FROM THE VAULT: Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Courtesy of Carsten Petersen – the responsible for the decline in taste of this site
Finally, the day has come. Never thought it would be possible, but I am reviewing Genesis. On this site. The site that centers itself around Iggy and the Stooges, The Smiths, and other punk/glam rock greats, features an article about prissy prog rock band Genesis. In case you are wondering about this decline in taste, well, all you have is me, and just me to thank.
Everybody being seriously into music has his/her own favourite band. The band that is responsible for your very understanding of what music is about or, well, should be about. Genesis is that band for me. Yes, now it is time for my famous ramblings about how I first got to know the band in the past. It was the summer of 2006, probably the most important time in my life. University was only a few months away, got a new girlfriend, and of course, we had the World Cup of 2006. Germany’s great victory against Argentina, the painful loss against Italy, great goals, public viewing in the city of Berlin – the city where I was about to move – new friends, new everything. Yes, it was a wonderful time to be 21 years old and Genesis was the soundtrack. Nuff said.
In the month of May of that same year I bought the album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. The record was completely unlike anything I have ever listened to. First of all, it simply meant that I didn’t get it, it was too weird. Strange instrumentation, no real choruses, no hooks and a weird shrieking voice – for a listener of Michael Jackson, pretty rough to take. As a result, this album really passed me by. Then, after a while it hit me. I listened to the second track ‘Fly on a Windshield’ with its strange, atmospheric intro – like painting the image of a late afternoon with dark clouds hanging in the sky – with its weird, yet imaginative lyrics and with its drums, mellotron and guitar crashing into a true instrumental thunderstorm and that was it. Suddenly, the album changed my taste of music.
Atmospheric instrumentals painting the picture of a strange otherworld with dark caves, water, towns covered in fog and obscure places…
I used to listen to this album step by step, especially the second part, and I could never tell in which direction this album would go next. It takes unpredictable twists and turns, it takes its time. Never before or after have I experienced an album that sucks you into such a strange world. Listening to it with closed eyes on headphones, was an experience I did not want to miss back then.
The album tells the story of a Puerto Rican boy named Rael, who basically is thrown into another strange world full of weird creatures where he has to find a way through while he tries to follow his lost brother John. It is a really strange story probably symbolizing a young dude finding himself, but unlike those earlier Genesis stories, this one was based on a simple feeling of isolation, confusion and helplessness. Best of it all, the story was told from a first-person perspective and not from the view of an outside storyteller.
As strange as his lyrics, Peter Gabriel makes everything even more peculiar. He is not a great singer, at least not from a technical point of view, but then, those things are not important in music. He has a strange, shrieking and screeching voice and he seems to get into trouble whenever he has to hit higher notes, but once you get used to it, the character of his voice can’t be topped. Be it the panic and aggressiveness keyboard fiesta (‘In the Cage’), the ugliness (‘Back To N.Y.C.’), the pop-esque crooning (‘Carpet Crawlers’), the energy (‘Lillywhite Lillith’), the sadness in the beautifully dark, nightmarish, sad piano-laden (‘The Lamia’) or those wonderful lines (‘In the Rapids’.) Gabriel simply lends personality to the songs, whereas most other singers would make this sound like a terrible kitschfest. When listening to the album, I was actually in a state where I couldn’t wait to continue listening to it just to know how the story would continue.
This album still manages to hold up well, simply because despite being a rock opera, it simply does not meet the clichés of prog rock. The tracks are almost always short and to the point. No long guitar solos, almost no long keyboard solos, no lyrics about fairies, trolls, dragons or eskimos. If you want, think of this album as a really weird pop record. A dark, exotic pop record with an actual story being told. Think of it as an audio-book version of a story with lots of music. I guess, that is the best way to explain this album. Needless to say, it ain’t completely perfect. Some songs are not quite as hard hitting as others while some can be considered overlong. I am still no big fan of that weird sounding keyboard solo on ‘In the Cage’ or some others. Songs like ‘The Light Dies Down On Broadway’ or the keyboard instrumental ‘Riding the Scree’ are cool, yet it seems like the album starts to lose steam at the end. Considering though, that this is still an almost perfect double album, is enough for me to admire the amount of creativity, the young dudes poured into this wonderful record.
It all becomes even more admirable when considering the state of the band back then as Gabriel was alienating himself more and more from the band. He got his first child but the birth was full of problems and it looked like the daughter would not survive at first. For that matter, he was hardly present during the recording of the album and the band simply reacted by showing no support for Gabriel at all. Or as the man himself would say, ‘an atmosphere of hatred, anger and suspicion’ build up during the writing and recording sessions. Guitarist Steve Hackett, in a fit of frustration, destroyed a wine bottle and injured his hand shortly before the big live tour would start. During the tour, Gabriel decided that he would quit. They needed to carry on for the rest of the tour, pretending everything was alright. Yep, it as wonderful, flowery and happy time for the boys. Gabriel quit at the end of the tour and the band carried on with their drummer and new singer Phil Collins. The Lamb was later recognized as a true classic. The rest is history.
Music can go any directions. There is no right or wrong, no boundaries, anything is possible, nothing should be impossible. Everybody has an album that transports these values and makes us look at music in a completely different way as opposed to before. For me, it was The lamb Lies Down On Broadway.
