrong?" (3:30)
8. "In the Wilderness" (3:38)
9. "The Conqueror" (3:21)
10. "In Hiding" (2:37)
11. "One Day" (3:20)
12. "Window" (3:30)
13. "In Limbo" (3:29)
14. "Silent Sun" (2:12)
15. "A Place to Call My Own" (1:59)
16. "A Winter's Tale" (3:29)
17. "One-Eyed Hound" (2:35)

Ok, technically I don't own this CD, at least not under this title. Genesis's first record has been reissued under more fucking names than any album in the history of mankind. Titles I've seen (and bought): In the Beginning, Rock Roots: Genesis, Where the Sour Turns to Sweet, etc. My own copy is titled "And the Word Was..." and looks nothing like the cover art shown here (which is itself completely different from the original art.) However, I *do* own an original pressing of the first album, complete with liner notes on how they were having legal troubles with their name and thus technically weren't "Genesis" at the time.

The lineup here is Peter Gabriel on vocals, Mike Rutherford on bass, Tony Banks on keyboards, Anthony Phillips on guitar, and I have no idea who the drummer was. All of them were schoolmates at some snooty English private school, where the band has its roots. The music here sounds TOTALLY different from anything Genesis has done since, although "The Conqueror" and "The Serpent" give a hint of things to come, and "In Hiding" has the same voyeristic feel that "I Know What I Like" would later. The first two and last two tracks are actually from singles which weren't added to the album until later pressings ("One-Eyed Hound" has sort of a Jimi Hendrix feel to it.) On the whole, though, I really don't like this album too much.

"Trespass"

1. "Looking for Someone" (7:08)
2. "White Mountain" (6:46)
3. "Visions of Angels" (6:55)
4. "Stagnation" (8:51)
5. "Dusk" (4:15)
6. "The Knife" (8:58)

The first album where Genesis begins to sound like Genesis. I heard "The Knife" in a record store once and was instantly turned on to it, in fact was surprised to learn it was by Genesis! (All I was familiar with then was "Misunderstanding", "Abacab", etc.) "Stagnation" is also an eternal favorite of mine, but the first 3 songs (which the crappy vinyl incorrectly listed each as 7:00 long) I never could get into...except of course for the line in "Visions of Angels": "I believe there never is an end/God gave up this world, it's people long ago."

"Nursery Cryme"

1. "The Musical Box" (10:24)
2. "For Absent Friends" (1:43)
3. "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" (8:09)
4. "Seven Stones" (5:09)
5. "Harold the Barrel" (3:00)
6. "Harlequin" (2:53)
7. "The Fountain of Salmacis" (7:54)

One of my favorite Genesis album covers. :) Also this is where Phil Collins and Steve Hacket joined the band. Phil tells a funny story of his audition on the retrospective video Genesis: A History--a DEFINITELY recommended tape!--too long to write up here so you gotta go buy it, sorry. Musically, it's a classic. Genesis really gets into Alice-in-Wonderland-type fairy tale themes--from the botanical monstrosity in "Hogweed" to the hermaphroditic encounter in "Salmacis" to the short, jovial "Harold the Barrel". I have no idea what "Musical Box" is about but it's a fine song as well. "For Absent Friends" is sung by Phil.

"Foxtrot"

1. "Watcher of the Skies" (7:19)
2. "Time Table" (4:40)
3. "Get 'Em Out by Friday" (8:35)
4. "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" (5:43)
5. "Horizons"--instrumental (1:38)
6. "Supper's Ready": (22:58)
   • i. Lover's Leap
   • ii. The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man
   • iii. Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men
   • iv. How Dare I Be So Beautiful?
   • v. Willow Farm
   • vi. Apocalypse in 9/8 (co-starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)
   • vii. As Sure as Eggs is Eggs (Aching Mens' Feet)

This was the first Peter Gabriel Genesis record I ever bought, when I first was getting into the band, and at first I thought it was horrible! Definitely a shock, totally different from what I had heard so far, which was limited to And Then There Were Three and onwards. It took a while but this album grew on me eventually. Of course, the ultimate track here is the 23-minute opus "Supper's Ready", easily my favorite of all of early Genesis's music.

"Rare Tapes Vol. 1" (CDR live bootleg; various sources)

1. "Looking for Someone"--BBC studios, London; February 22, 1970 (7:13)
2. "The Light"--Club la Ferme, Woluwe, Belgium; March 7, 1971 (10:27)
3. "Twilight Alehouse"--Belgium TV; January 1972 (6:15)
4. "Harlequin"--Technical College, Watford UK; March 4, 1972 (2:50)
5. "Bye Bye Johnny"--Palasport, Pavia, Italy; April 14, 1972 (8:59)
6. "Happy the Man"--Piper Club, Rome; April 18, 1972 (3:47)
7. "Going Out to Get You"--Piper Club, Rome; April 18, 1972 (4:24)
8. "One-Handed Drum Solo"--instrumental; Town Hall, Watford UK; June 28, 1972 (2:55)
9. "Can-Utility and the Coastliners"--Piper 2000 Club, Via Reggio, Italy; August 20, 1972 (7:25)
10. "Seven Stones"--Teatro Alcione, Genova, Italy; August 22, 1972 (5:24)

A collection of live & unreleased songs that Genesis rarely played in concert during their early days. The sound quality varies widely, but the general rule applies: "The rarer it is, the worse it sounds." In particular, the two rarest live tracks here -- "The Light" (a VERY early version of "Lilywhite Lilith", with some "Slippermen" bits mixed sin), and "Bye Bye Johnny" (an early version of "Can-Utility and the Coastliners") are so bad, you can barely hear anything! However, they are the ONLY extant recordings of those two songs, so whaddaya gonna do. Apparently there's a whole series of these "Rare Tapes" bootlegs, covering the band's entire history from 1970 to 1998.

"Genesis Live"

1. "Watcher of the Skies" (8:34)
2. "Get 'Em Out by Friday" (9:18)
3. "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" (8:18)
4. "The Musical Box" (10:59)
5. "The Knife" (9:47)

One of the last Genesis records I bought on crappy vinyl, since it was particularly difficult to find. When I bought the Second's Out CD, the record store guy told me I was lucky because they had just discontinued printing ALL of Genesis's live albums! Well I shouldn't have worried, because right after that they reissued them all in remastered format. (Big deal.) In fact I found this CD just a couple weeks after talking to the guy.

The liner notes on this album say, "This album is dedicated to Richard Macpahil, who left April 1973." I always assumed that meant the guy died...but he didn't! He just quit working for the band and is alive and well. (I think he was their sound engineer or something.) There's also a short story by Peter about a woman who strips herself naked, reaches into her pussy, and pulls on a zipper which splits her in two (complete with a SPLAT!! sound effect.)

"Selling England by the Pound"

1. "Dancing Out with the Moonlit Knight" (8:02)
2. "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" (4:03)
3. "Firth of Fifth" (9:36)
4. "More Fool Me" (Vocals: Phil) (3:10)
5. "The Battle of Epping Forest" (11:43)
6. "After the Ordeal"--instrumental (4:07)
7. "The Cinema Show/Aisle of Plenty" (12:40)

I'm not fond of this album. "Firth of Fifth" is the only awesome track here, although "Cinema Show" is also good (the Seconds Out live version is better, though) and sometimes I can even get into that stupid "I Know What I Like" song. The other long tracks, "Moonlit Knight" and "Epping Forest", seem a bit stretched, the "After the Ordeal" instrumental is plain and boring, and "More Fool Me" (sung by Phil) sounds simply pathetic.

"Dancing Out with the Moonlit Knight" features the lyric, "'Paper Late!' cried a voice in the crowd,"--at sound check many years later, Phil began "rapping" that part, thus creating the song which I'm sure you can guess the title of. :-)

"The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (double CD)

disc one:
1. "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (4:55)
2. "Fly on a Windshield" (2:47)
3. "Broadway Melody of 1974" (1:58)
4. "Cuckoo Cocoon" (2:14)
5. "In the Cage" (8:15)
6. "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" (2:45)
7. "Back in N.Y.C." (5:49)
8. "Hairless Heart"--instrumental (2:25)
9. "Counting Out Time" (3:45)
10. "The Carpet Crawlers" (5:16)
11. "The Chamber of 32 Doors" (5:40)

disc two:
1. "Lilywhite Lilith" (2:40)
2. "The Waiting Room"--instrumental (5:28)
3. "Anyway" (3:18)
4. "The Supernatural Anaesthetist" (2:50)
5. "The Lamia" (6:57)
6. "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats"--instrumental (3:06)
7. "The Colony of Slippermen" (8:14)
   • a. The Arrival
   • b. A Visit to the Doktor
   • c. The Raven
8. "Ravine"--instrumental (2:05)
9. "The Light Lies Down on Broadway" (3:32)
10. "Riding the Scree" (3:56)
11. "In the Rapids" (2:24)
12. "IT" (4:58)

The last album with Peter Gabriel, and boy did he go out in style! It's a concept album detailing a bizarre, metaphyisical journey undertaken by Raul, a Puerto Rican street kid, and his hapless brother John. A spectacular, ambitious piece of work, absolutely marvelous. The live show for The Lamb is one of their most legendary, though beset by numerous problems (the band said that not once did the show get off without at least one hitch), and worst of all, it was never filmed...not even by bootleggers!!! Hey, check out the story in the liner notes.

"West Palm Beach '75" (2CDR; 1/10/75, Convention Hall, Florida)

Of all bootlegged shows from The Lamb tour, this particular date is the most famous. On the other hand, I'm not sure where this particular recording comes from, because even the best, most complete WPB shows are listed as an audience/soundboard, rated no higher than A- overall, whereas this is VERY clean, FULL A+ soundboard!! Technically, this isn't a "complete show" as two songs are missing ("Anyway" and "Supernatural Anaesthetist"), but those songs were little more than filler anyway, so I don't mind. :) Most importantly, this show includes "IT", which was the biggest problem child of this tour...people's reel-to-reel tapes always RAN OUT before it got played!!! (Which is why Genesis had to re-record it for their box set, see below. But why didn't they use THIS source instead??? I don't get it.) Oh, and the artwork I chose from Genesis: The Movement doesn't really match this show, I merely picked it because it was the most generic. (Had to do some Photoshopping of the rear sleeve tracklist to make it match up...not that you can tell by the thumbnail shown here, of course.)

"The Light Goes Down on Empire" (CDR; 4/4/75, Empire Pool, London)

1. "Watcher of the Skies" (7:45)
2. "Cuckoo Cocoon" (2:20)
3. "In the Cage" (7:07)
4. "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" (3:19)
5. "The *RAEL* Story"--spoken word (1:33)
6. "Back in N.Y.C." (6:06)
7. "Hairless Heart"--instrumental (2:31)
8. "Counting Out Time" (4:00)
9. "Carpet Crawlers" (5:45)
10. "Lilywhite Lilith" (2:54)
11. "The Waiting Room"--instrumental (9:21)
12. "Anyway" (3:30)
13. "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats"--instrumental (1:21)
14. "The Colony of Slippermen: Arrival"--instrumental (1:52)
15. "Ravine"--instrumental (1:26)
16. "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" (3:32)
17. "Riding the Scree" (4:12)

I got this one on the advice of a Genesis trader who called it, "The best Lamb recording, in terms of performance and sound quality." And he was right -- not only is the recording itself spectacular (except for some severe static in the opening track, which unfortunately forces me to grade it no higher than "A", although that may be a little harsh), the band's performance was DEAD ON that night. It's also got "Watcher of the Skies", which was only performed occasionally on the tour (unlike "Musical Box", which closed every show) -- and most importantly, as the tour went on, "The Waiting Room" evolved into a longer, more chaotic extended jam, and the version here is FAR and away the best available! HOWEVER...

Well, the main drawback of this ROIO is clear to all -- IT'S NOT THE WHOLE SHOW!!! Indeed, most of the songs that "drive the plot", esp. the title track, "The Lamia", and most of "Slippermen" are gone completely, so what we're left with is an odd assortment of various instrumentals and other "filler" songs. Not that it's necessarily a BAD thing...but I do hope that a full soundboard recording of this show will one day surface, thus supplanting West Palm Beach 1/10/75 as the greatest Lamb boot, ever.

"Genesis Archive 1967-75" (4-CD box set)

This 4-CD set was incredibly expensive, so let's see what we get here...well, the first bit of good news is NO PREVIOUSLY RELEASED MATERIAL! (Unlike those self-serving box sets from the likes of Yes, ELP, etc.) Discs 1 & 2 contain the COMPLETE Lamb Lies Down on Broadway live show, although it's really "virtually live"--Peter Gabriel's vocals are almost completely overdubbed, as well as many of Steve Hackett's guitar parts...and since the tape of the show ran out early, "It" had to be totally rerecorded!

Disc 3 contains the most intriguing material--a live set from the Selling England days, complete with Gabriel's weird story introductions that have nothing to do with the songs, plus two extremely rare songs "Twilight Alehouse" and "Happy the Man". Disc 4 is composed entirely of demos & such from their pre-Trespass days...a bit of overkill, I think! There's also a 78-page book that includes "band history" segments from such Genesis alumni as Tony Banks, Jonathan King, Richard McPhail (see? he's REALLY NOT DEAD!!), Tony Stratton-Smith, etc., most of which just repeats all the information about the band I already knew...

"A Trick of the Tail"

1. "Dance on a Volcano" (5:53)
2. "Entangled" (6:28)
3. "Squonk" (6:27)
4. "Mad Man Moon" (7:35)
5. "Robbery, Assault & Battery" (6:15)
6. "Ripples..." (8:03)
7. "A Trick of the Tail" (4:34)
8. "Los Endos"--instrumental (5:46)

Peter Gabriel quit the band after The Lamb, and after auditioning something like 400 lead singers, Phil Collins was the one who took over. The music here is less complicated and not as imagery-laden as their earlier works, but still a fine album. Lots of quiet ballads on this one.

"Wind & Wuthering"

1. "Eleventh Earl of Mar" (7:39)
2. "One for the Vine" (9:56)
3. "Your Own Special Way" (6:15)
4. "Wot Gorilla?"--instrumental (3:12)
5. "All in a Mouse's Night" (6:35)
6. "Blood on the Rooftops" (5:20)
7. "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers...in that Quiet Earth"--instrumental (7:12)
8. "Afterglow" (4:10)

An excellent album, all around! "Eleventh Earl of Mar" has a fantastic, jouncy riff to it, "All in a Mouse's Night" is a cute song, and "Blood on the Rooftops" is simply beautiful. The instrumentals shine as well, in "Wot Gorilla?" I can hilariously picture an escaped gorilla rampaging through the zoo, and "Unquiet Slumbers..." segues nicely into "Afterglow" (which I think I have more copies of than any other Genesis song, thanks to its pairing with "In the Cage" in their popular concert medley.) Okay, okay, I don't like "Your Own Special Way" that much. But the real winner here, one of the best Genesis songs of all time, is "One for the Vine", the story of a runaway soldier who develops something of a Jesus complex (or something like that--Genesis lyrics tend to be quite obscure.) The middle of the song features a soaring instrumental riff that words cannot describe, and I would play the song over and over just to listen to that one part! In fact it even inspired me to write a sonnet for my high school poetry class (kind of a ripoff of the poem, "On Hearing a Symphony by Beethoven":

"In a House of Dreams" (2CDR; 1/20/77, Gaumont Theatre, Southampton)

A top-notch soundboard show from the Wind & Wuthering tour, taken from a radio broadcast. Choice tracks include "Eleventh Earl of Mar" and "All in a Mouse's Night", which weren't used for box set #2, and of course "Supper's Ready" (which isn't THAT big a deal, since it appeared on the live album for this tour.) All the chatter between songs is cut up onto separate tracks on the CD, for some bizarre reason...I do like how Mike & Steve get to introduce certain songs, though.

Unfortunately, disc one of my copy is highly defective...the end of "One for the Vine" develops some AWFUL "scratchy" noises, which thankfully go away, but they do pop up again (to a more minor extent) in other songs. Plus, two songs -- "Your Own Special Way" and "Firth of Fifth" -- are missing completely!! So I definitely need a replacement disc for this show...

"Spot the Pigeon" (EP)

1. "Match of the Day" (3:23)
2. "Pigeons" (3:10)
3. "Inside and Out" (6:42)

A rare, little-known EP that I was lucky to find on crappy vinyl. When I discovered it was available on CD I placed an order for it right away! Pretty cool. The lyrics to "Pigeons" are a real gas: "Who put 50 tons of shit on the Foreign Office roof..."

"Seconds Out" (double live CD)

disc one:
1. "Squonk" (6:27)
2. "The Carpet Crawl" (5:10)
3. "Robbery, Assault & Battery" (6:00)
4. "Afterglow" (4:18)
5. "Firth of Fifth" (8:37)
6. "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" (8:34)
7. "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (5:05)
8. "The Musical Box"--closing section (2:44)

disc two:
1. "Supper's Ready" (24:30)
2. "Cinema Show" (11:00)
3. "Dance on a Volcano" (4:22)
4. "Los Endos"--instrumental (6:24)

The second Genesis live album, and the last to feature guitarist Steve Hackett. Since Phil singing meant he couldn't play drums all the time, the band hired Chester Thompson (the black dude in the picture) to fill in for him. On a few tracks, drums are played by Bill Bruford of Yes and King Crimson fame.

Some years later Steve Hackett teamed up with former Yes-man Steve Howe for a rather lousy band called GTR. The connections between Genesis and Yes are strange, neh? Not only have they each had a guitarist named Steve, they also each have a keyboardist named Tony! Also the first Yes guitarist was Peter Banks, though no relation to Tony Banks...

"...And Then There Were Three"

1. "Down and Out" (5:25)
2. "Undertow" (4:47)
3. "Ballad of Big" (4:47)
4. "Snowbound" (4:30)
5. "Burning Rope" (7:07)
6. "Deep in the Motherlode" (5:14)
7. "Many too Many" (3:30)
8. "Scenes from a Night's Dream" (3:30)
9. "Say It's Alright Joe" (4:18)
10. "The Lady Lies" (6:05)
11. "Follow You, Follow Me" (3:59)

The departure of Steve Hackett left Genesis a trio...hence the title of this album. :-) A real change in musical direction--only "The Lady Lies" has any sort of fairy-tale quality, and for the first time since their debut album, the average song length is under five minutes! Not that I'm complaining, every song here is fantastic and I would consider this my favorite of all Genesis albums.

"Duke"

1. "Behind the Lines" (5:31)
2. "Duchess" (6:40)
3. "Guide Vocal" (1:18)
4. "Man of Our Times" (5:35)
5. "Misunderstanding" (3:11)
6. "Heathaze" (5:00)
7. "Turn it on Again" (3:50)
8. "Alone Tonight" (3:54)
9. "Cul-de-Sac" (5:02)
10. "Please Don't Ask" (4:00)
11. "Duke's Travels" (8:41)
12. "Duke's End"--instrumental (2:04)

I've heard this one referred to as a concept album, but if it is, it's certainly the most loosely-themed concept album *I've* ever heard! The only parallels I see here are the musical themes in "Behind the Lines" repeated in "Duke's End". Which reminds me, I had an interesting experience listening to this on acid once, I was riding the San Francisco BART and the train would speed up and slow down in time with the music...

"Turn it On Again" (which has been covered by Dream Theater) is one of Genesis's finer songs, and has been used consistently in their live shows as an encore, with a medley of old 60's tunes mixed it. The band has dubbed that part of their show, "The Damn Medley."

"Musica" (2CDR; 5/7/80, London Lyceum Ballroom)

This is widely regarded by ROIO traders as the best Genesis bootleg, ever. While I don't know about THAT, I will admit that it's an extremely high-quality show, in terms of both performance and sound quality. The surface noise from the original tape source is a bit high, but that's a minor quibble, since DAT recorders didn't exist back then!

The song selection is interesting, as it shows the band in transition from their "old school" material to their modern sound -- certain songs like "Squonk", "I Know What I Like" and especially "The Knife" were played for the last time on this tour, while other songs, in particular the "In the Cage/Afterglow" medley, appear here in a very embryonic state. (No "Damn Medley", yet.) In any case, all Genesis fans just getting into bootlegs should start with this one.

This is where the band discovered rhythm. The song constructions are extremely simple ("Me and Sarah Jane" notwithstanding)--in particular "Who Dunnit?" which repeats the same stanza over and over and OVER again! "No Reply at All" features the horn section from Earth, Wind & Fire--they also appear on all of Phil's solo albums. This was the first Genesis album I ever bought on crappy vinyl.

"Three Sides Live" (dbl live CD--2 versions)

The best of all Genesis live albums, in my opinion, though I may be biased because it's the first one of them I bought. The "In the Cage/Afterglow" medley is my favorite and I nearly wore out my crappy vinyl copy playing it. Good ol' Chester Thompson helps out on drums, and Daryl Stuermer (sp?) supplies bass and guitar work (both these guys are unofficial fourth and fifth members of the band, as they play on all of Genesis's live tours.)

There were two versions of this album initially, the domestic release which had three sides of live music (hence the title), with the fourth side composed of studio tracks. But since in England all the studio tracks were readily available on other releases, the UK pressing contained an additional side of live music not on the US release! I actually ran across a UK copy at Licorice Pizza (they're known as Sam Goody's now) and, fool that I was, didn't buy it!! I was kicking myself over that for YEARS until, seemingly miraculously, they reissued the CD with the UK track listing! So now I have two copies, though I wonder what I'm gonna do with the first disc since I have two identical copies of it now, should I keep it or get rid of it? Ah, the dilemma! And also I wonder what they are going to do with the title, since it's not really "three sides live" anymore!

"The Lamb Woke Up Again" (2CDR; 10/2/82, Milton Keynes, UK)

With all the high-profile, grand nostalgic reunions of classic 70's bands these days, people are always asking, "What about Genesis? When is Gabriel gonna do a reunion show with them?" Well folks, it already happened...in 1982, long before the "nostalgic reunion" became the standard commercialized, money-making tool for washed-up bands needing to pay off their drug dealers. (Hell, I didn't even know about it until years after the fact, and I was a HUGE Genesis fan back then!) You see, Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festival, featuring "world music" from all over the...umm...world I guess, was a total financial disaster, and faced with the prospect of getting his legs broken by whatever passes for the English mafia, he meekly approached his old mates for help, who were more than happy to oblige. So they organized this concert, with all proceeds donated the WOMAD organization (or all the loan sharks, most likely.)

I've read a lot about this concert, and apparently it was fraught with problems -- it rained, some equipment didn't work properly, the sound mix wasn't very good, and Pete occasionally forgot the words to songs and at one point told the wrong story while introducing a song. (Yep, it was an "old school" Genesis concert, complete with Pete's bizarre stories and costume changes.) Still, a good time was had by all, and while there was discussion of making a tour out of it or filming or recording it, they decided just to leave it as one special moment in Genesis history, an intimate evening with the six band members and the few thousand fans in the audience.

Oh, did I say six band members? Yes, Steve Hackett comes on during the last part of "Supper's Ready" and also plays on "I Know What I Like". So it was a FULL reunion, indeed!!!

Of course, for all fans who weren't able to attend, the only question was: "WHERE CAN I GET A BOOTLEG OF THIS SHOW???" Since it was never "officially" recorded, the only sources were a few sneaky Brits in the audience who taped it using sucky pieces of early 80's electronics (no DAT's available back then!) Indeed, all the Genesis bootleg guides I've read describe the sound as somewhere between below average and piss-poor. So I was very pleasantly surprised when I finally got my own copy -- and I don't mean it like, "It sucks, but not as sucky as I feared"; for an audience boot, it's quite good! Peter's voice is very clear, and while the quality of other instruments varies a bit, there's certainly no MAJOR flaws. A few minor glitches here and there (and it kinda sounds like it was patched together using the best parts of existing tapes), but nothing that's terribly distracting. Rating: A-

The last four tracks feature another "mini-reunion" of sorts, a Steve Hackett show where Pete showed up to play piano and sing a few tracks. I think Mike Rutherford showed up too, at least according to the liner notes he did.

"Genesis"

1. "Mama" (6:46)
2. "That's All" (4:22)
3. "Home by the Sea" (4:46)
4. "Second Home by the Sea" (6:22)
5. "Illegal Alien" (5:12)
6. "Taking It All Too Hard" (3:54)
7. "Just a Job to Do" (4:44)
8. "Silver Rainbow" (4:27)
9. "It's Gonna Get Better" (5:00)

This is the album that prompted me to go heads-over-heels collecting Genesis stuff. It's a solid piece of work, from the haunting opening track "Mama" to the hitman motif in "Just a Job to Do" to the pretty ballad "It's Gonna Get Better". Of course, "Illegal Alien" is one of the most popular tracks here, with Phil singing in a terrible Mexican accent. The video was cute, too. One annoyance here--I have a 12" crappy vinyl single with LONG versions of "Mama" and "...Better", in fact the latter song has an EXTRA VERSE in it, and why the hell didn't they release those versions on the album? Or at least add them as bonus tracks?? Ah well, maybe someday in a box set or something...

"Fugitives from Justice" (CDR; 11/27/83, The Spectrum, Philadelphia)

1. "Dodo" (4:55)
2. "Lurker" (2:11)
3. "Abacab" (8:59)
4. "That's All" (4:47)
5. "Mama" (8:48)
6. "Illegal Alien" (5:31)
7. "In the Cage" (7:58)
8. "Cinema Show/In That Quiet Earth/Slippermen/Afterglow" (10:54)
9. "Misunderstanding" (3:58)
10. "Turn it on Again + damn medley" (9:08)
    • Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
    • (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
    • All Day and All of the Night
    • Midnight Hour

I've had this show on tape for decades, so I know that a few songs are missing from the original radio broadcast. The most egregious omission is "Keep it Dark", which isn't available on any official recording that I know of...also missing is "Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea", which isn't so big a deal but I would like to have heard Phil's "other world" introduction. The good news is, we've got the "Damn Medley" version of "Turn it on Again", and an alternate version of "In the Cage/Afterglow" with "...In That Quiet Earth" slipped into the instrumental medley. Sound quality is excellent (about as good as any FM broadcast, I guess) but it really annoys me that several songs have fades DURING THE MUSIC between tracks!!! Thus, Phil's country-western intro to "That's All" is also missing, although the "fugitives from justice" intro for "Illegal Alien" is still there.

"Invisible Touch"

1. "Invisible Touch" (3:26)
2. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" (8:49)
3. "Land of Confusion" (4:45)
4. "In Too Deep" (4:59)
5. "Anything She Does" (4:06)
6. "Domino": (10:42)
   1. In the Glow of the Night
   2. The Last Domino
7. "Throwing It All Away" (4:41)
8. "The Brazilian"--instrumental (4:49)

An uneven album. "Tonight..." is an absolute classic, and so is "Domino" and the snazzy "Brazilian" instrumental, plus "Land of Confusion" is a nice song though a bit overplayed. The rest...well, they suck. Okay, the title track isn't so bad (though in all honesty I like the 12" version better), but I never did like "In too Deep" or "Throwing it All Away", not even before they got overplayed to death! Why is that, anyway, that rock artists always release the dumbest, lamest tracks on their albums as singles? Must be something to do with the idiocy of the general music-buying public...

I also got to see Genesis live on this tour, for the first time and after YEARS of trying to catch them when they were in town! The thing was, I never happened to be in the same place as them. When they played Los Angeles in 1986, I was working back East in Washington D.C., and though they played New York and Philadelphia while I was there they didn't come to Washington until a few weeks after I left. Then, when they came back to L.A. in May '87, I was in England! But it finally worked out, I caught their LAST SHOW OF THE TOUR on July 4th, 1987, at Wembley Stadium in London. My, what a show! Not just the band performance and the light show (DEFINITELY the light show) but I was in like the 10th row and it was nearly like a mosh pit! One of the highlights of my concert-going experiences.

"We Can't Dance"

1. "No Son of Mine" (6:38)
2. "Jesus He Knows Me" (4:15)
3. "Driving the Last Spike" (10:08)
4. "I Can't Dance" (4:00)
5. "Never a Time" (3:50)
6. "Dreaming While You Sleep" (7:15)
7. "Tell Me Why" (4:57)
8. "Living Forever" (5:40)
9. "Hold on My Heart" (4:37)
10. "Way of the World" (5:37)
11. "Since I Lost You" (4:09)
12. "Fading Lights" (10:16)

It took awhile, but Genesis finally wimped out. Except for "Jesus He Knows Me", "I Can't Dance", and "Fading Lights", there's nothing worthwhile here--even "No Son of Mine" is basically a "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" ripoff. This is the first Genesis CD where there are songs that I can't instantly recall in my head what they sound like.

"The Way We Walk Volume One: The Shorts" (live album)

1. "Land of Confusion" (5:16)
2. "No Son of Mine" (7:05)
3. "Jesus He Knows Me" (5:23)
4. "Throwing It All Away" (6:01)
5. "I Can't Dance" (6:55)
6. "Mama" (6:50)
7. "Hold on My Heart" (5:40)
8. "That's All" (4:59)
9. "In Too Deep" (5:36)
10. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" (3:35)
11. "Invisible Touch" (5:41)

I waited a long time to buy this one, and really it was more to fill up my collection than any desire for the music itself. Not only do they only play their boring "hit" songs, but the production quality & musicality is surprisingly, depressingly poor...and to make matters worse, they only perform the first half of "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"!

"The Way We Walk Volume Two: The Longs" (live album)

1. "Old Medley: Dance on a Volcano/Lamb Lies Down on Broadway/Musical Box/Firth of Fifth/I Know What I Like" (19:32)
2. "Driving the Last Spike" (10:17)
3. "Domino: 1. In the Glow of the Night/2. The Last Domino" (11:21)
4. "Fading Lights" (10:55)
5. "Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea" (12:14)
6. "Drum Duet"--instrumental (6:06)

Somewhat of a redemption here, I actually bought this CD before the first Walk volume. Long songs are what Genesis is all about, and even the newer tracks here shine like gold. (In fact I never appreciated "Fading Lights" until hearing this version.) The real gem here is the "Old Medley", which also includes bits and pieces from "That's All", "Your Own Special Way" and "Follow You, Follow Me" (and probably a couple others I can't recall right now.) The "Drum Duet" is rather anticlimactic though.

"Genesis Archive #2 1976-1992" (3-CD box set)

Well, here it is, the long-long-long-awaited Archive #2 box set. This one feels more "thrown together" than box #1 -- for instance, how come the 12" remix of "I Can't Dance" is shoehorned in with the unreleased tracks?? Oh well, I suppose it flows together fairly well, although disc #3 does look (and sound) terribly disorganized. But enough about that. The meat here, of course, is the whopping number of B-sides ranging from A Trick of the Tail through We Can't Dance, most of which have NEVER been released on CD before! (And although I've collected most of them on crappy vinyl singles, "Submarine" and "It's Yourself" are two I never managed to track down -- and listening to them now, it's probably just as well.) But...BUT...why in God's name did they exclude "Match of the Day" and "Me & Virgil"?? Well, Tony Banks himself said that they simply hated those songs...ok, fair enough, but you realize this is the sort of thing that gives Genesis completists conniption fits, right? Not so bad for me, since I've still got Spot the Pigeon and the original Three Sides Live on CD, but I was REALLY hoping to sell off those collectibles for some good $$$$...

In addition, we get a buttload of live tracks, selected specifically because they never appeared on any live CD before. The incredible And Then There Were Three album finally gets fair treatment, with three songs included here (up til now, only "Follow You, Follow Me" ever saw the light of day.) Other highlights include a blistering rendition of "Duke's Travels" (which DOES include "Duke's End", just so you know), a brilliant performance of "The Brazilian" (recorded at the concert I attended in '87--unfortunately, you can't hear my voice in this one), and the long-neglected "Illegal Alien"!!! It really irks me, though, that the band ALWAYS edits out Phil's nutty introductions to these songs...and would it have killed them to include one of the "Damn Medley" versions of "Turn it on Again"? Or an alternate version of "In the Cage"? Or how about "Eleventh Earl of Mar", "Down and Out", "Who Dunnit?", etc. etc. etc...

Padding up this collection are four 12" mixes, which are more of a curiosity than anything else ("Invisible Touch" and "Land of Confusion" are pretty good, but "Tonight x3" suffers from FAR too much wanking)...and the "work in progress" version of "Mama" is just plain ridiculous. And what happened to the fucking CD-ROM that was supposed to be part of this set? And why not add a fourth disc containing the B-sides from Calling All Stations??? Oh well, I suppose that's what Napster is for...

"Calling All Stations"

1. "Calling All Stations" (5:43)
2. "Congo" (4:52)
3. "Shipwrecked" (4:23)
4. "Alien Attraction" (7:53)
5. "Not About Us" (4:39)
6. "If That's What You Need" (5:12)
7. "The Dividing Line" (7:44)
8. "Uncertain Weather" (5:29)
9. "Small Talk" (5:02)
10. "There Must Be Some Other Way" (7:55)
11. "One Man's Fool" (8:47)

Once again, I am flip-flopping my opinion of this album. After getting into an argument with another Genesis fan who claimed this is the worst piece of shit album of all time, I decided to listen to it again...and the first thing I noticed is the absolutely LAME drumwork! Yeah, replacing Phil's skin-work is no small task, but why did they have to hire some no-talent hack?? Couldn't they at least get Chester Thompson? Plus, the first six songs are all played at the EXACT SAME TEMPO -- now THAT is annoying as hell!! Not to mention the opening lines of the title track: "Can anybody tell me exactly where I am/I've lost all sense of direction..." YUCK!! I could fart better lyrics. "Shipwrecked" and "If That's What You Need" are decent enough songs, but surrounded by this dreck, you hardly notice. Things pick up substantially with "Dividing Line", featuring a brilliant keyboard riff that, in all honesty, should have been the lead-off track on this CD. Not that it would have mattered. Then two more crappy songs ("Small Talk" being particuarly excreble), then an okay song, then the album-closing "One Man's Fool", which starts off kinda dull but actually manages a very nice ending. New singer Ray Wilson is competent enough, but really, this whole thing sounds like a watered-down version of Mike + the Mechanics...which speaks for itself...

...and in case you haven't heard, Ray Wilson has formally left the band, to the great delight of Genesis fans worldwide, who are now holding their breath for a reunion w/Phil...but don't buy the rumors just yet. Both Tony and Phil have stated that, while a reunion is not out of the question, it ain't gonna happen in the near future. Oh well, it's probably for the best.

on crappy vinyl:
• "From Genesis to Revelation" (original pressing!!)
• "Bedside Yellow Foam" (live bootleg from Selling England... tour)
• "Swelled and Spent" (live bootleg of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour)
• "Many Too Many" -- 7" single b/w "The Day the Light Went Out" & "Vancouver"
• "Live at the Theatre Royal" (live 2LP bootleg from Duke tour)
• "The Rarest Live - Vol. 3" (bootleg w/ "Happy the Man" and a few other gems)
• "Keep it Dark" -- 7" single b/w "Naminamu"
• "Mama" (long version)/"It's Gonna Get Better" (long version) -- 12" single
• "That's All" -- 12" single b/w "Firth of Fifth" live
• "Illegal Alien" -- 12" single b/w "Turn it on Again" live w/ rock medley
• "Afterglow" (live 2LP bootleg from Genesis tour)
• "Invisible Touch" (extended mix) -- 12" single
• "Throwing It All Away" -- 7" single b/w "Do the Neurotic"
• "Land of Confusion" -- 12" single b/w "Feeding the Fire"
• "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" (extended mix) -- 12" single, UK pressing
• "In Too Deep" -- 7" single b/w "I'd Rather Be You"

videotapes:
• "Three Sides Live" -- concert tape [dubbed]
• "Mama" -- concert tape
• "Genesis Videos--Volume 1"
• "Genesis Videos--Volume 2"
• "Genesis: A History"

concert tapes:
• And Then There Were Three... tour, 1978, location & date unknown.
• Genesis tour, Los Angeles Forum, 1984 (exact date unknown)
• Genesis tour, Philadelphia, 1984 (exact date unknown)
• "The Genesis Event", parts #1, #2 & #4.

Previous Band Back to Index Next Band