INSIDE GENESIS THE GABRIEL YEARS 1970-1975

This evening I watched this DVD, I wanted to write a review but to my surprise there was no inclusion! A good point on Genesis Inside The Gabriel Years 1970-1975 is the balance between the exciting live footage (Italian, French, German and Belgian tv and the famous Shepperton Tapes), the comments by several experts and the fine keyboard explanations by Iain Jennings from Mostly Autumn. It starts with compliments for the powerful track The Knife, "the first song that the Genesis audience made move" and Stagnation, both songs with captivating black and white images from Genesis 1972, I am sure that Fish was inspired by Gabriel his 'microphone act'! During the story about Nursery Cryme it is emphasized that Phil Collins ("a kind of Keith Moon in a way") and Steve Hackett ("the guitarist the band desperately needed") were a huge boost for the band and that Tony Banks was a great composer. We can enjoy Peter Gabriel his legendary visuals with 'the old man mask' during the end of The Musical Box and we can look at the innovative and powerful guitar work by Steve Hackett on The Return Of The Giant Hogweed. Banks bought a King Crimson Mellotron and used it for the first time on The Fountain Of Salmacis and of course later on Watcher Of The Skies. In those days Genesis became famous because of their stage show. The album Foxtrot is called 'a quantum leap' and the epic Supper's Ready is hailed as a splendid example how outstanding Genesis their writing was ("one fantasy flight to another"). There is much time to analyse Selling England By The Pound but few time for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (short but great live footage from Rael and Slipperman), that's the only negative remark, this is a very captivating Classic Rock release for the many Genesis fans on this site!

I had never seen any video from the Gabriel years, and was always on the lookout. I came across this DVD, and decided to give it a chance. The commentary is very insightful, and the video footage is a real treat. As you might guess, the attention is focused on the most beloved songs.

For "Trespass", "The Knife" gets a thorough investigation. They mark this as where the 'classic sound' truly begins. Another in depth study is done on "Stagnation." This came as a bit of a surprise, but it reminds you of what a truly remarkable piece this is.

"Nursery Cryme" is given the biggest time slot. Steve Hackett's mark on the band's sound is particularly highlighted. "The Musical Box" is practically drooled over. It contains some great scenes of Tony Banks playing guitar, and Peter Gabriel playing the old man. "Return of the Giant Hogweed" gets the full treatment, and Steve's unusual solo is the highlight. "The Fountain of Salmacis" wraps up this segment.

The "Foxtrot" segment is represented by "Watcher of the Skies" and, of course, "Supper's Ready." Here is where we start getting into trouble. This was a monumental album for the group. It deserves more attention. Granted, these are the two key numbers, but there is much more. They don't even mention that Steve did his first classical guitar number on this album (although, "Horizons" is played over the ending credits). There also isn't even that much time spent on "Supper's Ready." This was a huge prog epic, and they barely scratch the surface.

"Selling England by the Pound" is given a five star rating, but once again only explores two songs. "Dancing With the Moonlight Night" gets its due, and "I Know What I Like" is treated with a nice objectivity. There is no mention of Phil having a lead vocal (yes, I know, some of you will think that is a good thing). Was there anything else that may have made this a five star album? I guess "Firth of Fifth" and "Cinema Show" are just filler.

Now we come to the real travesty. The grand epic, double album, "The Lamb lies Down on Broadway" gets two minutes. That's it! Then the film is over. And it's not as if this program was running long.

For me, if you are going to do film about this era of Genesis, you should go more in depth. Especially when it comes to their most ambitious effort. It also would have been nice to talk about "From Genesis to Revelation" just a little bit. They could have at least done enough to show the tremendous leap they made to "Trespass." If you didn't know the band, this film might give you the impression that "Trespass" was the debut.

The good moments here are very enjoyable, but it is obviously lacking. I'm sure there are better Genesis films out there. Clocking in at under an hour, the $20 price tag also seems a bit much. This factor forces me to take it down to two stars. This one is for collectors only.

H.T. Riekels

Great old clips, same old critics

This entry in Bob Carruthers' "Inside" rockumentary series focuses on the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis. Five studio albums are thus covered, with the Jonathan King debut being given a passing mention and "Genesis Live" being overlooked altogether. One can understand the omission of "From Genesis to Revelation", as there is probably no footage of the band during this period. Leaving out "Genesis live" however does seem strange, and is inconsistent with other entries in the series.

This particular programme is frustratingly good and bad. Taking the good first, the footage of Genesis from this period is extensive and superb. We see the band with Gabriel as lead singer performing classics such as "The Musical Box", "Supper's ready" (Banks, Rutherford and Hackett all on acoustic guitar), "Stagnation", "Watcher of the skies", and many more. For someone like myself, who had the honour of seeing the band live on more than one occasion during this period, the wonderful memories come flooding back. The clips are reasonably lengthy for this type of production too, although no tracks are played out in full.

On the downside, the experts who offer their opinions had, without exception, nothing to do with Genesis during this period. While others in the series have a fine selection of current and former band members, producers, etc., here we simply have the usual rota of journalists and critics. Their comments offer little insight into the music beyond the normal fan-speak. I find Michael Heatley's comments particularly unhelpful and indeed inaccurate at times (The "Moonlight" knight?). For no obvious reason, a member of Mostly Autumn is brought in to offer a musical dissection of a couple of songs.

The balance of the programme in terms of the albums is particularly poor. "Nursery cryme" is afforded about 21 minutes (which is wonderful), or a third of the programme, but "The lamb lies down of Broadway" is lucky to get a mere 2 minutes! This results in a rather abrupt and unsatisfactory ending to the production after less than an hour. "Selling England.." gets a sparse 10 minutes, with no mention or footage at all of "Firth of fifth", the highlight of the album for many.

Going back to the earliest footage of the band performing tracks from "Trespass", the line up in the film includes Collins and Hackett, who did not play on that album. Little is made though of the early contributions of Mayhew and Phillips. Personally, I would liked to have seen a bit more of Peter Gabriel's spoken introductions to the songs, the only one we get is a short intro to "Dancing with the moonlit knight".

An interesting aside for the train-spotters is the song credits shown. During this period, the songs were simply credited on the albums to "Genesis". Here though, the band member's names are shown individually, with Phil Collins being omitted from some he was involved in recording.

As a documentary about the Gabriel years Genesis albums, this is a pretty mediocre offering. As a source of rare footage of the band during the period, it is absolutely essential.

The inside series of DVDs are an interesting snapshot of prog history for the progressive rock fan. It is worth noting that there are a series of "Inside" DVDs available, including Pink Floyd, Van der Graaf Generator, Yes, Supertramp, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and of course "Inside Genesis". Each DVD is in Dolby digital 5.1 and DTS so the sound is incomparable.

The Inside series is an independent critical review featuring rare archive footage much of which has been previously unavailable on DVD. Genesis clips of Suppers Ready, Return of the Giant Hogweed and The Musical Box are delightful and to see Gabriel in his theatrical guises is unforgettable.

"Inside Genesis" looks at the years 1970 to 1975 and of course we are treated to rare film clips of the classic Genesis lineup with the indomitable Peter Gabriel at the helm.

Musicologists of varying backgrounds critically assess the music to discover the essence of the band. It is a very brief look at the band as are all of these DVDs of the "Inside" series, clocking just over one hour in length. Therefore it is more of a taster for those new to Genesis or for those who just want to look back at the golden years of this quintessential prog rock band.