TWILIGHT ALEHOUSE

Another Gabriel-era Genesis rarety. It was never recorded on any of their official albums, although it did get official release as a b-side of the I Know What I like single (UK only, I guess). This original version is slightly different from the one released the box Genesis Archive 1967-1975 (on that boxset it was remixed and had some guitar parts added). It was an old song, and it was part of their live repertoire for years (a live on the studio version is available on youtube as part of their famous TV show in Brussels, Belgium, 1972). Although a much more elaborated song than the other obscure bside like Happy The Man, it is easy to tell why it remained a non lp track: the song does not have a memorable melody line nor the great build up that made others, like The Musical Box, so engaging. At almost eight minutes, it does have some fine parts, with all the right things that made Genesis famous (chiming 12 string guitars, haunting organ bits, nice flute, fairy tale lyrics and so on), but it simply comes up as something unfinished, just a bunch of ideas thrown in without much care for the whole. A good "b side" indeed!

Rating: as anything Genesis released in the early days, this is not crap. It is still interesting, specially for Genesis fanatics like me,. But it is still also not really essential in any way., 3 stars.