The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is the sixth studio album by the English progressive rock band Genesis. Released on 22 November 1974 by Charisma Records, it is the band's fourth album featuring Phil Collins on drums and additional vocals and the last to feature Peter Gabriel on lead vocals.
This is a concept album, a kind of a rock opera, about a Puerto Rican, Rael, who travels to a strange afterlife in the New York City Underground. As Peter Gabriel commented during the live shows, Rael "crawls out of the subways of New York and is sucked into the wool to regain consciousness underground."
== Track listing ==
All songs by Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford.
=== Side one ===
#"The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" – 4:50
#"Fly on a Windshield" – 4:23
#"Broadway Melody of 1974" – 0:33
#"Cuckoo Cocoon" – 2:12
#"In the Cage" – 8:13
#"The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" – 2:46
=== Side two ===
#"Back in N.Y.C." – 5:43
#"Hairless Heart" – 2:13
#"Counting Out Time" – 3:40
#"The Carpet Crawlers" – 5:15
#"The Chamber of 32 Doors" – 5:41
=== Side three ===
#"Lilywhite Lilith" – 2:42
#"The Waiting Room" – 5:25
#"Anyway" – 3:08
#"Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist" – 3:00 (titled "The Supernatural Anaesthetist" on some versions)
#"The Lamia" – 6:56
#"Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats" – 3:07
=== Side four ===
#"The Colony of Slippermen (Arrival - A Visit to the Doktor - Raven)" – 8:14
#"Ravine" – 2:04
#"The Light Dies Down on Broadway" – 3:33
#"Riding the Scree" – 3:56
#"In the Rapids" – 2:24
#"It" – 4:17
Story / Concept Summary
We meet Rael, a stereotypical angry young man on the streets of New York, as he is struck by a lamb lying down in the middle of the madness of the city (The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway). As he walks home, distracted by the portentous lamb, he is hit by a car and killed (Fly On A Windshield). As he dies, his life on the streets flashes before his eyes in a confused jumble of sights and sounds (Broadway Melody of 1974).
He then awakens in an odd cocoon, shut off from the rest of the world (Cuckoo Cocoon). This, and the rest of the story to follow, is God's test of Rael, a divine experiment to see if humanity still has some goodness left. As he remains trapped in the cocoon, it turns into a more sinister cage and here Brother John is introduced (In The Cage). After this, Rael's cage vanishes and he is deposited into a factory, where John is apparently trapped working, a 9 stamped on his uniform (The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging).
Rael is so disturbed by this encounter that he seems to enter a trance and flashes back to some major events in his life on earth, such as his first days in a gang and his first sexual encounter (Back In N.Y.C., Hairless Heart, Counting Out Time). Once he awakes from this sort of sub-dream, he is in a corridor inhabited by the mythical salamanders (The Carpet Crawlers). Here he learns an important lesson "You gotta get in to get out". At the end of this corridor is a chamber with an endless series of doors, which inevitably lead back to where he started (The Chamber Of 32 Doors). He encounters a blind and disfigured maiden who leads him out of the endless doors, showing that he must be willing to set aside his prejudices against others, even those who seem wretched at first glance (Lilywhite Lilith). She sends him to a doctor, who turns out to be death waiting for him (The Waiting Room/Anyway; another underrated song /Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist). 
He thinks he has escaped death, so he continues on his way and meets the Lamia, seductive monsters of Greek mythology, which are essentially sirens but more nasty and having snake bodies instead of the bodies of birds. Here I would argue that Rael actually falls to death as he gives in to temptation and has sex with the Lamia despite his instincts telling him that it is wrong (The Lamia). As punishment for this, he is turned into a vile monster known as a slipperman. After leaving the wondrous chamber of the Lamia by boat (Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats), he comes upon a whole colony of the creatures, who it can only be assumed were once human, but also fell to the temptations of the Lamia, and is shocked to find that he is just the same as the horrendous creatures (The Colony Of Slippermen: The Arrival). Rael meets up with John once more, and they discover that the only escape from their lives as Slippermen is to be castrated by Doktor Dyper (The Colony Of Slippermen: A Visit To The Doktor). Rael is forced to truly put his lust to death once and for all, yet he still clings to his separated member, now in a tube, in the hopes that it could someday be restored to him. 
As he and John walk out of town, a huge raven steals Rael’s tube and flies off. Rael resolves to chase it down, but John refuses to help despite Rael’s need and abandons his brother a second time (The Colony of Slippermen: Raven). Rael and John separate once more in anger at each other, and Rael sees the raven drop his tube into a roaring river down a bank too steep to climb down. He walks along the edge of the ravine, looking for a place to climb down (Ravine). As he walks, a portal appears in the air which appears to lead back to his home. At the same time, he hears John’s scream from the river far below, as he is washed down the rapids. This is Rael’s final test, as he must choose between his own freedom and saving his brother. Though John has abandoned him twice now, he chooses to sacrifice himself to save his brother (The Light Dies Down On Broadway). This is the fulfilment of the title track’s portents, as the lamb, Rael, lies down, giving up his life for another, on Broadway. 
After he has committed to this plan, he must figure out how to get down to the river (Riding the Scree). Here he utilizes that key piece of wisdom learned way back in The Carpet Crawlers, that “you’ve got to get in to get out”, realizing that “when you’re racing in the rapids, there’s only one way and that’s to ride” (In The Rapids). As he successfully saves John, God seems to judge him worthy and he is taken to a nirvana-like state of oneness with everything good in the world (It). 
The 1994 CD remaster of the album indexes "Fly on a Windshield" at 4:23 and "Broadway Melody of 1974" at 0:33. In fact, the songs merge together seamlessly and seem to be divided only for lyrical reasons, which led to an error by the manufacturer.
Category:Genesis albums