“Dissecting the lamb…” - Jen Selinsky takes a brief look at the Genesis and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway book…

Genesis & The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was another Christmas gift I received from my husband several years ago. Looking at the book I could tell it was relatively short. When I leafed through the pages however, I noticed that the material therein was a bit scholarly (what else do you expect in a book about The Lamb… Jen?- AH) complete with APA citations. It reminded me of a long dissertation. Though I had written many scholarly materials during my college years, the book’s presentation was a bit off-putting. I didn’t want to mentally digest something that I considered too “cerebral” for leisure reading.

I then took an opportunity to read the introduction and found that the book was written by a local author: Kevin Holm-Hudson who is a professor at the University of Kentucky. That piqued my curiosity even more because I had the privilege of meeting a local author who wrote a book about Pete Townshend.

I paged through the tome again, still hesitant but I finally picked it up and started reading. The scholarly material wasn’t actually that bad; it was part of the great beauty of the book. The author really knew his subject and his notes tied in well with the description of the album.

Not only did Kevin cite all his sources, but he included quotes from interviews with various members of Genesis not just Peter Gabriel. A little bit of Peter’s personal life was brought up in relation to his inspiration and the reason s why he decided to leave Genesis.

I enjoyed finding out information I didn’t know before, such as Carl Jung’s influence on Peter and how certain parts of The Lamb… relied on classical literature. One example is the song The Lamia which saw its inspiration from a John Keats poem of the same name.

I also liked the fact that the author mentioned The Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd and other popular musicians from the same era. . After all, one cannot describe the work of one group without scratching the surface of another.

Even though I found another perspective of analysis involving The Lamb… online, the author does a great job of delving into the concept of an album that is very difficult to comprehend. Throughout numerous quotations and various examples, the author demystifies The Lamb… That is why I highly recommend it to anyone who is searching for hidden meaning behind this spectacular double album.