It shows no or at best only the most minuscule traces of the style that would make them well-known later, and therefore frequently meets with a refusal and lack of affection. Justly so?
Up next is an absolute classic in Carpet Crawlers. The melody is pretty, with a nice soft organ washing underneath it, but what truly makes the song is the harmonies (well, and Steve's quiet pretty textures weaving in and out). Peter and Phil work in perfect compliment with each other, as Phil hits all sorts of wonderful high notes while Peter's dark, expressive singing drives the song forward and inevitably brings tears to your eyes, even though the song itself only bears a very small place of importance in the plot. Not so with the last song on the disc, though, The Chamber of 32 Doors. Basically, Rael keeps trying door after door, but each one of them leads him straight back into the chamber, and Peter does an impeccable job of conveying his tearful frustration with the situation, as well as with the fact that everybody is calling out different directions for him to go but that he can't bring himself to trust any of them. He can't even bring himself to trust his own parents, which should tell you something.
Lyrics
"The Carpet Crawlers"
There is lambswool under my naked feet.
The wool is soft and warm,
-gives off some kind of heat.
A salamander scurries into flame to be destroyed.
Imaginary creatures are trapped in birth on celluloid.
The fleas cling to the golden fleece,
Hoping they'll find peace.
Each thought and gesture are caught in celluloid.
There's no hiding in my memory.
There's no room to void.
The crawlers cover the floor in the red ochre corridor.
For my second sight of people, they've more lifeblood than before.
They're moving. They're moving in time to a heavy wooden door,
Where the needle's eye is winking, closing in on the poor.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."
There's only one direction in the faces that I see;
It's upward to the ceiling, where the chambers said to be.
Like the forest fight for sunlight, that takes root in every tree.
They are pulled up by the magnet, believing that they're free.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."
Mild mannered supermen are held in kryptonite,
And the wise and foolish virgins giggle with their bodies glowing bright.
Through a door a harvest feast is lit by candlelight;
It's the bottom of a staircase that spirals out of sight.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."
The porcelain mannikin with shattered skin fears attack.
The eager pack lift up their pitchers- the carry all they lack.
The liquid has congealed, which has seeped out through the crack,
And the tickler takes his stickleback.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."
The story starts off with the narrator explaining his relationship to Rael. He describes "the one in question", Rael, is "all fully biodegradable material." He mentions how he's "putting one down to watch him break up, decompose and feed another sort of life." This sounds like death to me. When you are buried, you do decompose and feed another sort of life like insects. He also mentions how he likes Rael, but Rael hates him. And the most interesting line of the opening paragraph is that"you won't see me directly anymore - he hates me being around."
Who is the narrator? Think about the title of the story, The LAMB Lies Down On Broadway. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is the narrator of the story. From the description, Rael obviously has lost faith during his plight.
Rael's story starts during the early morning hours in New York. People are filing out of an all night movie theater. (The Times Square area is infamous for their all night porno theaters although the folks from Disney are changing that. Makes you think about the all night watchmen having their fun, doesn't it?) Rael is coming from the subway, where he has spraypainted his name on the wall alongside the stairs of the subway entrance. This is part of making a name for himself. This is the only way he knows how. He know of no other means. He's walking along on the street and the lamb enters the picture. "Meanwhile from out of the steam a lamb lies down. This lamb has nothing to do whatsoever to do with Rael or any other lamb - it just lies down on Broadway." Why is the lamb there. Maybe He has to be present in someway during physical death. It's a symbolic gesture.
Lyrics
"The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"
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.
Most successful of the major works on the album, it starts with crashing left hand piano notes and a delicate right hand melody before the band joins forces in a rather obvious 'edit'. Peter offers some ringing phrases like "The scene of death is lying just below", and plays a flute duet with the keyboards. In the background it's possible to detect a howl from Phil that sounds like an early ancestor of 'Mama'. The swirling pattems developed by Banks and Hackett here would become familiar to fans at the band's increasingly grandiose stadium shows.
Lyrics
FIRTH OF FIFTH
The path is clear
Though no eyes can see
The course laid down long before.
And so with gods and men
The sheep remain inside their pen,
Though many times they've seen the way to leave.
He rides majestic
Past homes of men
Who care not or gaze with joy,
To see reflected there
The trees, the sky, the lily fair,
The scene of death is lying just below.
The mountains cuts off the town from view,
Like a cancer growth is removed by skill.
Let it be revealed.
A waterfall, his madrigal.
An inland sea, his symphony.
Undinal songs
Urge the sailors on
Till lured by sirens' cry.
Now as the river dissolves in sea,
So Neptune has claimed another soul.
And so with gods and men
The sheep remain inside their pen,
Until the Shepherd leads his flock away.
The sands of time were eroded by
The river of constant change.
Romeo and Juliet go to the pictures, while the band accompany their exploits with pieces that hark back to 'Musical Box'. There are no musical surprises here and little drama, but the piece does take off during a driving jazz-rock instrumental passage where at last Collins' drums catch fire and the band hits a groove. 'Cinema Show', like 'Firth Of Fifth', would sound much better live.
Lyrics
The Cinema Show
Home from work our Juliet
Clears her morning meal.
She dabs her skin with pretty smells
Concealing to appeal.
I will make my bed,
She said, but turned to go.
Can she be late for her cinema show?
Romeo locks his basement flat,
And scurries up the stair.
With head held high and floral tie,
A weekend millionaire.
I will make my bed
With her tonight, he cries.
Can he fail armed with his chocolate surprise?
Take a little trip back with father Tiresias,
Listen to the old one speak of qall he has lived through.
I have crossed between the poles, for me there's no mystery.
Once a man, like the sea I raged,
Once a woman, like the earth I gave.
There is in fact more earth than sea.
Peter Gabriel's voice leaps out from the shadows on a piece that seems to mourn the passing of some mythical England as the country enters into the commercialised, strife torn world of the uncertain Seventies. Little did Gabriel and Genesis know what lay in store in the Eighties. However, the line 'Selling England By The Pound,' seemed to touch a political nerve, even if the lyrics now seem dated, with fleeting references to Wimpy hamburgers and Green Shield trading stamps. The band plays at tremendous speed, urged on by Collins' dazzling drums. Steve Hackett introduces some amazing guitar effects. It's all much tighter, brighter and better organised, and 'Knight' concludes with an ethereal section that ebbs and flows in a sound wash of pristine beauty.
Strange whining noises like a helicopter taking off herald Gabriel's quaintly matter-of-fact spoken introduction: "It's one o'clock and time for lunch..." This is the band's first straight ahead pop rock song, with a stomping steady beat and hook lines galore. A kind of African tuned drum produces a distinctive note behind the chanted chorus, where Gabriel and Collins combine. Even though this is a great pop song and a deserved hit which helped transform the band's fortunes, there is nothing ordinary about its conception.
The lyrics are rich in imagery and full of comic surprises. What were average pop fans to make of the line: "Me – I'm just a lawn mower. You can telI me by the way I walk." They loved it and Genesis fans were mostly delighted to see them gain public recognition.
Lyrics
DANCING WITH THE MOONLIT KNIGHT
"Can you tell me where my country lies?"
said the unifaun to his true love's eyes.
"It lies with me!" cried the Queen of Maybe
- for her merchandise, he traded in his prize.
"Paper late!" cried a voice in the crowd.
"Old man dies!" The note he left was signed 'Old Father Thames'
- it seems he's drowned;
selling england by the pound.
Citizens of Hope & Glory,
Time goes by - it's 'the time of your life'
Easy now, sit you down.
Chewing through your Wimpey dreams,
they eat without a sound;
digesting england by the pound.
Young man says 'you are what you eat' - eat well.
Old man says 'you are what you wear' - wear well.
You know what you are, you don't give a damn;
bursting your belt that is your homemade sham.
The Captain leads his dance right on through the night
- join the dance...
Follow on! Till the Grail sun sets in the mould.
Follow on! Till the gold is cold.
Dancing out with the moonlit knight,
Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout.
There's a fat old lady outside the saloon;
laying out the credit cards she plays Fortune.
The deck is uneven right from the start;
all of their hands are playing apart.
The Captain leads his dance right on through the night
- join the dance...
Follow on! A Round Table-talking down we go.
You're the show!
Off we go with. - You play the hobbyhorse,
I'll play the fool.
We'll tease the bull
ringing round & loud, loud & round.
Follow on! With a twist of the world we go.
Follow on! Till the gold is cold.
Dancing out with the moonlit knight,
Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout.
I KNOW WHAT I LIKE (IN YOUR WARDROBE)
It's one o'clock and time for lunch,
When the sun beats down and I lie on the bench,
I can always hear them talk.
There's always been Ethel:
"Jacob, wake up! You've got to tidy your room now."
And then Mister Lewis:
"Isn't it time that he was out on his own?"
Over the garden wall, two little lovebirds - cuckoo to you!
Keep them mowing blades sharp...
I know what I like, and I like what I know;
getting better in your wardrobe, stepping one beyond your show.
Sunday night, Mr Farmer called, said:
"Listen son, you're wasting your time; there's a future for you
in the fire escape trade. Come up to town!"
But I remebered a voice from the past;
"Gambling only plays when you're winning"
- I had to thank old Miss Mort for schooling a failure.
Keep them mowing blades sharp...
I know what I like, and I like what I know;
getting better in your wardrobe, stepping one beyond your show.
When the sun beats down and I lie on the bench,
I can always hear them talk.
Me, I'm just a lawnmower - you can tell me by the way I
