Genesis – Something Inside Me (Virtuoso 044/045)

Something Inside Me (Virtuoso 044/045)

West Palm Beach Convention Hall, West Palm Beach, FL – January 10th, 1975

Disc 1(59:19):  The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Fly On a Windshield, Broadway Melody Of 1974, Cuckoo Cocoon, In The Cage, The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging, Story of Rael I, Back In N.Y.C., Hairless Heart, Counting Out Time, The Carpet Crawlers, The Chamber Of 32 Doors, Story of Rael II, Lilywhite Lilith, The Waiting Room

Disc 2 (47:32):  Here Comes The Supernatural Anesthetist, The Lamia, Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats, The Colony Of Slippermen, Ravine, The Light Dies Down On Broadway, Riding The Scree, In The Rapids, It, The Musical Box

When Genesis resumed their US Lamb tour 1975 they started with two shows at the West Palm Beach Convention Hall in Florida on January 9th and January 10th.  The second show exists on both a very good audience recording and a soundboard recording.  It has been thought this soundboard, along with the soundboard for the following night in Lakeland Florida, belonged initially to Mike Rutherford before being circulated.  Something Inside Me on Virtuoso presents the complete soundboard recording which was pressed before on Supper’s Ready With A Little Lost Lamb (Colosseum CD 97-C-25 A/B), which dates this tape as the January 11th Lakeland show, and The Lamb Descends On Waterbury (Oxygen OXY 089-090) which labels this as the Waterbury, Connecticut show and is supplemented with various Lamb outtakes from Headley Grange.  The Lamb Lives (Backstage BKCD 033/034) uses this tape as a base with various other sources used to complete the show.

There are cuts in “The Waiting Room” and at the end which eliminates the story before “The Musical Box” and the opening verse.  In general it is a clear and lively stereo recording, but there are times when there are slight unbalances between the instruments during the first half, such as Collins’ percussion in “Hairless Heart,” Hackett’s guitar in “Back In N.Y.C.” and Collins’ backing vocals in “Carpet Crawlers” are raised in the mix.  After the first big cut the tape improves immensely and it can be considered to be one of the best Lamb soundboards in circulation.  

The tape begins a few second after Banks begins the spine-tingling keyboard introduction and Gabriel’s intonation of “and the lamb, lies down, on Broadway….”  The opening numbers in general are melodic, catchy, and draw the listener into the narrative.  Gabriel’s flute is a bit buried in the mix during “Cuckoo Cocoon” and Collins’ percussion overshadows the melody.  The band heat up for “In The Cage,” one of their best stage pieces which would pretty much be retained in the set list even to the present day.  All of the Rael stories are comparatively short, being little more than Gabriel’s exposition of the narrative of the piece.  He tells the story of Rael reading the book about the erogenous zones and how he is left cuddling the porcupine before they get into a dark and brooding version of “Back In N.Y.C.”  followed by a majestic “Hairless Heart.”

After the middle part cacophony in “The Lamia” sounds beautiful.  The entire Slipperman episode is marred by Gabriel’s costume which audibly interferes with the vocals.  Several in the band complained about this very issue and their concerns are justified here.  Hackett’s guitar again becomes prominent during “Ravine” and in the space of two minutes accomplishes much as he leads them into the melancholy “The Light Dies Down On Broadway.”  The sound of someone rewinding a tape is audible at the very end of the song.  Banks’ synthesizer predominates on “Riding The Scree,” adding life to the strange bit of recitative.  “In The Rapids” and “It” end the set. 

In the encore Gabriel’s story is missing and what is left is Phil Collins saying, “we’re going to play an older song” before “The Musical Box.”  Despite the cut the song is nine minutes long with very heavy jamming in the middle.  Collins adds an uncharacteristic demon voice to Gabriel’s old man’ lament in the latter half of the song.  Overall it is an extraordinary performance in great sound quality.  Virtuoso have been releasing many of the Lamb soundboards of late in definitive editions and this comes close.  They could have improved this release if they edited in the audience recording for the complete concert but they chose to retain the soundboard source only.  Something Inside Me is packaged in a double slimline jewel case and with a collage of Lamb photos on the artwork, something they’ve been utilizing a great deal.