I bought my copy of this box set on the day it was released, which as I can recall was around June 1998.
Listening back through it in October of 2008 I can fully appreciate all of the work and effort that Nick Davis and the band have put into the audio restoration of this work.
Although there are purists out there who have moaned that members of Genesis past and present went back and over dubbed the recording it was in most circumstances necessary especially in light of the information since provided by Nick Davis that there was simply no vocals on the multi track.
When you bare in mind the costume changes that the production of the Lamb required then perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. But in order for there to be vocals Peter Gabriel had to re record them in the mid 1990’s.
To my mind and ears this does not seem as horrendous as other folk have made out, Although Peter’s voice was different in the 70’s and then in the 90’s (As we are now in the nougties) So its not entirely the same as being at the show originally, But you do get a live feel as the multi track was able to pick up a rather enthusiastic American audience.
Although I do believe Steve Hackett also had a go at re recording some of his guitar parts this I also believe was the right thing to do as Steve went on tour with a serious hand injury he had not fully recovered from.
Here is the track list for the four CD box set.
DISC 1
1) The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway ,2) Fly On A Windshield ,3) Broadway Melody Of 1974
4) Cuckoo Cocoon ,5) In The Cage ,6) The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging
7) Back In NYC) ,8) Hairless Heart ,9) Counting Out Time ,10) Carpet Crawlers
11) The Chamber Of 32 Doors
DISC 2
1) Lilywhite Lilith, 2) The Waiting Room, 3) Anyway
4) Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist, 5) The Lamia
6) Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats
7)The Colony Of Slippermen
The Arrival
A Visit to the Doktor
The Raven
8) Ravine, 9) The Light Dies Down On Broadway, 10) Riding The Scree
11) In The Rapids, 12) It
DISC 3
(# = Live)
1) Dancing with the Moonlight Knight # ,2) Firth of Fifth # ,3) More Fool Me #
4) Suppers Ready # ,5) I Know What I Like # ,6) Stagnation #
7) Twilight Alehouse ,8) Happy the Man ,9) Watcher of the Skies
DISC 4
1) In the Wilderness ,2) Shepherd ,3) Pacidy ,4) Let Us Now Make Love
5) Going Out To get You ,6) Dusk ,7) Build Me a Mountain ,8) Image Blown Out
9) One Day ,10) Where the Sour Turns to Sweet ,11) In the Beginning
12) The Magic of Time ,13) Hey! ,14) Hidden in the World of Dawn
15) Sea Bee, 16) The Mystery of the Flannan Isle Lighthouse
17) Hair on the Arms and Legs, 18) She is Beautiful
19) Try a Little Sadness, 20) Patricia.
The Live Lamb Show
Disc’s 1 and 2 are the whole show barring the song IT, from the Shrine Auditorium show of the 24th January 1975 the audience seem to know the album well compared to bootleg recordings of the 1974 shows where the audience seem confused if not bamboozled with the new material.
Of course the whole performance feels flawless because there are little if not any at all in the way of mistakes, Although you could often argue why did the band not see commercial sense by playing around ten tracks from the Lamb double album and then mix it with known stage favourites, You feel as though something would have been lost had Genesis taken the most sensible and safe route. Peter’s stories are here in all there glory and if you listen loud enough you can hear the band tuning there instruments on stage hence why the stories started in the first instance.
The recording makes up the gap between live recordings as previously there was only Genesis Live which was released in 1973 which gave the listener a taster of what it was like to see Genesis live during the Foxtrot tour of 1972 or you had Seconds Out which covered the 1976 and 1977 tour’s and of course by then Peter had left and Phil was singing.
Selling England Live
Disc 3 contains some of the material from the 1973 album Selling England By The Pound material that had never been heard live on CD before along with Supper’s Ready from the same performance in all its glory and complete with the full story, In this case Peter moans at Phil who is not listening for the cue to Jerusalem.
The next tracks of the disc from track 6 onwards are from a different performance in the case of Stagnation or B sides to singles.
The Land Before Time
Disc 4 has the earliest of material on it, and although there were apparent concerns it does not sound that bad. My favourite track is track 10 “When the Sour turns to Sweet” although the whole disc has a very different feel one minute it’s very Bee Gee’s like and the next it could be an early version of the Rolling Stones although there are a number of tracks that have a very naive feel about them. Although there are some great songs here that deserve a wider audience.
Having owned this box set for ten years I can still say that it was a worthy investment into my music collection and although it cost me £42.99 at the time I do now believe it has been reduced from its original price.
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