Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway [1999 Japan VJCP 68096-97 Limited Edition Remaster] (1974)

review by Joe McGlinchey @ Ground and Sky

I recently took advantage of seeing The Musical Box in Atlantic City, NJ, who performed the entire Lamb Lies Down on Broadway show in concert. While I'm not usually much for tribute bands, I have to say their performance was an astonishing reconstruction. Based on the accuracy of their encores for "The Musical Box" and "Watcher of the Skies," I walked away from the show confidently persuaded that I had experienced, more or less, what The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway must have been like when Genesis first did it back in 1974. Preparing for the concert gave me the excuse to pull out and revisit this double-album, the last with Peter Gabriel before he departed for an extraordinary solo career.

I'll preface this by saying that although it's an acknowledged genre classic, I have to admit I've never fallen head over heels with the album, and don't really play it as much relative to other albums in the Genesis discography. Also, you will get no line-by-line dissection of Peter Gabriel's surreal tale. No, I will not even risk calling it an allegory, for fear of treading on that slippery (ha ha) slope leading down to hoards of raging fans posting indignantly here about the myriad ways my interpretation is so obviously wrong, and how "the last great adventure left to mankind" is Disney World and the porcupine was Paul. Suffice to say, the tale concerns the strange journey of Rael, a New York City punk who goes through a series of metamorphoses and meets up with various strange characters along the way, including three reptilian creatures with the head and breasts of a woman (Lamia), a colony of grotesque 'slippermen,' and the castrating Doktor Dyper.



Musically, this is indeed a widescreen snapshot of Genesis at their apex and magnitude. Look no further than the iconic beginning, with Tony Banks' piano lines scampering up and down the keyboard to the boom of the opening power chord and Gabriel's commanding pronouncement, as if from some chariot above: "And the lamb lies down on broadway..." At their heart, this was a band that could rock, and in addition to the fine title track, songs like "In the Cage," "Lilywhite Lilith" and "it" show the power of this band as a rock entity. However, my favorite moments musically on the album lie in the instrumental sections, of which there is considerable breadth in style. The brooding, Eastern mellotron power of "Fly on a Windshield" is a worthy complement to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," with Hackett wringing every drop of tortured emotion he can out of the guitar. The psychedelic majesty of "The Waiting Room," with Banks' whistling Ennio Morricone synthesizers set against the urgent pounding of Hackett, Rutherford, and Collins, later gives way to the repose of "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats." Banks also lets loose with a number of classic synth solos: "In the Cage," "Colony of Slippermen," and "Riding the Scree." The latter is quite possibly his finest in my book, retaining the same sense of gracefulness and artistry that one finds in impeccably executed choreography. I've always thought this solo would make excellent music for a figure skating routine. If handled by a choreographer with enough vision and skaters with enough technique, I am convinced it would blow the audience and judges out of the water. Gabriel leaves the band on an upbeat note with the majesty of "it." My favorite moment again is an instrumental one: the brief detour by Banks and Hackett that breaks the first verse, never to return.

So, why not fully smitten, then? Well, there is a lot of music on here that just doesn't do much for me ("The Lamia," "The Chamber of 32 Doors"), seems like filler ("Here Comes the Supernatural Anaethetist"), or exists primarily to move the tale along ("In the Rapids"). More crucially, however, are the lyrics. Peter Gabriel would eventually blossom into a great lyricist, but here, as on previous tracks (e.g., "Battle of Epping Forest"), he tends to run amuck with his lyrical 'ambitions.' The results are lame oxymorons and alliterations, forced rhyming, and other wordplays, not to mention sexual imagery that seems more puerile than erotic. Even when I first heard all of this as a teenager, a lot of it made me cringe: "Empty in their fullness," "I see no sign of free will, so I guess I'll have to pay," "Don't delay, dock the dick," "I'm in the agony of Slipperpain/I pray my undercarriage will sustain," "It is chicken/it is eggs/it is in between your legs." Even a line like "Caryl Chessman sniffs the air.../.he knows in a scent..." Caryl Chessman was executed in a gas chamber, hence 'in a scent' and 'innocent,' etc. While many might find such a line witty, I just think it sounds awkward and trying too hard. Many prog fans hold Gabriel's lyrics practically on the level of Joyce, which is more than fair enough. However, I also think that one couldn't really fault an outsider, after listening to this, for walking away with certain fixed stereotypes about prog and its fandom, and I'm sure the associated concert visuals of Peter Gabriel ballooning up his Slipperman genitals and gesticulating around would do nothing to disabuse them of these, either. Really, though, I do think there are many instances where the lyrics just fail to match the music. For something as beautiful as "Carpet Crawlers," I find it hard to believe that "The Carpet Crawlers/heed their callers/We've got to get in to get out" was the best that they could come up with for the chorus.

Much like Yes' Tales From Topographic Oceans, I have always felt more comfortable appraising Lamb Lies Down on Broadway as an overall great but flawed album, rather than an infallible work of complete genius. As it stands, I find about 70-80% of the material ranges from good to peak work, while the rest could have been discarded with no real loss.



Tracklisting:
Disc One
1. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (4:50)
2. Fly on a Windshield (4:22)
3. Broadway Melody of 1974 (0:33)
4. Cuckoo Cocoon (2:11)
5. In the Cage (8:15)
6. The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging (2:45)
7. Back in N.Y.C. (5:42)
8. Hairless Heart (2:13)
9. Counting Out Time (3:42)
10. The Carpet Crawlers (5:15)
11. The Chamber of 32 Doors (5:40)

Disc Two
1. Lillywhite Lilith (2:41)
2. The Waiting Room (5:24)
3. Anyway (3:07)
4. The Supernatural Anaesthetist (2:59)
5. The Lamia (6:57)
6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats (3:07)
7. Colony of Slippermen (8:14)
- a) The Arrival
- b) A Visit to the Doktor
- c) Raven
8. Ravine (2:03)
9. The Light Dies Down on Broadway (3:32)
10. Riding the Scree (3:57)
11. In the Rapids (2:23)
12. It. (4:17)

Total Time: 94:09

Line-Up:
- Tony Banks / keyboards
- Phil Collins / drums, percussion, backing vocals
- Peter Gabriel / lead vocals, flute
- Steve Hackett / electric guitar, nylon guitar
- Mike Rutherford / bass guitar, 12-string guitar



Best remaster job yet with this album, much better than the Definitive Edition from 1994