If you know my reviews, you know that I'm one of the world's biggest Genesis fans. They're my favorite group, and always have been. So it was a total no-brainer for me to pick up the latest book about the band, "Genesis: Chapter & Verse," which is basically written by the band members (both past & present) themselves, as they tell the story of the group in their own words. This is an excellent Genesis book, and the most up-to-date so far (going straight up to the band's reunion tour from 2007). It's filled with lots of insights into the group & their music, how they grew up, how they got together, how they work together, how they come up with all of their incredible music, and how they live their lives. Besides the insightful comments from all of the band members themselves, there are equally-insightful passages written by many people close to the band, such as touring sidemen, managers, producers, roadies, and record company executives. And there's *lots* of great photographs too---in fact, the photographs take up about half of the book!---and many of them come from the band's own personal archives. One of my favorite photos is on page 187, of a Genesis roadie in 1977 lying down on the street in San Francisco, taking a break. Above him is the marquee for Winterland, where Genesis were playing. It reads "Mar. 25 & 26, Genesis." And just below that: "Apr. 7, P. Gabriel." Ain't that somethin'? Peter Gabriel played a gig at Winterland just two weeks after his old band did! Man, that must've been an awesome doubleheader of shows for Northern California Genesis fans. Wow! Wish I could've been there.... However, I must be honest when I tell you that, while "Genesis: Chapter & Verse" is a great book, it does fall short of being a perfect, "definitive" book about the band. I somehow get the sense that this Genesis book, even at a generous 359 pages, was still heavily edited. The book basically skims over the making of the individual albums, only devoting about three or four pages each to the making of such classics as "Foxtrot," "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," and later classics like "Duke" and "Invisible Touch." That tells me that the Genesis men surely had a lot more to say about what went into creating these albums, but a lot of material was left out of the book. Also, there are *quite a few* typos in "Chapter & Verse," especially towards the end. Examples: "The Turn It Up Again Tour" (wrong!), "Follow Me Follow You" (wrong!), touring drummer Chester Thompson being born in 1968 (wrong!), and several more. These typos don't ruin the book, but they do tarnish it somewhat, and I sincerely hope that these will be corrected in future editions of the book.I currently have seven different books about Genesis on my bookshelf (with "Chapter & Verse" being the seventh), and I think there are two books about the band that are a little bit better than "Chapter & Verse": Hugh Fielder's "The Book Of Genesis" (published in 1984), and "Genesis: A Biography" by Dave Bowler & Bryan Dray (from 1993). Both books are out-of-print, but you can still buy them used, and I think they are put together a little bit better, are a little bit more insightful, and they go into deeper detail about the band, it's music and history, even though they are no longer up-to-date. Do seek them out if you can. Nevertheless, I greatly appreciate the wealth of material that is found here in "Chapter & Verse," and there's certainly a lot of it to enjoy. I highly recommend "Genesis: Chapter & Verse" to all my fellow diehard Genesis fans out there. Despite it's flaws, it's still a great book about this great band, and I know you'll enjoy it.
