Genesis – Spot The Pigeon/Seconds Out
“Singing it over again, telling a different story”
The Wind and Wuthering tour began January 1 1977 in London England and ended 7 months and 95 shows later on July 3rd in Munich Germany. It was the last tour to feature Steve Hackett and the first to feature Chester Thompson who had been a drummer for both Frank Zappa’s band as well as Weather Report. After hearing him play on the Zappa album Roxy & Elsewhere he was asked by the band to join them as their touring drummer effectively becoming an extended member of the group. It was a seat he would fill for this tour and for all subsequent tours apart from Calling All Stations. The tour featured new state of the art lighting that would become synonymous with the band. It would feature the return of The Musical Box (in part) but a reduction in Gabriel era material. All shows would open with Squonk from previous album A Trick Of The Tail. A pattern that would be repeated with every tour up to and including Calling All Stations. It was also the first to feature the now infamous Drum Duet that would become a fun and interesting addition to every tour as well, with Chester and Phil trading off solos in some awesomely choreographed performances. There is a great albeit brief live video from the Trick Of The Tail tour online called Genesis In Concert at https://youtu.be/1RoKJQNREII.
In May of 1977 while still on tour the band released an EP titled Spot The Pigeon. On it were three songs that were recorded for Wind and Wuthering but not included on the album. The title is a twist on the football themed “Spot the ball” newspaper promotion, where the player has to guess the position of a ball which has been removed from a photograph. It ties together the two songs on Side 1 being Match Of The Day and Pigeons. I only spent about 40 years looking for a fucking pigeon on the cover before realizing it was never there. Match Of The Day is musically a pretty fun song with lyrics that are pretty naff to use an English term for an English sport. It isn’t totally offensive but hardly a seminal addition to their catalog. Pigeons on the other hand is offensive both musically and lyrically unless you find songs about Pigeons particularly funny…which call me crazy…I don’t. Musically I kind of feel like the band decided to try to write the world’s most irritating song. It isn’t the vocal delivery which is actually not a bad melody in spots. The problem is the guitar and banjo riff that repeats unchanging from beginning to end. I have a hunch that they were trying for something along the lines of the White Album’s Rocky Raccoon or Piggies or Why Don’t We Do It In The Road. If you took those songs, mixed them up, wrote shitty lyrics and wrote an upbeat song that could be used as a torture device you’d have Pigeons. I have no idea why it didn’t make the album. The flip side of the EP is a whole other ballgame, though. Inside and Out is a song that many feel should have been included on the Wind and Wuthering album…I’d suggest it in place of the Cat and Mouse song – put all the animal songs on the EP instead I say. It is a beautifully composed and performed song in two distinct parts. The “Inside” part tells a story of a man wrongfully imprisoned for rape and is one of the great acoustic sections of any Genesis song. The vocal is wonderfully delivered especially in the chorus that simply soars as it transitions to gorgeous multilayered strumming acoustic guitars from the picking of the verses. The drums don’t even enter until almost 3 minutes into this 7-minute song. At around the 4-minute mark is the “Out” part of the song which just launches into an amazing 3 minute instrumental section that is supposed to evoke a sense of freedom – which it does wonderfully. It has an awesome keyboard and guitar solo and is an exhilarating song that would not have been slightly out of place on the album (Side 2 song 1 please). These three songs would also be the last studio songs released that would include Steve Hackett and Inside And Out would be performed live on the latter part of the Wind and Wuthering tour. A 12” translucent blue version of the EP was released in Canada only while in the rest of the world it was on regular black vinyl in both 12” and 7” formats.
Following the W&W tour the band began working on selecting and mixing tracks for what would become their second live album. The material was drawn from the June 11-14 Palais des Sports shows in Paris with the exception of the inclusion of The Cinema Show which wasn’t actually played on this tour and was taken from the same city but from a year earlier on the Trick of the Tail tour with Bill Bruford on Drums – though some believe it to be from the Glasgow show.
Seconds Out was released on October 14 1977 (I was almost 9 at the time so yeah I don’t remember). The title of the album from what I can ascertain has a double meaning the first of which is that it was the second album recorded outside of a studio. The more common belief though is that it is a wrestling phrase used to let the ring crew (the fighter’s “Seconds”) know that they need to clear the ring for the next round – “Seconds Out Round 4” kind of thing – in this case I guess the analogy being clear the stage the band is up. Maybe it was something that was actually said at the shows. I’ve never seen any confirmation from the band or crew about the title choice. Seconds Out by all accounts is a great document of the tour showcasing Collins as the new singer. It allowed the band to release a variety of Gabriel era songs that hadn’t been properly captured and documented with him at the helm. In fact, half of the two-disc release is from Gabriel’s time as singer. All but one of the remaining songs are from A Trick Of The Tail and only one (Afterglow) from the album that the tour was promoting which is kind of odd. To be fair they only played 3 or 4 songs from the album on the tour (at most shows). Actually all the songs were played at some point in the tour even if at a limited number of shows. That being said every selection included is great, with the exception of Robbery Assault and Battery which I’ve previously expressed my (sort of) disdain for (N.B. I love the keyboard solo).
Without rehashing my take on individual songs suffice it to say that, despite Hackett being somewhat low in the mix, it is a pretty awesome sounding live album – recorded and performed beautifully – sometimes with more power and elegance than the studio versions but true to them all. The one thing I would say that is a bit of a minor point but worth mentioning is that they took songs from an established setlist played in pretty much the same order every night for 7 months and shuffled it all around on the album. In the end the reorg doesn’t diminish from the experience and as a matter of opinion may have improved it. Hard to say as it also dropped 4 songs from the original show (One For The Vine, Inside and Out, In That Quiet Earth and Eleventh Earl Of Mar). The other more egregious sin is the removal of the beginnings of both The Carpet Crawlers (also truncated in title to The Carpet Crawl…I guess the “ers” were part of the opening section), and Firth of Fifth. Both songs sound great on the album but the neutering of the front end of both of these songs live on every tour they were played on in the Collins fronted era is criminal in my books. Shame on them…if only they realized what sins they had committed…All that being said there are many fans who consider this to be their all-time favourite live album by any band. I would agree that it is right up there with the best.
During the mixing of the album Hackett informed the band that he was leaving. It has been infamously documented that Collins spotted Hackett on the street and offered him a lift to the studio to work on the live album. Hackett declined and Collins found out later from Banks and Rutherford that he had quit. Hackett has mentioned in interviews that he was closest to Collins in the band – both of them being the “new guys” despite being in the band since 1971, and that if he had accepted the lift Collins probably would have talked him out of it. Hackett was growing unhappy during the recording of Wind and Wuthering with the imbalance of material being used from Banks and Rutherford. He was at that point writing a significant amount of material, but it was being vetoed for inclusion by the others. The fact that they had also declined his request to record a second solo album was kind of a double slap in the face. In the end Banks and Rutherford had been a more vocal and forceful duo in the band for many years. There was a balance when Gabriel was in the band and Hackett/Collins were not writing much in the way of songs. With Gabriel out, Collins ended up becoming more of a balancing force in the dynamic but ultimately it was Hackett vs Rutherford/Banks and Hackett decided he needed his freedom more than he needed the band. It doesn’t seem like it was an acrimonious split. More of a proper English nod and see ya mate kind of attitude. It is a shame really as Hackett was the Magic Man in the band. He was the one who sprinkled stardust all over their music. He elevated every song by his contributions which often are so subtle and textured that it is hard to discern whether it is guitar or keyboards. Amazingly he was only in the band for about 6 years. His departure would actually allow the band dynamic to re-balance as a trio, however they would never sound the same again and Hackett’s virtuosa playing would never be fully replaced despite the band making some great music after he left. Seconds Out is a nice swan song for the short lived 4-piece Hackett years. This would be the third and last time a key member would leave the band and they would survive only to see their popularity increase vastly.
Recommended Listening – Inside And Out, The Carpet Crawl(ers), Supper’s Ready, The Cinema Show, Los Endos
PURCHASE Seconds Out and Spot The Pigeon
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