The Lamb Lies down on Broadway

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The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway cover
Studio album by Genesis
Released 29 November 1974
Recorded August-October 1974
Genre Progressive rock
Length 1:34:22
Label Charisma/Virgin (UK)
Atco (original US)
Atlantic (remastered CD)(U.S.)
Producer(s) John Burns and Genesis
Professional reviews
Genesis chronology
Selling England by the Pound
(1973)		 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
(1974)		 A Trick of the Tail
(1976)


The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (sometimes called simply The Lamb) is an ambitious two-record concept album recorded and released in 1974 by British progressive rock band Genesis. It was their seventh album (sixth studio album) and the last album by the group to feature the involvement of lead singer Peter Gabriel.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The album tells the surreal story of a half-Puerto Rican juvenile delinquent named Rael living in New York City, who is swept underground to face bizarre creatures and nightmarish dangers in order to rescue his brother John. Several of the story's occurrences and places were derived from Peter Gabriel's dreams, and the protagonist's name is a play on his surname. It should be noted that in an interview Phil Collins remarked, "It's about a schizophrenic." This would make the tale not dissimilar in ways to the film "The Fisher King". The individual songs also make satirical allusions to everything from mythology to the sexual revolution to advertising and consumerism. The title track, as well as "The Carpet Crawlers" and "In the Cage", were still live favorites for the band into the 1990s.

Most of the music on the album was written by band members Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford, without Gabriel's participation. Gabriel insisted on writing the story and all the lyrics himself, which caused friction, in particular because Rutherford had originally suggested another project for the band - an album based on Antoine de Saint Exupéry's The Little Prince. Gabriel was absent from the album's writing and rehearsal sessions due to personal problems — his wife was having difficulties with her first pregnancy — which added to the strain. However, Banks and Rutherford wrote the words for "The Light Dies Down on Broadway", as Gabriel could not come up with a linking piece between "Ravine" and "Riding the Scree".

During the album's pre-production, Gabriel was contacted by filmmaker William Friedkin, (at the time enjoying great success with The Exorcist), about a possible film project. Despite his bandmates' disapproval, Gabriel left them to work on some early script drafts. However the project came to nothing (Friedkin instead working with Tangerine Dream to make his next film, Sorcerer), and Gabriel returned to the band.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (released November 18, 1974) met with mixed reviews, and reached #10 in the UK, while nearly cracking the U.S. Top 40, reaching # 41 and eventually going gold. The band went on a world tour upon its release, performing the album in its entirety 102 times. The Lamb Tour was slated to begin on October 29, 1974; but due to an injury to Steve Hackett's hand, the tour was postponed until November 12, 1974: a mere Six days prior to the album's release to the public. Opening night for the tour commenced at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois; November 20, 1974. The final show on The Lamb tour was May 27, 1975 at the Palais Des Sports in Besancon, France. Early into the tour, Gabriel decided he would be leaving Genesis, although he would finish the tour amicably with the band and not go public until August 1975. The album eventually would go Gold in the US in later years.

A digitally remastered version was released on CD in 1994 on Virgin in Europe and on Atlantic in the US and Canada. The remastered CD's booklet features the lyrics and story that came with the original vinyl although some of the inner sleeve artwork was not re-produced.

A SACD / DVD double disc set (including new 5.1 and Stereo mixes) is planned for release in late 2007/early 2008.

[edit] Detailed description

Musically, the album is a mixed effort, filled with brilliant moments linked in a collage which does not always cohere, just like the ever-changing dream-scenery of the lyrics. Banks continues to dominate, with his use of synthesizers coming to increasingly define the band's sound, while Collins' drumming continues to get technically more adventurous. Like the Beatles' White Album, this double album gains in diversity what it loses in coherence, providing in fragments the various members of the band a chance to take risks, even if the final result is more like a quilt than a tapestry. Full of short, more pop-oriented tunes than previous outings, but linked by a diverse set of instrumental interludes, this album opts for a series of short, linked segments, over the more long form compositions of previous outings. Thematic repetitions throughout the album work to bring these various fragments towards a greater unity, with mixed results.

Compared to the folkish whole of Selling England... the Lamb is more extreme in all senses - the soft songs whisper ("The Lamia", "Cuckoo Cocoon"), the harder songs have an almost proto-punk edge to them ("Back in N.Y.C.", "In the Cage") and there are even songs that integrate musical experimentation in an extremely compact form ("Anyway"). "The Waiting Room" is reminiscent of the sonic stylings of avant-garde producer Brian Eno (who contributed to the album's recording sessions, in return for Collins playing drums on Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy) album). Tony Banks was later quoted as saying that he didn't feel that Eno had contributed sufficiently to be credited on the basis that he just twiddled a few knobs.

Following this album, Genesis would lose Gabriel, and with him the sarcastic whimsy of his lyrics as well as his flamboyant live performance, both of which many saw as essential to the band. Still, even with the loss of Gabriel's idiosyncratic melodic sensibility, the band's evolution towards melody, intensity, and compositional focus would continue with the next album, and while the band most definitely changed, its reputation as one of the most influential progressive outfits would continue — with varying degrees of success — for years to come.

[edit] Aftermath

  • In 1994 Kevin Gilbert and his band Giraffe performed the entire album at Progfest '94, celebrating its 20th anniversary.
  • In 2004 and 2005, the entire Lamb was performed by a Genesis tribute band called The Musical Box during their worldwide tour, celebrating its 30th anniversary.

[edit] Track listing

All songs are credited to Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins.

[edit] Disc one

[edit] LP side one

  1. "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" – 4:50
  2. "Fly on a Windshield" – 2:45
  3. "Broadway Melody of 1974" – 2:10
  4. "Cuckoo Cocoon" – 2:12
  5. "In the Cage" – 8:13
  6. "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" – 2:46

[edit] LP side two

  1. "Back in N.Y.C." – 5:43
  2. "Hairless Heart" – 2:13
  3. "Counting Out Time" – 3:40
  4. "The Carpet Crawlers" – 5:15
  5. "The Chamber of 32 Doors" – 5:41

[edit] Disc two

[edit] LP side three

  1. "Lilywhite Lilith" – 2:42
  2. "The Waiting Room" – 5:25
  3. "Anyway" – 3:08
  4. "Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist" – 3:00 (called "The Supernatural Anaesthetist" on some copies)
  5. "The Lamia" – 6:56
  6. "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats" – 3:07

[edit] LP side four

  1. "The Colony of Slippermen (The Arrival/A Visit to the Doktor/Raven)" – 8:14
  2. "Ravine" – 2:04
  3. "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" – 3:33
  4. "Riding the Scree" – 3:56
  5. "In the Rapids" – 2:24
  6. "It." – 4:17

Track Notes: The 1994 CD remaster of the album tracked "Fly on a Windshield" at 4:23 and "Broadway Melody of 1974" at 0:33. In fact, the songs merge together seamlessly and seem to be divided only for lyrical reasons, which led to an error by the manufacturer.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Additional personnel

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1974 Billboard Pop Albums 41

[edit] Certifications

Organization Level Date
BPI – UK Gold February 1, 1975
CRIA – Canada Gold May 1, 1978
RIAA – U.S. Gold April 20, 1990

[edit] External links

Genesis
Tony Banks | Phil Collins | Peter Gabriel | Steve Hackett | Mike Rutherford
Anthony Phillips | John Mayhew | John Silver | Chris Stewart | Daryl Stuermer | Ray Wilson
Discography
Studio albums: From Genesis to Revelation | Trespass | Nursery Cryme | Foxtrot | Selling England by the Pound | The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway | A Trick of the Tail | Wind & Wuthering | ...And Then There Were Three... | Duke | Abacab | Genesis | Invisible Touch | We Can't Dance | Calling All Stations
Live Albums: Genesis Live | Seconds Out | Three Sides Live | Live/The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts | Live/The Way We Walk, Volume Two: The Longs
Compilations: Turn It On Again: The Hits | Platinum Collection
Box sets: Genesis Archive 1967-75 | Genesis Archive 2: 1976-1992
EPs: Spot the Pigeon | 3 X 3
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