Genesis - Gabriel Lies Down On Broadway

Okay, this is really hard for me to admit, but recently, I've found myself liking certain tracks by Genesis, principally 'Supper's Ready' and the whole second CD of Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.  In a mad panic, I decided to acquire their other albums surrounding this period just to reassure myself that I was in fact just having a sanity blip and would promptly be back to hating them by morning light.  It didn't work.  I tried hammering PFM's entire back catalogue into my ears ALL DAY, to quell the echo's of Gabriel's dulcet tones.  No use.  Every time the music stopped, I kept imagining the "great dodgy prog bum grape" appearing with "And it's.....hey babe"

Anyway, here's a Genesis question from essentially a Newbie (excuses).  Is it my imagination, or does Gabriel suddenly leap from well-bred Home Counties BBC accent on Foxtrot/  ("And its...." ) or Selling England By The Pound (whichever came first), to a bona fide New Yawk drawl on the Lamb Lies Down - and is this deliberate? Has he become Broadway?  Its just that, by the time Collins starts singing on Trick of the Tail (thank God for that album - something I can really hate....), we're back to Chas'N'Dave style cockney innit dawlin'. 

Sorry to any Americanos out there who might be wondering what the hell I'm on about.

arcer wrote: just another one of Gabriel's on-record personas I would guess. Much dropping into character's voices on 'Harold the Barrel' and 'The Battle of Epping Forest' etc

Yup, that's pretty much it. Gabriel was a very theatrical singer and would often act out different roles during songs (listen to "Get 'em out by Friday" and you'll hear Gabriel doing a whole cast of characters).

As for "The lamb lies down on broadway", the whole thing is set in New York and Peter is stepping in to the persona of Rael which is the main character of the story (actually a Puerto Rican kid in NYC).

 Interesting you say that, as I remember hearing Jeff Buckley cover 'Back In NYC' on Sketches, and of all the songs on the double album, that was the one that immediately stuck in my head - I didn't even know it was Genesis at the time!

My discovery of Genesis gets more intriguing.  Are there any other websites with all this trivia b****ks on it, as I dont want to bore the Geneso-dinosaurs on this site with the same old questions again.  I'm scared to go on the official site in case someone sees the URL on my computer . 

As Jethro said before, Peter assumed the chatracter of RAEL, a young Puerto Rican troubled kid, so he uses the New York accent, one of his main talents was assuming different characters and voices during his songs and albums.

Try Battle for the Epping Forest and you'll here 10 or more different voices or personas all interpreted by Gabriel.

By the way, I TOLD YOU....Sooner or later you'll be a Genesis fan, welcome to the Genesis family 

Iván

   Hi, new here.  Just don't understand how you can be a fan of prog-rock and not like Genesis, and especially Peter Gabriel. I recomend you have a listen to it all. Every album they have done has a couple of good songs on them. My preference is the Gabriel era, wish I had of seen them then. Have

Rob The Good wrote: You should never be ashamed of liking Genesis...unless it's 80s pop Genesis

 They should have changed their name when Gabriel left.  DEUTERONOMY or something.  Then again when Hackett left - CHRONICLES. 

threefates wrote: Poor Ninian... you fell so easily!!  So sad

 I know, it didn't take very much - couple of listens really.  I'm not coping well with this.

I'm still having trouble stomaching Nursery Cryme, SEBTP and the later ones, but the Lamb Lies Down and Foxtrot have some really good moments.  I'd never reached the second CD of Lamb before, in fact, I'd never got to the end of the first one, and I think forcing myself to listen to the whole thing is what did it. 

I also think the timing was right - I've been listening to the same things for years and have been hard pushed to find anything of the standard of PFM that I can alternate between.  ELP sometimes fill in, but I can only play a few compilations I've made as their horror moments make me homicidal   !!  Genesis aren't quite up there with PFM, but bits of it do have a similar 'feel' (what a crap analogy!!).  

Wrath of Ninian wrote:

This is YOUR fault Ivan - if we'd not had that fight, I'd never have gone back to listen to them again and they'd be resting in my "Vault of the Don't Waste Your Time" along with Kansas, Styx, Alan Parsons, and all 80s prog.

Don't be unfair Wrath, we never fought, we only had a discussion, but today I'm proud of a job well done

I'll wait a few weeks to introduce you to the wonders of Kansas, band that you unfairly lump with Styx and late Alan Parsons. Hope I will succeed again.

God I feel like the Evangelist of the hated bands.

Iván