In Review
Genesis
Live 1973-2007
Rhino (R2 521143)
Grade:

And so we reach the end of what readers of a certain age and disposition will agree has been the single most exhilarating reissue campaign of the century so far: the complete, utter and apparently absolute restoration of the Genesis back catalog to 21st-century shelves.

Two past boxes rounded up everything bar their all-but-disowned debut album, packed with bonuses, rarities, legends. Now comes a third, stuffed with the four live albums that interrupted the studio sequence: 1973’s Genesis Live, 1977’s Seconds Out, 1982’s Three Sides Live and 1992/3’s The Shorts/The Longs. Oh, and a slot in the box for you to file away your previously purchased copy of Live Over Europe 2007. What more could you ask for?

Well, a little more attention to detail would have been nice. We hate to sound churlish, after all, but everybody knows that Genesis Live was originally envisioned as a three-sided double, before “Supper’s Ready” was sliced away. This would have been the perfect opportunity to recreate that experience; instead, we get five random tracks from the Shrine Auditorium Lamb Lies Down show, and that despite that entire show having already appeared on the earlier Archive box set. So strike one, and strike two, as well, for not incorporating the rest of the Shrine gig here — a 5.1 remix, in keeping with much of the rest of the new box, would have been a true treat.

Live At The Rainbow 1973 follows, five of whose seven tracks were also on Archive, which leaves just two to keep us salivating: a hyper-speed “Cinema Show,” which was worth the wait, and “The Battle of Epping Forest” which decidedly wasn’t. Strike three and, because that’s it for the Peter Gabriel era, strike four as well. Things don’t improve later on. Both Seconds Out and Three Sides Live are presented in their original form, spread over two discs apiece but without any extras whatsoever. And while The Shorts/Longs have been recompiled into the gigs’ original running order, rather than being sliced and diced as they were on their initial release, that’s all they’ve had done to them — no 5.1 here, either. Strikes five, six, seven … Harold the Barrel has run out of toes already.

Again, it would be churlish to sit here and complain about what should, and could, have been done with this box set. The thing is, it should also have been unnecessary. The last two boxes were, after all, flawless, and listening to the remastering that has taken place here, somebody obviously cared enough to make this set sound as good as its predecessors.

There are flourishes on Genesis Live that 35 years spent listening to the original vinyl never revealed! So why didn’t they go the extra yard with the contents as well? Well, the liner notes have a stab at explaining the thinking, and Tony Banks insists that “the whole idea of these box sets was to get everything out there, and anything not out there shouldn’t be out there.” But if you buy that … hey, are you in the market for a nice bridge?