Same for me. I was totally blown out by "Epping..." when I first heard "Selling England..." -- stuff like the guitar break ("They called me the reverend...") which seemed to come out of nowhere, was so unique. As years went by, it gradually turned into my least favorite track on the album.
I don’t think Genesis were popular or established enough yet that a double live album would have been a good move, when they only had three real albums out to start with. An affordable single LP that could work as an introduction to their music was better for them at that time. And they would have needed a fourth side of music* that wasn’t in their set at those shows. *they had enough minutes of music for a shortish double album but because of the lengths of the songs they couldn’t be divided equally into four sides. I would agree maybe they could have done a double live album after Selling England by the Pound (drawn from both tours)... their audience had gotten that much bigger then and with songs like Cinema Show and Firth of Fifth to add to the ones that were on Genesis Live and Supper’s Ready it could have been a classic.
The live Musical Box was the first Gabriel-era Genesis track I ever heard. It was around '79 or '80, and I had recently discovered the band via ATTWT, after which I got Seconds Out and Duke. (I actually avoided anything pre-Seconds Out because I believed that all the earlier albums featured Gabriel - ah, the pre-Internet days). My best friend at the time's brother had a great Canadian comp, titled Presenting Genesis, which intrigued me. I wasn't crazy about PG's vocals (still am not, at least in his Genesis years), but what grabbed me about the Musical Box was the lead guitar: how did he get it to sound like that, that slithering, no-attack sound, not just on the intro but when he started soling. Years later, I had the chance to interview Steve and I asked him, but I was still not entirely clear on how he did it. I just knew it was like nothing I'd ever heard. A fantastic, powerful rendition; so much so that, when I got Nursery Cryme a year or two later, I thought the studio version sounded incredibly weak by comparison.
I'm certainly not trying to pick a fight here, but surely it makes more sense to say "Early Marillion smacks of that first section (of The Musical Box)."
It's just too bad that to get the complete show we have to spend some ungodly amount of money on that Live boxset which to me doesn't have anything of value other than the Rainbow show itself. I'm not all that interested in the BluRay 5.1 mixes (still a stereo guy) and last I looked it was almost $400 on Amazon. This CD listing is a bootleg I think, and I've already got quite a few of those! https://www.amazon.com/Live-At-Rainbow-1973/dp/B00YX8CSOG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
For me, The Musical Box is one of the four greatest, best-est, most Genesis-y songs ever. In no particular order (well, chronologically I guess) they are: The Musical Box, Supper's Ready, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, and Firth Of Fifth. These tracks that exemplify everything I love about this band. The Musical Box is also the track Genesis performed live the most if I'm not mistaken. It was probably played in full at nearly every show from 1971 through most of the 1975 Lamb shows, and as an medley tag in later tours (other than Six Of The Best, I don't think it was played in full ever after 1975, was it?) The visual presentation was maybe the most powerful Peter ever came up with, and the reaction of the crowds on live recordings I think bears this out. Plus who can dislike the little Cynthia story?
So irritating that "The Rainbow" renditions of Watcher and Musical Box are DVD only on the live box. Too cheap to slip one more CD into this package? If I ever figure out how to rip audio from a DVD I'll let you know. Sheesh.
This webpage should get you started. I've done it before using a combination of Handbrake (to rip the DVD to mp4) and then VLC Media Player to convert the mp4 to .wav output. I'll try duplicating my process on a test DVD. How to Rip DVD Audio to MP3 Using VLC Media Player
I've used DVDAE for years - DVD Audio Extractor -- Full featured DVD audio ripper for your easy use Granted - I paid a fee for it but it's a one-step process and if you only need to do a disc or two they have a 30 day free trial.
A bit late here ... There's a lot of love for Can Utility And The Coastliners, which I really like until the last 30 seconds or so when the vocals and keyboard arpeggios kick in. Such an epic track then kinda gets too rushed and busy. --Geoff
Ok, I’ve been very late with many things in this thread, but I’m going to go ahead and post a review of Foxtrot (I know). Hey, Genesis Live is still in the Foxtrot era, and it’s an important album for me, so I don’t think it’s too unreasonable. This was the second Genesis album that stuck with me. It took a little bit, but when it clicked, it really clicked and shot up to basically the top of my favorite albums list. I got hooked on this album in pieces, Supper’s Ready was the first song that made my jaw drop, then I came across Time Table again, and decided to give the album another shot. Then, the rest of the album started to click with me. We open with Watcher of the Skies, and when this album started clicking with me, that Mellotron opening gave me chills everytime. By know, I’ve heard this song so many times, the magic has worn off a bit, but it’s still a fantastically constructed song. I always see it as an achievement if you can make a 7 and a half minute song feel like it lasts 4 minutes, and I think a lot of that just comes down to the wealth of cool ideas packed into the song. From the intro, to the slowly building ostinato leading into the first moments of vocals on the album, through all the great vocal touches by Gabriel, to Hackett’s tastefully magnificent playing, to the epic outro featuring some of Phil’s best drumming yet and one of the most emotional Hackett lines of the album. Just briefly touching on the Live version, the Mellotron is absolutely gorgeous, and everyone plays their parts beautifully, but I find Gabriel’s vocals lacking in parts compared to the original. I’m also not sure the song should be slowed down this much. Overall, it’s a good rendition, but one of the weaker tracks on the album. Next is Time Table, which, as I said, was the song that encouraged me to check out the whole album again. What hooked me was Tony’s simple yet beautiful piano part. Now, I would say by default it’s the weakest track, but it’s still a great little song. Get ‘Em Out By Friday used to be my second favorite tune on the album, now I don’t rate it so highly. Sure, it’s got some absolutely killer playing all around, and on the first many listens, it’s fairly interesting musically and lyrically, but time has taken its toll on my interest in the song, and now I see that it is a bit too repetitive and not quite rewarding enough for me to stay invested most of the time. That being said, still a very good tune. The Live version is definitely a quite a bit better performance, it sounds much tighter overall, and Gabriel does some great things with acting out the different parts. Can-Utility and the Coastliners is the next track on the album, and it is a track I always look forward to and always leaves me totally satisfied upon reaching the end. It’s simply got one incredibly written part after another, from Rutherford’s bass-pedals to all of Banks and Hackett’s expertly crafted solos, to one of my favorite Genesis finales ever, this is a song I always enjoy immensely everytime I listen to the album. A shame they almost never played it live. This is also the point in the album where I usually listen to Twilight Alehouse, but I’ll save that for whenever we get to that track. Horizons is beautiful of course and a great prelude to Supper’s Ready. And of course what can be said about Supper’s Ready that hasn’t already been said? Well nothing really, except for my personal experience with the song. For all intents and purposes, this is the song that got me hooked on Genesis. It was the Illustrated video on YouTube that made me realize the meaning of the song, and that gave the music much more weight for me. From there, I watched live versions of the song constantly, learned all the lyrics as soon as possible, and was floored everytime I listened to it. And to some extent, I still am, sometimes. I can’t deny that this is, in my opinion, the crowning achievement of Genesis, and rock music in general, but I also can’t deny that some of the magic has been lost with all my repeated listenings to the track. Yes, Lover’s Leap is beautiful, but Banks’ keyboard solo doesn’t immerse me as much as it once did. GESM is grand and anthemic, but the melody doesn’t floor me quite like it used to. Iknhaton and Itsacon (or whatever) is still as cool as ever, and yes that guitar solo is awesome, but I don’t find myself bopping my head as hard when I reach that part. Willow Farm is as weird and wonderful as ever, but it isn’t as engaging in that weirdness as it used to be. All this is most certainly because I’ve just listened to this song so many times. The only sections that regularly connect to me emotionally are Apocalypse in 9/8 and As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs. Apocalypse is simply one of the, if not the most well written, builds I have heard in rock music. By the time Gabriel comes back in with his fantastic 666 speal, I am overwhelm with the sheer power of this combined force of musical talent. And finally, the light at the end of the tunnel reveals itself and with three chimes and a snare roll, Gabriel welcomes us back to the where we started off, “it’s hello babe, with your guardian eyes so blue, hey my baby don’t you know our love is true”. And the slight change in lyric to “I’ve been so far from here, far from your loving arms” in Gabriel’s totally moving vocal delivery captures your emotions fully. And then they key changes as Gabriel assures that he’s back again, and babe it’s gonna work out fine. And the ensuing verses are the best moments of music I have experienced. From the single greatest Peter Gabriel performance, lyrically, vocally, and musically, to the most most emotional guitar playing of Hackett’s career in Genesis, this part brings me close to tears everytime I hear it. As amazing as Gabriel is here, Hackett is truly the star of the show in this finale and carries the bulk of the emotional impact. Every line is perfectly thought out, his tone is heart-wrenching, and his timing is absolutely emotionally devastating. The single most emotional moment of the album for me is the last verse “There’s an angel standing in the sun, and he’s crying in a loud voice, this is the supper of the Mighty One, Lord of lords, King of kings, has returned to lead His children home, to take them to the New Jerusalem”. Everything from Gabriel’s emotionally devastating delivery to Gabriel’s perfect guitar playing, especially his “crying” lines at the beginning of the verse, combine to make this the most moving moment of rock music I have exoerienced thus far. And then Hackett busts out one of the most simple yet emotional guitar solos of all time, and the song fades out. Other people in the thread have already explained the significance and symbolism behind the fade out, and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. And everytime I finish the album, I have to just sit and process what I just listened to. So yeah, Foxtrot is a very important album to me, my second favorite Genesis album to be specific. I would definitely give it a 9.5/10. Recommended to any fan of prog for sure, and a great starting point for anybody looking to get into Genesis.
Ok, so I know we already did Foxtrot, but this warmed my heart. Some of the musical passages are pared down to focus on the singing bits, but wow. 10 year old sings Supper's Ready
I started getting the box sets because they were 5.1 ... I am not a multi album buyer .... So it kind of never made sense to me that people would buy box sets of something they already had. Not a criticism, just an observation from my perspective. I had three or four Genesis albums at the time and I still buy anything in surround that I like. I loved them. My only annoyance with the box sets, was the fact that Three Sides Live wasn't remixed in 5.1 ... with the patchy dvd, it seemed they already had 5.1 mixes, so it was just really annoying..
That's not too bad at all is it. I'm not a fan of children's voices by any stretch of the imagination but it does sound there as though she believed in the song, had connected with it, also a voice more mature than her years?
The Knife This song, as has been stated earlier in the thread is considerably .... heavier, I guess is the correct term. I personally love Collins drums on here, I think they make this song stand up a little taller than the studio version, which isn't to say that the studio version is bad. I just love the aggressive nature of the song in this particular form. Great performance here.
I've lost touch with the thread somewhat. I know The Knife is on Trespass. But Foxtrot has been reviewed of late. Are we focusing now on one of the live albums? EDIT: Answers own question - I see it's from Three Sides Live.
While we're on Genesis live I'm going to post the Bonus tracks, so they are represented. I don't really want to get bogged down in Lamb discussions yet, still being a couple of albums away. Happy to have Lamb stuff live in the 5.1 format, but I still don't understand their inclusions on this album lol
I got into Genesis in quite a voracious manner, the same time I got into the progressive rock genre as a whole. But I did not get into the live stuff until much later. I hold Seconds Out in very high regard. Genesis Live took some time for me to warm to, mainly because of the very dusty sound, but I learned to love it (my first forays were the 2007/08 remixes that were quite clear). The choice of songs is quite wise, even if Supper's Ready is omitted. Luckily, on the Archive box, there is a wonderful live version of this song with a hilarious intro featuring Collins/Gabriel banter. Gabriel's vocals on the record are all right, but might come across as off-key and dry to casual listeners. I think it fits the music, and I have a feeling that Genesis live in 1973 was just as much about the visual than what you heard. With this in mind the performances make a lot of sense. Instrumentally, the bass (especially), drums and guitars sound fine; keyboards are not as audible as I would like them to be, but the musicians in the group were always on top of their game, and especially so in 1973. The music on Genesis Live comes alive, a very difficult feat given the complex nature of the songs. Also love Peter Gabriel's deadpan good evening introduction. In terms of being pretentious and put in a box with the likes of King Crimson and Yes, I still cannot for the life of me imagine Yes or King Crimson joking around and laughing at things on stage at all. Rick Wakeman is hilarious, and Jon Anderson had his moments, but overall, at least within Yes circa 1973, I have never felt the humour which you get with Genesis. With Genesis you had an awkwardly enigmatic front man in Gabriel, and a perfect foil in Phil Collins. A brilliant listen for any Genesis fan and a document that underlines why they were indeed on the ascent in 1973. I have only owned a 1st gen. Sonopress CD of Genesis Live and it sounds quite good to me. For more complete shows I always go back to the Archive box set.
The Knife is one of my most favorite Genesis songs ever. I am not favorite the version on Live over the version on Trespass or vice-versa, they are both tremendous in their own ways. The live version is certainly helped by Collins' powerful and masterful drumming but the studio version is an early masterpiece in its own way. A very ambitious number and one they pull off well.
