The 1974 Genesis album that was almost too painful to make: “Came out kicking and screaming”
Any double album seems to mark a definitive change in an artist’s discography. For all of the great music that they had made before or even will make after, having two separate discs of material can either be a mess or a testament to an artist reaching a level where they can do no wrong.
While Genesis could have certainly joined the company of rock and roll legends on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Steve Hackett remembered it being an incredibly painful project to make.
Then again, Genesis had made intense prog music in their sleep by the time they reached their double record. Compared to other acts like Yes and King Crimson, Peter Gabriel led the prog-rock geniuses into unchartered territory on every album, each one managing to keep people captivated while playing in some of the most uncommon time signatures imaginable.
But just making sonic vignettes wasn’t enough for them. They needed to reach for something bigger, and considering how many moving parts are behind The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, it may as well have been a massive theatre production.
The ambition of the project reflected Genesis at their most fearless. Rather than chasing the commercial success that had begun to come their way, the band doubled down on elaborate storytelling, constructing one of the most expansive and theatrical concepts in progressive rock.
While Gabriel was diplomatic about letting Phil Collins sing a handful of tunes on the album, it really is the frontman’s baby from back to front, especially when it hit the live stage. Since Gabriel was already known for his outlandish outfits whenever a Genesis concert began, the accompanying tour looked like the kind of musical that Broadway hadn’t yet picked up, which was probably the only way the title track could have done justice.
The scale of the production, however, only increased the pressure behind the scenes. With Gabriel driving much of the album’s narrative and the rest of the band contributing increasingly complex music, the recording process became one of the most demanding of Genesis’ career.
Despite tracks like ‘Counting Out Time’ being perfectly serviceable prog rock tunes, Hackett found it difficult getting everyone’s ideas on the table, telling Louder, “When it was done, I just remember thinking: ‘Phew’. Some albums are a natural birth. This one was definitely a breech birth. It came out kicking and screaming rather than in the tranquillity of a birthing pool in your living room.”
By the time the group actually got out on the road, though, Gabriel had already started to check out mentally. He had constructed this fantastic musical piece, but his time away from his family was starting to wear on him, leading to him asking the manager if he was going to leave the band halfway through the tour.
After getting Collins up front to sing, A Trick of the Tail introduced the next era of Genesis to the world, taking the same complex formula and using it to make standalone tracks rather than telling some grand storyline. Since there were just four now, it also gave everyone room to stretch, including Hackett making some of his more impressive guitar runs on ‘Dance on a Volcano’ or Tony Banks mastering his touch on keyboards on ‘Squonk’.
Even though Gabriel did get off the ground with his solo debut, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the sacrificial lamb from that era of the group. Both lineups had their own benefits, but their double album marked the moment where Gabriel had taken them as far as he possibly could.
Looking back, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway stands as both an ending and a beginning. It marked the culmination of Peter Gabriel’s visionary influence on Genesis while simultaneously clearing the path for Phil Collins’ emergence as frontman. Painful though its creation may have been, the album remains one of progressive rock’s defining statements precisely because it captured a band pushing itself to its absolute limits.
