Rating: 
Summary: The Musical Box is Now Open
Review: "The Genesis Songbook" DVD is a concise overview of the career of the Rock Band Genesis. It includes interviews with practically everyone who ever played in the band, including Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Steve Hackett (the band's "classic" lineup). The main portion of the DVD is a documentary that clocks in at about an hour. The DVD bonus features, which include interviews with band personnel about specific songs and events, are about another hour.Genesis fans have longed to see this band represented on DVD for some time, and this DVD answers their pleas. The positives are that the DVD documentary presents an interesting overview of the band's history told by the band members themselves. The extras include recent (and absolutely gorgeous) "unplugged" performances of "No Son of Mine" (which is incomplete) and "Follow You, Follow Me" (by Banks, Collins, and Rutherford) and "Afterglow" (by Banks and Collins only). The negatives are that the documentary is short (about an hour), features no complete song performances, and includes very little information on Genesis' songwriting technique. Information on this technique is included somewhat in the "extras". One idea would have been to include the "extras" in the film itself and expand some of the film clips to provide complete song performances, in order to increase the film's length to about 2 1/2 hours. Now THAT would have been a definitive documentary on this band. As it is, Genesis fans will have to make due with what is still an enjoyable view of the band's history, told by the band members themselves.
Rating:
Summary: The Musical Box is Now Open
Review: "The Genesis Songbook" DVD is a concise overview of the career of the Rock Band Genesis. It includes interviews with practically everyone who ever played in the band, including Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Steve Hackett (the band's "classic" lineup). The main portion of the DVD is a documentary that clocks in at about an hour. The DVD bonus features, which include interviews with band personnel about specific songs and events, are about another hour. Genesis fans have longed to see this band represented on DVD for some time, and this DVD answers their pleas. The positives are that the DVD documentary presents an interesting overview of the band's history told by the band members themselves. The extras include recent (and absolutely gorgeous) "unplugged" performances of "No Son of Mine" (which is incomplete) and "Follow You, Follow Me" (by Banks, Collins, and Rutherford) and "Afterglow" (by Banks and Collins only). The negatives are that the documentary is short (about an hour), features no complete song performances, and includes very little information on Genesis' songwriting technique. Information on this technique is included somewhat in the "extras". One idea would have been to include the "extras" in the film itself and expand some of the film clips to provide complete song performances, in order to increase the film's length to about 2 1/2 hours. Now THAT would have been a definitive documentary on this band. As it is, Genesis fans will have to make due with what is still an enjoyable view of the band's history, told by the band members themselves.
Rating: 
Summary: Fifth of fifth stars !
Review: Excelent documentary that includes old stuff with and excelent video quality. Bands with a huge history usually don't have decent old material for technical reasons. Also the DVD brings songs played by Mike, Phil and Tony in some private session room just with a pair of congas, a piano and a guitar. They sound beautifully.
Rating:
Summary: Fifth of fifth stars !
Review: Excelent documentary that includes old stuff with and excelent video quality. Bands with a huge history usually don?t have decent old material for technical reasons. Also the DVD brings songs played by Mike, Phil and Tony in some private session room just with a pair of congas, a piano and a guitar. They sound beautifully.
Rating: 
Summary: Useless
Review: Except for the material about Ray Wilson, this video brings nothing new to the Genesis story. Those interested in learning about the group should buy a much better video called "Genesis A History" released in 1989. I, as well as others, would rather see full-length concerts of Genesis during pivotal years such as 1974, 1976, 1978, or 1980. There is a shameful lack of video available for this seminal art rock group. DVD is the perfect medium for music video. I hope the rights owners of the concert videos "Three Sides Live" or "In Concert 1976" will take advantage.
Rating: 
Summary: Genesis Talkbook?
Review: Hmmm. The title, "Genesis Songbook" should provide some guidance to the buyer shouldn't it? It did not and I am very bitter about what appears to be an interview documentary interspersed with songclips and a few singles. I have been a dedicated fan for years and had high expectations. I have had those expectations met with the DVD releases by Seve Hackett their former guitarist. There must be something better out there. The interviews were fine but not I have not a single urge to watch it again.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I bought this for a valentine's gift for my wife and was very disappointed to discover the tracks as listed on the front were mere snippets in-between the interviews with the band. I had expected the music tracks to be present and complete instead of the 95% interviewing it has. If you read the front cover it discloses "features cuts from". Good if you want to purchase a documentary on Genesis I suppose so I gave it 2 stars and not 1.
Rating:
Summary: What happened to the music?
Review: I feel bad about saying this, but The Genesis Songbook DVD is a bit of a turkey. Although the history stuff is mostly of the Ant leaves Genesis/Phil joins Genesis/Steve joins Genesis/Peter leaves Genesis kind, what actually lets this DVD down is the woefully inadequate concert footage. Most clips of performances are literally a few seconds in length, but even more disappointing is that some of their most notable songs, in particular Suppers Ready, barely get a mention at all, let alone comprehensive coverage with vintage footage. No wonder Genesis remain a video and audio bootleggers goldmine... Maybe I'm being too "old school", and fail to realize that many people who bought the later records have never even heard Trespass or Foxtrot. If so, I'm sorry. However, I thought the reason for liking Genesis was all about the music. Unfortunately there's very little of it to be found on this DVD - save for uninspired new stripped-down versions of a couple of tunes - and certainly much less than may be implied by the very misleading title.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I have the UK (PAL) version of this title. The running time is 60 min, with bonus material 30 min. The content of the main material is silimar with Genesis: A History (video/LD). There are interviews with past and present members (Ray Wilson also). Some footage of live concerts are here as well, although not as many as A History. Banks, COllins & Rutherford played some songs in acoustic inside their studio. This is a surprise because it was recorded in 2000 (Collins left the band in 1996 or 1998). In the bonus material, some performance were made by the trio again. ALso interview with Banks about the process in creating Lamb, SUpper's Ready, etc. Hackett also played Horizons. Bruford, Thompson & Stuermmer also were interviewed about their involvement as hired musicians. There is one thing that bothers me: WIlson didn't get enough space to express his feeling about Genesis. His performance with Genesis were not exploited at all. Banks and Rutherford didn't talk much about Wilson. I wished there were more on this last vocalist. It's really a good material and all Genesis fan should have this.
Rating:
Summary: The Path Is Clear
Review: I have to say that I really enjoyed this DVD quite a bit. I found myself smiling quite a bit while watching and when it was over I was quite satified. It was almost like watching a video of old friends, the interviews had a very intimate atmosphere.
The DVD provides a nice broad overview of the band's history from the first album to the last one with Ray Wilson. Because of the length there is not that much time to really go into detail about every album. It was nice to hear all of the prominent members of the band, including Bill Bruford, speak, along with a few of the band's producers from over the years. I learned some new things about the band and some of thier songs. I would have liked to have heard more from Steve Hackett, however that is a personal bias.
The part that I enjoyed the most was the bonus section of the DVD where the band members discussed different songs from over the years including 'Firth of Fifth', 'Mama', and 'No Son Of Mine'. The acoustic in studio performances of songs like 'Follow You Follow Me' and 'Afterglow' were quite nice.
Overall the only negatives, (and they are minor), that I could mention would be the length and I would have liked to have seen more concert and video clips. As I said earlier after watching I was quite satisfied.
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