Showing Its Age

Conceivably, in another ten years or so, "Three Sides Live" will acquire some allure as a representative of early 80's live pop, but today -- to my ears -- it sounds like it hasn't aged well.



First, compared to "Live" and "Seconds Out", the vocal performances sound stiff and staged. It doesn't sound like the band is having fun, and Phil Collins' attempts at spontaneity sound, well, rehearsed.



Having recently listened to the recording, though, some six or eight years after last playing it, what really struck me was how synthesizer-heavy it is. Synth is by far the dominant instrument in nearly all the songs. That might have been the style at the time the album was recorded, but today it simply sounds overly electronic and artificial.



That's not to say that this is a bad recording. It definitely has its moments. "In The Cage" rocks. "Behind the Lines" and "Duchess" are powerfully done. But you may find yourself wishing at times that the keyboards had been played with a lighter touch, that the guitar work had been given more opportunity to shine through, and that Phil hadn't simply phoned it in.



Buy if you must, but do yourself a favor and give the band's earlier live recordings a try before writing yet another 5-star review for this one.

Get the British version!

The UK releases is still in print and if you only plan to get one of the two, that is the one to get. I had that version on cassette (I borrowed it from a girlfriend and forgot to return it after we broke up - how SHE got the import is still a mystery to me) and wore the thing out! I had to track down the CD and it was easier than I thought:

Go to http://www.amazon.co.uk and enter your normal login that you use for the US Amazon site. Then search on "three sides live" and presto! They take your regular credit card, and although free shipping is not an option to the US, the conversion rate brings the total to about $26 - still a bargain, since you can't even GET the US release anymore and you are getting FOUR sides live with this one anyway ;-)

Very good live Genesis album

Genesis released the live album Three Sides Live in June of 1982.

Three Sides Live was one of four live sets (the other three being 1973's Genesis Live, 1977's Seconds Out and the two volume The Way We Walk).

The first disc of Three Sides Live focuses mainly on the Duke and Abacab albums. All of the songs on the first CD are from these albums(including a spirited Dodo/Lurker, an extended Abacab and a superb Duchess as examples) with the lone exception being Follow You Follow Me and Follow You was recorded in Europe in 1980 whilst the rest of the first disc was recorded on the Abacab tour of America mainly at the Savoy and Nassau Coliseum in New York in November of 1981.

The first half of Disc Two features a spirited Misunderstanding and the last two tracks are worth the purchase with a spirited In the Cage with Daryl Stuermer(the band's touring bassist) adding some tasty guitar fills to the end of In the Cage and Chester Thompson playing the drums very well before segueing into a medley of The Cinema Show and Slippermen and going into Afterglow which was a great number.

Strangely, there were two different versions of Three Sides Live that were released - one in the United States and another one in the United Kingdom.

Although the core of both versions of Three Sides Live are the same, there is a huge difference on the second half of Disc Two.

The U.S. version was originally released as a double album. There were three sides of live music and the "fourth side(of the record)" contained studio tracks.

These studio songs included the British 3x3 EP which had the songs Paperlate(a US Top 30 hit in the summer of 1982), You Might Recall and Me and Virgil (all of which were leftovers from the Abacab recording sessions) as well as Evidence of Autumn and Open Door(all of which were leftovers from the Duke Sessions).

The "fourth" side on the UK version would also be a live side. The songs on this UK and the 1994 worldwide remastered version are One For the Vine(which was recorded at the Lyceum in April of 1980), The Fountain of Salmacis(recorded at the band's triumphant performance at Knebworth in 1978) and the It/Watcher of the Skies medley(recorded on the Trick of the Tail tour in 1976 with Bill Bruford on drums).

Three Sides Live reached #10 on the album charts and is to date the band's most successful live effort here in the US.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!