The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

BaldJean wrote: I'll repeat what I said in the "Lamb vs. Wall" thread: interesing that many people seem to think the 2nd part of TLLDOB is "weak". I much prefer it to the first part. it is definitely the more experimental part. but when looking at the story it is quite fitting the album develops like this, because the adventures of Rael just get weirder and weirder, so I don't really complain. by far the best album of Genesis.

 Excellent post. I think ths story is mainly a vehicle for doing a variety of emotions through the music.It seems to start as a social commentary but ends up in the realm of the totally absurd. So you can find what you want in it, one interpretation is as good as another. You may listen to a record hundreds of times but you would hardly read something hundreds of times. So I think what Gabriel did with his lyrics is make something that was meaningful yet not totally discernable without taking itself too seriously and having a comic edge .

 Therefore i find Gabriel to be amongst the best prog lyricists if not the best

Losendos wrote: BaldJean wrote: I'll repeat what I said in the "Lamb vs. Wall" thread: interesing that many people seem to think the 2nd part of TLLDOB is "weak". I much prefer it to the first part. it is definitely the more experimental part. but when looking at the story it is quite fitting the album develops like this, because the adventures of Rael just get weirder and weirder, so I don't really complain. by far the best album of Genesis.  Excellent post. I think ths story is mainly a vehicle for doing a variety of emotions through the music.It seems to start as a social commentary but ends up in the realm of the totally absurd. So you can find what you want in it, one interpretation is as good as another. You may listen to a record hundreds of times but you would hardly read something hundreds of times. So I think what Gabriel did with his lyrics is make something that was meaningful yet not totally discernable without taking itself too seriously and having a comic edge .  Therefore i find Gabriel to be amongst the best prog lyricists if not the best

I see it as going from the real to the surreal.  Whether of not the lamb lying down on Broadway indicates that it is a dream I am not sure. But it is in the tradition of the epic, in which a hero goes through a series of adventures or mishaps to arrive at a destination. This destination seems to be the discovery of his true self, which of course is a very sixities concept. This story would seem to involve a descent into hell and a purification at the end through Gabriel's water imagery.

I think if you knew the mythological context that he is drawing from, the piece would be a lot clearer than it seems now. The surreal part of the second phase would seem to be an indication of some kind of trip that reveals the basis of mytholgical realities through which Rael lives his life. He must purge those realities to come to a deeper understanding of who he is. Thus, Rael becomes Real. I think Gabriel chooses NY because it is the most decadent, least romantic place on earth. It is the modern city that holds all those mythologies.