A bit late to this. I received The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway on double LP for probably my 17th birthday in the early 1980s. It was the first Peter Gabriel-era Genesis album I owned, having become a fan of the band via Duke (first) and then Abacab and Three Sides Live. It took some time for me to warm to it, I must admit. The story was hard to make a great deal of sense of, and it took me a while before I realized that the prose on the gatefold of the album was written in rhyme (or at least large chunks of it were). That impressed me. I grew to admire the album and even really love parts of it, and the cover/gatefold artwork is fantastic. As a whole piece, however, I've never been able to consider it as the peak of the band's work as so many other fans do. Part of this is the story, which starts interestingly enough and then sort of peters (pun intended) out at the end. I love Gabriel's wordplay throughout and his sly mini-social commentaries, even if the overall meaning of the story seems to me in the end to be rather insignificant. Another part is that much of the music, mostly on the last half, doesn't provide the melodic interest to me that the bulk of their earlier music did (even though I wouldn't hear most of that work until later on in my Genesis education). As the characters and story gets more absurd/out there, the songs also become less appealing to my literal mind, which is probably also why the original Sides 3 and 4 don't resonate with me nearly as much as the first two sides do. Sonically, this was the best Genesis recording yet, and the music showed an inventiveness/experimentation and intensity that they had scarcely broached on previous albums. It's a heavier music than they had produced prior, with little of the pastoral elements that had come to virtually define Genesis music. It makes sense for a record that was set in urban America as opposed to rural England, as much of their previous work had been (or had seemed to have been). Probably my favorite track is "Back in N.Y.C.", which is just a tour de force. I love those crashing piano chords that come in on the second verse, giving the track an epic soundstage, and Pete's vocal is snarling and coiled. This one demands to be played LOUD. "The Chamber of 32 Doors" is another favorite, as is the "Fly on a Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974" pairing, especially when the band crashes in after the singing ends. That section brings to mind Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir", which of course didn't come out until a year later. Summing up, this is an album that I admire more than truly love. That said, it succeeds in creating a world of its own that it is very hard to just dip in and out of. When I want to hear songs from this album, I end up playing the entire thing. Unlike any other Genesis album, this one demands to be heard as a single piece.
I mind seeing Steve Hackett & band playing Fly/Broadway ... powerful stuff ... Nick Beggs sitting on the floor pounding the bass pedals with his fists was quite a sight --Geoff
I so agree with this. I don't suppose Jimmy Page was a fan of this album, but it definitely seems to have inspired the general feel of Kashmir. Fly starts out very quiet but tense, and the lyrics point to the Fly wanting to die, to perhaps escape his trap of drug addiction. So, I agree that the "needles and pins" is a reference to drugs but I'm not sure about In The Cage being about a bad drug trip. I'll save my thoughts for when we get to it. When the Windshield finally hits, the band goes into a wonderful short instrumental part that I imagine arose out of a jam session. Then to top it off, Gabriel gives us a bunch more character references that are related to Broadway and some clever, if disturbing rhymes. Besides "The Knife", I think Fly on a Windshield may be the most intense song Genesis ever recorded. In some ways, I think Rael may be all of the characters in the story, or at least the other characters are parts of his personality. It's tough to say, the story line is so open to interpretation that it's hard to decipher any definite meanings.
The buoyant title track sets the stage very effectively, but the real drama begins here. "Fly on a Windshield" is one of the most powerful pieces of music that they ever recorded, and quite unique for them. Victor/Victrola is correct this grew out of a improvisational jam where they were apparently trying to evoke the sense of Cleopatra on procession through Egypt or some such, pretty heady stuff with an exotic vibe, but it works to develop the sort of cinematic scope of the album. I love the way that it builds up gradually out of the fading strains of the last song, evoking an eerie atmospheric tension that you can cut with a knife. Gabriel delivers one of his most eloquent performances, by turns narcotized and delicately vulnerable, sweetly melodic and enchanting. And then when the whole band kicks in it just hits you like a ton of bricks, an unusually forceful performance from the band. The mastery of dynamics on display here is jaw dropping. Hackett and Collins both cover themselves in glory, building up to a powerful dramatic peak that then unwinds through the next track, tension and release. "Broadway Melody" offers an appropriately sinister denouement, loaded with an onslaught of odd allusions and references. I fully agree with the observation that the sequencing here is just extraordinary, here and all throughout the first side. Absolutely. This was definitely Gabriel's finest hour with the band and he's giving it his all in the vocal department throughout. It must have been exhausting for him on the road. I agree with Mark that the fact that he wrote all of the lyrics helped to really put him into the performance, whereas he might not have felt it as much with Tony's lyrics in the past. This was his baby, though of course the others delivered a lot of essential ingredients as well.
Though I'm not sure in all of those cases, I definitely agree about the recurring drug/addiction themes throughout this album, giving it an unusually hallucinatory feel for a band like Genesis that's often reflected in the music. From what I know, these guys weren't really into that kind of stuff, so again it's out of their comfort zone, but they carry it off. I imagine Gabriel was more interested in the thematic possibilities for narrative storytelling. Rael is passionate, hurting and angry so then he numbs himself out on drugs, as we can hear on tracks like "Fly" and "Cuckoo Cocoon", or going off on bizarre flights of fancy, but the escape is only temporary and it only serves to further unhinge him at times. It's a pretty strange trip on the way towards some kind of self discovery.
Interesting how versatile they were in their use of different sounds conveying diverse feels to their music. In the case of "The Broadway Melody of 1974", although its same closing melodic bars are used twice on this album, the creative touch for both ones are given by their diverse sound treatment along with a different rythmic approach to each one. And it's pretty much what generates in both ones the great effect for the natural transition to the next track (in this first case to "Cuckoo Cocoon"). I think this is one more interesting aspect of their well-known talent for creating great arrangements to a given raw piece. I've read an interview with Phil where he stated that one of his roles in the band was also the arranging tasks, which included even creating different arrangements/variations of songs or excerpts from other artists/bands. This, of course, speaks volumes of his great musicianship. .
The Lamb was about... two years after I was really into the entire discography and I think when I was giving it a proper listen, I underestimated Fly on a Windshield - when Peter comes in and speaks "now I'm hovering like a fly waiting for the windshield on the freeway" and I heard Hackett just blast in made me jump to turn down my volume so fast, not enough to lessen the impact but the shock of it - it was one of the first pieces outside the obvious choices on the album that I really liked, and honestly the entire lead up to In The Cage is really great. The atmosphere is builds for New York is so perfect. The imagery in Broadway Melody of 1974 really sells the mood, and I love that riff so much - Cuckoo Cocoon is fine, but I think my problem with In The Cage is the song feels like it's crippled against the live versions later on - I think it works much better as a fast piece in the Collins era, whereas on The Lamb I get the intention is to have the first proper epic and in the context of the album it's okay, but I never reach for it if I just want to listen to that track specifically anyway.
Do people actually listen to individual tracks in isolation if they own the whole album? I mean, the music is yours to enjoy as you see fit if you own it, but personally I never listen to anything but the whole album in one sitting.
He says he's "like a fly waiting for the windshield on the freeway" not that he "is a fly waiting for the (literal) windshield on the (literal) freeway" Anyway - read the story in the gatefold. A black cloud descends from the sky. After resting on the ground it shapes itself into a hard flat surface. It is moving in his direction so he runs away from it, but a strong wind slows him down and blows dust/debris on him further slowing him down (to a near stop), until he is "hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the freeway" Sure there's a multitude of things about the story/lyrics that are confusing and/or unclear - but this ain't one of them...
One thing we need to keep in mind when looking at the lyrics is that Gabriel spoke several times of some major spiritual awakening epiphany that had happened to him. If I can find more details I'll post them ... It would seem that Suppers Ready, The Lamb album, Solisbury Hill and Here Comes The Flood were lyrically all connected to the is experience, and perhaps a better understanding of it would give us more insight ... Anyway back soon , wid da cocoon
Cuckoo Cocoon One thing that is notable on the first disc of this album is the abundance of shorter tracks, Here is another one. Also it is quite notable that these shorter tracks are not empty, or feeling like there wasn't enough to them. This is obviously helped by the smooth streaming of the songs into one another. This track starts with a really nice guitar figure that sounds like it has a bit of a chorus effect on it, and although bolstered by some keyboards and Gabriel's flute, Hackett is holding center stage here. Gabriel's vocal also has a modulation effect on it that works pretty well in giving the song a certain character. In the context of the story this represents an awakening. Whatever else we may see, or read into the lyrics, this is certainly an awakening to some realisation or reality. Perhaps Gabriel just liked the sound of the words together, but it seems likely that the use of Cuckoo would be representative of being a little crazy ie:this crazy cocoon ... it seems unlikely that he is referencing the bird, unless there is something that I am unaware of about Cuckoo's.
Fly On the Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974 I think of these more as transitional pieces than full-blown songs, but they are still pretty good. Cuckoo Cocoon This song is odd even for The Lamb, but I still enjoy it. I like the melody and the effect on the vocal. It is really short and also feels a bit like an interlude.
i think the series of short songs is where some Genesis fans feel left out of this album ... I tend to think of them as similar to sections of larger pieces ... For example, Supper's Ready is obviously a sectional piece, but placed as one big song. On Lamb I think of the sides as sectional also, of one piece, as the tunes still run together as such. I placed Fly and Broadway in together as they have always been like one song to me ... in fact most of the first disc is like one big long song that is sectional, to me ... granted the sections are rather more different from each other than on a track like Supper's Ready or Epping Forest. Idk, just kind of the way i look at this album.
I have no beef with short songs. I love things like "Harold The Barrel" and don't mind it when they started making shorter songs with "Three". And I can see that the album is sort of a large scale "Supper's Ready", where certain things only work as part of the whole. That said, some parts seems a bit too ordinary for me. At some point Peter must have determined he needed precisely 2 minutes of time to change costumes as there are several instrumental interludes strategically placed, all about two minutes in length. While these interludes aren't bad, exactly, they do often slow the momentum of the album. The first follows "In The Cage". This one is somewhat shorter than the others. It's just a very inconsequential piece of music. This is the only such piece on LP 1. Thus it is not much of a nuisance. But.... LP 2 they start using this tool more often, and it does grow annoying. First, let's mention "The Waiting Room" itself. Yeah, it's just a bunch of noise for awhile (not that there's anything wrong with that) but it ends with such force that you can't help liking it, but I definitely prefer the "songs" to it. But still, I wouldn't mind it at all, probably, except that after it we run into more noodling such as this with greater frequency. The "Supernatural Anesthetist" has a vocal, but I still kind of think of it as another piece of time-kill. Pete sings only at the start and then Steve gets to show of for...why, two minutes! This is a song I probably would drop, though it would pain me to lose Steve's awesome solo. The wonderful Lamia follows, probably my favorite cut of the record (and I saw Steve play it live!) and then yet another instrumental piece. Now, let me say that I really like "Silent Sorrow" in a Eno-esque kind of way. It's a soothing piece of ambience. I like it. But on the same side as "Waiting Room"? They are pressing their luck. It makes for a somewhat disjointed side of music. I just realized that I don't listen to "Colony of Slippermen" nearly as much as I should. And I know exactly why - the two minutes of noodling that precedes the song. So many times I find myself hitting the skip button before reaching the song proper. Having to flip the record over breaks up the monotony somewhat, but on CD back to back with "Boats" it gets tiresome. This is my least favorite noodling bit, total throwaway. I'm considering burning a CD of Lamb and excising it just so we can hurry up and get on with it (blasphemy!). "Slippermen" is a pretty good track. It's kinda like "Epping Forest" in it's busy-body format and word-heavyness. That said, Pete singing about the birdy stealing his wee-wee is a bit of an eye-roller. And then.... the TWO MINUTE waste of space that is "Ravine". Look, I know Pete has to change costumes, but why not spare the home listener and simply include these interludes only in concert? The record cannot maintain momentum when we have to screech to a halt every other song. Why not just have some extra "brick laying" music in the live show like The Pink Floyd? Finally...finally... we get to "Lights Die Down", referencing Lamia, it's a fantastic song and a great "getting to the end" sort of song. Maybe we should go straight to "it" after this and pack it in. This feels like closure. Nope. "Riding The Scree" let's Tony show off his fingers. It has a very memorable keyboard refrain. The instrumental beginning (checking my watch) gives Pete enough time to towel off and he returns to sing on the second half. "In The Rapids" does a lot of story telling. It's a nice, gentle, simple number, reminds me of PG's first solo record a bit, but it's supposed to end in a shocking revelation. Unfortunately, since I've never fully gained interest in the story in the first place, the emotional impact is, uh, nil. "it" sends us home. May I mention that I really like the remixed/overdubbed version of the "Archives" box. I used to play the track first thing in the morning to wake me up back in the late' 90's. I don't know what the lyrics have to do with the story or what Gabriel is trying to tell me (was the whole thing just about sex?) and don't really care. I'm ready to get off the boat. I listened to the album 5 times, front to back, in the past 2 days (and I focused on the remix this time) so I could adequately express my feelings about the record. I like it, that is certain, but not as much as what proceeded it. Too much padding? Gabriel's story? Newfangled synths? Black and white imagery? Maybe it's all of that at the same time. Something has changed.
I wouldn't disagree. I'm probably not as bothered by it as you seem to be, but I would totally agree that disc 2 is somewhat padded, and that may have been for Gabriel costume changes, or perhaps a band thing, because Gabriel wanted to write all the lyrics. I love the album and am happy with it as is, but it could have been better
Interesting points. I've noticed that certain prog fans seem to have a weird song length fetish, as if longer tracks automatically convey greater artistic gravitas. Don't get me wrong, I like a well executed epic, but short songs can still be creative and progressive. Sometimes less is more. As you say, Supper's Ready was really just a well executed assemblage of different bits and pieces, so it's not that different from side one of The Lamb in that sense. Personally, I like the fact that they mix things up here a bit more with the shorter pieces intermingled with the extended epics, offering a sort kaleidoscopic effect with nothing overstaying its welcome. "Cuckoo Cocoon" makes for a lovely little interlude in between the more intense set pieces, giving the listener a chance to catch their breath. It builds on that dreamy, druggy vibe. It features some of Gabriel's best flute playing with the band and some nice piano work from Tony.
Whereas I agree that some of the instrumental passages on sides 3 and 4 could be seen as superfluous, I don't think they're necessarily connected to costume changes. In the main, he's in white t-shirt, jeans and leather jacket. Sometimes no t-shirt. Only in the Slipperman section does he don something elaborate, and the section of music whilst he crawls through the tube works really well (probably better in a live context than on the album): but that's the only one. It would seem odd to sequence an album to accommodate outfit changes (which may not have been determined at the time), but I suppose not impossible to imagine.
from the few bits of footage I have seen he seemed to change pretty quickly ... was he a supermodel at one stage?
I think I'll scream if I see one more claim that the second disc is "padded". The only bits of the album that I find drag slightly are around the middle of the first disc. I think The Grand Parade and Back in NYC go on a trifle too long. I am looking again at the track listing for Disc 2. The Waiting Room is unnecessary but somewhat amusing; once that's done I cannot identify anything that I would regard as redundant. There are so many things happening in this narrative that it needs all those songs for the tale to be told.
Ok, well padded may be a poor choice of words, but to me, and it isn't law, disc two isn't as strong ... but we'll get there and you can reply to my opinion on things. It all comes down to that subjectivity thing. I think Grand Parade is fantastic, and also Back in NYC, so what can we do
I understand where the complaint is coming from, particularly with some of the instrumental interludes on the second disc, but over the years, I've come to appreciate them more as atmospheric mood builders, particularly "Silent Sorrow" and "The Ravine". On the other hand, the faux oriental opening to "Colony" feels extraneous to me, getting side four off to a slow start. I can see how some of this stuff might put off a novice. "The Waiting Room" is another kettle of fish but we'll get to that later. . .
The Lamb is probably the least likely album I reach for to play in full. 95 minutes is absolutely ridiculous and it's a huge ask when the album in question doesn't really draw me in as much - in general though, of course people do. If I put an album on the turntable, I'm probably playing the entire album, but if I'm using foobar why wouldn't I just hop around songs if I felt like it? With that said, this is the same guy who wishes more people would play the entire album and not the song, because I feel like I know zero people in real life which still do that.
