Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
2. Fly On A Windshield
3. Broadway Melody Of 1974
4. Cuckoo Cocoon
5. In The Cage
6. Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging
7. Back In NYC.
8. Hairless Heart
9. Counting Out Time
10. Carpet Crawlers
11. Chamber Of 32 Doors

Disc 2:

1. Lilywhite Lilith
2. Waiting Room
3. Anyway
4. Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist
5. Lamia
6. Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats
7. Colony Of Slippermen Arrival/A Visit To The Doktor/Raven
8. Ravine
9. Light Dies Down On Broadway
10. Riding The Scree
11. In The Rapids
12. It

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62537 in Music
• Released on: 2008-09-29
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

...An enjoyable journey to days gone by...
I must admit I wasn't a big fan of Genesis. By the time I got into buying records, Peter Gabriel was long gone, and the few people I knew who did like them were trust fund hippies who spent their time laying around their houses pointing at the ceiling and going "woah!". Not an attractive proposition to a teenage Motorhead speedfreak. I didn't really tune in again, until their ill-fated Ray Wilson period, only to discover just how good Messrs Rutherford and Banks were, along with a certain drumer called Nick D'Virgilio. So when this turned up, the more open minded me of the present day was happy to give it a spin.

Especially when it turned out that Rewiring Genesis involved the aforementioned Nick D'Virgilio of Spock's Beard, a latter day prog band I have a fair amount of time for. For this release, he's teamed up with engineer / producer Mark Hornsby to re-record the Genesis album "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", in it's entirety. Seems a slightly odd thing to do, but when asked D'Virgilio, said, "We wanted to see what would happen if we exposed the songs to a different climate of musicians. The early Genesis recordings are so musical and very bluesy when you get right down to it. They really lend themselves to some different interpretations."

Which seems to basically involve chucking in an orchestra, a horn section and beefing up the guitars. And, what do you know, it's really rather good. I'm not entirely sure how Genesis fans will take to someone tinkering away at one of their best-loved albums, but as a standalone piece of work it certainly grabbed my attention.

It's a largely reverential piece, so it's when they take a few more chances that it really shines. The percussion and vocals only version of 'Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging'. The nods to Dixieland on 'Counting Out Time'. The fantastic guitar playing on 'Here Comes the Supernatural Anesthetist'. The horn section on 'Riding The Scree'. And let's not forget the accordion solo on 'The Colony of Slippermen'! It's those moments that bring a smile to the face and a skip to the heart.

An enjoyable journey to days gone by.

Why?........Why Not!!!!!
My musical tastes stretch across a broad spectrum, my heart will always lie with Motorhead, but Prog Rock has it's place, and I have a particular affection for what seems to be called 'old' Genesis. I was introduced to 'The Lamb Lies Down....' by friends who probably wanted a rest from Lemmy et al, but I can't thank them enough. I always liked 'Selling England by the Pound', but 'The Lamb.....' seems to be the album that I always come back to. Sure it's flawed; by today's standards the quality of the sound is lacking, and some of it does go on a bit, but hey! It is a child of it's time, and it has stood up well to the last 30 years.

So why re-record it? Why indeed. I saw Nick D'Virgilio perform 'The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging' live just before Christmas, and I was blown away. I was not familiar with his other work, but the way he sang 'The Grand Parade...' made me want to hear more. Faithful to the origional but at the same time different enough to be fresh, I had to know what the rest of the album sounded like.

So what does it sound like? In truth, I think it is brilliant. All the songs sound the way you remember them, but listen below the obvious and it is clear that Mr D'Virgilio has put a bit of thought into this. A lot of the 'widdly' keyboards have been replaced by 'proper' instruments, strings, brass, even an accordion, but it does not detract from the overall sound. Nick's vocals are a little unexpected, with his accent, but he carries it off well. He clearly is no Peter Gabriel, but then he doesn't try to be, so he makes each song his own. This is not a collection of cover versions, this is what it says on the cover - a Tribute, put together by someone who enjoyed the origional and clearly enjoyed making this record.

So why re-record 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'?......Why Not!!

Nick D'Virgilio is a bit bonkers, but in good way!!!

it is now....
'tis brave men who present a new version of any piece of music considered, by some, to be sacrosanct, and which is, at least, one of the defining statements of a particular musical genre. A venture at high risk of adverse criticism

I, like many Genesis fans, really like the original of the 'The Lamb' (it would be, along with Yes' 'Close to the Edge' one of my 'desert-island'albums). However, up until recently, the sound of the available recordings of 'The Lamb' was rather muddy and, let's be frank, the edit button could have been employed a bit more during recording (e.g. The Waiting Room - mind you, there's much less fluff on 'The Lamb' than e.g. on Yes'Topographic Oceans a-double-album-that-should-have-been-a-single-album-if-ever-there-was-one). Anyway, despite these minor points, over the years I never really stopped listening to 'The Lamb'. So...I wasn't really sure how I would respond to the reworking of an album that has been such a part of the soundtrack of my life.

No doubts now...I think it's super (and in some areas an advance on the original)! Of course, it misses the idiosyncrasy of Gabriel's voice - but this is not a surprise as this aspect was always going to be impossible to recreate and PG's voice is so linked, at least for me, with the narrative of 'The Lamb'. Nevertheless, I think the vocals are good. The reworking's arrangements are generally faithful to the original although there seems to be novel additions to almost every song. In the main, the brass and woodwind transpositions work very well; and in some cases, these new tweaks and alterations are stunning (e.g., The Lamia (the female voices work wonderfully well) and 'Grand Parade' - acapella, yes indeed!). The vibrancy of the instruments also make this album very lively and fun to listen to.

So, all in all, a brilliant result! I wonder if Nick and Mark fancy working their magic on 'Close to the Edge' next?