Lamb Lies Down on Broadway [Import]

Genesis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 4, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Europe Generic
• ASIN: B000024E9O
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,869 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

2. Fly on a Windshield

3. Broadway Melody of 1974

4. Cuckoo Cocoon

5. In the Cage

6. The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging

7. Back in N.Y.C.

8. Hairless Heart

9. Counting out Time

10. The Carpet Crawlers

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Lilywhite Lilith

2. The Waiting Room

3. Anyway

4. The Supernatural Anaesthetist

5. The Lamia

6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats

7. The Colony of Slippermen: The Arrival/A Visit to the Doktor/The Raven

8. Ravine

9. The Light Dies Down on Broadway

10. Riding the Scree

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

GENESIS THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genesis' Glorious Swansong, March 19, 2010

By 

applewood (everywhere and nowhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Audio CD)

"If you think that it's pretentious, you've been taken for a ride" PG

In 1974 Genesis peaked with the release of THE LAMB (their Revelation you could say). Over 35 years later it is still not only listenable, but interesting, unpredictable and fresh sounding and still musically challenging. What other rock-opera/concept album can you say that of? (only Zappa's, WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY from almost a decade earlier).

THE LAMB is an album/concept/achievement of mythic proportions. For how dysfunctional the recording process was supposed to have been, the result is an amazingly successful synthesis of 5 musical talents at their peak. And what they produced, while directly connected to their earlier sound (traced through the progressively improving TRESPASS, NURSERY CRYME, FOXTROT & SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND), was also different by a quantum leap. How could Genesis continue as a band after such an achievement? They didn't. Gabriel went on to explore his 'Electric Shaman' persona in an even more down to earth, less introverted way, and the rest of the band turned to churning out increasingly superficial (and successful) pretty pop hits.

In '74 when this was first released my local FM station played the whole double album in it's entirety. I was an aspiring young Genesis fan then and when I stayed up late to record it, I wasn't sure how to digest the new sound or concepts. I didn't understand it all. It was clearly going to be an acquired taste, something I had to grow into. Years later after it was burned into my mind it became in some weird way my first religion - before I found something more substantial. And yet THE LAMB is still clearly a valid, grand, mythic morality play, incorporating sounds that both root us to Earth and Cosmos..., with words and concepts that unite Greek myth, English romantic literature, psychic archetypes and psychedelic music. It is in essence a story of, and guide to, adolescent male rite-of-passage initiation ritual. You could say The Who's TOMMY did this first, but being more complex, poetic and complete, THE LAMB has endured better.

What resulted was the band's swansong, but each individual was distinct and unique and vital. Peter Gabriel was clearly inspired for this production, taking a lead creative role. His voice is strong, confident and flexible and his lyrics a string of inventive, sometimes profound and often witty one-liners. Phil Collins gives solid powerfully nimble drumming, as well as excellent backing vocals (a role he was always best suited for). Michael Rutherford's bass is a force of nature, crunching and churning along like the inexorable shift of tectonic plates (augmented by that deep and simple bass pedal). Tony Banks is all over the place tying it together with sustaining keyboards played with supreme, dexterous confidence. And then there is Steve Hackett, with a guitar sound and understated vibe that comes and goes like the plaintive song of a humpback whale in the deep, never flashy, always tasteful. And this is the rare accomplishment of this recording - a psychedelic classic that takes you on a trip (in whatever condition you begin in), to expand and challenge and reunite but in an accessible, never creepy or harsh way (like The Grateful Dead, or Pink Floyd could do). From the opening alienated Broadway street scene to the exalted final resolution and recognition of It, the album flows in one continuous blended series of sounds (made of a variety of catchy 4-5 minute songs tied together by the those incredible segues...)

Like many of these reviews, this one is long on words and high on praise. For many years I thought I'd put this album with it's adolescent associations and apparent pretensions behind me. But listening to it now as an 'old fart', I see how formative (and transformative) it was. I'm glad to have met and absorbed and been changed by it, and to have moved on, out of the depths and into the ongoing vastness of It. This sounds like a lot to expect from a rock band and album, but it's true.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The second best album of all time, November 16, 2009

By 

William B. White - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Audio CD)

Lamb is my second choice of best albums of all time. Genesises version of a rock opera , Is outstanding, and a modern version of alice in wonderland.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reconnect with an "old friend", May 4, 2010

By 

J. Weden (Pleasant Hill, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Audio CD)

I have the original vinyl version of this album - but no turntable anymore. I haven't actually listened
to this all the way thru for probably 25 years. So finally buying the CD was fantastic - like renewing
an old friendship. Of course I remember the main songs - Carpet Crawlers, Counting Out Time,
Back in NY City etc. but what I forgot were all the wonderful interludes between songs - some of the
best guitar and keyboard rifs and solos happen in these spots. I think this is one of the all time best
"prog-rock" albums - right up there with "Brain Salad Surgery" and "The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth".
A must have for any serious concept and rock music lover!