Seconds Out
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| Seconds Out | |||||
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| Live album by Genesis | |||||
| Released | 21 October 1977 | ||||
| Recorded | 1976-1977 | ||||
| Genre | Progressive rock | ||||
| Length | 1:35:31 | ||||
| Label | Charisma/Virgin (UK) Atlantic (US/Canada) |
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| Producer | David Hentschel and Genesis | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Genesis chronology | |||||
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Seconds Out is a live double album by Genesis, released in October 1977. The performances were recorded in Paris in 1976 and 1977 on their tour in support of A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering.
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[edit] History
Seconds Out is the band's second live album following Genesis Live in 1973. While the earlier live set had been released by the band's label to mark time while they recorded Selling England by the Pound, Seconds Out was planned as a major release, an authoritative document of Genesis' sound with Phil Collins as frontman and lead vocalist. The recording includes former Weather Report drummer Chester Thompson at the start of his long tenure as concert drummer for the band. Former Yes and King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, the first drummer to take over for Collins on the stage after Gabriel's departure, is featured on "The Cinema Show". It is also the last Genesis album to include guitarist Steve Hackett, who left the band during mid-1977 as Seconds Out was being mixed. A critical and commercial success, the album hit #4 in the UK and #47 in the US, where their popularity was still gaining steam.
Seconds Out is commonly regarded as the end of Genesis' progressive rock era, as they would begin exploring shorter and more direct song formats beginning with their next studio release, …And Then There Were Three…, which would prove to be their American breakthrough album. To many fans, this live set is notable for its combination of classic Gabriel-era songs redone by the musical virtuosity of the later Genesis, mixed with favorites from the first two post-Gabriel releases.
Until Genesis Archive 1967-75 (1998), Seconds Out contained the only live recording of Genesis concert staple "Supper's Ready", a 23 minute long opus which many have considered the band's signature piece. As the band would slowly phase out this intricate quasi-orchestral piece, and lose Hackett while this album was being mixed, this album marks the end of the 'classic' Genesis lineup. Perhaps ironically, this album also prominently features Steve Hackett's live guitar work in a manner that overshadows his recorded solos (see for example, the live version of "Firth of Fifth").
On the Genesis – A History video (1990), Banks dryly jokes that, after Hackett announced his departure from the band, "we just mixed him out of the rest of the album and that was it, really." Thanks to this quip, it has been rumored among Genesis fans that Hackett was, in fact, "mixed out" of Seconds Out, although, by listening to the album it is possible to hear Hackett’s guitar along with the other instruments. Hackett later said that Banks' remark was simply "British humor". As Banks' joke was made in the context of a longer, more serious discussion about Hackett's departure, that would seem to be the case. However, Hackett has been quoted as saying he was not happy with the sound on the album, but, having already decided to quit the band, did not want to fight to have input during the mixing sessions.
The album's credits include details of which drummer(s) are playing on each song. These include statements like "drums Chester, keyboard solo Phil." These have been misinterpreted as saying that Phil plays the keyboard solo (see the All Music Guide article linked to above for one example), but in fact they refer to his playing drums during the keyboard solo.
A digitally remastered version was released on CD in 1994 on Virgin in Europe and on Atlantic in the US and Canada.
[edit] Track listing
All songs by Tony Banks/Phil Collins/Peter Gabriel/Steve Hackett/Mike Rutherford, except where noted.
[edit] Side one (disc 1)
- "Squonk" (Banks/Rutherford) – 6:39
- "The Carpet Crawlers" – 5:27
- "Robbery, Assault and Battery" (Banks/Collins) – 6:02
- "Afterglow" (Banks) – 4:29
[edit] Side two (disc 1)
- "Firth of Fifth" – 8:56
- "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" – 8:45
- "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"/"The Musical Box (Closing Section)" - 8:17
- "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" – 4:59
- "The Musical Box" (closing section)– 3:18
[edit] Side three (disc 2)
- "Supper's Ready" – 24:33
[edit] Side four (disc 2)
- "The Cinema Show" – 10:58
- "Dance on a Volcano" (Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford) – 4:24
- "Los Endos" (Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford) – 7:14
Note: On some editions, tracks 3 and 4 of disc 2 may have a running time of 8:24 and 3:13, respectively. This is because the first four minutes of "Los Endos" are attached to the end of "Dance on a Volcano." The real point where "Los Endos" begins can be easily distinguished; it starts with Chester Thompson and Phil Collins' drum duet.
[edit] Personnel
- Phil Collins - vocals, drums, percussion
- Steve Hackett - electric & acoustic guitars, koto
- Tony Banks - keyboards, backing vocals, electric guitars
- Mike Rutherford - 8-and 12-string bass, electric & acoustic guitars, moog bass, backing vocals
[edit] Additional musicians
- Chester Thompson - drums
- Bill Bruford - drums on "Cinema Show"
[edit] Song Notes
"Firth of Fifth" is performed here without the piano introduction, beginning immediately with the lyrics. A similar recording appears on Genesis Archive 1967-75. Tony Banks stopped playing the piano introduction in concert during the Selling England by the Pound tour, as there were no electric pianos in existence at the time which were sensitive enough to allow Banks to recreate the "classical" feel of the introduction.
This album's version of "I Know What I Like" includes an extended instrumental section which makes more or less subtle references to "Stagnation" and "Visions Of Angels" (Trespass), "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" (Selling England by the Pound) and "Blood On The Rooftops" (Wind & Wuthering).
Like many of the band's studio albums, this live album also features a "book-end" effect where musical themes and ideas used in the beginning reappear at the end of the album (such as on Selling England By The Pound, A Trick Of The Tail, Wind & Wuthering, and Duke for example). The ending of "Los Endos" features themes from the live album's opening track "Squonk".
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