Nodded off earlier in the evening listening to Seconds Out, the live Genesis album from 1977. This was not the fault of Messers Collins, Banks, Rutherford, Hackett and Thompson (with a bit of Bill Bruford in there somewhere) I hasten to add. Their playing was impeccable and I didn't miss Peter Gabriel too much - except perhaps on The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway where Phil doesn't seem entirely at home with the torrent of lyrical reference. No, I was just plain tired and would have probably kipped to Crimson at their most ferocious.
But having said that it's interesting to ask whether Genesis aren't simply too good at producing something live that sounds as smooth as a studio performance. I remember old chum Hew inveighing against the later live albums of the early 90s for precisely this reason, comparing them unfavourably with the glorious incandescent mess of Dylan on Live Rain. So what should we go for: wonderfully precise musicianship on a par with classically trained players, or rocking out inspirationally on a wing and a prayer, and, just possibly, a surfeit of illegal substances?
I think the world is big enough for both. Well, mine is.
By the way, Seconds Out was one of my Tuesday purchases, and, I hasten to add, the only one that went back to 70's prog. The other stuff was (almost) current, though it could be argued that Bowie's The Next Day is redolent of past glories. Blur, Fleet Foxes and The Civil Wars comprised the other contemporary performers, whilst I also got hold of a version of Faure's Requiem, which I've not owned since the days of vinyl, and the two early Beethoven piano concertos - ditto.
A bit of a rattle bag, all told, and I'm rather pleased about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment