GENESIS : SECONDS OUT

 

Disc One (48:48)

  1. Squonk
  2. the carpet crawl
  3. robbery, assault and battery
  4. afterglow
  5. firth of fifth
  6. i know what i like
  7. the lamb lies down on broadway
  8. the musical box (Closing Section)

Disc Two (47:18)

  1. supper's ready
  2. cinema show
  3. dance on a volcano
  4. los endos

Label : Virgin

Release Date : October 21, 1977

Venue : Palais des Sports, Paris, France

Recording Date : June 11 - 14, 1977

Review (AllMusic) : Depending upon your point of view, Genesis in 1976/1977 was either a band ascending toward its peak commercially, or a group crippled by the departure of a key member, and living on artistic borrowed time. In reality, they were sort of both, and fortunately for the members, their commerciality was more important than their artistic street cred, as their burgeoning record sales and huge audiences on tour during that period attested. Seconds Out caught the band straddling both ends of their history, their second concert album and this time out a double LP. Apart from capitalizing on a successful tour, the album's raison d'etre appears to have been to present the case to critics and longtime fans that post-Peter Gabriel Genesis, with Phil Collins as lead singer, was essentially the same band as Genesis fronted by Peter Gabriel. The original side one songs consisted of repertory from such post-Gabriel albums as Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering, and most of those live versions, including "Squonk," "The Carpet Crawl" (positively ethereal), and "Afterglow," are superior to the original studio renditions of the same songs. Indeed, part of the beauty of this album is the sheer flexibility of the band during this period -- in addition to superb vocals by Collins throughout, the drumming by Chester Thompson is at least a match for Collins' best playing. On that older repertory (which comprised sides two and three of the LP version), the results are more mixed, though still surprisingly enjoyable -- on "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," despite the best efforts of Collins, backed by Michael Rutherford's and Tony Banks's singing, he really can't match the subtlety or expressiveness of Gabriel's singing, though he comes close; he actually fares slightly better on the closing section of "The Musical Box," a piece that requires power as much as subtlety. "Supper's Ready" -- which, sung by Gabriel, missed making it onto 1973's live album -- holds up well, mostly by virtue of the playing; and in fairness, the band even extended itself to including "Cinema Show," which is worth hearing just for Bill Bruford's transcendent drumming, over and above how well everything else works; as this track was never represented with Gabriel, even on the group's boxed set, it's difficult to complain too loudly about any weakness in Collins' singing.

Review (Wikipedia) : Seconds Out is the second live album from the English rock band Genesis, released as a double album in October 1977 on Charisma Records. It is formed of recordings from their four dates at the Palais des Sports in Paris in June 1977 on their Wind & Wuthering Tour. "The Cinema Show" was recorded in 1976 at the Pavillon de Paris during their A Trick of the Tail Tour. Seconds Out received average to positive reviews upon its release, and reached No. 4 in the UK and No. 47 in the US. Its release coincided with the departure of guitarist Steve Hackett who left the group during the album's mixing stages, thus reducing Genesis to the core trio of keyboardist Tony Banks, guitarist Mike Rutherford, and drummer and singer Phil Collins who recorded ...And Then There Were Three... by this time. Seconds Out has been reissued for CD in 1994 and 2009, the latter as part of the Genesis Live 1973-2007 box set. econds Out is the band's second live album following 1973's Genesis Live. While the earlier live set had been released 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/Frank Zappa 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, played drums on the band's 1976 tour, from which the recording of "The Cinema Show" was taken. Thompson replaced Bruford on the band's 1977 tour, which was the source of all other songs on the album. Lead guitarist Steve Hackett left the band during mid-1977 as Seconds Out was being mixed. Phil Collins recalls that one day he was driving to Trident Studios in London and saw Hackett walking, so he stopped and offered him a lift, which Hackett declined. When he got to the studio, Banks and Rutherford told him he just phoned to tell them he was leaving the band. Hackett later recalled that he thought if he got in the car, Collins would have been the one person to talk him out of leaving. On the Genesis - A History video (1990), Tony Banks 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". Although Hackett's guitar is audible, it lacks the volume of previous albums or rough soundboard mix bootlegs from the 1977 tour. During a radio interview after the album release, Collins stated that most of the 1977 sections were taken from the third of the four-night run at the Palais des Sports in Paris from 13 June 1977, which was also recorded and broadcast in part by French radio RTL. The album's credits include details of which drummer(s) are playing on each song. Mixed in with these credits are the notes "Robbery Assault & Battery - keyboard solo Phil" and "Cinema Show - Bill Bruford, Phil keyboard solo". This should be read to mean that Collins played the drum kit (along with Thompson or Bruford) during that solo, not that Collins played keyboards. A critical and commercial success, the album hit No. 4 in the UK and No. 47 in the U.S., where their popularity was increasing. Until Genesis Archive 1967-75 (1998), Seconds Out contained the only official live recording of Genesis concert staple "Supper's Ready".