Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

When it comes to making albums of epic proportions, few rival this magnificent production that a trip the band took to New York City inspired in 1973. The underlying story is of a street kid named Rael who, thanks in part to the realities of big city life, undergoes a weird and mystical transformation. Containing extended instrumental sections showcasing the extraordinary talents of Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, and Phil Collins, as well as the expressive vocals and often disturbing lyrics of Peter Gabriel, this is the album that located Genesis truly on the map. --Paul Clark Amazon.com essential recording

 Genesis' finest hour
I believe this album to be Genesis at their peak. It sounds nothing like anything they had produced before or after. It was Pete's swan song. I still listen to it and sometimes find it hard to believe that this was the same band that put out "Selling England...", etc. It's very different and it stands alone. For a lot of people, this seems to be the last Genesis album they pick up. The story IS very strange but I think it still holds up. Why a concert of it wasn't filmed, in it's entirety is a damn shame! They performed it 102 times - the WHOLE thing from "The Lamb" to "It". April 25, 2008

 not a masterpiece for me
This is widely regarded as a brilliant album from Genesis, but I never could figure out why. The only song I really like a lot is the title track. The album is overly lavish and artificially grandiose. The story makes no sense, the narrative is impossible to follow, and the music tries to be classical while remaining in a rock and roll realm. I'm not a huge fan of Peter Gabriel either; I prefer Phil Collins. April 17, 2008

 A Progressive Masterpiece - but very under-rated by casual observers...
This is my absolute favorite album of all time. It is the ultimate "Stranded on a desert Island" album because every time I listen to it, I hear something new. I can't wait for the 2008 Remix of it!!!!

Most reviews I see here try to explain this album and re-tell the story of the album over and over again...We all know the general idea. Let's face it, only Peter Gabriel knows what the album is truly about, and he is not here to back me up, SO I WILL NOT ANALYSE IT! I will just explain why I love it!

The average listener of rock music often overlooks Genesis...I don't know why? Maybe it is because they got so popular in the 80s and 90s? It really depresses me. I feel I have been put on this earth to spread the "good word of Genesis" and remind (if not INTRODUCE) people to the earlier Genesis albums and how brilliant they were. One friend of mine bought this album on a whim after hearing me mention it in passing and fell in love with it!

This is music to provoke thought. It is NOT SPOONFED to you. You have to think about it, which is why most people probably overlook Prog rock in the fist place. Mike Nesmith from the Monkees made a very intelligent statement once..."People just want to dance to music anymore," they don't really care about musicianship and awe-inspiring playing!

I feel that Genesis always get slighted when Prog Rock is mentioned. YES and Crimson and ELP always get most of the credit. Though, they are great bands that all have their own style and respective creativity, Genesis, I always thought, were the standouts! The playing, the drama, and the incredible personalities of this group are what make them the BEST> I love (Bill Bruford era) YES and early King Crimson, but I don't think they can hold a candle to GENESIS. Every Yes album sounds the same, until they went poppier, too. I felt as though they never moved on...Close to the Edge sounds a lot like Fragile and The Yes Album; Time and a Word sounds a lot like "YES" and so on...
Each Genesis album progressed to the next level..."Trespass" sounds gothic, Nursery Cryme sounds Victorian, Foxtrot sounds majestic, Selling England sounds very classical, The Lamb is dark and brooding..., Wind and Wuthering is romantic, Abacab is stark and rough, and so on....
Each song sounds like it is placed perfectly within each Genesis album. A track like "Whodunnit" can be compared to something like "The Waiting Room" because they are experiments in atmoshpere and sounds. Being a musician, Genesis always have fascinated me with their writing.

This album is the apex of their creativity!

As far as I am concerned, everyone should own this album and LOVE IT! I know that is a little far fetched, but it truly is incredible music...NOT FOR THE CASUAL LISTENER> TRUE MUSIC HEADS ONLY!!!!!

A MASTERPIECE THAT SHOULD BE PUT IN A TIME CAPSULE AND DUG UP IN 2000 YEARS and STUDIED!!!!!!!

Thanks to Genesis (Then and now - because I love EVERY ERA of Genesis, not just the Gabriel period)for making consistantly great music....I will always worship you guys!!!

December 17, 2007

 Woah!
Before TLLDOB, Genesis had been building towards... something. You can hear it in Foxtrot's "Watcher in the Skies" and "Supper's Ready", catch it in "The Musical Box" off of Nursery Crymes, and sample it in a lesser form in Selling England By the Pound. However, TLLDOB smashes through the preconceptions of what Genesis had built up before it in a ever increasingly solid album discography and gave us something extraordinary. This album takes time and willingness to identify genius. This can be quite hard in our "here today" mentality of disposible music listening. But given the proper circumstance (a good friend insisting that you have a "concerted listen") or happenstance, this album will absolutely blow you away.

For any fans of TLLDOB there are three other albums of the work that are perfect extensions of it:
1) "Genesis Live @ The Shrine Auditorium 01-24-1975". You can easily find this as a web-stream by googling it. The sound quality is 96kbps but it gives you a fair taste of this incredible live performance. Avoid the often recommended "Genesis Archive 1967-75 Disc 1&2" as these are heavily doctored and cannot provide the authentic experience. A little more effort on the net will yield a 2-disc set that has been remastered to perfection.
2) "The Demos Down On Broadway". This 2-disc album shows the behind-the-scenes alternate mixes and some purely instrumental takes of the completed works. A nice insight into the final album.
3) "The Lamb Lies Down At Progfest '94". Kevin Gilbert along with most of the members of his 80's band "Giraffe" strip down TLLDOB to more basic rock elements, shorten the timeframe to just over 1 hour, and crush all expectation with this interpretation of the work. It's no wonder that Gilbert was being considered as the replacement frontman for Genesis during the mid-90's before his untimely death.

Finally, if you are ever lucky enough to see the recreation of TLLDOB by "The Musical Box", a cover-band from Montreal, run don't walk. PG himself has licensed the entire act and all of its visual art rock proclivities. The lead singer, Denis Gagne does a near-flawless PG and the rest of the band are up to the challenge. You would be hard pressed not to actually see Genesis in all their original glory through these guys eyes. Highly recommended. December 3, 2007

 Gabriel's swan song for Genesis 33 years later
English art rockers Genesis released their seventh (and lone double studio) album entitled The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in November of 1974.
The album was created at a time where tensions in the band were astronomically high. Lead singer Peter Gabriel was going through some personal and professional problems while this album was being created (his daughter was born prematurely and uncertainty if his daughter would live (luckily she survived), his failed attempt at a filmscript and his bandmates were angered that Peter was more concerned about his family than the band (in later years, all the members would become parents)).
Despite the on-going tensions in the group, Gabriel created one final masterpiece with Genesis before he left the band in May of 1975 after the tour in support of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway where the band did the WHOLE DOUBLE ALBUM live start to finish (only The Who and Pink Floyd were other bands of the era that played whole albums start to finish in their set, let's see Britney Spears or any pop fool try it).
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was a concept album about a Puerto Rican kid named Rael whom falls into a netherworld known as New York and struggles to find himself throughout the course of the album. Some of the many standouts on this album are the title cut, "In the Cage" (arguably the best song on the album and was resurrected for the 2007 tour), "Back in NYC", "Counting Out Time" (released as a single but flopped), "The Carpet Crawlers" (a concert staple for many years and resurrected for the 2007 reunion tour), "The Chamber of 32 Doors", "The Lamia", "The Colony of Slippermen" and the closing track "It".
The album's other tracks "Fly On a Windshield", "Broadway Melody of 1974", "Cuckoo Cocoon", "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging", "Hairless Heart", "Lilywhite Lilith", "The Waiting Room", "Anyway", "Here Come the Supernatural Anaesthetist", "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats", "Ravine", "The Light Dies Down On Broadway", "Riding The Scree" and "In The Rapids" are no filler as well and are great songs though some may think these tracks stink.
I first discovered this album in early September of 1997, when I picked up a used cassette copy (would buy the remastered CD two months later), and I was shocked on how excellent it really is and is today one of my Top 20 favorite rock albums of all time.
Unfortunately Peter Gabriel left after the tour in support of this album and eventually guitarist Steve Hackett would quit as well in late 1977.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway peaked at #41 in early 1975 and would eventually go Gold in the US over time proving that people were willing to give pre-1980s Genesis a chance after discovering the band in the 1980s.
If you want the best of the Gabriel era Genesis, buy this album! November 7, 2007

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