Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/12/89)
Really-From: megatest!ryensen@decwrl.dec.com (Richard Yensen) From article <890809155754799.AKPG@Mars.UCC.UMass.EDU>, by Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU: > Well, sad to say, the real truth of the matter is that no matter what you > read into it, "The Lamb" is basically a tour of Peter Gabriel In Heroin > Slumberland. It doesn't take long to find articles/interviews of PG to know that he is NOT a drug user. His reluctance is that his dreams and ideas are already so way-out that enhancing or expanding them would be terrifying. > In fact, by the end of the recording process, the rest of > the band had to step in and finish up the writing of the 3rd and 4th sides > because PG was so strung out he practically couldn't function. According to Tony Banks, PG wrote 99% of the lyrics to "Lamb", and he may have felt that the band would never let him do such a thing again; thus contributing to his decision to leave Genesis after the "Lamb" tour. Also, his wife was having their first baby with many complications during that period, so being strung out is understandable. > As near as I can tell, most of the imagery is drug-related. "In The Cage" > is the most blatant, according to Heroin Users I Have Known. The feeling > of shooting up can apparently feel like a warm sensation in your stomach > and you get VERY drowsy (called "nodding out", any secret smack users wanna > comment? (-: ). Thus, "I've got sunshine in my stomach... ...and I can't > keep me from creepin' sleep". That's a fascinating simile! The coincidence you mention is probably as hard to knock as the "Paul is Dead" episode of the Beatles. > My support > of this theme was the song "it"... "It's only knock and know-all, but I > like it" The obvious pun on "rock 'n roll", and then the idea of "it's not > anything great, but I can enjoy it anyway". If anything, the 'idea' of > the LP is that LP's don't NEED big 'ideas' to be enjoyable. Just sit back > and enjoy the twisted storyline.... that's all I do now... Nowadays whenever someone comes up to PG on a plane or wherever and tells him how certain lyrics he wrote changed their life or struck them so deeply, he still thinks it "cute". Then again, Rush's 2112 album had fanatics well past their transformation away from metal. Artists leave their impact and go on their way. This is what makes our lives richer: appreciating intricacies where none were intended (NOT dedicating our entire existence to those perceptions, either). This is what Kate's and PG's music do for me musically and lyrically. > ps. a better work of PG's to dissect is "Supper's Ready"... full of neato > religious allegory.. I'm firmly convinced it's all about the End of the > World.... among other things!! share and enjoy... Rick Yensen -- Richard Yensen; Megatest Corp. !! 880 Fox Ln.; San Jose, CA 95031 (408) 437-9700 \/ {lbl-csam,decvax!decwrl![sun|amd|fortune]}!megatest!ryensen
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/14/89)
Really-From: jsd@gaffa.mit.edu (Jon Drukman) >Really-From: megatest!ryensen@decwrl.dec.com (Richard Yensen) > >From article <890809155754799.AKPG@Mars.UCC.UMass.EDU>, by Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU: >> Well, sad to say, the real truth of the matter is that no matter what you >> read into it, "The Lamb" is basically a tour of Peter Gabriel In Heroin >> Slumberland. > >It doesn't take long to find articles/interviews of PG to know that he is NOT >a drug user. His reluctance is that his dreams and ideas are already so >way-out that enhancing or expanding them would be terrifying. He is NOT a drug use anymore, but he was most certainly a complete smack addict many years ago, and particularly around the time of The Lamb Lies Down etc etc. Joe Turner (the original poster) is much more up on these facts than I am, but I'm pretty sure that Mr. Gabriel was slave to the demon needle for quite some time, and the reason his hair is very close cropped on the cover of PGiii (the one with Games Without Frontiers) is because he had gone through severe withdrawal and in a fit of insanity shaved his head bald, and by the time the photo shoot came around only a little had grown back. Mr. Turner, step in and save my ass on this one! +---------------------- Is there any ESCAPE from NOISE? --------------------+ | | |\ | jsd@gaffa.mit.edu | "I think quotes are very dangerous | | \|on |/rukman | jsd@umass.bitnet | things." -- Kate Bush | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
brianw@microsoft.UUCP (Brian Willoughby) (08/16/89)
No, I'm not going to argue about whether or not Gabriel was influenced
by drugs during the composition of "The Lamb", but I would like to add
my 2 cents worth of interpretation. I was really young when I first
heard "Lamb", so I didn't have much to draw upon in interpreting it. My
overall impression of the story was that Rael was experiencing death,
complete with his whole life flashing before him. The story opened with
Rael on the street, alive and well, and I thought that the moment when
the invisible wall overtook him on Broadway was somehow the transition
to some state of limbo. I didn't really try to tie every event in the
album to reality. In the end, I thought that John was actually Rael's
alter-ego, and by Rael's willingness to give his own like for his
"brother", he actually saved himself. I never could decide if the light
mentioned at the end of the album was the "light at the end of the
tunnel", or whether Rael had made it back to the real world and the light
was his realization of what had occured.
BTW, all of this is just from memory, I don't really care about
convincing anyone of my interpretation. But I am interested in going
back to listen to the album in depth, and trying to figure out more, so I
welcome any comments related to my ideas.
Brian Willoughby
UUCP: ...!{tikal, sun, uunet, elwood}!microsoft!brianw
InterNet: microsoft!brianw@uunet.UU.NET
or: microsoft!brianw@Sun.COM
Bitnet brianw@microsoft.UUCPLove-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/17/89)
Really-From: Gary L Dare <gld@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu> Since import vs. domestic CD quality is often discussed here vis a vis KT, have any Love-Hounds compared the quality of the UK Virgin "Lamb" versus the US Atlantic version? I picked up a copy on the Virgin label in Canada, and took a listen through my pretty-good-but-average system, and noticed that the sound on the Virgin copy was deeper, brighter and fuller! Anyone else can concur? A recent rec.music.cd article stated that the old Genesis catalogue will be remastered, presumably the Atlantic versions. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gary L. Dare Quebec Elections, 25 Sept.: > gld@cunixd.cc.columbia.EDU Vote for the Rhino Party! > gld@cunixc.BITNET Votons le Parti Rhino!!
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/17/89)
Really-From: duane@EBay.Sun.COM (Duane Day) >From: brianw@microsoft.UUCP (Brian Willoughby) >My overall impression of the story was that Rael was experiencing death, >complete with his whole life flashing before him. This has long been my interpretation of the story as well. Rael, out on a graffiti-painting spree, is hit by a truck (title song - "The trucker's eyes read overload," etc.) As "the wall of death" descends (physical life begins to pass away), others "carry on as if nothing was there" ("Fly on a Windscreen" - this is New York City, after all). Rael's dying body is put on a stretcher, covered up, and loaded into an ambulance ("Cuckoo Cocoon"; "the only sound is waterdrops" is perhaps a reference to an IV drip). He's taken to a New York public hospital ("Broadway Melody"), anaesthetized and operated on ("In the Cage"; "sunshine in my stomach" perhaps referring to the lights on the operating table shining into his opened-up torso) and taken either to the morgue or to recovery ("The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging"). Side 2, I feel, is where Rael relives the major experiences of his short life (the famous "my life passed before me" phenomenon). Gang fighting ("Back in N.Y.C") and a first abortive romantic encounter ("Counting out Time") are described. Side 3 opens with "Lilywhite Lilith", which is, I feel, the white light described by those who have been medically dead and then been revived. "Anyway" describes Rael's grudging acceptance of physical death - "quietly buried in stones". "The Lamia", I feel, represent worms that gnaw at Rael's physical body, leaving him partially decomposed - a "slipperman". The remainder of Side 4 seems to me to represent the spiritual journey one makes after death, when one abandons one's ties to the physical (symbolized by the doctor's "cure" - "dock the dick"). The final number, "_it_", is where Rael's spirit comes to understand the unity of all things in the cosmos. It is possible that he chooses his next physical incarnation at this time, realizing that physical life is really just a game, but one which he enjoys ("only knock and know-all but I like it.") >In the end, I thought that John was actually Rael's >alter-ego, and by Rael's willingness to give his own like for his >"brother", he actually saved himself. I think that John's function changes through the story, but I think he serves as a kind of "everyman". This is suggested by his very straightforward name (as opposed to the highly individual-sounding "Rael"). It is also suggested by the final scene, where Rael saves John from the ravine, looks into his face and recognizes it as Rael's own (signifying the momentary realization that we are all one.) >BTW, all of this is just from memory, I don't really care about >convincing anyone of my interpretation. Yes, my account here is from memory, too, although I've devoted a fair amount of thought and conversation to this topic over the last 15 years or so. I'm glad to see this subject discussed here. One of the amazing and wonderful things about _The Lamb_ is the number of different interpretations, many of them quite elaborate, which can be defended. I remember many years ago telling someone my interpretation and having him present the argument that the album was not about being killed but about the process of birth - I don't remember too many of his points, but I do recall that the slipperman was the slimy baby coming down the birth canal and the "dock the dick" sequence was supposed to be circumcision. Another topic worthy of discussion here is the tools artists such as PG (and, of course, Kate) use in putting together songs and albums with vague lyrical references that can be interpreted and deeply felt in many different ways. One important such tool is the use of archetypes or archetypal characters. ************************ |UUCP: {hplabs,decwrl,<others>}!sun!thismoment!duane but one of the choices | COM: duane%thismoment@sun.com turns existence into art |ARPA: duane@sun.arpa ************************ |USPS: 2550 Garcia Ave. M/S M3-76, Mtn. View CA 94042
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/17/89)
Really-From: munnari!yarra.oz.au!rag@uunet.UU.NET (Robyn A Grunberg)
In article <7051@megatest.UUCP>, Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU writes:
] Really-From: megatest!ryensen@decwrl.dec.com (Richard Yensen)
]
]
] From article <890809155754799.AKPG@Mars.UCC.UMass.EDU>, by Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU:
] > In fact, by the end of the recording process, the rest of
] > the band had to step in and finish up the writing of the 3rd and 4th sides
] > because PG was so strung out he practically couldn't function.
]
] According to Tony Banks, PG wrote 99% of the lyrics to "Lamb", and he may
] have felt that the band would never let him do such a thing again;
I'd have to agree with this. The copyright on "Lamb Lies Down on
Broadway" is in the name Peter Gabriel, not Genesis. I think Peter
would have had a hard time convincing the other members to agree to
this if they'd written half the album.
Robyn.