imomus | Unheard Vinyl 1: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Unheard Vinyl 1: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

The Momus loudspeaker saga had a happy ending: after naming a range of ultra-hifi speakers after a lofi artist, the Ukrainian company Sound Sound followed up with the gift of a NAD amp. I then added a Technics 1210 MKII turntable, which I'd been lusting after ever since seeing one in my friend Jan's flat (a record store was going out of business on my street and had a pair to sell).

The result is that I now have the best sound system I've had in my entire life. I've been bringing up boxes of vinyl from the cellar and ranging them in my pine Trissa LP boxes, and one thing that strikes me is that there are lots of records I've owned for years but have still never heard. This is mainly because I inherited the vast collection of a music fan I used to live with in London, a girl who had to hot-foot it back to New Zealand and left me pretty much her entire collection. Amongst these unheard LPs are some classics, and I thought it might be interesting to play them for the first time and give you a running commentary of my impressions.

We start with an album I've actually alluded to in one of my songs. "Mistaken Memories of Medieval Manhattan" contains the line "on Broadway a lamb is lying down", which refers, of course, to Genesis' first album. The line is in there because I was reading Paul Stump's book about prog rock, The Music's All That Matters, at the time, and playing around with prog song structures. But the history of my non-meeting with this Genesis album goes back further; I was sharing a taxi with Edwyn Collins after a party at Malcolm Ross' house in about 1986, and as we approached my flat on Draycott Place, Chelsea, Edwyn confided that he'd heard my new LP and thought it sounded like early Genesis. For some reason (possibly the sense that this was not meant as a compliment) I never investigated. But I will now.

Putting records on my new deck is a pleasure. It's so heavy and solid, there's no lid, you examine the card album sleeve, note the secondhand sticker (the Genesis album was bought for £4 from Snooper's Paradise in Brighton), note that it's a double LP (blimey!), note the conceptual art-like imagery (a man observes a three-part scene in which he pulls himself out of a waterfall into a Room 101-type place, and then his vacant silhouette stands in a long hallway populated by what look like baby cheetahs), note that the label on the vinyl resembles the arty labels 4AD used to use.

Time to switch on! I'm not going to read any online commentaries, or even the album's voluminous sleeve notes (I glimpse a single phrase: "I will not chase a black raven"). No titles, no info; I'm just going to play the record and record my raw impressions and associations.

It starts with arpeggios, and Gabriel's rather annoying strangulated whine. It sounds very old-fashioned. The arpeggios get a bit more virtuoso and random. Gabriel sings what sounds like "I'm full of shit, I don't care who I hurt, I don't care who I wrong". Things are building up. Oh! Something quite good happens, there's a little embedded marching song, then Gabriel sings falsetto, then it goes into another new section, with organs, sort of post-Day-in-the-Life psychedelia (all those little interlocking sections). Big bass synth! Something about porcupines, strange bleated singing. I don't like the "heavy" bits, but I like the weird little Prussian songlets that come in from time to time. It seems to be ending with a gentle coda. Now there's something pacific and synthetic, a bit like Mike Oldfield.

What year are we even in here? I have no idea. I'd guess 1974? Now there's something Paul McCartneyesque going on -- "erogenous zones I love you". Actually it sounds Californian too, like Randy Newman. I hate Gabriel's voice, and the way these poppy commercial songs edge through over-complex arrangements. It's just not my cup of tea at all. The endless key and tempo changes don't take me anywhere. But then a sort of silly kazoo solo makes it all worthwhile. You can see that this music picks up where late Beatles left off. They're trying to be as creative and whacky as that, and then some.

More arpeggios, references to the Golden Fleece. I suppose this quiet number might be what Edwyn thought my first album sounded like. "You've got to get in to get out" -- that sounds familiar, this is like reading Hamlet for the first time and recognizing the quotes. Actually I quite like this one, there are recorders in the background. "The carpet-crawlers heed their callers". What is he on about? "The liquid has congealed which has seeped out through the crack... (something something) stickleback". The chorus is great, though. It's all very knife-edge, I don't know if I like this album or hate it.

More symphonic proggery, with lots of synths. Why does Gabriel harmonize in thirds so much? It neutralizes his melodies. "But the juggler holds another pack" -- I hate this sub-Dylan gaming-circus imagery. And, you know, do jugglers hold packs of cards? Come on! Conservative sentiments about trusting country men over town men, and people who work with their hands over others. Oh no, there's a "priest and a magician... and even academics searching printed word". Enough tarot! And this strangled singing style, like a bleating prog sheep! Will I make it to the end of Side One, let alone Side Four?

Oh, thank Christ, it's ended! I don't think I'm going to flip it over, this has gone on long enough.

Update: Okay, I looked at the Wikipedia entry on Genesis and this was actually their sixth album. I was right about the date, though: 1974.

Update 2: I also seem to have been listening to Side 2 thinking it was Side 1. In my day, when you put all the song info on one label and a picture on the other, the picture side was Side 1.

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Did the audio path that led to the end of Side 4 involve Hisae slapping you out of your increasing delerium/upset?

Kudos, though!

Nice idea!
I wish I could read more music reviews done this way.
By the way, is that an ONO box right below the turntable?

Filippo

Yes!

It's true that jugglers don't really hold packs do they.

Yep, "The Lamb" is actually quite late in their Gabriel era, and quite pompous at that.

Try, Nursery Crime ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursery_Cryme ).

Really enjoy this "no prior knowledge" reviews. Like the listening interviews on The Wire.

Respectfully I have to disagree with you :). In 40 years of record collecting, 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' is my number one album of all time. To be fair, it's an album you either Love-to-Death, or you hate it. There is no middle ground here. I only listen to it when I have time to hear it from beginning to end; that's the way it was meant to be heard. It's number one on my 'desert island albums'. I love Peter Gabriel on this album. I prefer Phil Collins drumming and singing backround vocals to Peters' lead. I hated the pop fluff Genesis became when Phil took over when Peter fled. Peter had to leave, where could he have taken this band after This Album??

I like this album, too, though I can't be more specific because it's several years since I listened to it! I remember being impressed by Genesis' quite forceful and tight interplay but I guess this would be rather a minus than a plus within Momus' aesthetic world view...

About the arpeggios: Could it be that Tony Banks uses them as an intentional reference to minimalism?

The pictures which accompany this blog entry almost cry out to be clickable and bigger!

FrF

Oh, it's great to hear from someone who loves the album! My antipathy isn't really a "position", it's just someone listening to Side 2 and relaying real-time reactions. I don't know if I have the will-power to listen to the whole thing, though!

PS: Skaphander Skanks (http://laridae.at/releases.php?id=43) by Photophob (http://www.photophob.net/blog/) is probably my favorite pop record from 2008. It's a free release and because I enjoy it so much, I somehow feel the obligation to spread the word, even in inappropriate (?) places.

FrF

I hated the pop fluff Genesis became when Phil took over when Peter fled

I can certainly empathize with this sentiment. But maybe the band's future stains its past to someone listening to this for the first time now. When Gabriel sings "Something solid forming in the air" you can't help but hear a pre-echo of "I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord!"

There is always something interesting about hearing about someone's favorite work, esp. out of 40 years of collecting, even if we can't find affinity with their choice..

Your post has given me the stimulus to attach my own turntable and start listening through the vinyl that's been slowly piling up on top of it these last few months, unplayed until now.
starting off with Brassens and Brokeback (alphabetical ordering illusory/coincidental)

Keep up these posts! it will be interesting to see what else you have in there

Try listening to it again, this time wearing a cape. You'd be surprised.

You mean while wearing blackface and tights/dressed as a fox/dressed as a marigold, right?

Riiiiiight.

"I got sunshine in my stomach"
Needless to say I had an "experience" with this album.
Most of it is well OTT even for Genesis.
The band always had a madrigal like tune hanging around.
Gabriel was a Motown copyist in his early days. How big a hand Jonathan King had in their development is yet to be discussed.

What I liked was the story that it had been rehearsed at Stargroves, Mick Jagger's home, which was used by Led Zeppelin for their luscious mid period albums and The Stones for Sticky Fingers. A piece of trivia is that it was the first place in Britain to receive cable TV, installed by the guy who broke the "Paul Is Dead" story on American radio. Phil Collins was quoted as saying he thought the place was haunted.

Have you heard Jeff Buckley's demo cover of the track "Back In New York City" from this album?

Those last two minutes...

He manages to make it sound like Sparks in the middle there.

At the end it sounds like someone ready to walk into a river just for the raw experience.

I always enjoy the AllMusic "tones". Genesis get tones:

Wry Whimsical Sophisticated Theatrical Restrained Dramatic Elaborate Literate Epic Sprawling Eccentric Cerebral Stylish Manic Witty Poignant Rousing Sentimental Wistful Eerie Ambitious (wot, no "Pretentious"?)

Momus gets tones:

Eccentric Literate Provocative Campy Quirky Witty Irreverent Confident Cynical/ Sarcastic Wry Sophisticated Stylish Poignant Ironic Cerebral Sexual Silly Sleazy Acerbic Rousing

So we're both eccentric, cerebral, literate, wry, witty, sophisticated, stylish, poignant and rousing. But the men who wear animal heads on stage aren't as silly, sexy or confident as me!

Yes, but have you ever been hit in the face with pie on national TV?

I hate it when they do that to a label, I've got a Sparks record that's like that and I always put the wrong side on.

Should I link you in prog_lolz? IDK if it's funny enough, but we do like laughing at Genesis.

Oh, I love that album!

That is too funny. I had a friend in college who was mad about this album, and he loaned it to me once, with a look on his face like - this will change your life forever. I had the same reaction you did. Gabriel's pompous twat voice just got on my very last nerve and all the "endless key and tempo changes" sounded like a bad jazz-fusion band to me. I do remember liking some of Gabriel's world music stuff - this (chttp://www.wdkeller.com/whoimages/ts/musicrhythm.jpg) Music and Rhythm album from the womad festivals was really good. But that is about it.

I'm trying to think of albums that really shine on good speakers... Laurie Anderson's Big Science and Mr. Heartbreak come to mind.

Having played both "The Lamb, etc." and "Big Science" on good speakers with no prior knowledge, I have to say the latter is way, way superior. And I like endless key and tempo changes as a rule. My reaction to Genesis wasn't unlike Momus's, which suggests that the album really is cack.

before you know it youll be on you knees

open your box

its so fly

it could piss on a foxes ear

Fantastic piece - but I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around Genesis sounding "Californian" like Randy Newman. By the time Newman was messing around with prog (on Born Again and Trouble in Paradise), it was more as a reaction to/parody of groups like Genesis and ELO. In 1974, Randy Newman still sounded like this:

...and this:

Don't know if you're a fan, but have you heard his latest album, Harps and Angels? There's a very Brechtian thing going on on several of the tracks, especially (and most transparently) on "Piece of the Pie."

I PREFER PHIL UPFRONT

THERE ....I SAID IT

-A

I took a photo of my album collection, artifacts from long before the current vinyl craze called compact discs. I was wanting to pick up a momus album, but I noticed all of his album covers are that awful "color" thing and thought better of it, that is like sooo 20th century.

j/k, these are all of my albums with black and white covers, I must be really bored today, I have several momus cds but alot are out of print or hard to find so I just bought most of your albums from itunes, I think the ultraconformist, 20 vodka jellies and the oskar albums are my favorites, I still need to get the joemus album, but I have reaally liked the bits you've posted from it

Japanese dolls (http://lh5.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/SR6zs8lnfyI/AAAAAAAArm8/zJChsrBxAqg/s1600-h/9g8p38.jpg)?

I've got time for Gabriel-era Genesis, though (as with the Kinks) I can never quite work out where they stand politically. Both are ambiguous, wary of both socialism and capitalism, and both are immensely revealing of the tensions of the Wilson years.

I can see why you reacted in the way you did, though. If you don't have a feeling for a certain set of references and ideas, this music is indeed far more likely to enrage than engage. Maybe it's just too *English* for you (it would have been too English for me, once).

Is this the beginning of your DJ Career?

I remember the graphics where done by Hypnosis. Clever crew!

maf

mine comes from the hands of a golden girl;
a box full of cassettes though
found on the sidewalk.
Most of it unlistenable u2 and phil collins shit.
(the only good thing about phil collins:
pronounce his name in a south european way
and you get field recrodings)

but there was also the tubes:love bomb
i knew todd rundgren had a hand in it.
and then i listened to it.
side 2 is absolutely fantastic,
rundgren sound goes eighties disco,
no breaks, just continuous dancing and singing:
maybe i will play it at the end of my next show.

greetings from blu skied berlin.

rinus

ps
you can always walk around the corner
with some albums under your arm
and propose to dj an evening at O.T.

oh I miss my Technics MK II
looking forward to your DJ career!

btw your wikipedia entry doesnt even mention you are a musician anymore
(Occupation: Author, Journalist, Songwriter)

Intentional?

Best from Tokyo

Antonin

Amps tend to chuck out a bit of heat - if you want it to last more than a year, clear that speaker and mixer off the top of it! ventilation's the word....

re. lamb lies down.
When I was a teenager, I used to scour Liverpool's second hand record shops in search of anything vaguely interesting musically, as a kind of antidote to the top 40's ubiquitous banality. I would generally buy any albums which had tracks way over 3 or 4 minutes long, as a kind of rebellion against the daily onslaught of the likes of madonna, george michael, bananarama etc.

I managed to get the first 'real' Genesis albums (on charisma, after their Jonathan king era): Nursery cryme and foxtrot. Loved three quarters of them. I remember I always wanted to get 'the lamb lies down...', but being a double, concept album and harder to come by for cheap, it wasn't until a good few years later when I found a copy. And my reactions were exactly the same as yours - some interesting arrangements, odd moments, just when you think it it drawing you in, it is spoilt by pretentious and often corny lyrics and Gabriel's voice. I will always remember it as one of the big let-downs!

Haven't listened to any genesis for years now - still in my parents' garage back in the UK. maybe I will dig 'em out at xmas.

One day I might even tackle Yes' 'Tales from topographic oceans' which I picked up around he same time!

I always thought Peter Gabriel wanted to be Peter Hammill but wasn't good enough. Same with Genesis and Van Der Graaf Generator - for one thing Van Der Graaf's time changes follow the melody (like folk music) and and don't sound forced.

It's surprising to hear that you've never been a fan of Gabriel-era Genesis, Nick. I thought some of it - Return of the Giant Hogweed from Nursery Cryme, for example, or Get 'em Out By Friday on Foxtrot - would appeal to you.

But the main reason why I thought you might be a fan is The Guitar Lesson, which bears a certain resemblance to the How Dare I Be So Beautiful? section of Supper's Ready.

As it happens, I heard your song before the Genesis epic from 1972, but the similarity struck me immediately.

If you don't have a copy of Foxtrot sitting in your unplayed file, perhaps you might find a moment to hear that section of Supper's Ready, by one means or another. If it surprised me, it should at least have an interesting effect on you!

You base your judgement on one of the most accomplished concept albums of all time on one listening of side 2? Well, your points made do indicate what I said back in the day when you were flirting with Prog; that you really haven't understood what the genre does or why it does it. To me, good Prog undermines your expectations ans takes you off in directions you cannot predict, and that really has little to do with complexity. A second-year Jazz student could play rings around pretty much any of the Pro greats.

It's about breaking out of the forms of Rock ("the most conservative art form", remember?) and letting songs flower in ways unrestrained by the length of a 78 RPM record, the Folk structure of verse/chorus/verse etc. and the limitations of the pentatonism of Blues.

Speaking as someone who hold Genesis (pre-Abacab) and you (pre-Stars Forever) in equally high regard, I think you really should do yourself a favor and make an actual effort here.

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Unheard Vinyl 1: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

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Loving The Lamb

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selling england by the pound

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easylover

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arty vacant silhouette

i never knew that whacky had a 'h' in it..this blog is littered with ghold

love bomb

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Gabriel

A flower?

Let me get this right, Nick