I believe the highest achievement in music as an art form occurs when complex, stimulating lyrics are married to equally complex music. In rock music I think "

I believe the highest achievement in music as an art form occurs when complex, stimulating lyrics are married to equally complex music. In rock music I think "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by Genesis achieves that pinnacle. After nearly 50 years the Lamb stands alone in that it blends a weird, complex story line riddled with references and allegories to classical literature with an equally complex score of music that fuse together into a cinematic, theatrical and intellectually stimulating musical experience. Nothing, I mean nothing, in the rock music catalog comes close to what the Lamb achieves: what other album weaves in references to Sondheim's West Side Story, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Keats' Lamia, and Carl Jung? The storyline was almost entirely written by Peter Gabriel, who loves word play, which is peppered throughout the lyrics. Even the title itself is an allegorical word play, as the story line is about a young man Rael who goes on a spiritual journey; in literature a lamb is a symbol of self-sacrifice for redemption. The Lamb is headphone music to ponder by. It's not party music, it's not to dance to, just as one doesn't read Huxley or Cervantes while on the beach.