I agree on I Don’t Care anymore. Fantastic vocal. You might recall is a brilliant song that along with Paperlate would have made Abacab an almost perfect album if they left off Whodunnit. However I still think Paperlate was the right choice at the right time as The A Side. It got a lot of airplay in the uk, did well in the uk charts, and I played it to death, infact i still have my original 3x3 7 inch single.’
3SL was my start. I had a surgery, so I was going to be in bed for a number of days, and my twin brother went out and bought 3SL for us. We listened to to it 10x that week (though not much to the fourth side with the new studio tracks). At this time we knew only Misunderstanding from the radio, and maybe Abacab, No Reply and Like it or Not a few times apiece on the radio. We were blown away by the three live sides. We quickly got Duke and Abacab ... as to the fourth side, I actually heard Paperlate and You Might Recall on the radio as much as I actually played the fourth side. We just loved the energy of the three live sides that we didn't bother much with the fourth! It was many years later that I got the CD with the live fourth side tracks, including The Fountain of Salmacis, which I though was well executed, and I still love
Personally, none of the live Genesis LPs do that much for me, and 3SL is no exception. It sounds surprisingly sterile for a concert experience, especially from an era when Genesis seemed to really get it together and have fun working with each other. I mean, tracks like the 9+-minute Abacab or the finale with Watcher of the Skies get the job done, but overall the spark doesn't quite leap over to me whenever I listen to 3SL.
I see Live as a document of what they were doing on stage by then. Much like the famous In Concert video. I listened to it as an alternative to the studio versions but ended up preferring them. Seconds Out it's a different performance. More strong, energetic, less nuanced, just a little stripped down. It's like with classical music: same music but different interpretation. Again, it's about variety but overall I think it's a great live album. The trio's live albums on the other hand are superfluous to me. The studio versions are good enough. And especially for the Eighties albums, I consider the studio production as part of the artistic formula, and that gets lost on live renditions, even if the musicians performances gain in presence and vitality .
Agree on Seconds Out - a rock-solid live album, I'll give you that. The production in the studio really got to matter on Duke - you named it rightly, this is essential and they couldn't quite deliver the songs in a satisfying way. That is, if you're a fan of the studio albums, which I am. I could imagine fans of Gabriel-era Genesis enjoying those live renditions more than the Duke and Abacab LPs because on 3SL, those sound more "organic" than the studio counterparts - obvious on the opening "Turn It On Again". And I know that live albums aren't meant to sound the same as LPs done in a studio... but then again, I'm no live albums fan in general.
Three Sides Live Live album by Genesis Released 4 June 1982 Recorded 1976–1981 in various locations[1] Genre Progressive rock, art rock, pop rock Length 92:42 Label Charisma, Atlantic Producer Genesis Three Sides Live is the third live album by the English rock band Genesis, released as a double album on 4 June 1982 on Charisma Records in the United Kingdom. It was released by Atlantic Records in the United States. After touring in support of their studio album Abacab ended in December 1981 the band entered an eight-month break in activity, during which they selected recordings from their previous tours for a live album. Three Sides Live includes recordings between 1976 and 1981; the UK edition contains additional live tracks while the international edition features tracks from their 1982 EP 3×3 with B-sides from Duke. Three Sides Live received a mostly positive critical reception and was a commercial success, peaking at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 10 on the US Billboard 200, where it sold 500,000 copies. Its release coincided with the band's Three Sides Live concert film. It was remastered in 1994 and 2009, the latter for their Genesis Live 1973–2007 box set. In December 1981, Genesis wrapped their four-month tour of Europe and North America to support the release of their eleventh studio album, Abacab (1981). The band then entered an eight-month break in activity, during which they each pursued solo projects and selected recordings from their previous tours for inclusion on a new live album.[2] All editions of Three Sides Live contain recordings from their 1980 and 1981 tours across the first three sides.[1] The fourth side of the UK edition contains additional live tracks from 1976, 1978, and 1980, while the international edition contains tracks from the group's second EP 3×3 (1982) – "Paperlate", "You Might Recall", and "Me and Virgil" and two B-sides recorded during the sessions for Duke (1980) – "Open Door" and "Evidence of Autumn".[3] Three Sides Live reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 10 in the US. It was certified silver and gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 14 June 1982, the latter for 100,000 copies sold.[4] In the United States, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 4 October 1982 for 500,000 copies sold.[5] In a review published in Record Mirror by Robin Smith, the album received a mixed response. The atmosphere he experienced in concert at one of their Wembley Arena gigs in 1981 was absent from the album, which he deemed "hardly a sparkling addition" to the Genesis catalogue. Smith reasoned this down to the lacklustre track selection and the seemingly lack of interest from the crowd noise. He praised the performances of "Dodo/Lurker", "Behind the Lines", "Duchess", but picked the third and fourth side as stand out tracks. Smith concluded that he will be listening to Seconds Out, the band's second live album, "for years to come".[9] Rolling Stone gave the album a rave review, particularly praising Genesis's advancement to more refined and concise material: "Unlike Seconds Out, where the concert versions of Genesis' songs were shrouded in virtuosic bluster, this album offers incisive, sharply focused performances uncluttered by theatrics or instrumental tedium."[7]AllMusic's retrospective review asserted that the performances were impressive and exciting throughout, delivering nothing but "lean, crisp, and generally bracing accounts of the group's then-current sound."[6] Genesis Phil Collins – drums, lead vocals Tony Banks – keyboards, backing vocals Mike Rutherford – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals Steve Hackett – guitar on "it."/"Watcher of the Skies" Additional musicians Daryl Stuermer – guitar, bass Chester Thompson – drums, percussion Bill Bruford – drums on "it."/"Watcher of the Skies" Production Genesis – production David Hentschel – engineering on "Follow You Follow Me", "The Cinema Show", "One for the Vine", "The Fountain of Salmacis", and "it."/"Watcher of the Skies" Geoff Callingham – technical engineer on everything else Craig Schertz – sound engineer Bill Smith – cover Martyn Goddard – photography Side one No. Title Writer(s) Recording date and location Length 1. "Turn It On Again" Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford 29 November 1981 at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York 5:16 2. "Dodo/Lurker" Banks, Collins, Rutherford 23 December 1981 at National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, England 7:19 3. "Abacab" Banks, Collins, Rutherford 23 December 1981 8:47 Side two No. Title Writer(s) Recording date and location Length 1. "Behind the Lines" Banks, Collins, Rutherford 29 November 1981 5:26 2. "Duchess" Banks, Collins, Rutherford 29 November 1981 6:43 3. "Me & Sarah Jane" Banks 29 November 1981 5:59 4. "Follow You Follow Me" Banks, Collins, Rutherford 6 May 1980 at Lyceum Theatre, London 4:58 Side three No. Title Writer(s) Recording date and location Length 1. "Misunderstanding" Collins 28 November 1981 at Savoy Theatre in New York City 4:06 2. "In the Cage (Medley – Cinema Show – Slippermen)[a]" Banks, Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Rutherford 23 December 1981 11:53 3. "Afterglow" Banks 23 December 1981 5:14 Side four No. Title Writer(s) Recording date and location Length 1. "One for the Vine" Banks 5 May 1980 at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London 11:04 2. "Fountain of Salmacis" Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford 1978 at an unspecified location 8:37 3. ""it."/"Watcher of the Skies" Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford 8 July 1976 at Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland 7:03 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the most part up to this point I have always seen the fourth live side of this album of being somewhat superfluous, but we'll see how I feel about it now after we have gone through the songs. I probably preferred the idea of the 5 studio tracks more, but we have already been through those songs, so for our purposes here we will go through the live tracks. I see this album as being an essential Genesis album, yes just as essential as the regular release studio albums. I think the band were at their best as a live outfit, which isn't to say that Genesis Live and Second's Out aren't good, I just personally think this is a fully fluid band at the height of their powers, before super stardom took away a little of their edge, but not their professionalism. For those particularly perturbed by it, this is before the blues brothers chocolate assortment medley (which I personally never had much problem withm but as we know, many on here do. I think the song selection is excellent, obviously reflecting some of their most recent work, most of which gets a new lease on life in this setting. The first time I heard the Duke material was in a live setting from this tour ... whether it was actually this album or not I am not sure, because I believe there was a special recording made for one our local radio stations in Perth Western Australia, or it was on loan from somewhere else. It struck me as slightly different, but that could be one of those faulty memory things, it's a lot of years ago. My only disappointments with this album were that the live box didn't get a 5.1 treatment, and that the concert video was spoiled by poor choices in how to assemble it .... but we'll get to that. It is terribly unfashionable to like the "three piece" Genesis, but to me, if it wasn't, this would be considered a classic live album. So what do you guys think of this album? Please give us your take on 3 sides live and tomorrow we'll hit the first track ... yes I think it is worth doing this album track by track. Cheers Mark
On a side note Three Sides Live - film Directed by Stuart Orme Release date 1982 Running time 131 minutes Language English Three Sides Live is a 1982 concert film featuring the English rock band Genesis. It was released in support of the band's same-titled live double album released in June 1982. Directed by Stuart Orme, the film features live performances from two shows during the band's 1981 tour of Europe and North America in support of their studio album Abacab. The shows are from 28 and 29 November 1981 at the Savoy Theatre and Nassau Coliseum, New York, respectively. The film includes interviews footage shot backstage and the group travelling with the crew and families. Some of the featured songs are incomplete due to editing. Three Sides Live was released in 1982 for Betamax and VHS, followed by a laserdisc release in October 1991. It was released on DVD with 5.1 surround sound in November 2009 as part of the band's concert film box set Genesis Movie Box 1981–2007. It was released on Blu-ray disc on 4 November 2014 after a duplicate of the original 16mm film was restored.[1] "Behind the Lines" "Duchess" "Misunderstanding" "Dodo/Lurker" "Abacab" "No Reply at All" "Who Dunnit?" "In the Cage Medley" ("In the Cage" / "The Cinema Show" / "The Colony of Slippermen") "Afterglow" "Me and Sarah Jane" (filmed at the Savoy) "Man on the Corner" (filmed at the Savoy) "Turn It On Again" Audio-only 5.1 full-length versions on DVD/BD releases: "Behind the Lines" "Duchess" "Me and Sarah Jane" "Man on the Corner" "One for the Vine" "Fountain of Salmacis" "Follow You, Follow Me" -------------------------------------- The first time I watched this, I was devastated, it was ruined by editing stuff into the songs ... I don't remember what stuff, but think of something that has nothing to do with the concert and it was in there. I look at the setlist and think,"this is going to be great" and a song starts, and as somebody pointed out earlier suddenly just as your are getting into the cage (hmm that sounds weird, but anyhow) you are eating breakfast with Tony. I first saw this a long time ago, but when I got the movie box I was hoping beyond hope that it was edited to be the concert.... it wasn't. When I saw the bluray come out, I studied and searched for information hoping that it was restored to being a concert and was disappointed to find ..... it wasn't. I'm going to watch this again this weekend and see if I can get anything out of it. but for the most part I hated documentary footage spliced in between concert material, especially when it cuts out sections of songs.... and that's what we have here. Please feel free to give your two cents on this also. Cheers Mark
I can empathize with these positions, because it is how I feel about The Way We Walk not being able to match the studio performances found on IT or the shapes album. But 3SL is special to me. Maybe it is because I worked backwards through the catalogue and heard 3SL before Duke or Abacab, but that aforementioned presence and vitality found on the live versions trumps many of the studio versions for me. The dual-drum finale of the live Abacab, with an actual coda (as opposed to the original fade-out) is triumphant. The Duke tracks are given a bottom end and Turn it on Again is simply a monster on 3SL. I did not yet have Duke when the IT tour came through town in 1986. I was only 13, but was already a Genesis freak and was disappointed that my parents wouldn’t let my adolescent self go to the concert because they were out of town that week. The hype in Toronto night of the concert (61,000 attending) was palpable. Radio stations were playing Genesis songs all evening and Much Music was playing many of the band’s pre-IT videos. Which is when I first saw and heard the original Turn it on Again, and was so disappointed! “Skinny 1980-era Phil” sounded like he had laryngitis, his drums were too tame and Banks’ keyboards just sounded wrong: too trebly and pitched much too high. It was disorienting to my young ears and took me a long time to reconcile the studio vs live versions. Anyway, Duke and Abacab, to me, are two albums that would have benefited from the songs being road tested before going into the studio. 3SL largely improves on the studio versions and always points to me what could have been, especially when it comes to Turn it on Again and Behind the Lines.
Having listened to their first 3 live albums this week, I feel this is by far the best, even though among studio albums I prefer the ones with Hackett and/or Gabriel. But this is the first time they sound like a band having fun playing a live gig and the fun they are having is infectious.
I enjoy 3SL quite a lot, I think it shows off what great arrangers they were with the way Abacab extends a bit and the ending they gave it for a live performance, the dual drum feature, the stunning version of Afterglow and the medley of old stuff. They were able to touch on that older material and still be the modern band they morphed into. I'm not so much into concert videos and I'm not sure if I've seen the 3SL video or not, but I do recall one where the concert footage is broken up with other visuals that don't make any sense and it becomes very frustrating. I want a close-up on Tony's keyboard work during his solo, not him eating a scone. My vinyl copy was a US Atlantic so I had the studio tracks on side 4, and the only CD set I have is an early Mercury atomic pressed in W. Germany (IIRC) and also has the studio tracks on the second CD. I don't recall hearing the live side 4 ever, so this will be interesting. I still prefer Seconds Out over 3SL, but 3SL is nothing to sneeze at.
Considering the 3SL video wasn’t exactly a wide release, it is surprising that they went with the disjointed documentary approach rather than a straight concert video (though they did it right for the 2007 tour, by having a complete show and a documentary). Missed opportunity. Sadly, I doubt we’ll see a reimagined version a la what has been announced by the Beatles in respect of the Let It Be footage. The four-side version of the album never seemed to be the legitimate version to me, so I was surprised when they opted to make it the standard release for the reissues. While I enjoy the additional live tracks in and of themselves, they are out of place here; as a piece, I much prefer to have the contemporaneous studio tracks by the same band core as on the other three sides than a random collection of live recordings from past tours and different personnel.
Agreed. The fourth side live just seems out of place. I would dearly love them to redo this concert video, but sadly doubt it will ever see the light of day.
The Three Sides Live video was my first proper exposure to Genesis and I immediately loved it. To this day I prefer the Nassau Coliseum versions of "Misunderstanding", "Dodo/Lurker", "Abacab" and the whole "In The Cage" medley because of the video. I'd love to hear the whole Nassau gig mixed by Nick Davis. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen. As usual, I have issues with the post production - mostly because of the typical Genesis mixing of the late 70s/early80s which is drums and keyboards at full volume and guitar and bass mostly buried and sometimes barely audible. This was finally fixed by Nick Davis on the new mix, which is my go to version. As for the music, the line up of Banks, Collins, Rutherford, Thompson & Stuermer was indeed the best when it comes to playing live. Most of these songs sound better than their studio versions in my book. I love everything on this album but the In The Cage medley is my favorite piece of music Genesis ever did. Period. I'm not dismissing Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett, don't get me wrong, but this version of "In The Cage" gives the studio version a run for its money. While the vocal melody seems unfinished on The Lamb, here its sung with sheer passion. The band is tight as hell and I love it when it gets more and more INTENSE at the end only to morth into a killer version of "The Cinema's Show" second part. This **** send shivers down my spine every time!!! And then the "Slipperman" solo and finally an EPIC ending with "Afterglow". Eat your heart out, "Supper's Ready"! This medley is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Progressive Rock. The only thing I still complain about is how the album ends. Studio tracks on one version, stuff from different tours on the other. In my dreams there's a "Three Discs Live" album with the whole Nassau gig carefully mixed by Nick Davis.
From the perspective of the Movie. This is what we have ... (if you search youtube "genesis three sides live movie you get a link to the individual sections, here is one of them)
In a review published in Record Mirror by Robin Smith, the album received a mixed response. The atmosphere he experienced in concert at one of their Wembley Arena gigs in 1981 was absent from the album, which he deemed "hardly a sparkling addition" to the Genesis catalogue. Smith reasoned this down to the lacklustre track selection and the seemingly lack of interest from the crowd noise. As much as I love this album, I have to agree. It sounds like a studio record. And fading the audience out and in between the tracks only made matters worse.
Likes others here, 3SL is where I came in. Sure, I’d heard selective tracks on the radio previously, but this is where it all gelled. Specifically, I was a freshman in college and walked into a dorm room where In The Cage was playing and was just blown away. The band’s energy, the crisp sound, the drums, the extended instrumental section...all fabulous. A real monster. And, being an idiot, I was amazed at Phil’s level of musicianship to be able to sing that swirling whirlwind of a track and drum at the same time! Once I had the album (international version) I can’t tell you how often I played it. If there is one thing that stands out from the other live albums it’s the energy and the way they records the drums. Wow. So visceral. I worked backwards through the catalog and remarked on the differences in the studio albums. In The Cage was the strangest comparison, partly due to the vocals. Quite a different feel. 3SL really brought added life to many of these tracks. I picked up the 4th live side years later on CD but it felt out of place. Something was missing. I guess it was because some of the tracks were recorded earlier and the band’s aound was a bit different then. I liked it a lot, but it just feels part of another project. I think I’ve seen the video once. Agreed—I’ve no patience for concerts intercut with other footage. Disappointing. A missed (and now lost?) opportunity?
Until the Rainbow 73 show was officially released, I considered 3SL my favorite of the Genesis live albums.
Add:: "Me and Sarah Jane" is definitive on Three Sides Live, for me anyway. And I love the one-two punch of "Dodo" into "Abacab". And then there's 'You Might Recall' on the fourth side... one of my favorite Genesis songs of all time.
I remember this album coming out and seeing it for the first time in a record shop and thinking how cheap the cover seemed. I wasn’t likely to buy it by this point as my interest in current Genesis had faded but I still felt disappointed that the band that used to take so much pride in presenting there albums had come up with something this dull. Eventually I did get hold of the album when the Japanese mini vinyls came out but I rarely play it to be honest. The UK side 4 is the best bits but I can do without Collins singing It. File under collection filler for me.
Aww, now see- I don’t rate the live version as highly as studio, unfortunately , it’s because I miss some of the keyboard overdubs that Tony did on the record. Those sections just sound too sparse to me on the live version...
They went with a bootleg style cover, which I find interesting. Does Anyone Know why? It has a Zappa at Fillmore look and feel about it
Agreed, they are sparser on the live record, and it sounds different... ..but the energy and mojo that live version possesses makes up for it
