A Tribute to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway      
Artist: Re-Wiring Genesis 
Label: Prog Rock Records
Time: 23 Tracks / 48 + 50 mins
 
Now that digital track downloads threaten the very idea of albums being the natural home of songs, it is almost subversive to release a project that pays tribute to an entire classic prog album from thirty years ago. 
 
At the time the original Genesis album was released (1974) the very thought of doing anything to it would have been unheard of. But that was before Rolf Harris did the unthinkable and trivialized “Stairway to Heaven” in a manner that only he could get away with. Since then we have had tribute bands like the Australian Pink Floyd – an impeccable world-touring band that even play parties for David Gilmour – and events like the re-working of complete albums in country style (just check out YouTube for the Waybacks performing Led Zeppelin II with electric fiddle taking some of Jimmy Page’s lines).
 
The original Lamb Lies Down was the last release from Genesis with Peter Gabriel. It followed arguably their best album, Selling England by the Pound, the main strength of which was its stunning instrumental passages. Lamb Lies Down was a complete contrast, almost totally lacking in such fluid stretches, and depending on straightforward song melody (as well as some highly assonant lyrical sections and their obligatory unusual time signatures). It was also the disc that made critics sit up and notice Phil Collins’ drumming skills. 
 
Coming just before both Gabriel and Genesis shortened and sharpened their songs, this is probably the most accessible early Genesis disc for those less enamoured with prog’s eccentricities. As the only story-based album from the band, it also has theatrical possibilities.
 
The story of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway follows New York punk Rael (a distortion of what is real) as he exits a subway with his spray can in hand and finds himself caught up in a huge cube that sweeps towards him, subsuming him into a mystical world. Inside the cube he faces strange creatures, from factory-made humans – in a line of whom he sees his brother John – to the seductive mythological Lamia. It is after a sexual encounter with the Lamia that he turns into a slipperman in need of – shall we call it, ahem – a phallotomy, performed by “Doctor Dyper, reformed sniper / He’ll whip off your windscreen wiper”.  He reaches a stage where he can see his way out of the cube, but also sees John in trouble in a ravine. He faces the choice to escape or help his brother.
 
The team behind this project are Spock’s Beard (and briefly Genesis) drummer, Nick D’Virgilio and studio owner Mark Hornsby, who has won awards for à capella engineering. D’Virgilio explained that “We wanted to see what would happen if we exposed the songs to a different climate of musicians” and this fresh curiosity has led to some inventive changes of style.  
 
One of the strongest features of this re-working is its immense respect for the original. Structurally, it could hardly get much closer without being a straight copy. Even many original drum fills remain intact, and the artists never treat riffs as a base to improvise over, but regard the original construction of the songs as sacrosanct. (If anything, there are one or two places here where their re-construction would work even better if a little improvisation came into play, such as the jazz club approach to “Hairless Heart”). The guitar on “Anyway” out-Hacketts Steve Hackett, as the solo is now a guitar duet that rips off his most typical guitar tones.
 
With that respect established, the team is free to have some fun – and they certainly play this album in both senses of the word. With tongue-in cheek, they replace some of Tony Banks’ keyboard lines with accordion and clarinet, even on the synth solo in “Riding the Scree”! “Counting Out Time” has a New Orleans feel that exaggerates the spirit that lay behind the Genesis version; and “Grand Parade” has an à capella backing throughout.
 
Fun is part of the new, looser approach, but never at the expense of what is best for the track. Feel the extra oomph of “In the Cage” now that brass and strings have been added, or try the power on moments like the guitar burst after the line, “I’m hovering like a fly / Waiting for the windshield on a freeway,” which have even more impact now. This is one of the benefits of this project being a joint artist-studio collaboration. Hornsby has achieved a sound clarity that hugely improves on the original (try the crisp harmonies on “Cuckoo Cocoon). It may, however, conversely be true that such a clean sound takes away some of the Genesis album’s warmth.
 
Such is the thrill of this 2-CD set that I want to hide some of the surprises so that they can hit you when you hear it for yourself – and there are plenty of them on tracks like “The Lamia“ and especially on the first track to be developed, “The Colony of Slippermen.”
 
There has been talk of D’Virgilio being no Peter Gabriel, but he downplays his American accent – even though this NYC-based album would take it here more than any other Genesis set – and tries to keep his vocal phrasing very close to Gabriel’s.
 
You would have to be a po-faced Genesis purist to not love this disc and smile through it. After thirty years of waiting, this extra side to the album is an absolute joy. It’s only knock and knowall, but I like it – very much!
 
Derek Walker