TURN IT ON AGAIN - BEST OF 81-83

Interesting compilation of Genesis 80´s output. Hardly their best, of course. Recording companies always seem to make this kind of misleading packages, labeling their greatest hits as their best (well, on a second thought, for the recording companies their greatest hits ARE the best, at least for their pockets). Anyway, many key songs, or more prog songs, of that era are missing from this collection. On the other hand, they at least were sensitve enough to include two of Genesis most beautiful songs at that time: Man On The Corner and the great Home By The Sea (a song that really shows they still could produce a truly prog gem even at their popiest period).

If you like good pop music, with some strong progressive influences, and still have none of Genesis 80´s albums, this might be a good starting point to get to know their work at the time. Other than that I can´t recommend this album to anyone else. There is nothing new here and the live tracks don´t add anything that you haven´t heard before (and, in the case of Firth of fifth, better). Two stars.

I have to say that in the eighties it was much better for me to listen to the Pop Rock music that some Prog Rock bands like GENESIS and YES were recording and releasing then than to most of the music that was played in the radio. So, while some GENESIS`s albums from that decade really were not very interesting and good in comparison to some of their other albums from the seventies, I still liked some songs from those albums.

This compilation, which I never bought despite seeing it in some record shops in my city (but I listened to it a few times thanks to a friend who had it) has some songs taken from the albums that the band released between 1981 and 1983, plus two live tracks which were previously available only as B-sides of some singles. Some of them were and still are among my favourite songs from those mostly Pop Rock albums, but for me some of them are still not among the best that the band released during that period.

So, this compilation has the next songs:

- From the album "Abacab" (1981): "No Reply At All", "Man On The Corner". I still like both songs.

- From the "3X3" (1982) EP and also released in the US and German versions (and in other countries too, like Mexico, but except in the U.K.) of the "Three Sides Live" (1982) album: "Paperlate". A good song with the EWF horns. Also released as a single in the U.S.

- From the "Three Sides Live" (1982) album: "Misunderstanding", "Follow You, Follow Me", and "Abacab". Three good songs from that album.

- From the album "Genesis" (1983): "Mama", "Home By The Sea", "That's All", "Illegal Alien", "Taking It All Too Hard": Five songs taken from their self-titled album from 1983, which I still think that it is their worst album ever. But I only like from all these songs "That`s All" and ""Taking All Too Hard". This version of "Home by the Sea" is edited a bit at the end using a fade-out. I still consider "Illegal Alien" as their worst song ever. Too much songs taken from this album.

Plus:

- "Turn It On Again Medley (Live)": recorded at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, 27-November-83. Also released as the B-side of the "Illegal Alien" single. "Turn It On Again" is followed by a Medley with several songs (covers) from other bands and singers of the sixties. It really was not played very well in this case, as other performances of similar Medleys are better, in my opinion. This kind of Medleys were played as encores by the band in their 1983-84 and 1986-87 tours and also at the Knebworth Festival in 1990, but with some changes in content. Some of the songs covered by GENESIS in these Medleys were from THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, WILSON PICKETT, THE KINKS, and even from THE POLICE and CULTURE CLUB (!!!???) in 1984.

-" Firth Of Fifth (Live)": recorded at the Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, 29-November-81. From one of the shows from which several songs were also recorded and included in the "Three Sides Live" album. This version was also included in a Fexidisc (for which I also wrote a review in Prog Archives). It also was released as the B-side of the "That`s All" 12" single. It is maybe the only officially released complete live version of this song with Daryl Stuermer on lead guitar. This live version also lacks the piano introduction from the original studio version (like the live version from their live album "Seconds Out"), but it is almost complete in comparison to later versions of this song with Stuermer which were played as part of Medleys of old songs from the band in their 1992 and 2007 tours.

Well. This compilation has some good songs, but maybe it could be more interesting for the fans of the most Pop Rock music that the band released in the eighties. Maybe the inclusion of the live version of "Firth of Fifth" and of the "Turn It On Again Live Medley" makes it more interesting for the most dedicated collectors and fans of the band.

Another Genesis compilation in the Collins era and notable really for having some live tracks rarely seen on a compilation.

From the album "Abacab" (1981) is No Reply At All and Man On The Corner that are fairly decent songs. Also from the "Three Sides Live" (1982) album is Paperlate, Misunderstanding, Follow You, Follow Me and Abacab that are good examples of the quality on this double LP.

From the album "Genesis" (1983) are well known tracks Mama, Home By The Sea, That's All, and these are excellent but we could have been spared the poppy kitsch stench of Illegal Alien. Also Taking It All Too Hard is not much better but they were hits somewhere in the world of pop.

The tracks that held my interest were the other live cuts including Turn It On Again Medley which was recorded at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, in late 1983. It is an intriguing mixture of songs and used as an encore in their 80s live shows.

Firth Of Fifth was recorded at the Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, in late 1981 and is always a great musical experience featuring Daryl Stuermer on lead guitar, a terrific version of great quality well worth checking out.

So this album is a curio collectors piece for Genesis freaks like me and very hard to find these days so keep an eye out for it.

Returning to my role of reviewer I chose an odd and rare item but relatively easy for me to develop. I met with this album at the beginning of the '90s as a part of the CD collection of a female friend of mine. She liked Genesis as she liked many other bands of this moment and surely she bought this album as 'something else' and no more than this. For a died hard fan like me with almost 10 years of Genesis on my back at this time, at a first glance it resulted a sort of pastiche but soon I realized about the presence of two 'jewels' I could say. Clearly I can divide the review in two parts:

Part1: The irrelevant Not because of the songs, most of them I loved for years and even love them, but put here in a weird 'mescolanza' of tracks from Shapes, Abacab and Three sides live. In a random order, without any criteria, mixing live with studio, there is nothing special to say. Just that Mama is a bit shortened and Home by the sea is criminally cut with a bad quality fade out.

Part2: The relevant Beyond the judgement one can do about this songs and versions, clearly they conform a hook for the fans, and in the light of time, it is not a minor issue.

Turn it on again: I met with this version long time ago when I bought in a record shop a cassette of the EP Spot the pigeon. Strangely the cover of this cassette was the picture of the Ilegal aliens with the spanish sign 'Oficina de pasaportes' in the back. There you had those three songs, Pigeons, Match of the day and Inside and out, but this long version of Turn it on again with the medley, recorded from a Philadelphia show on Mama Tour. Now I saw it as a part of an other but new and massive official release. This version has its own details as a beginning nuanced with some keyboards motives and with Collins singing in a closer way to the original track than what he did in Three sides live (even when this version is the best ever to me). In addition the 'turn it on again' last phrase finishes with a sort of echo and not with the rocker shouting mode of TSL. The sound is high level.

Firth of fifth: The true reason for have this album. The relevant here is that this is the last version of this masterpiece in complete form played live and officially recorded. I met with this version before, when another female friend of mine show me and LP she was bought, the maxi of That's All. I remember a sort of beige cover. This version of Fifth of fifth has three relevant aspects. 1- The only complete official recording of the song with Daryl Stuermer on guitar, and I love his solos on Firth of fifth, with a heavier and rougher approach than Hackett, not better nor worst, just different. As a virtual friend of mine said once 'as Tony asked Hackett to play his music with the guitar, then he did the same with Daryl, giving him freedom to develop it'. 2- Tony Banks here use different equipment than in the previous versions, wath gives to the song another colours and sounds. 3- Collins was in the peak of his voice and he was giving to Genesis a heavier approach with sounded absolutely amazing. Old pieces like The lamb lies down on broadway, In the cage, Suppers Ready (Encore tour) and now Firth of fifth reveal this fact. The sound is top notch.

Being an odd compilation in which I can rate the first part of the list just for completionists, so one star, but the last two song (and specially the last one) with five stars, I guess that three stars for the pack is fair.