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Jan 04, 2010 Genesis By Frank Valish

Genesis was a few different bands in its over 40-year history. The Peter Gabriel-fronted early-‘70s incarnation was a shape-shifting, progressive rock dynamo, enhanced onstage by Gabriel’s penchant for fancy costumes and wacky antics. But when Gabriel left the group in 1975, the band was forced to change its approach. Drummer Phil Collins stepped into the singer role and the band continued on, at first in a similar vein, albeit without all the theatrics, but soon enough changed once again, this time into a chart topping pop machine, with albums such as Invisible Touch and We Can’t Dance, and such singles as “Land of Confusion” and the über-dramatic “No Son of Mine.”

Genesis Live 1973-2007, released as the final CD installment of Rhino’s Genesis box set reissue campaign, bridges all the Genesis eras in live documents that, as you would expect, vary in quality with the band’s studio output of the same years. Genesis Live was the band’s first live album in 1973 and it’s the only one with Gabriel manning the ship. The original release featured tracks from the band’s three early-‘70s albums—Trespass, Nursery Cryme, and the classic Foxtrot—but the reissue included here is expanded to include bonus renditions of tracks from 1974’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, performed in January of 1975.

Seconds Out is the best of the original albums included here, documenting Genesis live in 1976 and 1977, soon after Gabriel departed. It shows Collins beginning to find his way at the helm, fronting the prog beast the band had become, well before things spiraled downward into mainstream pop territory. Three Sides Live is the sound of Collins becoming ever more comfortable in his center stage role, and the album contains some interesting mid-period Genesis tracks such as “Misunderstanding” and “Abacab,” but this clearly was not the Genesis of years before. And The Way We Walk, documenting the band’s 1992 tour, is pretty much what you’d expect from Genesis at this later stage: consumer-ready and mom-friendly.

Before wrapping the CD box set exhumations, however, Rhino decided to include with this set an additional concert, Live at the Rainbow 1973, a performance recorded with the Gabriel-era band in London. The show features most of 1973’s Selling England by the Pound, which was not released until after Genesis Live. The album is a revelation, and the pièce de résistance of the box set, with Gabriel in full force on such tracks as “Firth of Fifth,” “The Battle of Epping Forest,” and the 23-minute “Supper’s Ready” from 1972’s Foxtrot. Genesis will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March. Let’s hope and pray that the mercurial Gabriel decides to join his old mates once again and resurrect these gems. (www.genesis-music.com)

Author rating: 7/10