Seconds Out

Seconds Out
Live album by Genesis
Released	21 October 1977
Recorded	Paris, Palais des Sports, 11–14 June 1977 (except "The Cinema Show": 1976-Tour)
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	1:35:31
Label	Charisma, Virgin, Atlantic
Producer	David Hentschel and Genesis
Genesis chronology
Spot the Pigeon (1977) Seconds Out (1977) ...And Then There Were Three... (1978)

Professional ratings
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Rolling Stone	(not rated)

Seconds Out is a live double album by Genesis, released in October 1977. It reached No.4 in the UK, remaining in the charts for 17 weeks. The performances were recorded in Paris in 1976 and 1977 on their tours in support of A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering. At the end of several songs the crowd can be heard encouraging the band to play another song by chanting "Une autre!" which literally means "another one".

History

Seconds Out is the band's second live album following Genesis Live in 1973. While the earlier live set had been released by the band's label to mark time while they recorded Selling England by the Pound, Seconds Out was planned as a major release, an authoritative document of Genesis' sound with Phil Collins as frontman and lead vocalist. The recording includes former Weather Report drummer Chester Thompson at the start of his long tenure as concert drummer for the band. Former Yes and King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, the first drummer to take over for Collins on the stage, played drums on the band's 1976 tour, from which the recording of "The Cinema Show" was taken. Thompson replaced Bruford on the band's 1977 tour, which was the source of all other songs on the album. Guitarist Steve Hackett left the band during mid-1977 as Seconds Out was being mixed. A critical and commercial success, the album hit No.4 in the UK and No.47 in the US, where their popularity was still gaining steam.

Until Genesis Archive 1967-75 (1998), Seconds Out contained the only official live recording of Genesis concert staple "Supper's Ready".

On the Genesis – A History video (1990), Banks dryly jokes that, after Hackett announced his departure from the band, "we just mixed him out of the rest of the album and that was it, really." Hackett later said that Banks' remark was simply "British humour".

The album's credits include details of which drummer(s) are playing on each song. These include statements like "drums Chester, keyboard solo Phil." These have been misinterpreted as saying that Collins plays the keyboard solo, but in fact they refer to his playing drums during the keyboard solo.

Meaning of the title

The album's title has a double meaning. The phrase 'Seconds out!' is used by some boxing (and wrestling) officials to indicate that the fighters' ring crew (their 'seconds') must leave the ring because the next round is about to begin e.g. "Seconds out! Round 2". Also, the album is the second Genesis live album i.e. recorded out of the studio. It has also been suggested that the title refers to Hackett's departure because he is the second significant member to be out of the band. This is clearly incorrect, as both Banks and Rutherford regard Anthony Phillips' departure in 1970 to have been more significant in Genesis history than Gabriel's departure in 1975. This would make Hackett the third 'significant' band member to leave, and the sixth in total.

Song notes

"Firth of Fifth" is performed without the piano introduction, beginning immediately with the lyrics. A similar recording appears on Genesis Archive 1967–75. Tony Banks stopped playing the piano introduction in concert during the Selling England by the Pound tour, as there were no electric pianos in existence at the time which were sensitive enough to allow Banks to recreate the "classical" feel of the introduction.

This album's version of "I Know What I Like" includes excerpts from "Stagnation" and "Visions Of Angels" (Trespass), "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" (Selling England by the Pound) and "Blood On The Rooftops" (Wind & Wuthering).

Like many of the band's studio albums, this live album also features a "book-end" effect where musical themes and ideas used in the beginning reappear at the end of the album. The ending of "Los Endos" features themes from the live album's opening track "Squonk".

A digitally remastered version was released on CD in 1994 on Virgin in Europe and on Atlantic in the US and Canada. Both this and the earlier UK CD edition mistrack the transition from 'Dance On A Volcano' to 'Los Endos' a few minutes early. (The original LP banded them together as one track) The version included in the "Genesis Live 1973–2007" box set corrects this error. Longtime Genesis producer Nick Davis completed a 5.1 remix of this and other Genesis live albums which were released as a box set in September 2009.

Track listing

All songs by Tony Banks/Phil Collins/Peter Gabriel/Steve Hackett/Mike Rutherford, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Squonk" (Banks/Rutherford) – 6:39
2. "The Carpet Crawlers" – 5:27
3. "Robbery, Assault and Battery" (Banks/Collins) – 6:02
4. "Afterglow" (Banks) – 4:29

Side two

1. "Firth of Fifth" – 8:56
2. "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" – 8:45
3. "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" – 4:59
4. "The Musical Box (Closing Section)" – 3:18

Side three

1. "Supper's Ready" – 24:33

Side four

1. "The Cinema Show" – 10:58
   • Pavillion de Paris – 23 June 1976
2. "Dance on a Volcano" (Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford) – 5:09
3. "Los Endos" (Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford) – 6:20

Personnel

• Phil Collins – lead vocals, percussion, drums on "Robbery, Assault and Battery" (during keyboard solo only), "Firth of Fifth", "The Musical Box", "Supper's Ready" (during "Apocalypse in 9/8" section only), "Cinema Show" (during keyboard solo only) & "Los Endos"
• Tony Banks – keyboards (RMI Electra Piano, Hammmond T. organ, Mellotron 400, ARP Pro Soloist synthesiser), Epiphone 12-string guitar, backing vocals
• Steve Hackett – Gibson Les Paul lead guitar, Hokada 12-string guitar
• Mike Rutherford – Shergold Modulator doubleneck 12-string electric guitar/4-string bass guitar, 8-string bass guitar, Moog Taurus bass pedals, backing vocals

Additional musicians

• Chester Thompson – drums & percussion on all tracks except "Cinema Show"
• Bill Bruford – drums & percussion on "Cinema Show"