Recommendations of the Editorial team
It is considered the most difficult Genesis album, the highlight of the progressive rock of the 1970s, as Peter Gabriel’s stroke of genius. A spinner, artistic double album with a story that didn’t even understand Gabriel’s mother. In terms of content, it is about a Puertorican graffiti sprayer in New York, the heroes of a surrealistic puzzle-but how, what exactly, what exactly do real genesis nerds know.
Why the album is revered
And that is probably not necessary either, because most appreciate “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” because of the music. Jeff Buckley liked the album and even picked up a song. Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), John Fruciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) also love the controversial masterpiece.
But what is his magic and why does the music captivate listeners all over the world 50 years later?
Perhaps because “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” is one of the “internal plates ever”, as Arne Willander writes in the big title story in the upcoming Rolling Stone (Juni edition). Perhaps because the band here exchanged the lyrical and pastoral of their previous albums for a cool, urban sharpness that was not known from the British until then.
The work designed as an epic double album from the start was created in adverse circumstances. Of all recordings with the band, he had the least pleasure of “Lamb”, the genesis keyboardist Tony Banks later admitted.
Genesis left Peter Gabriel too little air
When the work started in the summer of 1974, Peter Gabriel had just become a father, his wife Jill had a complicated pregnancy and difficult birth. There were tensions in the group, and Gabriel was said to have worn out with the idea of exit. In addition to Peter Gabriel, no family had, Phil Collins recalls. Nobody knew the family pressure under which the young father was. The band gave him too little air.
Nevertheless, Genesis planned a large US and European tour for the winter of 1974/75. Gabriel had little desire to do it. But the others pushed him. The tour in the USA started in November 1974, and the album was released shortly afterwards. The Genesis concerts were spectacular for at that time-with eight slide projectors, play films and costume changes. Genesis completely performed “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”.
In a hotel in Cleveland, Gabriel finally announced that he wanted to get out. Nobody stopped him. And none of the band members even thought about it for a minute, to dissolve genesis because of it. On the contrary: the band continued quite seamlessly, wrote songs for the follow -up album “A Trick of the Tail”, held auditions with other singers – and finally thought that their drummer was actually a pretty good singer and even had a similar voice as Gabriel. This is how the next chapter of success began: Phil Collins took over.
The highlight of the highlight is “The Carpet Crawlers”
“The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” is therefore the highlight and end point of the classic Genesis occupation. Phil Collins later said “Lamb” was Peter Gabriel’s record, but not Gabriel’s band.
The highlight of the highlight is certainly “The Carpet Crawlers”, one of the most melodic Genesis songs of the time that developed into a hit. He wrote about this melody longer than every other, said Peter Gabriel.
Rolling Stone Germany publishes “The Crapet Crawlers” in the brand new Remaster World Cycling on a vinyl single, which is only available in stores with the Juni edition of the Rolling Stone. Or order at rollingstone.de/shop. On the B-side of the single you will find the live recording of the song from 1975.
>>> Order here!
And in August, Rhino/Sony released a large “50th anniversary” box with the double album in a 2025 new version in the Abbey Road Studios under the supervision of Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks remastered, on vinyl and Blu-ray as well as in Atmos versions. Also in the box: three previously unpublished studio demos, the concert from January 1975 in the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles (for the first time remastered and in full length, including the encores “Watcher of the Skies” and “The Musical Box”), a 60-sided illustrated book, as well as replicas of the tour program, the tickets and the poster.
>>> Order here!
The big title story for Genesis and her last act with Peter Gabriel reads in Rolling Stone 06/25, which will be available in stores from May 30th.