Genesis’s 1974 rock opera, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, remains their most divisive and ambitious work, marking the end of the Peter Gabriel era with a sprawling story of a surrealistic journey through the underground of New York City. The recently released 2025 remaster succeeds in cleaning up the album’s notoriously dense and occasionally muddy original mix, offering superior sonic clarity that allows the individual brilliance of the band members to shine through.
The music was raw, fragmented, and aggressive. Tracks like “Back in N.Y.C.“ had a grit and visceral power Genesis had only hinted at before. It was a challenging listen even by the standards of the day, demanding you listen to all four sides of the vinyl record to follow the complex narrative of Rael, and accept the long instrumental passages and sound effects as part of the overall experience. This was music that required your focus and attention… something completely unheard of today. The double album format felt like a massive commitment, which some of us adored as the ultimate “prog epic!”
Album cover side-note
The artwork for Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was designed by the renowned graphic design collective Hipgnosis, specifically by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson.
This cover marked a significant departure from the band’s previous pastoral and colorful album art, adopting a monochrome, photo-based storyboard style that depicted the album’s narrative character, Rael, in various scenes from the story.
The Lamb cover marked a significant departure from the band’s previous pastoral and colorful album art, adopting a monochrome, photo-based storyboard style that depicted the album’s narrative character, Rael, in various scenes from the story.
Thorgerson is a name you may know (and if not, SHOULD know) from his work designing some of the most famous album covers in the history of rock music from artists like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Styx among many others (some of which are depicted below).
Album covers by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson
The quintessential song on the album is “In The Cage.” So much so that it ultimately became the anchor of their “older songs” medley in live shows throughout the 80s, 90s, & 00s, demonstrating the song’s strength as a stand-alone composition outside the concept album context.
It features a significant shift in the feel of the song at about the halfway mark, and includes an iconic instrumental break (the “Enclosure” section) which showcases the band’s ensemble power. Featuring Mike Rutherford‘s throbbing, distorted bass tone, Tony Banks’s virtuosic synth runs, and one of Phil Collins‘s most dynamic drum performances (at just 23 years old, no less). All of which combine to perfectly capture the central conflict of the album’s protagonist, Rael, as he finds himself trapped and disoriented. Peter Gabriel’s vocal performance is a manic, fearful masterpiece, conveying the terror and claustrophobia of the moment, making it the emotional and narrative core of the entire first disc.
The new deluxe version of the remastered album includes a complete live show from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on January 24, 1975, also with boosted sonic clarity and depth, and is worth a listen as a fantastic example of what a real live band used to be able to do in the mid-70s with nothing but instruments and talent.
Whether you’re a fan of Genesis from way back when the original album came out, or a newbie who didn’t even know that Peter Gabriel used to be the singer in Genesis before Phil Collins, this song is worth checking out in all of its various versions below.
This performance from 2007 offers the best video experience with the best picture clarity, stage show & audio quality:
The mid-80s era was really the golden era for both the band and this medley in particular, with this tour (I think) spawning what most would consider THE definitive medley performance from Three Sides Live (I’ve started this video at the climax of the “In The Cage” portion of the medley to highlight the phenomenal keyboard work from Tony Banks and the sheer joy of hearing both Phil and touring drummer Chester Thompson playing together):
As a teenager, my friends and I would perform synchronized air drumming of every single stroke of this section of the song without missing a single note… that’s the kind of profound impact music used to have when it didn’t have to compete with so many other aspects of modern life.
Here’s links to the Three Sides Live album which not only includes this medley, but so many other amazing performances of classic Genesis songs. This 90s remastered version, which replaced the contractually obligated 4th side of studio tracks from the original release with additional live performances, has Yes’s Bill Bruford filling in as the touring drummer while Phil was singing on the last 3 tracks.
