Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Genesis
Label: Virgin Records
Released: 1977
Rating: 4.5/5
This double live album from Genesis was released just before the departure of the irreplaceable (literally, the band never looked for a replacement) guitar virtuoso Steve Hackett. Most of the tracks were recorded at gigs in Paris, in 1976 and 1977, on the tours supporting “A Trick Of the Tail” (1976) and “Wind & Wuthering” (1977).
“Seconds Out” is Genesis’s second official live album and an excellent successor to “Genesis Live” (1973). While “Genesis Live” was put out at the label’s initiative, without the band’s prior approval, to mark the early stretch of their career and, symbolically, their breakthrough among the giants of prog rock, and is marked by limp production, “Seconds Out” was released with a clear purpose, by the band themselves, as the definitive release and authoritative document of the “classic” Genesis, only with Phil Collins on lead vocals (and drums, of course) instead of Peter Gabriel, who by this point had already launched his very successful solo career.
On drums, Collins is replaced by the superb jazz fusion drummer Chester Thompson (ex-Frank Zappa, ex-Weather Report), who became the band’s regular live drummer after this album came out and filled in for Collins during his singing “excursions”. On “Cinema Show” (Selling Enland By the Pound, 1973), though, he’s replaced by none other than Bill Bruford (ex-Yes, King Crimson), one of the best and most respected drummers in prog rock and jazz fusion, who was Collins’s first live stand-in on the band’s 1976 tour.
Since this is the band’s last release with Steve Hackett, I’ll devote a bit more space to him in this review. Hackett’s contribution is outstanding on most of the tracks, and many of his interpretations on these live recordings even top his original performances (take his incredible solo on “Firth Of Fifth” (Selling Enland By the Pound, 1973)).
The gig is great overall, the band was remarkably tight on stage, and you can feel it on most of the recordings. The album features plenty of songs from the “classic” era, though for some unknown reason a lot of songs from “Wind & Wuthering” (1977) are missing, with only “Afterglow” making the cut. Meanwhile, there’s nothing at all from “Trespass” (1970), their first classic record. My one big gripe is exactly this: why aren’t there more songs from “Wind & Wuthering”, Hackett’s last record with the band? After all, most of the tracks were recorded at a show from that very tour. Did they perhaps want as few songs from that album as possible because Hackett’s contribution on that studio record was the biggest of all his albums with the band, and they wanted to get listeners to forget about him as quickly as possible?
Plenty of people will probably miss Gabriel’s vocals on “Seconds Out”, precisely because this live recording delivers everything that “Genesis Live” (1973) was missing, namely great production and a fairly rich selection of classics. But it has to be said that Collins still did a very good job with Gabriel’s classics, even though it’s of course impossible to pull them off completely, because Gabriel was simply one of those irreplaceable musical artists who threw himself fully into his lyrics. Still, “Seconds Out” manages to successfully bring the classic songs of the Gabriel era back to life in the new threads of “Collins-era” Genesis.
The album is marked by, and best known for, being the band’s only official live recording that contains “Supper’s Ready” (Foxtrot, 1972), a majestic 23-minute opus that many consider the band’s greatest achievement ever, and a track that is without a doubt the high point of this live recording. This version with Collins is surprisingly almost as good as the original studio version. I’m convinced that some listeners will even find it better than the original in places, despite the absence of the original singer and his layered, wildly charismatic vocals. On the other hand, it’s commendable that Collins doesn’t try to imitate Gabriel’s voice, especially in the famous, grotesque “Willow Farm” section, where Gabriel was always in his best “element”. Collins’s voice simply isn’t that versatile, and it’s also too “soft” to allow itself something like that, especially on such a (vocally) demanding song.
Some of the songs, I have to mention, do have a few minor weak spots. On the excellent epic “Firth Of Fifth” (Selling England By the Pound, 1973), for instance, Banks’s longer piano intro is missing. And for that famous part of the song where the (Gabriel) oboe comes in, Banks just uses a synthesizer instead. Hackett, on the other hand, shines even brighter here than on the original version. The interplay between his solo in the closing section and Thompson’s (or rather Collins’s) drums is simply phenomenal. “The Musical Box” (Nursery Cryme, 1971), meanwhile, is one of those Gabriel “signature” songs where Collins simply can’t compete with the original singer and his always exceptional performance. Sadly, it’s also cut down to just its cataclysmic ending, which is simply impossible to imagine without Gabriel at the mic (preferably with a fox mask on his head).
Most of the other songs, on the other hand, hold their own against the original versions. The atmospheric “Carpet Crawlers” (The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, 1974) sits perfectly with Collins’s voice, since it has incredibly melodic vocal lines. The same goes for “Afterglow” (Wind & Wuthering, 1977), which is even more atmospheric and which they usually used to close the main part of the show back then. “Dance On a Volcano” is another great song from “A Trick Of the Tail (1976)”, which the band plays flawlessly and which in many ways tops the original. Among the Gabriel classics, the live version of “Cinema Show” stands out most, since besides the impeccable performance it also has the drumming “god” Bill Bruford behind the kit. So at one point in the song we get a proper drum battle between him and Collins. Who won that duel is hard to say, but it’s undoubtedly one of the highlights of the whole recording. The version of “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” is also played very well, though Collins maybe leans on the chorus just a touch too often.
Among the songs I’d even say sound better than the studio or original versions, I’d single out the opener “Squonk” and “Robbery, Assault & Battery” with its phenomenal drums (both A Trick Of the Tail, 1976), and above all “I Know What I Like” (Selling England By the Pound, 1973), which in my opinion is the only song from the Gabriel era where Collins outdoes his predecessor in interpretation, which is no surprise, since this song, the band’s first hit, suits his voice incredibly well. “Los Endos” (A Trick Of the Tail, 1976) is a brilliant finish to this live recording and somehow the most fitting farewell to Steve Hackett, especially because it’s one of his best compositions with the band and one of his personal favorite Genesis songs, one he himself often loved to play at gigs as a solo artist.
“Seconds Out ” is a symbolic close to the era of Genesis as a progressive rock band and at the same time a brilliant retrospective of that period, because with the very next studio album, “And Then There Were Three” (1978), Genesis, now a trio, turn toward shorter, more compact and simpler songs, which bring them enormous commercial success, but at the cost of the end of grand musical compositions, intelligent, mostly metaphysical lyrics and long, atmospheric epics, the things they were so highly regarded for in their “golden” era. Banks also gives up the Mellotron, which in my opinion, along with Hackett’s guitar, was one of the trademarks of the classic-era sound. For most prog rock fans, then, the Genesis story ends with this live album, despite the fact that they went on to release two more brilliant records full of progressive elements. But the fact remains that it was Hackett’s departure that marked a crucial turning point in the band’s musical philosophy.
Lineup
Phil Collins – lead vocals, drums, percussion
Steve Hackett – guitar, Hodaka, 12-string guitar
Mike Rutherford – electric 12-string guitar, bass guitar, 8-string bass guitar, bass pedals, backing vocals
Tony Banks – RMI electric piano, Hammond organ, APR Pro-Soloist, Mellotron 400, Epiphone, 12-string guitar, backing vocals
Guest musicians:
Chester Thompson – drums and percussion
Bill Bruford – drums and percussion (10)
Production
David Hentschel and Genesis
Track list
CD1:
1. Squonk (6:36)
2. The Carpet Crawl (5:60)
3. Robbery, Assault & Battery (6:03)
4. Afterglow (4:24)
5. Firth Of Fifth (8:55)
6. I Know What I Like (8:42)
7. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (4:59)
8. The Musical Box (Closing Section) (3:18)
CD2:
1. Supper’s Ready (24:32)
2. Cinema Show (10:58)
3. Dance On A Volcano (5:09)
4. Los Endos (6:30)
Album length: 96:06
