Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Io lo adoro…

Sotto il profilo prettamente musicale il full lenhgt, dal quale furono estratti i singoli Counting Out Time e Carpet Crawlers, contiene ben ventitre composizioni più consone per durata alla forma canzone (soltanto The Colony of Slippermen (The Arrival / A Visit to the Doktor / Raven) valica gli otto minuti) in controtendenza, quindi, con quanto usualmente praticato dalle band facenti parte del movimento progressivo. Possiamo, inoltre, affermare che alcune canzoni hanno sonorità che ritroveremo nei primi fortunati lavori solisti di Gabriel ed, al riguardo, sono molti i critici che considerano The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway un lavoro più da attribuire a Gabriel che ai Genesis. Tra i numerosi brani alcuni vanno annoverati come capolavori assoluti: la movimentata titletrack (formidabile l’intro di Tony Banks), la tenerissima e semplice Cuckoo Cocoon, l’armoniosa Carpet Crawlers (il mio brano preferito, in cui il vocalism di Gabriel raggiunge un pathos intenso e struggente), l’incisiva ossessiva In The Cage, la disincantata Counting Out Time, la psichedelica strumentale The Waiting Room (gli effetti elettronici sono di Brian Eno), la delicata The Lamia, la citata composita The Colony of Slippermen (The Arrival / A Visit to the Doktor / Raven) e la conclusiva solare It.
L’opera rock The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway venne eseguita dal vivo per 102 volte, tra il 20 novembre 1974 ed il 27 maggio 1975, ed è un peccato che non esista alcuna ripresa filmata ufficiale perchè i Genesis in quel momento storico erano all’apice della bravura nelle loro teatrali esibizioni live.
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway è un disco stupendo, a tratti ostico, diverso dai capolavori precedenti, ma degno epilogo di una formazione intramontabile. (Metallized)

Tracklist
Disc 1
1. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
2. Fly On A Windshield
3. Broadway Melody Of 1974
4. Cuckoo Cocoon
5. In The Cage
6. The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging
7. Back In N.Y.C.
8. Hairless Heart
9. Counting Out Time
10. Carpet Crawlers
11. The Chamber Of 32 Doors
Disc 2
1. Lilywhite Lilith
2. The Waiting Room
3. Anyway
4. Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist
5. The Lamia
6. Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats
7. The Colony Of Slippermen (The Arrival/A Visit To The Doktor/Raven)
8. Ravine
9. The Light Dies Down On Broadway
10. Riding The Scree
11. In The Rapids
12. it.

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The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

And the lamb lies down on Broadway.

Early morning Manhattan,
Ocean winds blow on the land.
The Movie-Palace is now undone,
The all-night watchmen have had their fun.
Sleeping cheaply on the midnight show,
It's the same old ending-time to go.
Get out!
It seems they cannot leave their dream.
There's something moving in the sidewalk steam,
And the lamb lies down on Broadway.

Nightime's flyers feel their pains.
Drugstore takes down the chains.
Metal motion comes in bursts,
But the gas station can quench that thirst.
Suspension cracked on unmade road
The trucker's eyes read 'Overload'
And out on the subway,
Rael Imperial Aerosol Kid
Exits into daylight, spraygun hid,
And the lamb lies down on Broadway.

The lamb seems right out of place,
Yet the Broadway street sceng finds a focus in its face.
Somehow it's lying there,
Brings a stillness to the air.
Though man-made light, at night is very bright,
There's no whitewash victim,
As the neons dim, to the coat of white.
Rael Imperial Aerosol Kid,
Wipes his gun-he's forgotten what he did,
And the lamb lies down on Broadway.

Suzanne tired her work all done,
Thinks money-honey-be on-neon.
Cabman's velvet glove sounds the horn
And the sawdust king spits out his scorn.
Wonder women draw your blind!
Don't look at me! I'm not your kind.
I'm Rael!
Something inside me has just begun,
Lord knows what I have done,
And the lamb lies down on Broadway.
On Broadway-
They say the lights are always bright on Broadway.
They say there's always magic in the air.
Fly On A Windshield
There's something solid forming in the air,
The wall of death is lowered in Times Square.
No-one seems to care,
They carry on as if nothing was there.
The wind is blowing harder now,
Blowing dust into my eyes.
The dust settles on my skin,
Making a crust I cannot move in
And I'm hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the freeway.
Broadway Melody Of 1974
Echoes of the Broadway Everglades,
With her mythical madonnas still walking in their shades:
Lenny Bruce, declares a truce and plays his other hand.
Marshall McLuhan, casual viewin', head buried in the sand.
Sirens on the rooftops wailing, but there's no ship sailing.
Groucho, with his movies trailing, stands alone with his punchline failing.
Klu Klux Klan serve hot soul food and the band plays 'In the Mood'
The cheerleader waves her cyanide wand, there's a smell of
peach blossom and bitter almonde.
Caryl Chessman sniffs the air and leads the parade, he know in a scent,
you can bottle all you made.
There's Howard Hughes in blue suede shoes, smiling at the majorettes
smoking Winston Cigarettes.
And as the song and dance begins, the children play at home
with needles; needles and pins.

Cuckoo Cocoon

Wrapped up in some powdered wool-I guess I'm losing touch.
Don't tell me I'm dying, 'cos I ain't changed that much.
The only sound is water drops, I wonder where the hell I am,
Some kind of jam?
Cuckoo Cocoon have I come to, too soon for you?
There's nothing I can recognise; this is nowhere that I've known.
With no sign of life at all, I guess that I'm alone,
And I feel so secure that I know this can't be real but I feel good.
Cuckoo cocoon have I come to, too soon for you?
I wonder if I'm a prisoner locked up in some Brooklyn jail
-or some sort of Jonah shut up inside the whale.
No-I'm still Rael and I'm stuck in some kind of cave,
what could've saved me?
Cuckoo cocoon have I come to, too soon for you?

In The Cage
There's sunshine in my stomach
Like I just rocked my baby to sleep.
There's sunshine in my stomach
And I can't keep me from creeping sleep,
Sleep, deep in the deep.
Rockface moves to press my skin
White liquids turn sour within
Turn fast-turn sour
Turn sweat-turn sour.
Must tell myself that I'm not here.
I'm drowning in a liquid fear.
Bottled in a strong compression,
My distortion shows obsession
In the cave.
Get me out of this cave!
If I keep my self-control,
I'll be safe in my soul.
And the childhood belief
Brings a moment's relief,
But my cynic soon returns
And the lifeboat burns.
My spirit just never learns.
Stalactites, Stalagmites
Shut me in, lock me tight.
Lips are dry, throat is dry.
Feel like burning, stomach churning,
I'm dressed up in a white costume
Padding out leftover room.
Body stretching, feel the wretching
In the cage
Get me out of this cage!
In the glare of a light,
I see a strange kind of sight;
Of cages joined to form a star
Each person can't go very far;
All tied to their things
They are netted by their strings,
Free to flutter in memories of their wasted wings.
Outside the cage I see my Brother John,
He turns his head so slowly round.
I cry out help! before he can be gone,
And he looks at me without a sound.
And I shout 'John please help me!'
But he does not even want to try to speak.
I'm helpless in my violent rage
And a silent tear of blood dribbles down his cheek,
And I watch him turn away and leave the cage.
My little runaway.
In a trap, feel a strap
Holding still. Pinned for kill.
Chances narrow that I'll make it,
In the cushioned straight-jacket.
Just like 22nd Street,
When they got me by my neck and feet.
Pressures building, can't take any more.
My headaches charge. My earaches roar.
In the pain
Get me out of this pain.
If I could change to liquid,
I could fill the cracks up in the rock.
But I know that I am solid
And I am my own bad luck.
But outside John disappears and my cage dissolves,
and without any reason my body revolves.
Keep on turning,
Keep on turning,
Turning around,
spinning around.

The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
"The last great adventure left to mankind"
-Screams a drooping lady
offering her dreamdolls at less than extortionate prices,
and as the notes and coins are taken out
I'm taken in, to the factory floor.
For the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
-All ready to use
the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
-just need a fuse.
Got people stocked in every shade,
Must be doing well with trade.
Stamped, addressed, in odd fatality.
That evens out their personality.
With profit potential marked by a sign,
I can recognise some of the production line,
No bite at all in labour bondage,
Just wrinkled wrappers or human bandage.
The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
-All ready to use
It's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
-just need a fuse.
The hall runs like clockwork
Their hands mark out the time,
Empty in their fullness
Like a frozen pantomime.
Everyone's a sales representative
Wearing slogans in their shrine.
Dishing out failsafe superlative,
Brothere John is No. 9.
For the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
-All ready to use
It's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
-just need a fuse.
The decor on the ceiling
has planned out their future day
I see no sign of free will,
so I guess I'll have to pay,
pay my way,
for the Grand Parade.
for the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
-All ready to use
the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
-just need a fuse.

Back in N.Y.C.
I see faces and traces of home back in New York City-
So you think I'm a tough kid? Is that what you heard?
Well I like to see some action and it gets into my blood.
The call me the trail blazer-Rael-electric razor.
I'm the pitcher in the chain gang, we don't believe in pain
'cos we're only as strong, as the weakesst link in the chain.
Let me out of Pontiac when I was just seventeen,
I had to get it out of me, if you know what I mean, what I mean.
You say I must be crazy, 'cos KI don't care who I hit, who I hit.
But I know it's me that's hitting out and I'm not full of shit.
I don't care who I hurt, I don't care who I do wrong.
This is your mess I'm stuck in, I really don't belong.
When I take out my bottle, filled up high with gasoline,
You can tell by the night fires where Rael has been, has been.
As I cuddled the porcupine
He said I had none to blame, but me.
Held my heart, deep in hair,
Time to shave, shave it off, it off.
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. No!
Off we go.
You're sitting in your comfort you don't believe I'm real,
You cannot buy protection from the way that I feel.
Your progressive hypocrites hand out their trash,
But it was mine in the first place, so I'll burn it to ash.
And I've tasted all the strongest meats,
And laid them down in coloured sheets.
Who needs illusion of love and affection
When you're out walking the streets with your mainline connection? connection.
As I cuddle the porcupine
He said I had none to blame, but me.
Held my heart, deep in hair.
Time to shave, shave it off, it off.
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. No!

Counting Out Time
I'm counting out time,
Got the whole thing down by numbers.
All those numbers!
Give my guidance!
O Lord I need that now.
The day of judgement's come,
And you can bet that I've been resting,
for this testing,
Digesting every word the experts say.
Erogenous zones I love you.
Without you, what would a poor boy do?
Found a girl I wanted to date,
Thought I'd better get it straight.
Went to buy a book before it's too late.
Don't leave nothing to fate.
And I have studied every line, every page in the book,
And now I've got the real thing here, I'm gonna take a look, take a look.
This is Rael!
I'm counting out time, hoping it goes like I planned it,
'cos I understand it. Look! I've found the hotspots, Figs 1-9.
-still counting out time, got my finger on the button,
"Don't say nuttin-just lie there still
And I'll get you turned on just fine."
Erongenous zones I love you.
Without you, what would a poor boy do?
Touch and go with 1-6.
Bit of trouble in zone No. 7.
Gotta remember all of my tricks.
There's heaven ahead in No. 11!
Getting crucial responses with dialation of the pupils.
"Honey get hip! It's time to unzip, to unzip. Whipee!"
-Move over Casanova-
I'm counting out time, reaction none to happy,
Please don't slap me,
I'm a red blooded male and the book said I could not fail.
I'm counting out time, I got unexpected distress from my mistress,
I'll get my money back from the bookstore right away.
Erongenous zones I question you-
Without you, what would a poor boy do?
Without you, mankind handkinds thru' the blues.

The Carpet Crawlers
There is lambswool under my naked feet.
The wool is soft and warm,
-gives off some kind of heat.
A salamander scurries into flame to be destroyed.
Imaginary creatures are trapped in birth on celluloid.
The fleas cling to the golden fleece,
Hoping they'll find peace.
Each thought and gesture are caught in celluloid.
There's no hiding in my memory.
There's no room to void.
The crawlers cover the floor in the red ochre corridor.
For my second sight of people, they've more lifeblood than before.
They're moving. They're moving in time to a heavy wooden door,
Where the needle's eye is winking, closing in on the poor.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."
There's only one direction in the faces that I see;
It's upward to the ceiling, where the chambers said to be.
Like the forest fight for sunlight, that takes root in every tree.
They are pulled up by the magnet, believing that they're free.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."
Mild mannered supermen are held in kryptonite,
And the wise and foolish virgins giggle with their bodies glowing bright.
Through a door a harvest feast is lit by candlight;
It's the bottom of a staircase that spirals out of sight.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."
The porcelain mannikin with shattered skin fears attack.
The eager pack lift up their pitchers- the carry all they lack.
The liquid has congealed, which has seeped out through the crack,
And the tickler takes his stickleback.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."

The Chamber of 32 Doors
At the top of the stairs, their's hundreds of people,
running around to all the doors.
They try to find themselves an audience;
their deductions need applause.
The rich man stands in front of me,
The poor man behind my back.
They believe they can control the game,
but the juggler holds another pack.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I'd rather trust a countryman than a townman,
You can judge by his eyes, take a look if you can,
He'll smile through his guard,
Survival trains hard.
I'd rather trust a man who works with his hands,
He looks at you once, you know he understands,
Don't need any shield,
When you're out in the field.
But down here,
I'm so alone with my fear,
With everything that I hear.
And every single door, that I've walked through
Brings me back here again,
I've got to find my own way.
The priest and the magician,
Singing all the chants that they have ever heard;
They're all calling out my name,
Even academics, searching printed word.
My father to the left of me,
My mother to the right,
Like everyone else they'er pointing
But nowhere feels quite right.
And I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I'd rather trust a man who doesn't shout what he's found,
There's no need to sell if you're homeward bound.
If I chose a side,
He won't take me for a ride.
Back inside
This chamber of so many doors;
I've nowhere to hide.
I'd give you all of my dreams, if you'd help me,
Find a door
That doesn't lead me back again
-take me away.

Lilywhite Lilith
The chamber was in confusion-all the voices shouting loud.
I could only just hear, a voice quite near say, "Please help me
through the crowd"
'Said if I helped her thru' she could help me too, but I could
see that she was wholly blind.
But from her pale face and her pale skin, a moonlight shined.
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna take you thru' the tunnel of night.
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna lead you right.
When I'd led her through the people, the angry noise began to grow.
She said "Let me feel the way the breezes blow, and I'll show
you where to go."
So I followed her into a big round cave, she said "They're coming
for you, now don't be afraid."
Then she sat me down on a cold stone throne, carved in jade.
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna take you thru' the tunnel of night.
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna lead you right.
She leaves me in my darkness,
I have to face my fear,
And the darkness closes in on me,
I can hear a whirring sound growling near.
I can see the corner of the tunnel,
Lit up by whatever's coming here.
Two golden globes float into the room
And a blaze of white light fills the air.

Anyway
All the pumping's nearly over for my sweet heart,
This is the one for me,
Time to meet the chef,
O boy! running man is out of death.
Feel cold and old, it's getting hard to catch my breath.
's back to ash, now, you've had your flash boy
The rocks, in time, compress
your blood to oil,
your flesh to coal,
enrich the soil,
not everybody's goal.
Anyway, they say she comes on a plale horse,
But I'm sure I hear a train.
O boy! I don't even feel no pain-
I guess I must be driving myself insane.
Damn it all! does earth plug a hole in heaven,
Or heaven plug a hole in the earth-'how wonderful to be so profound,
when everything you are is dying underground.'
I feel the pull on the rope, let me off at the rainbow.
I could have been exploding in space
Different orbits for my bones
Not me, just quietly buried in stones,
Keep the deadline open with my maker!
See me stretch; for God's elastic acre
The doorbell rings and it's
"Good morning Rael
So sorry you had to wait.
It won't be long, yeh!
She's very rarely late."

The Supernatural Anaesthetist
Here comes the supernatural anaesthetist.
If he wants you to snuff it,
All he has to do is puff it
-he's such a fine dancer.

The Lamia
The scent grows richer, he knows he must be near,
He finds a long passageway lit by chandelier.
Each step he takes, the perfumes change
>From familiar fragrance to flavours strange.
A magnificent chamber meets his eye.
Inside, a long rose-water pool is shrouded by fine mist.
Stepping in the moist silence, with a warm breeze he's gently kissed.
Thinking he is quite alone,
He enters the room, as if it were his own,
But ripples on the sweet pink water
Reveal some company unthought of-
Rael stands astonished doubting his sight,
Struck by beauty, gripped in fright;
Three vermilion snakes of female face,
The smallest motion, filled with grace.
Muted melodies fill the echoing hall,
But there is no sign of warning in the siren's call:
"Rael welcome, we are the Lamia of the pool.
We have been waiting for our waters to bring you cool."
Putting fear beside him, he trusts in beauty blind,
He slips into the nectar, leaving his shredded clothes behind.
"With their tongues, they test, taste and judge all that is mine.
They move in a series of caresses
That glide up and down my spine.
As they nibble the fruit of my flesh, I feel no pain,
Only a magic that a name would stain.
With the first drop of my blood in their veins
Their faces are convulsed in mortal pains.
The fairest cries, 'We all have loved you Rael'."
Each empty snakelike body floats,
Silent sorrow in empty boats.
A sickly sourness fills the room,
The bitter harvest of a dying bloom.
Looking for motion I know I will not find,
I stroke the curls now turning pale, in which I'd lain entwined
"O Lamia, your flesh that remains I will take as my food"
It is the scent of garlic that lingers on my choclate fingers.
Looking behind me, the water turns icy blue,
The lights are dimmed and once again the stage is set for you.

The Colony of Slippermen:
The Arrival
Rael:
I wandered lonely as a cloud,
Till I came upon this dirty street.
I've never seen a stranger crowd;
Slubberdegullions on a squeaky feet,
Continually pacing,
With nonchalant embracing,
Each orifice disgracing
And one facing me moves to say "hellay".
His skin's all covered in slimy lumps.
With lips that slide across each chin.
His twisted limbs like rubber stamps
Are waved in welcome say 'Please join in.'
My grip must be flipping,
Cos his handshake keeps slipping,
My hopes keep on dipping
And his lips keep on smiling all the time.
Slipperman:
"We like you, have tasted love.
Don't be alarmed at what you see,
You yourself are just the same
As what you see in me."
Rael:
Me, like you? like that!
Slipperman:
"You better watch it son, your sentence has only just begun
You better run and join your brother John."

A Visit to the Doktor
Slipperman:
"You're in the colony of slippermen.
There's no who? why? what? or when?
You get out if you've got the gripe
To see, Doktor Dyper, reformed sniper-
he'll whip off your windscreenwiper
Rael:
John and I are able
To face the Doktor and his marble table.
The Doktor:
Understand Rael, it's the end of your tail.
Rael:
"Don't delay, dock the dick!"
I watch his countdown timer tick......

The Raven
He places the number into a tube,
A yellow plastic "shoobedoobe".
It says: "Though your fingers may tickle
You'll be safe in our pickle."
Suddenly, black cloud comes down from the sky.
It's a supersize black bird that sure can fly.
The raven brings on darkness and night
He flies right down, gives me one hell of a fright.
He takes the tube right out of my hands
Man, I've got to find out where that black bird lands.
"Look here John, I've got to run
I need you now, you going to come?"
He says to me.
John:
"Now can't you see
Where the raven flies there's jeopardy.
We've been cured on the couch
Now you're sick with your grouch.
I'll not risk my honey pouch
Which my slouch will wear slung very low."
Rael:
He walks away and leaves me once again.
Even though I never learn,
I'd hoped he'd show just some concern.
I'm in agony of Slipperpain
I pray my undercarriage will sustain.
The chase is on, the pace is hot
But I'm running so very hard with everything I've got.
He leads me down an underpass
Though it narrows, he still flies very fast,
When the tunnel stops
I catch sight of the tube, just as it drops.
I'm on top of a bank, to steep to climb,
I see it hit the water, just in time,
to watch it float away.

The Light Dies Down on Broadway
As he walks along the gorge's edge,
He meets a sense of yesteryear.
A window in the bank above his head
Reveals his home amidst the streets.
Subway sounds, the sounds of complaint
The smell of acid on his gun of paint.
As it carves out anger in a blood-red band,
Destroyed tomorrow by an unknown hand;
-My home.
Is this the way out from this endless scene?
Or just an entrance to another dream?
And the light dies down on Broadway.
But as the skylight beckons him to leave,
He hears a scream fro far below.
Within the raging water, writhes the form
Of brother John, he cries for help.
The gate is fading now, but open wide,
But John is drowning, I must decide
Between the freedom I had in the rat-race,
Or to stay forever in this forsaken place;
Hey John!
He makes for the river and the gate is gone,
Back to the void where it came from.
And the light dies down on Broadway.

Riding the Scree
Struggling down the slope,
There's not much hope.
I begin to try to ride the scree,
but the rocks are tumbling all around me.
If I want John alive,
I've got to ditch my fear-take a dive,
While I've still got my drive to survive.
Evel Knievel, you got nothing on me.
Here I go!

In the Rapids
Moving down the water
John is drifting out of sight,
It's only at the turning point
That you find out how to fight.
In the cold, feel the cold
all around
And the rush of crashing water
Surround me with its sound.
Striking out to reach you,
I can't get through to the other side.
When you're racing in the rapids
There's only one way, that's to ride.
Taken down, taken down
by the undertow
And I'm spiralled down the river bed,
My fire is burning low.
Catching hold of a rock that's firm,
I'm waiting for John to be carried past.
We hold together and shoot the rapids fast.
And when the waters slow down
The dark and the deep
have no-one left to keep.
Hang on John! We're out of this at last.
Something's changed, that's not your face.
It's mine!
It
When it's cold, it comes slow.
it is warm, just watch it grow.
-all around me.
it is here. it is now.
Just a little bit of it can bring you up or down.
Like the supper it is cooking in your hometown.
it is chicken, it is eggs,
it is in between your legs.
it is walking on the moon,
leaving your cocoon.
it is the jigsa. it is purple haze.
it never stays in one place, but it's not a passing phase,
it is in the single's bar, in the distance of the face,
it is in between the cages, it is always in a space
it is here. it is now.
Any rock can be made to roll,
If you've enough of it to pay the toll.
it has no home in words or goal,
Not even in your favourite hole.
it is the hope for the dope.
When you ride the horse without a hoof.
it is shaken, not stirred;
Cocktails on the roof.
When you eat right fru it you see everything alive,
it is inside spirit, with enough grit to survive
If you think it's pretentious, you've been taken for a ride.
Look across the mirror, before you chose de cide
it is here. it is now
it is Rael. it is Rael
'cos it's only knock and knowall, but I like it.