The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Genesis Full Album

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Genesis
Side one:
00:00 The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
04:54 Fly On A Windshield
07:37 Broadway Melody Of 1974
09:48 Cuckoo Cocoon
12:01 In The Cage
20:14 The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging

Side two:
23:02 Back In N.Y.C.
28:36 Hairless Heart
30:55 Counting Out Time
34:36 Carpet Crawlers
39:50 The Chamber Of 32 Doors

Side three:
45:38 Lilywhite Lilith
48:25 The Waiting Room
53:41 Anyway
56:50 Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist
59:47 The Lamia
1:06:49 Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats

Side four:
1:09:47 The Colony Of Slippermen
1:18:00 Ravine
1:20:04 The Light Dies Down On Broadway
1:23:36 Riding The Scree
1:27:44 In The Rapids
1:30:06 It

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the sixth studio album by Genesis. It was released as a double album on 22 November 1974 by Charisma Records and is their last to feature original frontman Peter Gabriel. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 41 on the Billboard 200 in the US. It is their longest album to date.

While the band worked on new material at Headley Grange for three months, they decided to produce a concept album with a story devised by Gabriel about Rael, a Puerto Rican youth from New York City The Bronx. As "The Lamb," who is suddenly taken on a journey of self-discovery and encounters bizarre incidents and characters along the way. The album was marked by increased tensions within the band as Gabriel, who insisted on writing all of the lyrics, temporarily left to work with filmmaker William Friedkin and needed time to be with his family. Most of the songs were developed by the rest of the band through jam sessions and were put down at Glaspant Manor in Wales using a mobile studio.

Peter Gabriel explained to The Daily Telegraph September 30, 2014 that the album "was intended to be an intense story of a young rebellious Puerto Rican in New York who would face challenges with family, authority, sex, love and self-sacrifice to learn a little more about himself. I wanted to mix his dreams with his reality, in a kind of urban rebel Pilgrim's Progress."

The full story is in the liner notes of the album.

This was the basis for an elaborate stage production Genesis performed at concerts. It was on this tour that Peter Gabriel decided to leave the band.

There are references to classic songs throughout the album, and this track recalls "On Broadway," which was a hit for The Drifters in 1963.

Genesis keyboard player Tony Banks used a cross-handed technique to create the jaunty rhythm. He described it in a Songfacts interview: "the two hands are playing almost percussively, alternatively. So, you appear to be playing faster than you are. I really like the effect. It's very rhythmic. I just find it's an exciting way to play."

On their 1974 tour, Genesis played the album from start to finish. Gabriel wore several costumes throughout the show, including a grotesque mask during "The Colony Of Slippermen."

This was the first song and title track to the double album which was the last Peter Gabriel contribution to Genesis.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was a song-cycle whose hero Rael shared a name with "Rael (1 and 2)," a track on The Who's 1967 album, The Who Sell Out. Mojo April 2010 asked Peter Gabriel if it was a conscious tribute to The Who's Pete Townshend. He replied: "It was a subconscious tribute because I certainly wasn't aware of it at the time. I spent a long time thinking of that name, like Ra the Sun God. But I was a big Who fan, so it may have got in there. Obviously Townshend created much of the musical environment and delivered the angst with an intelligence and passion and extraordinary musicality. But to this day, as a drummer, I think Keith Moon was the unacknowledged genius. He was like Jimi Hendrix: when he was on - and he wasn't always - it flowed out of him in a free way that was inspiring, driving, magnificent."

Peter Gabriel's insistence on writing the story and all the lyrics himself for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway created friction amongst his bandmates. Tony Banks recalled in Uncut magazine October 2008: "Having done 'Supper's Ready' (the 23-minute song on Foxtrot)) we decided we wanted to go for a concept album, and make a double album. We agreed the concept, which Peter came up with. Then he said that he really wanted to write all the lyrics, which was difficult for us because we'd always split all the lyrics among us all."

During the writing sessions at Headley Grange, Gabriel found himself separated from the rest of the band, which caused some friction. He insisted that having devised the concept he should write the lyrics, leaving the majority of the music in the charge of his bandmates. This was a departure from the band's usual method of songwriting, as lyrical contributions on previous albums had always involved the other members. This situation left Gabriel often secluded in one room writing the lyrics, and the remaining four rehearsing in another. In one instance Gabriel was unable to meet a scheduled deadline to have the lyrics finished, leaving Rutherford and Banks to write words for "The Light Dies Down on Broadway". At other times, Banks and Hackett suggested lyrics they thought would fit "The Lamia" and "Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist" respectively, which Gabriel rebuffed.

Further disagreements arose during the writing period when Gabriel left the group for a short period having accepted an invitation from film producer William Friedkin to collaborate on a screenplay, after he took a liking to Gabriel's surreal story printed on the sleeve of Genesis Live (1973). In Gabriel's absence Collins suggested having the new studio album be purely instrumental, thinking it would favour the other members as Gabriel had made some of their earlier songs too lyrically dense, but the idea was rejected by the rest of the group. Friedkin, however, was not prepared to split the band over a mere idea and Gabriel resumed work on the album. Matters were complicated further when Gabriel spent additional time in London when his first wife Jill underwent a risky and difficult birth of their first child in July 1974, leaving Gabriel often travelling back and forth. Rutherford later admitted that he and Banks were "horribly unsupportive" of Gabriel during this time, and Gabriel saw this as the beginning of his eventual departure from Genesis

The album received a mixed critical reaction at first, but it gained acclaim in subsequent years and has a cult following. The songs "Counting Out Time" and "The Carpet Crawlers" were released as singles in the UK in 1974 and 1975, respectively; both failed to chart. A single of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" was released in the US. Genesis promoted the album with their 1974–75 tour across North America and Europe, playing the album in its entirety. The album reached Gold certification in the UK and the US. The album was remastered in 1994 and 2007.