The Good Stuff!

As soon as I heard from my fiancee that there was a Genesis box set that included songs that made up a complete live performance of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," I knew I had to have it!

A few weeks later, we went out to purchase a copy of "Genesis Archive: 1967-1975" the box set. After having a car ride listening to Frank Zappa on the way to the store, Disc 1, the first CD of the live "Lamb" was the first thing to go into the CD player. Even though my fiancee told me that Peter Gabriel "revisited" some of the songs with his vocals in the early 2000s, I didn't care because the songs sounded great!

The next day, I listened to the other three CDs. I do have a copy of "From Genesis to Revelation," but I am not very familiar with most of the songs on the album. Disc 4 of the CD contained early demos of songs they played live but never made it onto the album, such as "Going Out To Get You" and "Twilight Alehouse." There was also an early version of "Dusk" from the album "Trespass." These early songs impressed me so much that any reservations I had about the band's first studio album before seemed to have disappeared.

The live performances on the third disc were also excellent. I loved the version of "Supper's Ready" complete with Gabriel's "Old Michael" story and Phil goofing off behind the drums. The only thing I wished the live disc contained were more live performances, but they had limited space. The sound quality of those was also excellent, probably because these songs had been revisited as well.

Included in the middle of the box set is a booklet containing great early photographs of the band as well as some background on the music that's included. One could say that it's a mini version of the newly released book "Genesis: Chapter and Verse."

I highly recommend this box set compilation to any Genesis fan who is interested in hearing live performances of some of their favorite songs as well as some supplemental material. You won't be disappointed. Rock and Rael!