THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

Peter Gabriel's last album with Genesis is a masterful work--perhaps the best concept album of the era. Because others have done a commendable, thorough job of reviewing the music on the album, I will focus my comments on what I believe to be the central theme of the album. Although the story is at times oblique, ultimately "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" is a celebration of free will, as well as a call to put others before yourself. Anticipating a later Gabriel solo song, it is a message to the listener to D.I.Y. Rael, the main character in the story, blames a host of outside sources for the plight in which he finds himself (Rael is trapped in an alternative, underground universe that is the mirror image of his New York home). This tendency to blame others--society, his mother and father, women with whom he has failed romantic adventures, the notorious Dr. Dyper, The Raven, and in particular his brother John-- provides a ready-made excuse for his plight, but also makes it impossible for Rael the escape the bonds that have entrapped him. Only when Rael ignores an opportunity to escape the world that imprisons him, choosing instead to attempt to save his brother, does he find deliverance. Choosing to risk his life to save Brother John, Rael dives into a cold, rapid river, managing to pull both he and John to safety. He is shocked, however, to find that as he drags his brother to the shore and turns his brother's body over, the face he sees is not that of John, but his own. At that instant, Rael realizes that it was really himself, and not his brother John or anyone else, who had made the choices in the past that had left him stuck in "this foresaken place." The album then closes with a soaring tribute to the threats and opportunities that come with living a life that is characterized by free will. Gabriel's message is to embrace the here and now and to take responsibility for yourself and for your life, as reflected in the last line of the album- -"Cos It's only Knock and Knowall, but I like It!"