Line #4 Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway


1	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lamb_lies_down.jpg]]
4	[[caption-width-right:350:''"We've got to get in to get out."'']]
5
6	->''"Something inside me has just begun\
7	Lord knows what I have done\
8	And the lamb... lies down... on Broadway!"''
9	-->--"[[TitleTrack The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway]]"
10
11	''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'' is the sixth studio album by English ProgressiveRock band Music/{{Genesis\|Band}}, released on 22 November 1974 through Creator/CharismaRecords in the United Kingdom and Creator/AtcoRecords in the United States, marking their first release on the latter label (having previously had Charisma distribute their material since ''Music/NurseryCryme'' in both the UK and the US).
12
13	After the commercial and critical success of ''Music/SellingEnglandByThePound'' and its accompanying tour in Europe and North America, the band booked a three-month retreat in Headley Grange. Although it was a tough ordeal, not helped by the decrepit condition the workhouse was left in at the time and Music/PeterGabriel's estrangement with the band through his then-wife Jill going through a difficult pregnancy at the time, they decided on a double-album that would tell a concept story[[note]]as a side note, Mike Rutherford suggested one based upon ''Literature/TheLittlePrince'', but Gabriel turned it down; the theme would be revisited years later in ''Music/{{Duke}}''[[/note]].
14
15	Gabriel, wishing to move the band away from their preestablished pastoral image, pitched a plot about Rael, a young half-Puerto Rican street kid from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity who embarks on [[MindScrew a surreal journey of self-discovery]] through a dream world. Concurrently, the music was made more aggressive, more surreal, and more improvisational, being pieced together from group jam sessions. It was after the allocated time in Headley Grange that they mixed and recorded the album in UsefulNotes/{{Wales}}, and Gabriel enlisted the assistance of Music/BrianEno for two of the tracks by way of synthesized vocal treatments.
16
17	Around release of the album, Genesis played on a supporting tour in North America and Europe, playing the entire album and only doing a couple old material songs as an encore. It wasn't all rosy however, since the equipment and effects had been faulty from time to time, including the infamous Slipperman costume where Peter Gabriel found it hard to breathe or insert the microphone. Also, he informed the rest of the band that he was planning to leave at the conclusion of the tour[[note]]at the time, he was heavily disillusioned with the music industry and wished to be back with his family[[/note]], which was 22 May 1975 in Besançon, France. The departure led to a drive to get a new frontman, with Music/PhilCollins happy to just have the group be an instrumental band before being persuaded to take the reins for ''Music/ATrickOfTheTail''. Gabriel himself would reemerge a couple years later, starting his solo career with [[Music/{{Car}} his first self-titled album]] before diving further into the abstract aggression that he began exploring here.
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19	There's [[https://www.routledge.com/Genesis-and-The-Lamb-Lies-Down-on-Broadway/Holm-Hudson/p/book/9780754661474 an entire book]] that contains various interpretations of the story, as well as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszTrQdL314 an illustrated adaptation on YouTube]].
20
21	''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'' was supported by two singles: "Counting Out Time" and "Carpet Crawlers" (retitled "The Carpet Crawlers").
22
23	----
24	!! Tracklist:
25	!!! Disc One
26	[[AC: Side One]]
27	# "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (4:55)
28	# "Fly on a Windshield" (2:47)
29	# "Broadway Melody of 1974" (1:58)
30	# "Cuckoo Cocoon" (2:14)
31	# "In the Cage" (8:15)
32	# "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" (2:45)
33
34	[[AC: Side Two]]
35	# "Back in N.Y.C." (5:49)
36	# "Hairless Heart" (2:25)
37	# "Counting Out Time" (3:45)
38	# "Carpet Crawlers" (5:16)
39	# "The Chamber of 32 Doors" (5:40)
40
41	!!! Disc Two
42	[[AC: Side Three]]
43	# "Lilywhite Lilith" (2:40)
44	# "The Waiting Room" (5:28)
45	# "Anyway" (3:18)
46	# "Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist" (2:50)
47	# "The Lamia" (6:57)
48	# "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats" (3:06)
49
50	[[AC: Side Four]]
51	# "The Colony of Slippermen" (8:14)
52	## a) "The Arrival"
53	## b) "A Visit to The Doktor"
54	## c) "Raven"
55	# "Ravine" (2:05)
56	# "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" (3:32)
57	# "Riding the Scree" (3:56)
58	# "In the Rapids" (2:24)
59	# "''it.''" (4:58)
60
61	----
62	!!Principal Members:
63
64	* Music/TonyBanks - keyboard, organ, piano, mellotron, synthesizer
65	* Music/PhilCollins - drums, percussion, vocals, vibraphone
66	* Music/PeterGabriel - lead vocals, flute, oboe, tambourine, sound effects
67	* Music/SteveHackett - guitar
68	* [[Music/MikeAndTheMechanics Mike Rutherford]] - bass, guitar, bass pedals
69
70	----
71	!!It's the grand parade of lifeless troping, all ready to use:
72
73	* AdvancingWallOfDoom: A literal wall which descends on Times Square and begins moving toward Rael.
74	--> ''There's something solid forming in the air\
75	The wall of death is lowered in Times Square''
76	* AerithAndBob: Rael and his brother John.
77	* AlliterativeTitle: Four of the album's song titles indulge in this. In order, we have "Cuckoo Cocoon", "Hairless Heart", "Carpet Crawlers", and "Lilywhite Lilith".
78	* AllLowercaseLetters: "''it.''" is officially written this way, being italicized for good measure.
79	* AllThereInTheManual:
80	** Because Peter Gabriel felt that the music alone wasn't enough to convey the story, he wrote a detailed summary of the album's plot that appears at the end of the liner notes, clarifying details that were left ambiguous in the songs (such as what the titular lamb represents -- as it turns out, it means nothing at all).
81	** An InUniverse case appears in "Counting Out Time", where Rael gets all his information on foreplay from a book about erogenous zones.
82	* AlternateAlbumCover: The UK double-cassette release features the image of a brick corridor for the first tape and the portrait of a mouthless Rael for the second, both taken from the rear cover of the LP release. The French, Spanish, and Italian double-cassette releases, meanwhile, feature the same cover for both tapes, depicting all six photos from the front and back LP cover, with the observing Rael superimposed over the results. Later single-cassette releases use the brick corridor only.
83	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Rael had previously been incarcerated at "Twenty-Second Street". There is no mental hospital or jail at that location, nor was there ever one there; it only makes sense if he is referring to an altercation with the police that had occurred there.
84	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:The fate of John/Rael at the end.]]
85	* BeneathTheEarth: A large part of the plot takes place here.
86	* BitterAlmonds: From "Broadway Melody of 1974":
87	--> ''The cheerleader waves her cyanide wand\
88	There's a smell of peach blossom and bitter almond''
89	* BodyHorror: The Slippermen. The infamous costume Peter Gabriel wore in concerts was made to resemble a grotesque walking STD with huge swellings.
90	-->''"His skin's all covered in slimy lumps\
91	With lips that slide across each chin\
92	His twisted limbs like rubber stumps\
93	Are waved in welcome, say 'Please join in'"''
94	* BoleroEffect: "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" makes use of this, starting with simple synthesizer chords with Peter Gabriel's vocals, then gradually layering in additional instrumental tracks and some additional vocal treatments courtesy of Brian Eno.
95	* BreakingTheFourthWall: In the synopsis of the album included in the liner notes, the narrator tells readers to "Keep your fingers out of my eye." It's likely that anyone holding the LP gatefold has their fingers on the mouthless portrait of Rael on the back cover.
96	* BreatherEpisode: "Hairless Heart" and "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats", two tranquil {{instrumentals}} tucked in the middle of an unusually aggressive album by Genesis' standards.
97	* {{Brownface}}: On stage, Gabriel was heavily made up to perform Rael.
98	* ButIReadABookAboutIt: In "Counting Out Time", Rael thinks he's really good at sex just because he read a book about erogenous zones. [[SubvertedTrope Emphasis on "thinks".]]
99	* ConceptAlbum: A RockOpera about a half-Puerto Rican teen's surreal DownTheRabbitHole adventure (which may or may not be a metaphor for dissociative identity disorder, depending on which Genesis member you ask), learning to become InTouchWithHisFeminineSide along the way.
100	* DarkerAndEdgier: The musical, lyrical and conceptual tone of the work was deliberately meant to be this trope, as compared to the very pastoral, English, whimsical (if often very ironic) sounds and styles they were known for prior to the work. They always had dabbled in dark (or dark-humoured) themes and harder-rocking sounds, but ''The Lamb'' was a full change of pace from, say, "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)".
101	* DarkReprise: "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" is a twisted reprise of the theme from the first song, mixed with part of the melody from "The Lamia". In the context of the story, whereas the TitleTrack sets up Rael's regular life in New York City, "The Light Lies Down on Broadway" depicts a late-story RedPillBluePill moment for Rael, who at the moment can either return home or continue his journey.
102	* DigitalDestruction: Due to an indexing error, almost all CD releases prior to the 2007 remaster sequence most of "Broadway Melody of 1974" as part of "Fly on a Windshield", save for the 33-second {{instrumental}} outro. Only two pre-2007 [=CDs=] properly preserve the intended starting point of the song: [[https://www.discogs.com/release/15802534-Genesis-The-Lamb-Lies-Down-On-Broadway?utm_campaign=release-update&utm_source=relationship&utm_medium=pm one American]], [[https://www.discogs.com/release/6829765-Genesis-The-Lamb-Lies-Down-On-Broadway one Canadian]].
103	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The album artwork, apart from the logo, is in black and white.
104	* DownTheRabbitHole: Rael is chased by a "wall of death" that drops into Times Square. As the wall passes over him, he blacks out, and later re-awakens in a surreal world beneath New York City.
105	* TheEndingChangesEverything: The album ends with the reveal that [[spoiler:Rael and John are the same person before they and everything around them dissolve into purple haze]], drastically re-contextualizing much of Rael's adventure throughout the album and posing the question of how much of the story is meant to be taken literally.
106	* ExplosiveDecompression: "Anyway":
107	-->''I could have been exploded in space''
108	-->''Different orbits for my bones''
109	* GainaxEnding: "''it.''" doesn't seem to be about anything clearly related to the story, but the end of the story in the liner notes is pure crazy. [[spoiler: Rael saves his brother John's life only to discover that he and John are actually the same person, they have an out-of-both-bodies experience, they are "outlined in yellow," and ''they and the scenery melt into purple haze.'']] Figure ''that'' one out.
110	** One Website/YouTube comment remarks the ending is about "having to destroy yourself in order to find a new [self][[note]]hence the out-of-both-bodies experience[[/note]] and the joy that radiates afterward[[note]]hence the yellow outlining and the purple haze[[/note]]. Almost like the Phoenix rising out of ashes".
111	* GetOut: Punctuates the first verse of the TitleTrack:
112	-->''The Movie Palace is now undone,\
113	The all-night watchmen have had their fun.\
114	Sleeping cheaply on the midnight show,\
115	It's the same old ending. Time to go--\
116	Get out!''
117	* HypocriticalHumor:
118	** "Broadway Melody of 1974" depicts the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan "[serving] hot soul food" and playing jazz standards, deriving dark humor from the image of one of the most infamous white supremacist organizations in the world freely indulging in Black culture.
119	** "Back in N.Y.C." features Rael proudly proclaiming that there's "no time for romantic escape when your fluffy heart is ready for rape." This braggadocios and misogynistic self-image is contrasted with the portrayal of his one and only sexual encounter before the album's main plot in "Counting Out Time" just two songs later. Not only is it implied to be consensual (thus instantly demolishing the idea of him being a "tough" rapist with no desire for romance), but Rael is also ''utterly clueless'' about sex.
120	* IKEAErotica: Played for laughs on "Counting Out Time", where Rael attempts to have sex with a girl based entirely on a book he read about erogenous zones, with the lyrics describing his routine in a comedically clinical manner.
121	* {{Instrumentals}}: "Hairless Heart", "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats", "Ravine". "Broadway Melody of 1974" isn't ''supposed'' to be, but thanks to an indexing error on most CD versions of the album, it often is. (It's ''intended'' to [[LyricalColdOpen start with the line]] "Echoes of the Broadway Everglades", which is indexed on most CD versions as part of "Fly on a Windshield").
122	* IntercourseWithYou: "Counting Out Time", a flashback to Rael's one attempt at bedding a woman before the events of the album; it goes comedically awry when he thinks that he can become a sex god [[ButIReadABookAboutIt just by reading a book that he recently bought]].
123	* InTouchWithHisFeminineSide: According to Peter Gabriel, a major element of the album's plot is Rael learning to embrace this trope, having previously spent his life attempting to project a hypermasculine image of himself.
124	* LatinoIsBrown: Rael, a Puerto Rican street punk, mentions his [[StarbucksSkinScale "chocolate fingers"]] in "The Lamia" and was portrayed in the album's supporting tour by Peter Gabriel in {{brownface}}.
125	* LyricalColdOpen: "Broadway Melody of 1974" is ''supposed'' to start with the line "Echoes of the Broadway Everglades", although thanks to an indexing error on most CD versions of the album, it often doesn't. It's debatable whether this is a straight example of this trope due to SiameseTwinSongs.
126	* MeaningfulEcho: Several musical cues reappear throughout the album.
127	** The melody from the bridge of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" is reused as the intro of "Carpet Crawlers".
128	** The beginning of "Back in N.Y.C." borrows from the beginning of "In The Cage".
129	** The riff from "Broadway Melody of 1974" reappears without warning in "Lilywhite Lilith".
130	** "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" begins with motifs from "The Lamia" and turns into a full-blown DarkReprise of the title track.
131	* MindScrew: The main character's ''emasculation'' is a major plot point. Also, pretty much everything else.
132	* MindScrewdriver: the story that Gabriel wrote for the liner notes. It still doesn't explain everything, though. For that, [[http://www.bloovis.com/music/lamb.html this site]] might help... probably.
133	* MythologyGag: The first verse of "In the Cage" features the lines "White liquids turn sour within/Turn fast, turn sour, turn sweat, turn sour," nodding back to "When the Sour Turns to Sweet" from Genesis' [[Music/FromGenesisToRevelation first album]].
134	%%* NoEnding: See GainaxEnding above.
135	* PrecisionFStrike: "Back in NYC".
136	--> ''You say I must be crazy, 'cause I don't care who I hit, who I hit\
137	But I know it's me that's hitting out and I'm, I'm not full of shit''
138	* OneWordTitle: "Anyway", "Ravine", "''it.''".
139	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "I'M RAAAAAEL!!!!"
140	* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: "Back in N.Y.C." sees Rael attempt to exploit this trope by boasting about how his "fluffy heart is ready for rape" as part of the edgelord persona that he adopts on the streets of New York. Two songs later, however, it turns out that he's just talking out of his ass.
141	* RearrangeTheSong:
142	** "Carpet Crawlers" was rerecorded in 1995 and released on the 1999 GreatestHitsAlbum ''Turn It On Again: The Hits'', where it was appropriately titled "The Carpet Crawlers 1999". This new version is notable for being both Genesis' final single (despite being recorded before [[Music/CallingAllStations their last album]]) and the last time to date that all five members who worked on this album (Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford, Banks, and Collins) performed together.
143	** "Fly on a Windshield"/"Broadway Melody of 1974" was performed as an instrumental piece in their 1976 tour, as well as the ''Genesis in Concert 1976'' concert film.
144	* ReCut:
145	** While UK 8-track releases preserve the LP running order, a rarity for the format, "Broadway Melody of 1974", "Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist", and "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" are each split into two parts due to them overlapping with the changeover from one program to the next.
146	** The US 8-track release swaps most of sides 2 and 3 to account for the limitations of the four-program configuration. Additionally, "Lilywhite Lilith" and "The Colony of Slippermen" are split into two parts due to them overlapping with the between-program changeover.
147	** Single-cassette editions of the album move "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats" to track 11. While such reshuffling is normally to even out the lengths of each side, this change actually results in side 2 being considerably shorter than side 1, with the liner notes including a disclaimer that "there is an extended run off on Side 2."
148	* RedPillBluePill: An unusually late instance happens in "The Light Lies Down on Broadway", where Rael sees an opportunity to return home and resume his earlier normal life. The song's lyrics show him caught between that and continuing his surreal journey, ultimately choosing the latter after finding John in danger.
149	* RockOpera: One of the most famous.
150	* SexChangesEverything: [[BodyHorror The Slippermen]] are an extremely literal example of this trope, being transformed into hideous wet lumps of flesh after having sex with the Lamia.
151	* ShirtlessScene: Peter Gabriel during the ''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'' tour.
152	* ShoutOut:
153	** Plenty of the songs' lyrics shout out or paraphrase popular standards or rock oldies of TheFifties and TheSixties ("On Broadway", "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", "Needles and Pins", etc.).
154	** "Broadway Melody of 1974" namedrops media studies philosopher Marshall [=McLuhan=], comedian [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]], convict [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryl_Chessman Caryl Chessman]], and business magnate Creator/HowardHughes.
155	** "Carpet Crawlers" mentions how "mild-mannered Supermen are held in Kryptonite," an open-faced nod to the comic book character ComicBook/{{Superman}} and his Achilles' heel.
156	** The first line of "The Colony of Slippermen" is "[[Creator/WilliamWordsworth I wandered lonely as a cloud]]".
157	** "''it.''" ends with the repeated line, "[[Music/TheRollingStonesBand It's only knock and know-all]], [[Music/ItsOnlyRockNRoll but I like it]]." The song also refers to [[Music/JimiHendrix purple haze]].
158	* SiameseTwinSongs: Most of Side 1 (the songs that aren't examples of this generally use FadingIntoTheNextSong instead), the first three songs on Side 2, "Lilywhite Lilith" into "The Waiting Room", "Anyway" into "Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist", "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" into "Riding the Scree", and "In the Rapids" into "''it.''". (So, roughly half the album, then.)
159	* SnakesAreSexy: The Lamia, that seduce Rael into a rosewater pool. There's even a concert effect where a rotating tent with a snake pattern on it would lower on cue.
160	* SpecialGuest: A newly-solo Music/BrianEno provides vocal treatments (credited as "Enossification") on both "In the Cage" and "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging"; he also let the band borrow some equipment. In exchange, he asked Music/PhilCollins to play drums on his song "Mother Whale Eyeless" (whose parent album, ''Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)'', was being recorded in the studio next to where this album was being mixed).
161	* SplitPersonality: Music/PhilCollins described the album as being fundamentally about this trope, exemplified by the myriad of dichotomies in Rael's life (Rael vs. John, masculinity vs. femininity, trust vs. distrust, etc.) and the convergence of them all at the album's end (at the time, merging was the go-to treatment for dissociative identity disorder).
162	* SplashOfColor: While most of the album packaging is DeliberatelyMonochrome, the band logo on the front appears in vivid blue and green.
163	* SpookyPainting: The Creator/{{Hipgnosis}} album cover shows a man (presumably Rael) who has jumped out of his painting to look at the other paintings next to him.
164	* StarbucksSkinScale: Rael mentions his "chocolate fingers" in "The Lamia", tying in with the LatinoIsBrown stereotype and his depiction as Puerto Rican.
165	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Drummer Music/PhilCollins shares lead vocal duties with Peter Gabriel on "Counting out Time", "Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist" and "The Colony of Slippermen".
166	* SwitchingPOV: The narration in the songs constantly switches back and forth from first person to third person.
167	* TakeThat: Apparently, on various legs of the tour, Peter Gabriel (jokingly) compared the Slippermen, walking lumps of STD-riddled flesh, to either bassist Mike Rutherford or drummer Music/PhilCollins.
168	* ThievingMagpie: A raven plays a pivotal role in the story when [[spoiler:it flies off with the yellow tube containing Rael's genitals]].
169	* TitleTrack: "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway".
170	* TomatoInTheMirror: We discover at the very end that [[spoiler: Rael and his brother John whom he's spent the entire album chasing]] are actually the same person.
171	--> ''Hang on, [[spoiler: John]]! We're out of this at last\
172	Something's changed, it's not your face\
173	It's mine! It's'' mine!
174	* TwoPersonPoolParty: Or in this case, Rael and the three Lamia.
175	%%* UnreliableNarrator: Rael is practically made of this trope.
176	* WhamLine: "Something's changed, it's not your face! It's mine! It's ''mine''!"
177	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The titular lamb only appears in the TitleTrack, never appearing for the rest of the album (and thus never having its significance overtly explained) despite being its namesake.
178	* WipeThatSmileOffYourFace: Rael is shown like this on the back cover.
179	* YouAreNumberSix: In "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging", Rael notices John as part of the assembly line of people, with a serial number "9" stamped on his forehead.
180	----
181	->"'Cos it's only knock and know all, but I like it!"

Context Music / TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway