Covers of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

By Ian Paul Sharp | https://ianpaulsharp.uk. I write LP: Inside the Album - subscribe here - https://iansharp.substack.com
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it is dark. it is surreal. it is psychologically intense. it is Real. it is Rael. it is The Lamb.

The recent issue of The Lamb Down on Broadway as a super deluxe edition boxed set has come at a time of renewed interest in the album (sure as eggs is eggs this is a question of the chicken and the egg - did the box spark renewed interest, or does it exist because The Lamb was having a moment anyway?) Alan Hewitt has reviewed the box elsewhere in this issue. In this piece, my focus is on the extraordinary efforts of other musicians to make cover versions of the songs and, in two cases, the entire double album.

Perhaps it’s not surprising.

After all, books, sometimes expensive academic ones, have been written about The Lamb. When you want to go deeper, have a look at Genesis and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Kevin Holm-Hudson (examining the “surreal allegory drawing its material from religious, literary and psychological themes”); The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Genesis 1974-1975): History of the Enigmatic Cult Album by Dr. Mark Bell (explaining its mysterious content piece by piece); and the limited edition Genesis … And The Lamb, Lies Down, On Broadway by Jon Kirkman (a detailed look with rare photographs and memorabilia).

The Lamb might be the greatest progressive rock concept album ever made. The songs are brilliant, so if its reputation as a heavy concept album discourages you, forget the concept and enjoy the songs. You know the Genesis versions very well. The release of The Lamb may have been the close of the Gabriel era, but The Lamb itself lives on …

The Lamb cover albums
Cover versions of individual songs are, of course, an integral part of the music industry. It’s much less usual for cover versions of whole albums to be attempted. Unsurprisingly, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon has attracted several - The Dub Side of the Moon by the Easy Star All Stars, The Flaming Lips had a go, as did Sam Yahel with a jazz interpretation, Jazz Side of the Moon (we’ll come back to jazz). There are others.

It’s not just prog that receives this treatment. There’s an acapella version of the entire Who Sell Out album by Petra Haden, and a cover of Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album by Thea Gilmore. There are more, but let’s keep our focus on Genesis.

The Lamb is, of course, a long and dense double album. Covering it is not to be undertaken lightly, yet it’s been done, twice. What have we got here?

Dave Kerzner & Sonic Elements (2025)

It - A Celebration of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

This is described on Dave Kerzner’s Bandcamp page as The Lamb “reimagined as if it was a symphonic film soundtrack combined with authentic 70's vintage rock instruments (including many of Tony Banks' actual keyboards now owned by Kerzner).” Dave Kerzner is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and sound designer. With Sonic Elements he has also recorded tributes to Rush and Yes.

Nick D’Virgilo (2025, originally 2008)

Rewiring Genesis: A Tribute to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway


Nick D’Virgilio: “An updated version of Rewiring Genesis – A Tribute To The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, with new parts recorded, including by Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett and strings recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London. Originally released in 2008 … [this] came from the combined efforts of Mark Hornsby and me. We wanted to create a reimagined version of the Genesis classic.” D’Virgilio is the drummer of prog group Big Big Train. He was a member of Spock’s Beard and one of the two drummers on the Genesis album Calling All Stations.

The albums

Both are excellent versions of the original masterpiece. In places, the two different readings sound similar, because both stay close to the original Genesis recording while stretching their musical wings in places. Nick D’Virgilio appears on both records, and that directs us to the roots of this slightly bonkers enterprise.

In 1994, musician and Genesis fan Kevin Gilbert achieved his dream of performing The Lamb live. He reformed his band, Giraffe, including one Nick D’Virgilio on, of course, drums. Part of the performance, at ProgFest in Los Angeles, can be heard on the album ProgFest 94; Giraffe’s versions of ‘Fly On A Windshield / Broadway Melody of 1994’; and ‘The Colony of Slippermen / A Visit To The Doktor, plus ‘The Musical Box’ for good measure.

These tracks are an accurate recreation of the Genesis sound, and reports suggest the performance included a reconstruction of the visual show toured by the band. It’s a shame the full performance is not available officially.

The most obvious addition to both the Kerzner and D’Virgilio studio versions are the symphonic strings. The arrangements are uncannily similar in several places, to the point where I felt the need to check if there was a sharing of resources. Apparently not, but listen to ‘In the Cage’ when it reaches what was the first Tony Banks keyboard solo on the original. The melody is picked up by the strings in similar style on both projects; on the Kerzner album, following a synth solo, and more directly into the strings on D’Virgilio’s version.

Another point of similarity, and yet difference, is the conclusion of ‘Counting Out Time’. Here the Kerzner version hints at a traditional jazz band, which can be heard continuing in the background as the song closes. On the D’Virgilio track, the whole song is given a big band arrangement, which morphs into a full-throttle trad. jazz band. This is brilliant both as an idea and in its execution.

In keeping with the aim of remaking the album as a symphonic film soundtrack, the Kerzner album opens with an atmospheric soundscape, before the familiar keyboard melody leads onto familiar Lamb territory.

The Nick D’Virgilio version also has the benefit of Steve Hackett reprising his guitar parts on several tracks. That’s not the only time Hackett has returned to this Genesis era - see below for more.

One issue facing anyone undertaking cover of Genesis material is the vocals. Peter Gabriel has a controlled, sometimes gritty, melodic, soulful approach to singing, and one that is hard for anyone to match. Perhaps it’s foolhardy to try, yet if these songs were given a totally different vocal they would sound odd. Francis Dunnery does well on the Kerzner album, although at times he pushes a little too hard for my taste. On the D’Virgilio album, the vocals are by Nick himself, and he does a fine job. Drummers can sing - see also Phil Collins …

The Lamb’s reputation has grown in the over fifty years since its release. The original Genesis recording will, of course, always be the mothership, but it’s great the music is being kept alive.

And there’s life in the individual songs.

Cover Versions of Lamb Songs

This is not a comprehensive list of all the covers ever attempted of Lamb material. Even within this selection (I don’t know there to be more, but you might know of others) there’s a range of styles. We’ll consider some of the less well-known artists before circling back to, of course, Steve Hackett.

Let’s clear our ears with ‘Back in NYC’
Described on Bandcamp as “punk fury and prog rock ambition”, the Trail of the Dead stick closely to the original of ‘NYC’. To my ears it sounds rather like a demo version of the song with an inferior singer.

Also to be found on Bandcamp, a similar approach with a more muscular vocal is offered by Farmhouse Odyssey. Or, for a different, more electronic, take, try AIIOM. In fact, if you feel like diving into a rabbit hole, fire up Bandcamp and start searching.

We can’t leave ‘NYC’ behind without visiting Jeff Buckley’s cover on his Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk album. This is raw and rough around the edges, partly because the album was constructed from tapes he was working on at the time of his death. It’s close to the spirit of the song - a song that hinted strongly at the direction Gabriel would move towards, for a while at least, in his solo career.

Covers such as these enable Genesis to continue to reach a new audience.

The Lamb as jazz

Jazz artists find interest in Genesis songs more than might, at first, be expected. Of course, Genesis can be jazz-fusion adjacent, led by Phil Collins’ interest (see Brand X, the Phil Collins Big Band and aspects of his solo albums) and so it’s good to hear Genesis material and, especially in this context The Lamb, in jazz arrangements.

Fragile - ‘The Carpet Crawlers’ (from Smile). This is a vocal jazz interpretation of a beautiful song. It veers a little too far into the kind of night club music that’s designed not to be too intrusive, but it demonstrates the musical quality of the song. It’s amazing, when we stop and think, that the same album was home to ‘punk-prog’, jazz, and everything between - and still hold together as a cohesive whole.

Jaune Vilaseca Quartet/Trio - Jazziness Vols I/II/III

‘In the Cage’/’The Lamia (Quartet) from I
‘The Lamb’/’The Carpet Crawlers’ (Trio) from II
‘Cuckoo Cocoon’/’Hairless Heart’/’Counting Out Time’/’Anyway’/’The Chamber of 32 Doors’ from III

These Jazziness albums range across all styles of Genesis, from early to late. This is a jazz quartet (subsequently a trio) cutting loose on the essence of these songs, again showing how these are not, in the end, only great prog rock songs; they are great songs, full stop. For all the elaborate production that creating an album such as The Lamb requires, it would be a hollow exercise if the material was lacking. If you’re a prog listener seeking a way into an appreciation of jazz, these terrific arrangements and performances are holding the door open for you.

Steve Hackett

And so we circle back to the guitarist who was there at the time: Steve Hackett. For many years now, Hackett has featured Genesis songs in his live set, usually releasing a live album of each tour.

Way back at the start, his version of ‘The Waiting Room’ (which he retitled ‘Waiting Room Only’) on Genesis Revisited is extraordinary, even if it’s nothing like the Genesis original.

He hasn’t tackled the whole of The Lamb, although he did include nine songs on his 2025 album The Lamb Stands Up at The Royal Albert Hall. Like the cover albums we’ve discussed, he’s mainly faithful to the originals but he does throw in a few surprises along the way, including an appearance by Ray Wilson to sing ‘The Carpet Crawlers’. Speaking of whom …

Ray Wilson - ‘The Carpet Crawlers’ from Genesis vs Stiltskin. Wilson might have been the solution to the vocalist dilemma discussed earlier, his deep and dark tones falling alongside Gabriel’s without parody or imitation. While Steve Hackett has respectfully only covered the songs he played on, Wilson performs songs from all eras of Genesis. ‘The Carpet Crawlers’ is the go-to song for anyone wanting to pay tribute to The Lamb. Wilson does it full justice.

Although these are not all recent releases, rounding them up underlines how deeply The Lamb is embedded in history - not only of progressive rock, but of music as a whole.