The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (song)
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the opening track on Genesis’s 1974 concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. It was released as a single in the United States, but it did not chart, though it received frequent airplay on American FM radio.
The end of the song features the line “They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway. They say there’s always magic in the air” from The Drifters’ On Broadway. The studio version uses a slightly different lyric (“the lights are always bright on Broadway”), while live performances use the original line.
Mike Rutherford’s bass work gives the song a powerful, energetic feel that fits the album’s bold, defiant mood. Record World called it “a theatrical rock event with a haunting plotline.”
The song was written by Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford, and produced by John Burns and Genesis. The album version runs 5:03, while the single version is 3:15. It was recorded from August to October 1974, with B-side Counting Out Time, on Atco Records/Atlantic in the U.S.
After Peter Gabriel left the band, the Phil Collins–led Genesis often played the song on early tours, usually segueing into the closing section of The Musical Box. A live version appears on Seconds Out (1977) and as part of the Old Medley on The Way We Walk, Volume Two: The Longs (1993). The song was also performed in full during the 1998 Calling All Stations tour with Ray Wilson on vocals. In 2021’s The Last Domino? Tour, they performed a stripped-back acoustic version in a short section of the show.
Peter Gabriel also performed the song during some of his solo tours in 1977–78, often as an encore.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:26 (CET).