In thinking about the
meaning of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway story,
the story behind the 2-LP Genesis concept album from 1974, my interests were
sparked in part by a great diatribe by Mel Huang. I haven’t discovered each and
every reference on the LP by far, but that isn’t necessary to get the general
idea. This is a brand new explanation, as far as I know.
At the heart of my explanation is that
the lamb story is not as complex as it would seem at first. Many people point
out that Rael travels to this place, then is caught here, then meets this guy,
etc. Those details may be true, but misses the overall plot. The plot makes more
sense due to the recent birth (at the time) of Peter’s first child, one of the
reasons he decided to leave the band.
The
following is a mixture of lyrics, the
story on the LP cover along with stories Peter told during the live show as well as
my explanations. Red indicates Peter's words being used as supporting evidence.
I didn’t comment on every quote to avoid being too explicit, I think you can get the ideas from the quotes themselves.
Note also, I never thought that the
concert slides provide any evidence. They are just literal song translations
(lamb/broadway, heart/razor, fly/windshield, etc) probably made by someone with
a set of lyrics but no real understanding of underlying meaning. Enjoy…
“I’m putting one (Rael)
down to watch him break up, decompose and feed another sort of life”
Rael will give (at least part of) his life to feed another
life
“The one in question is all fully biodegradable material
and categorized as 'Rael'” Rael is biodegradable (as we
all are to some extent) but if I am right, Rael is more biodegradable than
normal. “if his story doesn't stand, I might lend a hand”
cuddling his prickly porcupine
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The Lamb Lies Down
on Broadway
“The Lamb…Lies Down on Broadway”
repeating over and over
"The Lamb” (wool) is
having sex with (lying down on) “broadway”
one of the streets in Rael’s world. Of course he thinks “I’m
Real!” but he is not
“and out of the subway”
also called the tube or tubes
Lots of things are
happening to Rael until “Cabman's velvet glove sounds the
horn” let’s get going – it’s begun
“broadway” song by the
drifters…well, drifts away as if he is leaving the “NYC” off to
somewhere else
Fly on a
Windshield / Broadway Melody
Sort of a dream sequence
historical events while Rael transitions to what is coming next. The
references to history may be taking us back in time, to the point of
Rael’s conception.
We are also
assuming that Rael is a person, that his NYC is ours. What if he was not
(yet) a person. What if the “wall of death”
is grabbing Rael and propelling him down “broadway”
(the porcupine pathway) to…
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Cuckoo Cocoon
Are you ready? Rael is a sperm, in
some sort of cocoon, “some powdered (lambs)
wool” remember this is the 70s. At this point he may not be
fully arrived in her “cave” yet. He is still a
“Jonah, shut up inside the whale” yet to be blown out the
blow hole (in his world “broadway” – could also be read as “broad way” as in the
slang term for a woman: “broad” due to the broad hips). He’s “come to,
too soon” or awakened too early. This could also be read
as “come too, too soon” as in Counting Out Time.
“He guesses he must be in some sort of cave…or eggshell
waiting to drop from the bone of the womb”
In The Cage
“There’s sunshine in my stomach”
“White liquids turn sour within…white costume”
– White liquid. Lots of references to the color
white. While in the “cage” he sees his brother, which would be
obvious in this context. Millions of brothers and sisters, potentially anyway.
His brother goes away, later to be found among…
The Grand Parade of
Lifeless Packaging
All the other life materials that
didn’t or won’t make it to birth “We find here that everyone’s looks
become them….each is provided with a guarantee for a successful birth…not too
far from the mean differential” translation: each looks
generally like their siblings.
“Lifeless (for now)
packaging – all ready to use” the ingredients for life.
Back in NYC
This song is a flashback…This (in
time) is before The Lamb, a prequel. He was a bad guy, a criminal, into gangs
“Let me out of Pontiac when I was just seventeen” Pontiac
was his jail, before he lost his virginity “I had to get it out of me, if
you know what I mean, what I mean.”
His allusions to his “porcupine”
is his member, which becomes more obvious in Peter’s Counting Out Time story.
Shaving his heart is his attempt to be more
romantic. Less toughened. As he cuddles his porcupine (his member) he is alone
and his porcupine says “I had none to blame but me”.
So he buys a book on sex.
Counting Out Time
Here is an obvious sexual
encounter with someone, the backstory of sex with the “lamb”
from before. “Which brings him to the memory chambers of his first
romantic adventures” “And one of the faces I see wandering down the streets
is…the face of my first romantic adventure”
What is not clear at this point is
who’s having sex with who. And how could Rael have sex and then become the
sperm? Again, I think the answer is simple. Rael could be both, one is a human
form that we rarely hear from, and the other is the one on the adventure. The
voice from down below. The one with the libido. When it finally happens, one
talks to the other: “This is it Rael!”
The Carpet Crawlers
With the help of Mel, the carpet
crawlers are the…“result” of the previous song. Sperm. Writhing around. Looking for
the way.
“There is lambswool under my naked feet”
the lamb again, “wool” again. This is the lamb from broadway. “He returns
from his mixed-up memories to the passage he was previously stuck in”
“Red Ochre (a red/claylike color)
corridor” another name for a (her) passage
“We’ve got to get in (the egg)
to get out (birth)”
“The liquid has congealed, which has seeped out through
the crack”
Chamber of 32 Doors
Everyone is trying to find the way
to the egg, or at least “the way”. Where exactly they want to go or will go is
just a guess. But there’s an obvious story of Rael trying to find the way
through, listening to everyone’s advice.
Lilywhite Lilith
She leads them through the
passages to two golden globes, ovaries or maybe eggs. The bright white light could be conception, a soul, or
whatever Peter thinks is happening at that moment of meeting the egg.
Anyway
“back to ash…how you’ve had your flash”
Back to human form, now you’ve found the egg.
“enrich the soil” feed the egg “not everybody’s
goal” some here will not be able to do this
“It won’t be long…she’s very rarely late”
pregnant
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The Lamia
A veiled reference to
sperm that consumes the egg as it grows. Even the live concert lamia
(left) look like a cocoon.
“He enters the room” womb
“as if it were his own”
Cells divide “a
mixture of ugly lumps” and look surprisingly like…
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The Slipperman
If enough evidence hasn't yet been provided that the story we are following is about sex, in the Lamb live show, The Slipperman literally enters the stage through a giant inflatable phallus.
“Leaving by the same door from which he had come
in” he’s on his way out. “he had come in”
is an interesting choice of words.
“The entire colony have one-by-one been through
the same glorious romantic tragedy” All that have
been conceived before have undergone the same transformations.
“We like you, have tasted love.”
But so has his brother.
“Rael recognizes what is left of his brother. They hug each
other.” They are in the same space. The same egg.
“your sentence has only just begun…join your brother john”
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Visit to the Doktor /
Raven
Maybe this appendage cutting is a metaphor for the difference between male and female birth? Sometimes you get your tube back,
other times not. Maybe if Rael can't get his
appendage back, he will be born a girl like Gabriel's first child.
“It’s enough to drive a poor boy raving mad” “erogenous
zones…without you what would a poor boy do” Raving
mad…raven…ravine…
The Ravine
The birth canal
The Light Dies Down on
Broadway
He is leaving the conception area,
the place with all the light, away from the light he was approaching earlier in
the story. Rael remembers NYC. Is birth
“a way out from this endless scene? Or just an entrance to another dream?”
John is also being born.
Rael seems to see a gate, a way
back to his previous existence, but passes it by to follow his brother – on to
this new journey. If you’re wondering why in this birth process would there be a
gateway to another world, this is the only song that Peter didn’t write the
lyrics to.
Riding The Scree
No turning back now
In The Rapids
Water broke
“that’s not your face, it’s mine!”
translation: twins
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IT
Birth, finally. Puffs of
smoke on stage.
“like a supper, it is cooking”
one in the oven
“it is chicken, it is eggs, it is in between
your legs”
It is life, everything
“it is walking on the moon”
totally foreign “leaving your cocoon”
womb
“inside spirit with enough grit to survive”
Darwin, survival of the fittest, etc |
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Some may ask, how does Rael have
sex and is then conceived? This is actually not that strange a concept, in the
reference to the cycle of life, and how in The Grand Parade
everyone is a derivative of everyone else. Somehow they are “free to
flutter in memories of their wasted wings” and retain a
residual memory, at least until birth. But more than that I don't think the Rael
we are following has to be exactly the same Rael having sex in the first place.
The Rael we are mostly following is the sexual part, the brain from down below
if you will.
“Look across the mirror, before you choose decide”
IT will look like you.
When trying to decipher Peter's
lamb story, people often point to religious references, Rael walks here, he is
transported there, etc. All of these can be true (the trees) but misses the
story as a whole (the forest). Peter would have no interest to create a 2 hour
biology lesson. There are characterizations, plays on words, and metaphors for a
reason. If each song is taken individually, you can get something totally
different out of Peter’s lyrics. There are references to anything and
everything. But taken as a whole, the lamb has only one meaning to me now:
Sex-Conception-Birth.
(c) 2008 The Genesis Museum
