百老汇祭祀羔羊 (1974)

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the sixth studio album by the English progressive rock band Genesis, released as a double album on 22 November 1974 by Charisma Records. It is the group's final studio recording to feature founding lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, who departed following the conclusion of the album's promotional tour. Conceived as a rock opera, the album follows Rael, a rebellious youth living in New York City, who is drawn into a subterranean underworld. His journey serves as a psychological allegory of self-discovery, wherein he encounters bizarre, symbolic characters and challenges before achieving a spiritual awakening.

The album's creation was marked by internal tensions. Gabriel insisted on devising the overarching concept and writing all the lyrics, breaking the band's established collaborative approach. Writing and recording sessions at Headley Grange and Glaspant Manor in Wales were further strained by Gabriel's brief departure to work with filmmaker William Friedkin, and by his frequent travel to be with his wife during a difficult first pregnancy. Consequently, the instrumental backing tracks were largely composed through jam sessions by the remaining members. Musically, the album marked a departure from the pastoral, British-centric mythology of the band's previous work, opting instead for contemporary American imagery, experimental instrumentation, and shorter song structures. This shift was reflected in the stark, black-and-white photographic cover art designed by Hipgnosis.

Upon release, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway received mixed reviews from contemporary critics and initially failed to match the commercial sales of its predecessors, peaking at No. 10 in the UK and No. 41 in the US. Its three singles–"Counting Out Time", "The Carpet Crawlers", and the title track–failed to achieve significant chart success. Genesis supported the album with a 102-date tour across North America and Europe between 1974 and 1975, performing the double album in its entirety alongside an elaborate multimedia stage production that featured multi-screen slide projections and Gabriel portraying various characters in different costumes. The album was remastered in 1994, 2008, and most recently in 2025 for its 50th anniversary. In retrospect, the album has received widespread critical acclaim, with commentators frequently ranking it as a definitive work of the progressive rock genre.

Background

In May 1974, the Genesis line-up of frontman and singer Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist and guitarist Mike Rutherford, drummer Phil Collins and guitarist Steve Hackett finished touring Selling England by the Pound (1973). That album was a critical and commercial success for the group, earning them their highest-charting release in the UK and the US. They booked three months at Headley Grange, a large former workhouse in Headley, East Hampshire, to write and rehearse new material for their next studio album from June. The building had been left in a very poor state by the Pretty Things, the previous band who had used it, with human excrement on the floor and rat infestations, which took Genesis considerable effort to tidy up. By this time the personal lives of some members had begun to affect the mood in the band, causing complications for their work. 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".

Writing

The band decided to produce a double album before they had agreed on its contents or direction, for the extended format presented the opportunity to put down more of their musical ideas. Banks thought they had gained a strong enough following by this point to put out two albums' worth of material that their fans would be willing to listen to, and Gabriel considered a double album as a logical extension to the group's output. They had wanted to produce a concept album that told a story for some time, and Rutherford pitched a musical adaptation of the fantasy novel The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but Gabriel thought it was "too twee" and believed "prancing around in fairyland was rapidly becoming obsolete". In an interview published early into their stay at Headley Grange, Gabriel spoke of the band's desire to present an entirely new stage act and make a "radical change" for the new album.