TS: Tommy vs. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway vs. The Wall

Big opus pompous monstrosities all. The Who may be one of my favourite bands but Tommy is way down there on my list of their albums. The Wall I positively cannot abide. I guess by default I'll have to say Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, though I haven't heard it enough times to really make that kind of judgement, and I don't particularly care to.

"i'm free," "pinball wizard" and the "overture," among others, are great rock songs, and "tommy's holiday camp" and "fiddle about," among others, make for some compellingly strange ditties. there are plenty of other pleasingly rocking and hooky moments and, yeah, quite a few tracks worth skipping, too. not a masterpiece, but far better than a lot of people give it credit for being.

also for what it's worth (i imagine lots of you might hate them for this), guided by voices couldn't possibly have existed without this record.

The Lamb is possibly the prog album of the 70's; everything come together in all its pompous overblown magnificence. An album I couldn't live without - Carpet Crawl gives me shivers every time I play it.

The Wall has had such a critical backlash (and did at the time from the far too precious rock press) that people may be put off, but persevere. It's worth it, especially the quasi musical set piece of the Trial and the superb One Of My Turns.

Tommy - The film has slightly spoilt it for me. I'm not a fan of the movie and never will be, but return to the original Who version and listen to how good some of this music is (although I think Fiddle About may give some minors nightmares.

If you have to pick one don't; get all of them....

yes, thought so.

By concept:
oh fuckit, who cares.

emphatically agreed!

Speaking of favourites on "The Lamb...." I have to go for "The Chamber Of 32 Doors" and "The Lamia".

TS: Ken Russell's "Tommy" vs. Alan Parker's "Pink Floyd the Wall"

FYI the Musical Box (Canadian tribute band who own all of the original slides from the lamb tour and recreate the stage show with genesis' blessing) are touring the Lamb again this summer/fall. Not missing it like I did last time.

I think they were the ones who Gabriel took his daughter to see once and she said something like "Dad, I can't believe you used to do this." I haven't seen them but I saw another outfit called Re-Genesis who recreated Seconds Out very effectively.

As for this TS I can get behind it (except for Tommy) as my little brother discovered Genesis at the same time as I discovered Floyd and we used to argue endlessly about the relative merits of these two albums. Personally I think The Wall just edges it for its more persuasive tunes and sense of drama. The Lamb's highs (In The Cage, Carpet Crawlers, Counting Out Time) hit just as high but it's a bit of a slog otherwise. A lot of the songs just blend into each other.

And as for The Who, would Quadrophenia be a better comparator?

... yes, it would be. FWIW I hate "The Wall" with a vengeance, tried to listen to "Lamb" all the way through once and couldn't believe how dull it was. So "Tommy" wins.

Lambd Lies down - whats with the album cover

This would have to go to Tommy, although I much prefer live versions of the album to the studio release. I haven't listened to The Wall in full since I was about 16, and I found it maudlin even then.

which band member is responsible for "Silent Sorrow" on Lamb Lies Down?

Do you mean wrote it or played on it? It's credited to all five of them, and being a guitar/mellotron piece it's likely to have been played by Hackett & Banks.

LAMB

I can't believe I've never heard Lamb until this week. What a record

Lamb, hands-down. Riding The Scree has the best prog synth solo I can think of, going from monophonic witn portsmemto, to polyphonic, arpeggiated manually, until right before Gabriel starts singing, Banks switches on the arpeggiator and the transition is almost totally seamless.

The drumming on that track is awesome,too, with its asymmetrical rhythm. Post-rockers amd math-rockers should definitely give it a listen.

I also suspect The Flaming Lips owe a lot to Genesis, and Lamb Lies Down.

*portamento

pretty much everything that the second disc of the Lamb does is done better on Wind & Wuthering, in my opinion. First disc is ace but I always get bored around the time "The Waiting Room" comes on

side 4 is the weak one, you're plain wrong about side 3 which is the best on the record

I love the ethereal soft guitar ballads

"Carpet Crawlers" also has some pretty creative keyboard work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq716D1JBAw

Lamb is such a frustrating listen. Its highs are so high (for me, "Carpet Crawlers" and "Cuckoo Coccoon" and in general, all the slower, softer songs) and its lows so low

I just bought The Lamb. I like it but geez, it sounds like garbage, production-wise. I don't need a slick Susudio-esque sheen, but fer crying out loud the thing sounds like it was recorded underwater.

To be diplomatic about the actual music, it's fair to say that Tony Banks is an acquired taste.

i like a lot of things about this record. i like peter gabriel pretending to be a nuyorican street punk while randomly playing bad flute. i like eno's castration sound effect. i like how they left the guitar player off the record entirely, except for side three, which is wall-to-wall guitar solos. i like tony banks and his "hey, check out my arpeggios!" approach to playing. and yeah, i like the production- i mean, hi-fi it's not, but man, if you think the production on the lamb is bad, do yourself a favor and don't listen to nursery cryme!

The 2009 remixes got a lot of hate, but for me the Lamb was the best of the bunch.

I just bought The Lamb. I like it but geez, it sounds like garbage, production-wise.

Is this ever OTM. Always thought the production on Quadrophenia sucked too.

I like parts of Lamb and The Wall, but sitting down and listening to either feels like I'm about to go on a very slow, mostly boring boat ride.

Tommy has a few sloggy moments -- "Underture" and "Welcome" -- but the highs are so much higher than those on Lamb or The Wall.

Also, it's funny. The other two are so crushingly po-faced (Lamb less so than The Wall, tbf).

You don't find the Wall funny? "Day after day, love turns grey, like the skin of a dying man." Come on!

I don't even like "Tommy" that much but the other two are oppressive slogs to get through, and as Tarfumes notes at least "Tommy" has some energetic high points and levity plus a hilarious film adaptation

Come on, "Counting Out Time" is hilarious. xp

look, come on. peter gabriel, nuyorican street punk. i can think of few things funnier than that.

I am finally FINALLY listening to "Lamb" in its entirety as an adult, without outside enhancements - last time must have been around 30 years ago in a friend's dorm room, floored on bong hits - and it is marvellous. Almost doesn't sound like Genesis to my ears.

I can't imagine ever listening to the Wall or Tommy again. But I listen to Lamb all the time. Well, at least the first half.

I think I'll go with "none of them but would be quite willing to listen to a different album by either Pink Floyd, The Who or Genesis"

That's sorted, then!

lamb lamb lamb lamb

...are very good. Love their track 'Cotton Wool'...

It's a shame nothing ever came of the Jodorowsky collaboration. It seems like he was set to assemble a team similar to the one he pulled together for the defunct Dune adaptation (which was going to have a soundtrack by Pink Floyd).