A rather underwhelming release coming next spring….the original album, a live recording that appeared on the Archives box set years ago (albeit augmented by the encores) and a paltry three demos of the.myriad that have been circulating for years – and which bizarrely are only available to download. An early contender for the most disappointing box set of 2025. Even the promised Atmos mixes can’t redeem this missed opportunity.
The Lamb Lies Down SDE
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Don’t want to be a downer, obvs, but this week (while he was being a farmer, plc) I learnt that Jeremy Clarkson – a guy whose record collection you wouldn’t want to be downwind of – provided sleeve notes for a Genesis reissue.
Again, don’t want to spoilt it for anyone…
He has one redeeming feature in that he loves Supertramp’s Crime Of The Century which is one of the best albums ever.
I’m afraid that doesn’t convince me.
Clarkson is a bigoted arse, Crime Of The Century is the worst popular record ever made but, no denying this sadly, Clarkson’s Farm is brilliant.
CF is brilliant and had probably done more than anyone to highlight the difficulties, challenges and government originated idiocy which makes it so hard. He also undergoes a complete change on camera to be much more in tune with the environment. No surprise that farmers gave him an award.
Do you know, deep down, I think you did want to be a downer…
this is a band which produced magical music in it’s time, but the bottom-of-the-barrel re-releases (the umpteenth, and many of us can acquire bootlegs if we want easily enough) reduce that magic. Seeing Steve Hackett perform bits of LLB last month was great. I’ve seen TMB perform LLB in the original, which is as close as I’ll get to what it was. I really don’t need the SDE. (Apols for the TLAs.)
I’d certainly be interested in the Atmos mix but as far as I can see the minimum you can pay to get it is £79, which won’t be happening chez Ainsley.
I agree that Genesis re-releases have been uniformly poor for various reasons.
The Lamb is my favourite Genesis album, and I’m a fan of a big box set, but I’ll pass on this.
I’ve just received the latest in Marillion’s series of reissues, This Strange Engine. It’s not one of their biggest albums, but similar to their other box sets this contains 4 CDs and a Blu-Ray, with a new mix, a previously unreleased live show, demos, a 5.1 mix, an 85-minute documentary, a 2-hour live video of a different gig, plus videos of a few singles. Yours for about £30. (See also Jethro Tull for the same sort of deal.) By comparison the Lamb box is very poor value indeed.
If Marillion – a much smaller act than Genesis, sadly – can go up in the proverbial (or maybe literal) attic and find plenty of extras for their fans, and then sell them at a reasonable price, why can’t Phil, Peter and co., or at least their minions?
Cos over there is a line of gullible old fools with wallets already open. Ker and Ching.
Not me I’m a modern I’m down wiv da yoot. I pay for me Sanatogen and Voltarol wiv me phone innit. Also I wouldn’t buy this if all hell had me.
I regretted buying Lamb in the seventies. I’m not going to regret it again now.
I’d buy a Live box, though. Have they done any others that are worth consideration?
(I rather like The Lamb…)
It remains my favourite of the Gabriel-era albums, although I wasn’t a huge Genesis fan in the 1970s, finding the early stuff a bit twee when compared with Crimson and VdGG (maybe that’s why I preferred The Lamb – a bit more aggressive and full-on).
However, I won’t be buying this box…
I only dabble in Prog, but you live it. 😘
A real marmite album but I’m with you Tigger. Dense, muddy production, not a lot of melody or catchy riffs. Traded my copy in recently.
The quality of the songs dropped off a bit on parts of the second disc and yes, the production was pretty muddy. None of the Charisma Genesis albums were very well recorded/mastered IMO.
A favourite album at the time nonetheless and the best of it still holds up well I think. Better than most other early Genesis really, Selling England excepted, which it ties with in some respects.
I have a Spanish pressing of the album which came without the inner sleeves with lyrics. Bought it second hand at Cob Records in Portmadoc for not much money in the late ’70s.
I have no interest in getting this box.
I still have the original UK vinyl which came with a competition insert you may not have seen before.
If the live version of The Lamb is exactly the same one on the Archive box, then I believe that Gabriel’s vocals were rerecorded before the archive box came out. The last track is an alternative studio take, as the tape ran out as they started ‘It’. Bartleby who used to be here alerted me to this.
Yes, Gabriel re-recorded the vocals on PARTS of every single track of the L.A. Shrine show from the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour for the Genesis Archives vol. 1 boxed set.
This YouTuber, LileighWhiteLilith, has analysed every single track on the live recording, and as each track plays, she indicates whether it’s the original 1975 vocal or the rerecorded vocal by holding up a photo of young Peter or older Peter respectively. Sometimes, the version changes several times within a few seconds.
Here’s her explanatory video for the title track of the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway:
Gabriel recorded new vocals for the whole thing but only around 60% of them were actually used. For ‘it’ they used the regular album version remixed with new vocals. This time they’ve apparently ‘found’ tapes including ‘it’ and the encores, all of which will be included. My guess is they’ll be using the King Biscuit radio recording for these three tracks, which was available to them at the time of the original archive box set but they chose not to use for some reason. If the track list is correct then they’ve managed to get the encores in the wrong order, they really are crap at these archive releases.
Steve Hackett also rerecorded some of his guitar parts. Apparently Gabriel’s original vocals were muffled by the costumes he was wearing.
The King Biscuit recording is still available on Amazon
The Shrine Auditorium https://amzn.eu/d/deTUYdz
‘We’re in the Colony of rmmmph-rmph’…
Just noticed that Apple has the SDE tracks available to pre-order for the release at the end of March for just £24. Obvs you’ll only get the remixed/remastered versions but that’s quite a saving.
I wouldn’t buy it via Apple as the quality won’t be high enough, but it suggests it may be available on other streaming at higher quality or for hi-res download.