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Live: The Way We Walk Volume 2 - The Longs
Genesis
Atlantic, 1993
http://www.genesis-music.com
REVIEW BY: Jeff Clutterbuck
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/27/2005
Way back on the 10th of May, my review for Genesis Live went up. If you want to read myobservations about that particular work, they are there for you toskim. Suffice it to say; I came away impressed. Now here we are,with the last Genesis live album. The question is, has anythingcarried over?
The Way We Walk Vol. 2 (The Longs) (hereafter referred to asThe Longs) is obviously Vol. 2 of a live concert. The firstvolume consisted of the hits, whereas The Longs attempts to reach out to fans of old schoolGenesis with some longer tracks. Sounds like a decent approach,trying to reach out to all of Genesis fandom with this two-prongedattack. While I do not have a problem with that, what causesconcern is the track selection.
Raise your hand if you agree that Genesis' best progressivematerial occurred before 1974. I do, for one. But guess what, outof the six tracks, only one contains material previous to 1983.This is a huge problem, as the listener is left with questionsalong the lines of, "What happened to 'The Knife', or 'The ReturnOf The Giant Hogweed'"? Rule number one to the successful liveoffering; include your best songs!
That aforementioned single track containing pre-1983 materialwould be the opener, "Old Medley." Included within this medley are"Dance on a Volcano," "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," and "TheMusical." One can also hear fairly large chunks of "Follow You,Follow Me," and "That's All." Now let's be honest, each of thesesections is performed well; I wasn't crying for the originalversions. However, what really gets me angry is the fact thatapparently this version of Genesis didn't think the audience wouldhave the attention span for one 20-minute long track. No, insteadthey break it up, for no decent artistic reason. I mean this albumis supposed to be "the long tracks," so why the hell am I hearing"Follow You Follow Me"?
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