by Geoff Bailie
When Genesis dropped The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in 1974, it split fans right down the middle. Was it an untouchable masterpiece? A bloated double-LP fever dream? Or just Peter Gabriel’s prog-rock swan song dressed up in bizarre costumes? Nearly 50 years later, we’re still talking about it — and with good reason. The new super deluxe box set, and photos of Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford and Hackett together in recent weeks, has brought it back into focus.
Here are 10 things you (probably) didn’t know about The Lamb that prove why it remains one of prog’s most fascinating, frustrating, and flat-out unforgettable albums.
1. Genesis went “go big or go home” before writing a single note.
The band decided in advance this would be a double concept album. Bold move for a prog outfit already accused of being over the top.
2. Goodbye England, hello New York grit.
After stuffing Selling England by the Pound with British references, Gabriel shifted the action to Manhattan – Cue graffiti, subways, and streetwise chaos.
3. Rael wasn’t just from Gabriel’s head — he was from El Topo.
Gabriel soaked up films by William Friedkin and Alejandro Jodorowsky. The Lamb’s surreal storyline owes a debt to Jodorowsky’s trippy cult western.
4. The band raced ahead while Gabriel sweated the words.
Banks, Rutherford, Collins, and Hackett churned out music at lightning speed. Gabriel, meanwhile, was juggling lyrics with fatherhood and a very sick newborn.
5. Some songs were older than fans realised.
“Anyway” came from a 1970 soundtrack the band ditched, and “Lilywhite Lilith” lifted chunks from an early Genesis epic called The Light. Recycling, prog-style.
6. Steve Hackett vs. the wine glass.
Tour plans crashed when Hackett cut his hand badly in a “glass-crushing incident.” The UK never got the first leg — America did, just two days after the album dropped.
7. The live show was epic… and a nightmare.
Three massive slide screens, wild costumes, and that infamous Slipperman suit made for a jaw-dropping spectacle. Problem was, Gabriel could barely sing through it.
8. Gabriel knew he was leaving — but still played seven more months.
Early in the tour, he’d already decided he was done. His final bow with Genesis came not in London or New York, but Besançon, France.
9. Bootlegs, rewrites, and re-records keep the legend messy.
The 1998 Genesis Archive set and the new Lamb box set included a live Lamb with Gabriel’s vocals re-recorded decades later. Fans still argue: restoration or revisionism?
10. The Lamb closed Genesis’s story nearly 50 years later.
At their final-ever show in 2022, Genesis ended with “Carpet Crawlers.” Fittingly, the last word from the band was from The Lamb.
Bonus facts:
• The Slipperman suit took so long to climb into that Gabriel sometimes missed his cues.
• Phil Collins hated the plot. He once admitted: “I never understood a word of it.”
• “The Cage medley” lived on. Even after Gabriel left, Genesis kept parts of The Lamb in their live shows for decades.
• Gabriel barely revisited it. Aside from play a single track on his first few tours and the 1982 reunion, he’s avoided singing The Lamb (or indeed most Genesis tracks!) ever since.
• Steve Hackett reclaimed it. His solo tours gave guitar fans the chance to finally hear The Lamb’s most underrated moments live.
Love it, hate it, or still scratching your head over the Slipperman, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the Genesis record that refuses to fade away. From film-school weirdness to wine-glass disasters, it’s a story as strange as the music itself. And when Genesis finally called it a day in 2022, it was The Lamb that carried them off stage for good. Not bad for an album once dismissed as “too much.”
