History Music / TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway

** "''it.''" ends with the repeated line, "[[Music/TheRollingStones It's only knock and know-all,]] [[Music/ItsOnlyRockNRoll but I like it.]]" The song also refers to [[Music/JimiHendrix purple]] [[Music/AreYouExperienced haze]].

** The first line of "The Colony of Slippermen" is "[[Creator/RobertBurns I wandered lonely as a cloud]]".

** "Broadway Melody of 1974" depict 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.

''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'' is the sixth studio album by English ProgressiveRock band Music/{{Genesis}}, released on 22 November 1974 through Creator/CharismaRecords in the United Kingdom and Creator/AtcoRecords in the United States.

* IntercourseWithYou: "Counting Out Time."

* MeaningfulEcho: Several musical cues reappear throughout the album. Most notably, the melody from the bridge of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" is reused as the intro of "Carpet Crawlers".
** There's also the beginning of "Back in NYC", which borrows from the beginning of "In The Cage", and the riff from "Broadway Melody of 1974" reappears without warning in "Lilywhite Lilith".
** Not to mention "The Light Dies Down on Broadway", which begins with motifs from "The Lamia" and turns into a full-blown DarkReprise of the title track.

* DigitalDestruction: Due to an indexing error, most 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; the original US CD release is one of few that properly preserves the intended starting point of the song.

* 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 vinyl album has their fingers on the face of one of the characters on the outside cover.

* TheEndingChangesEverything

* 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.

** "Broadway Melody of 1974" namedrops media studies philosopher Marshall [=McLuhan=], comedian [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]], killer Caryl Chessman, and business magnate Creator/HowardHughes.

* TakeThat: Apparently, on various legs of the tour, Peter Gabriel (jokingly) compared the Slippermen to either bassist Mike Rutherford or drummer Music/PhilCollins.

* YouAreNumberSix: "Brother John is number nine", from "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging".

* ADateWithRosiePalms: The final line of "Counting Out Time":

** Plenty of the songs' lyrics shout out or paraphrase popular standards or rock oldies of [[TheFifties the '50's]] and [[TheSixties '60's]] ("On Broadway", "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", "Needles and Pins", etc.).
** "Broadway Melody of 1974" namedrops media studies philosopher Marshall [=McLuhan=], killer Caryl Chessman, and business magnate Creator/HowardHughes.

* SnakesAreSexy: The Lamia, that seduce Rael into a rosewater pool. There's even a concert effect where snakelike props would drop in on cue.
* 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.

# "The Carpet Crawlers" (5:16)

* DarkReprise: "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" is sort of 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.

* MeaningfulEcho: Several musical cues reappear throughout the album. Most notably, the melody from the bridge of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" is reused as the intro of "The Carpet Crawlers".

** "The 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.

* SexChangesEverything: [[BodyHorror The Slippermen]] are an extremely literal example of this trope.

** "Carpet Crawlers" mentions how "mild-mannered [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Supermen]] are held in Kryptonite."

** The story Gabriel wrote for the liner notes.
** Rael's "guide to erogenous zones" in "Counting Out Time", InUniverse.

* DarkReprise: "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" is sort of a twisted reprise of the theme from the first song, mixed with part of the melody from "The Lamia".

* TheWalrusWasPaul: Gabriel's liner notes do little to clear the MindScrew.

** "''it.''" ends with the repeated line, "[[Music/TheRollingStones It's only knock and know-all, but I like it.]]" The song also refers to [[Music/AreYouExperienced purple haze]].

** Rael's "guide to erogenous zones" in ''Counting Out Time'', InUniverse.

* Steve Hackett - guitar
* Mike Rutherford - bass, guitar, bass pedals

->"'Cos it's only knock and know all, but I like it!"

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]].

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]]. Gabriel pitched a plot about a young half-Puerto Rican street kid from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity named Rael, embarking on [[MindScrew a surreal journey of self-discovery]] through a dream world. 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.

* ConceptAlbum: See the description in the introduction to this article.

%%* BreatherEpisode: "Hairless Heart", "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats"

* ShoutOut: Plenty of the songs' lyrics shout out or paraphrase popular standards or rock oldies of [[TheFifties the '50's]] and [[TheSixties '60's]] ("On Broadway", "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", "Needles and Pins", etc.). The first line of "The Colony of Slippermen" is "[[Creator/RobertBurns I wandered lonely as a cloud]]".

%%* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's mentioned only once, and then...

''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'' is the sixth studio album by Music/{{Genesis}}, released on 22 November 1974 through Creator/CharismaRecords in the United Kingdom and Creator/AtcoRecords in the United States.

* SpecialGuest: A newly-solo Music/BrianEno provides vocal treatments (credited as "Enossification") on both "In the Cage" and "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging".

----

Reviews and sales at the time were lukewarm, but over time it had garnered retrospective praise and a significant following, to a degree that it became certified Gold in the United States by 1990. Even after the departure of Peter Gabriel, the band played material from the album in concerts, especially the likes of "In the Cage" and "The Carpet Crawlers". Not only was it seen as one of Genesis' best albums, but it consistently was seen as one of the best progressive rock albums. As of 2020, it is ranked #522 in Website/AcclaimedMusic's [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums most critically-acclaimed lists of all time]].

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/PeterGabriel1977 his first self-titled album]].

** "The Carpet Crawlers" was rerecorded for ''Turn It On Again: The Hits'' as "The Carpet Crawlers 1999" in... well... 1999. Notable for being the last time to date all five members who worked on this album -- Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford, Banks, and Collins -- have performed together.

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]].

* BoleroEffect: "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" makes use of this courtesy of Brian Eno's synthesized treatments.

Are waved in welcome, say "Please join in""

* BodyHorror: The Slippermen. The infamous costume Peter Gabriel wore in concerts was made to resemble a grotesque, diseased STD with huge swellings.

Are waved in welcome, say "Please join in"

%%* BodyHorror: The Slippermen.
%%* BoleroEffect: "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" makes use of this.

%%* SnakesAreSexy: The Lamia.

* BodyHorror: The Slippermen.
* BoleroEffect: "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" makes use of this.

* [[BreatherEpisode Breather Song]]: "Hairless Heart", "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats"

* NoEnding: See GainaxEnding above.
* [[PrecisionFStrike Precision S-Strike]]: "Back in NYC".

* SnakesAreSexy: The Lamia.

* UnreliableNarrator: Rael is practically made of this trope.

* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to the Lamb?]]: It's mentioned only once, and then...

[[quoteright:302:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Lamb_Lies_Down_On_Broadway_7030.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:302:''"We've got to get in to get out."'']]

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 Pete 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]].

Reviews and sales at the time were lukewarm, but over time it had garnered retrospective praise and a significant following, to a degree that it became certified gold in the United States by 1990. Even after the departure of Peter Gabriel, the band played material from the album in concerts, especially the likes of "In the Cage" and "The Carpet Crawlers". Not only was it seen as one of Genesis' best albums, but it consistently was seen as one of the best progressive rock albums. As of 2020, it is ranked #522 in Website/AcclaimedMusic's [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums most critically-acclaimed lists of all time]].