"...It's Only Knock And Knowall, But I Like It!"
I've told this
story a few times. I was in a Dublin bar with a mate of mine in the early
Eighties and we were getting legless. For some reason lost to time, alien
abduction and cosmic wormhole reasoning - we decided to start singing "The
Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" and about an hour later and a few bevvies in -
we'd done all four sides including the two instrumentals! And like some spoilt
celebrity salaciously stroking his Sage Oracle Coffee making machine in my
landing strip of a kitchen (who's Daddy's favourite eh) - I'm so proud of
that!
So as I was
prepping for this review in my 62-year-old dotage, I tried it again and with a
hearty pat on my greying but still suspiciously intact hairline, I remembered
about half of the lyrics without having to refer to the repro'd lyric inserts
provided in this gorgeous Japanese reissue. That's how it is when you truly
love an album. I would imagine it's the same for Soul Boys when it comes to
Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" or once rowdy young men when it comes
to The Pistols and "Never Mind The Bollocks..." In fact, we need only
see the artwork of our fave-rave and a quickening of the pulse occurs, rushing
blood in the trouser area makes a valiant effort and a wee tear of nostalgic
joy appears in our cataract-addled eyeballs. Could have been the Guinness
mind...
I love
double-albums and after the creative highs of 1972's "Foxtrot" and
1973's even better "Selling England By The Pound" - the Peter Gabriel
led period of Genesis finished on a total humdinger - a 1974 2LP groovy
Hipgnosis artwork splurge that had many fans reaching for such highbrow phrases
as 'the last great concept album' or 'bugger my NYC Apple Pies but that's brill
boys'. But what issue of this Progtastic Lilywhite Lilith double-dip do you
buy?
After years of
false digital starts, the fantastic Tony Cousins Remasters that first appeared
in the 2007 Box Set 1970-1974 were issued as stand-alone SACDs in 2008 and then
standard 2CD sets in 2009. That 2009 variant on Barcode 5099926570228 is widely
available to this day for about a tenner or maybe a tad more. But such is my
love for this extraordinary double, I want the best - and choosing between the
Platinum SHM-CD from 2014 (over £50 on some sites) or this standard edition for
about £25 which is still on catalogue in 2020 - I've settled on this. And I
love everything about it. But to the Colony of Slippermen first...
Released 26
November 2014 in Japan-Only - "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" by
GENESIS on Universal/Virgin UICY-76719/20 (Barcode 4988005858214) is a 2-Disc
SHM-CD Format Reissue of the 1974 Charisma Records Double-Album in Mini LP
Repro Artwork with a Gatefold Card Sleeve, Inner Sleeves, Foldout Booklet, Obi
Strip and an Outer Plastic Protective. This 2014 Reissue uses the 2007 Remaster
but also features HR CUTTING for the SHM-CD discs to get optimum sound
retrieval. It plays out as follows...
CD1 (45:36
minutes):
1. The Lamb Lies
Down On Broadway [Side 1]
2. Fly On The
Windshield
3. Broadway
Melody Of 1974
4. Cuckoo Cocoon
5. In The Cage
6. The Grand
Parade Of Lifeless Packaging
7. Back In N.Y.C.
[Side 2]
8. Hairless Heart
9. Counting Out
Time
10. The Carpet
Crawlers
11. The Chamber
of 32 Doors
CD2 (48:49
minutes):
1. Lilywhite
Lilith [Side 3]
2. The Waiting
Room
3. Anyway
4. Here Comes The
Supernatural Anaesthetist
5. The Lamia
6. Silent Sorrow
In Empty Boats
7. The Colony Of
Slippermen [Side 4]
(a) The Arrival
(b) A Visit To The Doktor (c) Raven
8. Ravine
9. The Light Lies
Down On Broadway
10. Riding The
Scree
11. It
Released November
1974 in the UK on Charisma CGS 101 and November 1974 in the USA on Atco SD
2-401. Produced by Genesis and John Burns – it peaked at No. 10 in the UK and
No. 41 in the USA.
The packaging is
beautiful on these Japanese reissues, the fold out booklet with its Japanese
and English lyrics. You get the story of Rael - a spunky Puerto Rican kid
living in New York - runs the gamut of weird and wonderful experiences, a lot
of which feels like drugged-out trips into colonies of Slippermen and dark
drafty Chambers with 32 Doors and water-rafting on the scree to some ‘it’
ending. And that Hipgnosis artwork was mesmerizing too with Rael jumping
through glass and bodies with snakes draped over them and Gabriel’s "…Keep
your fingers out of my eye…" story on the inside and the sheer volume of
lyrics on the two inner sleeves (only "The Waiting Room" and
"Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats" are instrumentals). It was a lot to
digest at the time and still is - and there were many who weren’t too
convinced. But time has shown this staggering artistic outpouring as a properly
brilliant thing. I never saw the legendary tours with those boil-in-a-bag
outfits but I’ve seen the photos and read the Phil Collins recollections of
masterful slide shows which featuring the whole double whether the crowd wanted
it or not. Hardly surprising that PG was gone by 1975 - solo stardom beckoning
in 1977 with "Solsbury Hill" (again on Charisma Records).
The Tony Cousins
audio is fantastic and again that noticeable oomph given by the better-format
disc. When Gabriel sings "Early morning Manhattan..." as the opening
title track kicks in, the punch is palpable. But like most longtime fans, I
went straight for deep album tracks like "Anyway" (beautiful piano
playing from Banks), those shimmering Hackett guitars 'wrapped up in some
powdered wool' in "Cuckoo Cocoon", crucial dilation of the pupils in
the witty sexual awakening song "Counting Out Time" and the track
that was always hard to hear on the original LP - the almost imperceptible
"Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats" – now a gorgeous instrumental. I
remember Hackett's wife did beautiful 'Wind And Wuthering' type paintings
depicting those tracks in a book that came out in the 80s (can’t remember its
name). Everywhere you turn, the audio thrills. That wonderful chorus with the harmonizing
vocals in "Lilywhite Lilith", the wind synths and acoustic guitars
actually depicting in sound a "Ravine" and of course that final run
of three "Riding The Screen" (stunning Banks synth solo) segueing
into the strangely peaceful acoustics of "In The Rapids" and that
synth burst with Collins giving it some superb drumming on "It" with
the "...it's only knock and knowall, but I like it..." lyrics.
Niggles - It's
known that the 'Evil Jam' version of "The Waiting Room" on the B-side
of the April 1975 British 7" single for "The Carpet Crawlers"
(Charisma CB 251) is a different mix to the LP cut and I suppose could have
been included here on Disc 2 as a Bonus Track - but it's hardly a huge loss.
What you do get is fabulous just as it is (Audio and Presentation).
Prog Rock used to
be such a maligned genre, but as the years have gone by and with so much
blandness masquerading as music coming off the airwaves - new listeners are
discovering what we loved first time around – its complexity and inventiveness
and wild out there nature – and damn it – on occasion – its tearful beauty.
"...We hold
together and shoot the rapids fast…" - Peter Gabriel sang all those
decades ago as the band made a successful dash for the finish on Side Four.
Well, if
you want to get down to this 1974 Broadway fantasy, then this gorgeous 2014 Japanese
SHM-CD2 reissue is the 2020 Times Square audio buddy you need…
