The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was released to initial mixed critical reception, though it has since received critical acclaim. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Album Chart and No. 41 on the US Billboard 200. Two singles were released in the UK, "Counting Out Time" and "The Carpet Crawlers" while the title track was released as a single in the US. Genesis supported the album with their 1974–1975 tour across North America and Europe, playing the album in its entirety across 102 dates. The album continued to sell, and reached Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1990 for shipment of 500,000 copies.
In May 1974, the Genesis line-up of frontman and singer Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist Mike Rutherford, drummer Phil Collins, and guitarist Steve Hackett finished their 1973–1974 tour of Europe and North America to support their fifth studio album, Selling England by the Pound (1973). The album was a critical and commercial success for the group, which earned them their highest charting release in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the following month, they booked three months at Headley Grange, a large former poorhouse in Headley, East Hampshire to write and rehearse new material for their next studio album. Upon their arrival, the building was in a state left by the previous band with excrement on the floor and rat infestations. By this time, the personal lives of some members started to affect the mood in the band which started to cause complications. Hackett explained: "Everybody had their own agenda. Some of us were married, some of us had children, some of us were getting divorced. And we were still trying to get it together in the country". Banks later deemed this period of time as his least favourite of all his time in Genesis.
After their allocated time at Headley Grange came to an end, Genesis relocated to Glaspant Manor in Carmarthenshire, Wales to record using mobile recording equipment from London's Island Studios. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is their band's last recorded with John Burns as their co-producer, who had assumed the role since Foxtrot (1972). The band is credited as co-producers, and engineering duties were carried out by David Hutchins. The recording equipment used included two 3M 24-track recorders, a Helios Electronics 30-input mixing console, Altec monitors, and two A62 Studers for mastering. Burns and Gabriel experimented with different vocal effects, including recording inside a bathroom and a cowshed located two miles away from their location. Rutherford thought the album's sound was an improvement compared to past Genesis albums as it was not recorded in a professional studio, which benefited the sound of Collins' drums. Collins compared the sound of the album to that of Neil Young's recordings made in his barn, "not studio, not soundproof, but a woody quality".
The backing tracks for the entire album were put down in roughly two weeks, though Gabriel was still working on the lyrics a month later, and, in one instance, asked the band to produce additional music to fit his words that had no designated section for them. This was the case for "The Carpet Crawlers" and "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging". Thinking the extra material was to be instrumental, the band found that Gabriel had sung over their new parts, something that he also had done on tracks on Foxtrot (1972) and Selling England by the Pound (1973). Gabriel recorded his vocals at Island Studios, where the album was mixed over a series of shifts as the band struggled to complete the album in time of its November 1974 release date. Collins recalled: "I'd be mixing and dubbing all night and then Tony and Mike would come in and remix what I'd done because I'd lost all sense of normality by that point".
The album tells the story of Rael, a half Puerto Rican youth living in New York City who experiences several bizarre situations and characters. Gabriel chose to develop a character that is the least likely person to "fall into all this pansy claptrap", and aimed for a story that contrasted between fantasy and character. He explained that as the story progresses, Rael finds that he is not as "butch" as he hoped and his experiences eventually brings out a more romantic side to his personality. The ending to the story is not directly clear as Gabriel deliberately left the ending of the story ambiguous. When asked about it, Gabriel does not declare that Rael dies, though he compared the ending to the buildup of suspense and drama in a film as "you never see what's so terrifying because they leave it up in the air without ... labelling it". Several of the story's occurrences and settings derived from Gabriel's dreams. Collins remarked the entire concept was about split personality. The individual songs also make satirical allusions to mythology, the sexual revolution, advertising, and consumerism.
Hipgnosis designed the album's artwork. In a departure from their previous albums that featured more colourful designs, the front cover of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway makes use of black and white and no colour. The band's logo, originally designed by Paul Whitehead and used on Nursery Cryme (1971) and Foxtrot (1972), was replaced by a new one in an Art Deco style by George Hardie. The left picture on the front depicts Rael in the area where "In the Rapids" and "Riding the Scree" are set.
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario