Genesis Songs - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Lyrics

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Released: 1974

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Lyrics

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 scene 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.

Writer/s: RUTHERFORD, MICHAEL/GABRIEL, PETER/COLLINS, PHIL
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, IMAGEM U.S. LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Song Chart

This tells the story of Rael, a poor Puerto Rican boy from The Bronx. As "The Lamb," Rael goes on an adventure in New York City. Peter Gabriel explained to The Daily Telegraph September 30, 2014 that the album, "was intended to be an intense story of a young rebellious Puerto Rican in New York who would face challenges with family, authority, sex, love and self-sacrifice to learn a little more about himself. I wanted to mix his dreams with his reality, in a kind of urban rebel Pilgrim's Progress."

The full story is in the liner notes of the album.

This was the basis for an elaborate stage production Genesis performed at concerts. It was on this tour that Peter Gabriel decided to leave the band.

There are references to classic songs throughout the album, and this track recalls "On Broadway," which was a hit for The Drifters in 1963.

On their 1974 tour, Genesis played the album from start to finish. Gabriel wore several costumes throughout the show, including a grotesque mask during "The Colony Of Slippermen."

This was the first song and title track to the double album which was the last Peter Gabriel contribution to Genesis.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was a song-cycle whose hero Rael shared a name with "Rael (1 and 2)," a track on The Who's 1967 album, The Who Sell Out. Mojo April 2010 asked Peter Gabriel if it was a conscious tribute to The Who's Pete Townshend. He replied: "It was a subconscious tribute because I certainly wasn't aware of it at the time. I spent a long time thinking of that name, like Ra the Sun God. But I was a big Who fan, so it may have got in there. Obviously Townshend created much of the musical environment and delivered the angst with an intelligence and passion and extraordinary musicality. But to this day, as a drummer, I think Keith Moon was the unacknowledged genius. He was like Jimi Hendrix: when he was on - and he wasn't always - it flowed out of him in a free way that was inspiring, driving, magnificent."

Peter Gabriel's insistence on writing the story and all the lyrics himself for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway created friction amongst his bandmates. Tony Banks recalled in Uncut magazine October 2008: "Having done 'Supper's Ready' (the 23-minute song on Foxtrot)) we decided we wanted to go for a concept album, and make a double album. We agreed the concept, which Peter came up with. Then he said that he really wanted to write all the lyrics, which was difficult for us because we'd always split all the lyrics among us all." (thanks, DeeTheWriter - Saint Petersburg, Russia Federation)