Which is better: Lamb Lies Down On Broadway or The Wall?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
LemonMelon said:
The Wall is arguably the most fluid and well written rock opera of all time. It really is quite ingenious. The problem is that most of the songs aren't up to the quality of the albums the band released before it.

This man's got it.

In my opinion, the album wouldn't have WORKED without the "fodder" songs like "Bring the Boys Back Home" and "The Happiest Days of Our Lives." They serve as great transitions and manage to further the story and prepare the listener for the real highlights. The Wall is in no way an album of singles, but it was never meant to be. It's meant to be listened to as a whole, and when it is, it might just be the greatest thing Pink Floyd ever produced.
 
XHendrix24 said:


In my opinion, the album wouldn't have WORKED without the "fodder" songs like "Bring the Boys Back Home" and "The Happiest Days of Our Lives." They serve as great transitions and manage to further the story and prepare the listener for the real highlights. The Wall is in no way an album of singles, but it was never meant to be. It's meant to be listened to as a whole, and when it is, it might just be the greatest thing Pink Floyd ever produced.

I have to agree with this. If you're playing the songs individually and not paying attention to the underlying themes of the whole work, yes, certain songs in The Wall might seem boring and unnecessary. But if you listen to the whole thing in one go, you find that songs like Bring The Boys Back Home and Goodbye Cruel World are absolutely essential. Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 sounds incomplete without Happiest Days Of Our Lives (reason #23093 why PULSE sucks.)



Another thing to point out is that The Wall was written with the live show in mind right from the beginning. I know the original topic was referring to the albums only, but I honestly think you can't talk about The Wall without mentioning the live show. I mean, take a song like Goodbye Cruel World. On the album, it sounds pretty harmless, maybe even a little boring. But now imagine that a white brick wall has slowly been constructed in front of the band for the first half of the show. There's one brick left to go, and Roger Waters is standing behind the empty space in the wall, singing that song. The only light in the theatre is a pair of spotlights trained up on him from the bottom of the stage. On the final "goodbye," the final brick is put in and everything goes black. It's fucking powerful. The live show just wouldn't have been the same without it. Hop on a torrent site and download the DVD The Wall: Divided We Fall and you'll see what I mean.

Sure, there might be other Floyd albums with higher ratios of good songs to mediocre songs, but I still rank The Wall fairly high within the catalogue. I don't think it's their best album, but it's far from the worst. Great concept, a great live show that was revolutionary at the time, and a great movie to go along with it.
 
XHendrix24 said:
In my opinion, the album wouldn't have WORKED without the "fodder" songs like "Bring the Boys Back Home" and "The Happiest Days of Our Lives." They serve as great transitions and manage to further the story and prepare the listener for the real highlights. The Wall is in no way an album of singles, but it was never meant to be. It's meant to be listened to as a whole, and when it is, it might just be the greatest thing Pink Floyd ever produced.

Besides Comfortably Numb and Hey You (and maybe Another Brick), what songs aren't fodder? It's one thing to have fodder, and as an avid prog listener, I expect to come across it on extended albums. But it's another thing to lack the meat. The Wall lacks meat. It bores me entirely.
 
Axver said:


Besides Comfortably Numb and Hey You (and maybe Another Brick), what songs aren't fodder?

In The Flesh?
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
One Of My Turns
Young Lust
Run Like Hell
The Trial
 
LemonMelon said:


In The Flesh?
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
One Of My Turns
Young Lust
Run Like Hell
The Trial

I don't like any of those, especially not Run Like Hell or The Trial.
 
In all fairness, even if you personally do not enjoy the aforementioned songs, Mother, Young Lust, Run Like Hell, and Nobody Home cannot be considered throw-away songs by any stretch of the imagination. As for the shorter songs that may be considered mere pieces for advancing the plot, the atmospherics are haunting and incredibly effective at creating a sense of foreboding for the next track. Exceptional among these are Happiest Days, Empty Spaces, Is There Anybody Out There, and even Stop. In this regard, these pieces are much more effective than those that appear on something like Tommy, for instance.
 
I'm biased and a bit ignorant on this one.

A lot of my musical influences came from my father. When I was growing up, rock music was played in our house every day almost all day, if Dad was home.

My Dad LOVED Pink Floyd . . . and he dislikes The Wall greatly. I remember WYWH, Animals, DSOTM, Meddle and then songs like "Careful With That Ax, Eugene" being played over and over and over in our home. I know Dad owned The Wall, but I never remember it being played.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway on the other hand. God! I could probably recite every frickin' NOTE from that album. In fact, between that album and Led Zeppelin's catalogue, that was probably the soundtrack of my early childhood! I LOVE "Lamb". Probably because it does remind me of my Dad and my childhood. But that whole album is just genius to me. And Peter Gabriel's voice. :drool: And Steve Hackett. :bow:

It's not even a choice really.

----------
Suzanne tired her work all done,
Thinks money-honey-be on-neon.
Cabmans velvet glove sounds the horn
And the sawdust king spits out his scorn.
Wonder women draw your blind!
Dont look at me! Im not your kind.
I'm Rael!!!!
Something inside me has just begun,
Lord knows what I have done,
And the lamb lies down on Broadway

----------
I couldn't even tell you how many times I've heard this song in my life.
 
Last edited:
LemonMelon said:
In The Flesh?
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
One Of My Turns
Young Lust
Run Like Hell
The Trial

True, there are some very good/great tracks in that selection. And now also add Comfortably Numb, Hey You, Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 (and OK, as some said so, also The Happiest Day Of Our Lives). Let's see, we have a list of 11 songs now. This might've been an excellent single record then. But somehow it ended up with an additional 15 tracks... :|
 
FitzChivalry said:
I'm biased and a bit ignorant on this one.

A lot of my musical influences came from my father. When I was growing up, rock music was played in our house every day almost all day, if Dad was home.

My Dad LOVED Pink Floyd . . . and he dislikes The Wall greatly. I remember WYWH, Animals, DSOTM, Meddle and then songs like "Careful With That Ax, Eugene" being played over and over and over in our home. I know Dad owned The Wall, but I never remember it being played.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway on the other hand. God! I could probably recite every frickin' NOTE from that album. In fact, between that album and Led Zeppelin's catalogue, that was probably the soundtrack of my early childhood! I LOVE "Lamb". Probably because it does remind me of my Dad and my childhood. But that whole album is just genius to me. And Peter Gabriel's voice. :drool: And Steve Hackett. :bow:

It's not even a choice really.

----------
Suzanne tired her work all done,
Thinks money-honey-be on-neon.
Cabmans velvet glove sounds the horn
And the sawdust king spits out his scorn.
Wonder women draw your blind!
Dont look at me! Im not your kind.
I'm Rael!!!!
Something inside me has just begun,
Lord knows what I have done,
And the lamb lies down on Broadway

----------
I couldn't even tell you how many times I've heard this song in my life.


:bow:

And LLDOB was released in 1974. So ahead of it's time. You got to get in to get out... :love:
 
Is there a way we can "lock" this thread so the posters in it can never leave it and post in any other thread?

A quarantine of sorts.

It would be a great feature to ad to the forum.
 
MrBrau1 said:
Is there a way we can "lock" this thread so the posters in it can never leave it and post in any other thread?

A quarantine of sorts.

It would be a great feature to ad to the forum.

Let's just quarantine your nonsense. :drool:
 
Axver said:
Let me put it this way: I just got The Lamb Lies Down and haven't had a chance to actually play it yet, but I already know it's better than The Wall.

I really hate The Wall. I think it's PF's worst album by a mile. It should be marketed as an insomnia cure; the only songs that do not bore me to tears are Comfortably Numb and Hey You. I find it hard to believe that it followed the brilliance of Animals and WYWH.
:ohmy:

I simply can't believe it :ohmy:

A Momentary Lapse of Crap is really the worst PF album by a country mile !!!!!!!

and The Final Cut is second to that :ohmy:
 
There is simply no way that Momentary is Floyd's worst album. My personal ranking of their discography would be the following:

1. Dark Side (5 stars +)
2. Wish You Were Here (5 stars +)
3. Animals (5 stars)
4. The Wall (5 stars)
5. Division Bell (5 stars)
6. The Final Cut (5 stars)
7. Meddle (4.5 stars)
8. More (4 stars)
9. Momentary Lapse (4 stars)
10. Obscured by Clouds (4 stars)
11. Saucerful (3 stars)
12. Piper (3 stars)
13. Atom Heart Mother (3 stars)
14. Ummagumma (2 stars)

Just in case anyone was interested.
 
Back
Top Bottom