This song 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, who was the lead singer in Genesis at the time, 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.
"The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" 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. This track recalls "
On Broadway," which was a hit for The Drifters in 1963.
Genesis keyboard player Tony Banks used a cross-handed technique to create the jaunty rhythm. He described it in a
Songfacts interview: "the two hands are playing almost percussively, alternatively. So, you appear to be playing faster than you are. I really like the effect. It's very rhythmic. I just find it's an exciting way to play."
On their 1974 tour, Genesis played the album from start to finish. Peter Gabriel wore several costumes throughout the show, including a grotesque mask during "The Colony Of Slippermen."
"The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" was the first song and title track to the double album, released in 1974, which was the last Peter Gabriel contribution to Genesis. The band then moved away from progressive rock and into pop, with their drummer, Phil Collins, doing the job of lead singer as well.
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 among 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."
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When Uncut magazine asked Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett if he ever fully understood the storyline of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, he admitted the band didn't really grasp it at the time. Looking back decades later, and after immersing himself in comparative religion and works like Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Hackett says the album now feels almost biblical. He interprets Peter Gabriel's narrative as a redemptive tale in which the protagonist is pushed toward the idea of sacrificing himself for his brother.
"You have to get used to the fact that it was a piece of theater, or a ballet, and every ballet needs a pit orchestra," Hackett said. "So Peter was Nijinsky and the rest of us were under the baton. And that's fine, because none of the rest of us were that visionally engaging."
