I was always mesmerized by "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," and have played it over and over and over again.![](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002J1S.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Starting of with the song, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, rapid and charged, for the mellow art rock band Genesis, that one is hitting on every cyllinder. Then right into Fly on a Windshield, a foreboding of the rest of the album. You realize right then that this one is more like Foxtrot than Selling England by the Pound, in that this is serious, not playful.
But then into Broadway Melody of 1974, and you're wondering just how serious it is. It is definitely Peter Gabriel bringing something out, there is a restlessness and something burning to share. But you know he's a little playful too with lyrics like "Howard Hughes in blue suede shoes, smiling at the majorettes smoking Winston Cigarettes." Immediately followed with "And as the song and dance begins, the children play at home with needles and pins; needles and pins." So just halfway through the first album side, you realize that this album is both playful and serious, but mostly serious. Typical Gabrial, intense with a grin.
Carpet crawlers is so ethereal and The Chamber of 32 Doors has always spoken to me, it makes a statement and asks a question at the same time. But it feels right to me, like the way life is. Counting Out Time always gave me two feelings at the same time, one eerie, like the days in church when they talked about the "End Times" combined with a sort of sexually charged comedy. That may be a weird combination, but shows Gabriel's and the rest of the band members' upbringing in the Charterhouse School where they all met. Anyone having a religious upbringing when going through adolescence will understand.