The Way We Walk - Volume One: The Shorts)
1.Land of Confusion
2.No Son of Mine
3.Jesus He Knows Me
4.Throwing it All Away
5.I Can't Dance
6.Mama
7.Hold on my Heart
8.That's All
9.In Too Deep
10.Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
11.Invisible Touch
It was now probably a good time to
release a customary live disc since a few studio releases had been
completed since the last live effort. Fortunately, consumers were
greeted with live releases (two, to be exact) instead. The
reason for two? It's not that difficult to speculate why. Genesis
proved on their last release We Can't
Dance that they could play to their old audiences as well as new.
The two live discs attempted to do the same thing: each disc favoring
the respective listener.
This first one, released a few months in advance of the second,
contained the hits. Not surprisingly, there's nothing here before the
three most recent studio albums. It is a fair account of the bands live
shows for the time, since they would play very few old numbers. It's a
little dissappointing that some old "short" songs aren't here, but most
of those are on other live albums. All the tracks featured were
released as singles, so audiences will be familiar with most. The
tracks don't sound that much different from the original studio
songs, so it doesn't make the listening that exciting. Of course, they
had not had a greatest hits package at this point in their career, so
this one at least helped fill that gap. Most songs were featured from the
most current tour (the exceptions being That's All and In
Too Deep, which came from the 1986 tour) and the band was playing
mostly stadium gigs which gave a consistant sound, yet somewhat
different from the older live albums done at smaller venues.
The main thing lacking here, is that the smaller hit songs featured are
not really what makes Genesis such a superb live band. They are
nice to hear, but most any fan enjoys the longer instrumental breaks
dominated by Tony Banks' keyboard solos and Phil Collins' heavy drumwork
along with his drumming counterpart Chester Thompson. It was also a small
disappointment that Tonight, Tonight, Tonight and Invisible
Touch are featured here as a medley (the way it was played in
concert on their last tour) instead of the previous tour which featured
both songs in their entirety.
Sidenote: For over ten years the band had
been using the same backup musicians (Chester Thompson on Drums and
Darryl Stuermer on Guitars and Bass) to supplement the studio work. For
most fans, Chester and Darryl were as much a part of Genesis during
concerts and the band pretty much counts them as full members on the
notes and the cover of the two CD's. Credit well deserved.
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