It seems like an appropriate time to work some music into the Bobby V's Fake Stache blog, a slight (ok, pretty dramatic) departure from the content so far. I have seen my fair share of fantastic concerts and heard my fair share of amazing albums. I'm always on the look out for new music as well. It's important to be open to new music, new stories, new art. However, at least once a year, I make sure that I listen to one of my favorite albums ever, Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. With my music taste constantly evolving, I like to remind myself of the brilliance of this album. The first time I heard the album was in 9th grade. I have been a fan of it ever since and have picked up new things every time I listen to it.
I have to preface the rest of this blog post by saying, early Genesis was, for lack of a better word, weird. It's true, I'll admit it. Genesis was one of the innovators of progressive rock in the early 70s, with bands like King Crimson, Yes and Pink Floyd. Some of you may have heard of Genesis, but are familiar with the 80s Phil Collins Genesis. I'm a big fan of that Genesis too, but that's not the band I'm talking about. In the late 60s and early 70s, Genesis was led by front man Peter Gabriel, with Phil Collins on drums and fanastic personnel on all the other instruments. Peter Gabriel, if you can believe it, was even crazier back then than he is now. Gabriel would wear elaborate costumes and create fantastic characters he would portray during shows.
What science fiction is to film and novels, progressive rock was to music and Genesis was pretty out there. It is not music to be listened to in the background of whatever you're doing. Their last album, before Gabriel decided to go solo, was The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. It is a two hour concept album, which plays like one really long sonic story, following a Puerto Rican from New York who falls into a parallel universe. I can't even begin to describe what the album is "about." There exists an annotation of the album, written by some hard core Genesis fans, which when put into a word document stretches to over 60 pages. Two summers ago, when my roommates and friends all went camping and I stayed back, I listened to the album straight through and followed the annotation. Woah. The brilliance of the writing by Gabriel borders on the insane. The whole album is enigmatic. The final track, called It, describes "it" but never says what "it" is, leaving it up to the listener. Deep.
In this blog, I don't want to delve much into the subject matter of the Lamb (which is far too ambitious for a blog post) but rather the music. I want to take you through my favorite track, In the Cage. Please watch the attached YouTube video of the song.
In this track, the narrator and protagonist finds himself trapped in this parallel world.
1:16 - The main groove kicks in and it's a great use of polymeter. The keyboards and vocals are in 4/4 time (they're playing with 4 beats in a measure) while the bass, guitar, and drums are in 6/8 (6 beats in a measure). The result: 2 beats in the keys and vocals equal 3 beats in the bass, guitar and drums. It's a tough technique to pull off well, but Genesis does.
3:20 - A keyboard solo that blew my mind the first time I heard it. Tony Banks absolutely nails this one. As a 9th grader and piano player, I was always jealous of the guitar. Listening to mainly classic rock at the time, the guitar got all the great solos. When I heard this, it really opened my eyes to how the keyboard could be used. Banks doesn't play this solo like a piano player, he never plays multiple notes at once. He plays it like a lead guitar player and it's brilliant, soloing over complex chord changes effortlessly. He and the rest of the band do a great job of building and leading into...
4:14 - The climax section. The repeating figure in the bass and guitar just makes me wanna nod my head with each time they hit it. The keyboard holds the last note of the solo above the rest of the music throughout. Collins plays the drums on the downbeats with such an intensity. The organ lays down a series of chords that are begging for a resolution.
4:39 - Gabriel's vocals join in again. Gabriel, though far from the best technical singer at this point in his career, sang with such a passion really embodying the mentality of these characters he created. This is one of the biggest climaxes of the album and Gabriel definitely conveys that with the intensity in his voice.
5:40 - The song returns to the main section again, only it becomes more frantic as it continues. The bass is now doing playing in an indecipherable rhythm, which just adds to the disjointedness. This section repeats and fades, the song is virtually over by 7:23 and the rest is transition into the next track.
If you liked what you heard, great! If you didn't, I'm not surprised or offended. It takes a very specific taste in music to appreciate Genesis. I listen to Genesis the same way I listen to classical and orchestral music, not rock music. The Lamb, for what it's worth, may not even be my favorite Genesis album (their best is probably Selling England by the Pound). Regardless, The Lamb always serves as a reminder to me that rock music can be meaningful, technically impressive, and artistic. It is anything but commercial. I've been listening to it for years, I will continue listening to it for years to come, and I will probably never really know what it is about, but I'm gonna keep trying to figure it out.
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