Happy Anniversary: Genesis, Seconds Out

38 years ago today, Genesis released their second live album, an endeavor which charted higher than their previous live album but would see its success eclipsed by their next live album. (If you're not humming “Circle of Life,” feel free to start now.)

Released in 1977, Seconds Out was - as you fans already know all too well - a double-disc audio document of Genesis's tours behind their A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering albums, both of which were released in 1976 in the UK, even if the latter didn't trickle into Stateside stores until the early days of '77. The performances for both tours were recorded at the same venue: the Palais des Sports, in Paris, France…as opposed to Paris, Texas, which is a fine city but one which, to our knowledge, does not have a venue called the Palais de Sports.

Your mileage may vary when it comes to the effectiveness of Seconds Out as a live album, since some critics say that the performances are stronger because of the drum work by Chester Thompson, who stepped behind the kit in order to allow Phil Collins to focus on his vocals (it was still the early days of him replacing Peter Gabriel as the band's frontman, remember), while others have sneered that the differences between the studio versions are indiscernible.

For our part, we prefer to take the former view, if only because Taylor Hawkins - you know, the dude from Foo Fighters - has called Seconds Out “one of my drum bibles.” Have you heard the sounds he's proven himself capable of pounding out when he's behind the kit? It's clear that we're talking about a definitive live album here.