Sometimes I feel that the artists don't quite get what makes the music great for us fans, but this interview proves Steve Hackett is a rarity who totally gets it and still carries the prog torch. Jon Anderson is another of the rarities. It's as if they somehow never got jaded.
@@davel7791 To be fair he WAS sort of trashing the Lamb as not having enough guitar moments, and if he 'loved it' that much he'd likely do it live. To be fair its MOSTLY Phil that puts down the old lyrics, which is just not his cup of tea, and if he WAS a normal rock drummer we'd never hear his opinion about much of anything. Heck I think Bill Bruford hated EVERYTHING he worked on, or seems to. But I get what you mean, I don't know why so many musical artists produce, well produced albums, but albums that are nowhere near as creative or interesting as when they were twenty. But then maybe THATS why they feel the need to put it down. Like physicists they say they are most creative at around 21, the same could be true of musicians and so its a hell of thing to 'peak' and spend the rest of life hearing "boy you were really good fifty years ago, what happened?"
@@davel7791 That's absolutely what I think, too. I would freak out if Hackett would be trashing Seconds Out. However in the case of TLLDOB, I am actually totally on his side. It's one of those albums that, taken as a whole, I find rather heavy on the heart. I'm not sure, maybe Steve feels the same.
I saw them them preform this live in NYC back in November of ‘74 and still to this day it still stands as the best live show I’ve ever seen, hands down.
@@ACooke108 I have a feeling it must have been late November 1974 because they were supposed to start the tour at the beginning of the month but Hackett had injured a tendon on his thumb and so they had to wait three or four weeks to start the tour.
I was fortunate enough to see Steve Hackett and Genesis back in 1973. It was a small club on the UC campus in Cincinnati. Genesis was virtually unknown in the US at the time. Needless to say I was completely mesmerized when they opened with "watcher of the skies". Sitting on the floor in front of the stage I watched as Peter Gabriel did costume changes throughout and Steve Hackett sat in a chair the whole time!! Never had seen a lead guitar player sitting down during a performance. Been a huge fan ever since.
Hearing one of the best guitarist of all times talking about one of the greatest albums of all time is just mind blowing. U can see the gears turning in his head as he tries explaining it to us common folks. This was back when u could just put a record on and let it play all the way through because it was designed that way.
Steve and his Band have done lots of tracks live off "The Lamb" and they have done a brilliant job, especially with the keyboards. Doing a complete suite is a different thing altogether and requires much more than individual tracks to hold it all together. The original Genesis concerts featuring "The Lamb" required a hell of a lot from Peter both vocally and, of course, visually. Steve's Band, IMHO, is not about visuals; it's about capturing the moment in song. Peter, despite his brilliance with the flute, was a visual vocalist and he played this up to the fans, not least in "The Lamb" where some of his outfits were "odd" to say the least. Just playing "The Lamb" is not enough and that, I reckon, is why Steve won't do it.
He seemed to be proud of the album, but he sees it more as Gabriel’s project. Less of a collaboration, but there is some big moments of collaboration albeit only on 2 or 3 songs. But yeah, Hackett is way more proud of “selling England by the pound” and “wind and wuthering” for sure.
The thing to hate about The Musical Box is that they do it SO well that thats one of the main reasons I've heard from the Genesis guys that they don't do the Gabriel era Genesis tunes, The Musical Box does it even better than they did (they've said).
Wow. He still looks and sounds fantastic. He's an inspiration. Saw him in Philly a few years ago. My 2nd time seeing his band recreate the Peter Gabriel era albums. Shows were fantastic. Small theatre setting. Blew us away. Hope he tours america soon again. Totally awesome. Him and ritchie blackmore are ageless inspirations for all of us.
The guitar solo on Anyway is my favorite piece of his. The spatial relationship, feeling and timing is overlooked amongst his other output. It’s the shortness of it that makes me beg for more. I guess Shakespeare was right: brevity is the soul of wit.
Look, you're part of a band that's trying to put out a solid product. Be proud of being a part of it! Every Genesis album with or without whom, or what, is a sound concept and that's what makes Genesis so legendary. I'm so looking forward to see Mr. Hackett on April 20th!!!
For me, The Lamb is a perfect fusion between the early years with Gabriel and the later Musical style up through ...And Then There Were Three. Not to mention it is one of the great thematic albums of all time. Couldn't recreate it properly without Phil on drums, though.
They were so young when they produced this album and they were so amazing. It's my all time favourite and I am still surprised how good it is when I listen to it again.
As much as I love _The Lamb,_ my favorite Genesis album, I can understand why Steve doesn't want to perform it live. It has always stood as a massive undertaking in rock, and those who have been able to do it justice are few and far between. Plus they've been assisted by improvements in technology post-1974. If you want to see/hear a great alternate version of _The Lamb,_ I have to recommend the 1994 performance by Kevin Gilbert and his band Giraffe. It's somewhere on UA-cam.
wow, thank you so much, this makes so much sense, with the album being so busy with lyrics/keys, Lamb is one of my all time favorites, not only Genesis albums but all., thx again.
SO Flippin' AWESOME! I would love to see "The Lamb" live w/ Gabriel & Hackett, also, I would dig hearing Gabriel cover "Trick Of The Tail" ..that would be a TRIP
Wow, I'm a HUGE Peter fan but I never gave that any thought. As well as Phil sings on TRICK...it would be quite interesting. Thank you for that wonderful image and thought. :)
I’m so glad that I am still alive to see Steve, Phil, Tony, Mike, Peter (and others like Leland Sklar) speak about their music. When I started listening to Genesis in the early 70s there was nothing like this.
That's because Mr .Hackett seems to be a GENTLEMAN.😀 That's how I've always felt abut him 😀 To me Phil Collins is a bit of a clown .Over the years I just don't like him that much.
lamb is possibly the greatest rock/prog album ever made. it is one of 2 albums that i never get tried of listening to. the other is pink floyd animals.
It's always interesting to hear everyone/anyone in the band at that time talk about how they all either hated the album, hated the concept or hated Gabriel for performing in costume on tour. What they all fail to accept is that all of those particular tensions might have amounted to the very reason this album was/is such a success with the die-hard Genesis fans. To me ....this album has never aged one bit which in my mind is a testament on how far advanced they were at the time.
There is a wonderful recent production of the Lamb by a community music group, I believe in Delaware. Well executed and filmed. Do a search on UA-cam for it. They call themselves the Rock Orchestra.
Before COVID raised its ugly head, Steve was doing meet n greets with fans before his shows with a special unheard set of Lamb material. So while doing The Lamb in its entirety is off the table, we can hope for maybe a compilation of The Lamb’s top tunes. Maybe for the albums 50th anniversary.
Funny Steve should mention that claustrophobic feel surrounding the entirety of listening to The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Cos I as a fan have always felt the very same about it. Just like Steve, I like to listen to bits and pieces of it which they played live over the years, like of course the title track, Broadway Melody of 1974, The Carpet Crawlers, In The Cage, It, or I happen to have a Peter Gabriel bootleg where he plays Back In NYC (with Fripp on guitar!), but I don't at all enjoy the album in its entirety. It's what I would call "uneasy listening".
Nice intersite into the album Lamb lies down on Broadway I was lucky to see that show back in 1974 in Cleveland Ohio I was quite amazed because before that I saw the tour with selling England by the Pound which was incredible but this one was like something I never saw before the visual effects peters theatrical movements and costumes and the band sounding like an orchestra it was absolutely incredible I believe the show was like two over two hours long and then he did an encore with watches of the sky and the musical box which was incredible I’ll never forget that those are neat moments that was a real genesis back then
Wow, I think it was one of the Cleveland shows when Peter told them he would be leaving.....They ended up doing the rest of the tour knowing that, must've been 6 months they were going out night after night putting on such amazing shows even being aware that at the end of it all he'd be gone.
It's very strange, but I still play The Lamb and Supper's Ready (with Horizons, of course) a great deal. Considering that I bought them when they were released, and I played them till the grooves wore out back in the day, there's very little else from the 70's (and 80's for that matter) that I revisit as much. And why would Steve Play it in its entirety?- it's Gabriel's album. And of course it's claustrophobic, as there was definitely 'a womb vibe' about it (In the Cage, Cuckoo Cocoon, 'You gotta get in to get out'???) the birth of his first child turned out to be very difficult, and also, maybe indirectly, he felt trapped in the band itself. Makes sense to me. Also, no one seems to mention how great the title track is; it's hands down my favorite song by them (I really can't count Supper's Ready as one song.)
The amazing thing about Steve Hackett as a live performer is that he hasn't just *maintained* his form over the past 50 years, he has *improved* it. I don't know any other artist quite like that. He really has aged like fine wine, and the fact that he is doing these Genesis Revisited shows gives younger fans like me arguably to closest alternative to experience this music in a live setting as it was intended (even if there are no Gabriel-esque theatrical elements like costume changes- which by the way I believe was the appropriate choice for Steve Hackett and his band to take and it would have felt a bit silly otherwise). I absolutely CANNOT understand why some fans are so opposed to these tours, even if they are a minority. I personally cannot wait to see those shows, and there are currently two of them that are in my top five most played albums in 2024 according to my Last FM account. They're just so brilliant. Steve is just in a class of his own, but his entire band is absolutely phenomenal. The Lamb is however not among my favorite albums. I always feel the conceptual angle drags it down, and the relative incoherence of the story doesn't quite compensate for it. The first disc does contain absolute moments of brilliance, but I feel like it peters out around side 3, and I do miss the stronger guitar presence. Mind you, I'm not saying it's a bad album by any means, but it's not one that jives with me nearly as much as the other albums of the Hackett-era of Genesis. I would pick Foxtrot or A Trick of the Tail over The Lamb any day.
If there was an album Steve needed to do live more than any other else is The Lamb, using the original film footage and dressing up Nad as a slippery man. Now seriously, it's the the tour where no footages of it exist, and it's a shame no one from posterior generations can experience what it was live like. He can always add more guitar parts in the live performance, no one would bat an eye, only Tony, and that would be great, to make Tony furious, lol. I hope Steve changes his mind.
Very interesting interview, and very good to know the things in the backstage of the music we really love. Genesis is my favorite band, "The Early Genesis" I mean. I always say "And also THE BEATLES", because they must just be there always, I think. But I love Genesis sound: Thanks for this space to know more, specially trhough Steve Hackett, who really keep live that kind of music and sound. Best wishes from Argentina
I guess in the traditional sense, at the time, The Lamb Lies Down didn't fit the mold of what they'd been doing. They did a lot of very English-sounding, pastoral, 12 string guitar stuff and such, which I loved. But this record was kind of a new thing - it had a harder edge throughout and it was PG's lyrics for the first time, instead of lyrics by committee or by Tony Banks. I think it's a masterpiece and a hell of a way for Peter Gabriel to make his exit. I regret that he left, because they were on such a trajectory, but they all seemed to do just fine. ;-) Still, it's interesting to think of what might have happened after, if he had stayed...
The Lamb is far and away the black sheep (no pun intended) of the Genesis discography. It’s possible to listen to their LP’s (starting with Trespass) in order, but skipping The Lamb and going straight to Trick of the Tail and the subsequent releases, and not realize you’ve missed something. It’s almost like they took a major detour with that one, then picked up from the natural progression point from Selling England after Peter Gabriel left. I love it - it’s no less a Genesis album than any other but it’s thoroughly unique even among a catalog where no two albums were alike.
@@richardrobbins9660 ...I'm a big Genesis fan from the beginning up through Then There Were Three after that not too much. The Lamb was great except the last song "It". Something about 'It" just didn't quite fit IMO. As far as PG goes my 2 favorite LP's are his first and his last "studio" LP "UP". I haven't heard he's retired from recording but I assume he's done "UP" was released in 2002 so I'm thinking he's retired. 20 years is a long time between records...even for Peter Gabriel's rather lengthy breaks between releases. Genesis made a sharp left turn and with the inclusion of basically soul and pop they lost me as a fan, I'm just glad they produced some of the best Prog Rock ever. One thing about the Prog releases I've NEVER gotten tired of listening to them, they still are as fresh as the day they were released, I don't feel that way about any other group.
4:50 I thought maybe he wouldn't do The Lamb live. There is some guitar on it but not on many tracks. He has covered very few Lamb tracks in the past few years. The title track and the next two and that's about it. They make a great trio segued into each other. Epic start to an album. All the other early albums, he and his band could play in their sleep by now .
As a Gabriel-era Genesis fan, I agree. While I loved SEBTP at the time it came out, certain songs don't hold up well IMO; the musical passage in the Cinema Show is quite maudlin. An opposite situation occurs in Firth of Fifth; musical passages are great, but the verses feel clunky. And I can't stand More Fool Me. After the Ordeal is only OK, and nowhere near as good as Horizons on Foxtrot. But I do still like Moonlit Knight, Wardrobe, and Epping Forest. Those 3 songs, plus Horizons/Supper's Ready and Watcher of the Skies, plus the Entire Lamb album, are Genesis at their greatest.
I agree that the lamb lies down on Broadway album was a very good album but in my humble opinion I think selling England by the pound is their best work
Steve's sentiment is right on the money, regarding that release. In 1975, my friend Tim and I went from University of Redlands to see Genesis at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was of course "The Lamb" tour. I think Tim was expecting something "Claptonesque" guitar-wise, because he didn't know much about Genesis. Realize that at that time Tim was very good at electric guitar, where I was still struggling with classical guitar. Anyway, on the way home from the concert, Tim's concert review was understandable: "What? No guitar solos?"
I so agree with Steve Hackett, I am a big Genesis fan but this album I can't listen too long a few short highlight s like Lamia, Fly on a windshield and too long a depressive atmosphere, yes and miss the guitar in it too. Lamia stands out with great guitar solo!
Such a great man. Fully understandable not wanting to play an album in which he doesn't do much. Very careful choice of words to describe a difficult period. I saw the Musical Box homage band play the Lamb in Montreal, with all the props and slides. It was fantastic. Go see it if they tour again.
I would have left off "It". The album would have ended with the intriguing " . . . that's not your face, it's mine, it's mine!". As it is, "It" provides no answers whatsoever and it's too joyous after all that angst and psychological horror.
Good evening John, I always look for the link of the whole interview you say is in the description. Seems that when I open it, I turn blind cos I never find it.
Steve's guitar solo on "Counting Out Time" is the weirdest-sounding guitar I've ever heard, and that's saying something. It was "Enossified" or something like that.
I can completely understand where Steve's coming from as far as The Lamb is concerned. The whole point about Steve's band is that it's... well, Steve's band. If he were to do The Lamb, you'd get relatively little of his playing (compared to what he's been doing up to now). You may as well just have a cover band do the whole thing. Steve Hackett standing in the shadows adding some 'colour' is hardly a motivator for him doing his own shows, or for fans going to see them. I love The Lamb, but I'd rather see Steve play Firth of Fifth, Every Day, Spectral Mornings et al.
The Lamb is the only Genesis album I still listen to. It sounds like no other Genesis album and a has aged remarkably well. The reason for this I think is mostly due to Steve's playing and the variety of tones he wrangled from his guitar rig, creating sounds that do not sound far out of place in today's music. Its unfortunate that the experience of recording the album was so difficult that each member associates those memories with the music and have been reluctant to play much of it ever since. I know PG has flirted with the idea of a revival or a movie, but few seem to have the heart for it. Its a fact that great music, and art in general, is often result of adversity while plesant conditions can result in complacent mediocrity.
Steve does perform the best tracks from the album live. I always thought the album was overblown and needed trimming. But there are exquisite moments on it. but Steve's guitar was mixed too low as usual.
It may not be like earlier albums, or anything that came after it, and at first, I didn't like it that much - that is until I had to play it twice a day for weeks upon end!
Hackett, always a class act, was very kind to allude to the personal problems Peter Gabriel was having at the time of the making of The Lamb which would culminate in his leaving the band during the tour. As for making The Lamb a single album, it was done well live by the late Kevin Gilbert to CD length, but I don't think it would work squeezed further to single LP length. It's always been my own perception that the most often cited songs from The Lamb ("In the Cage," "The Carpet Crawlers") are catchy, but vastly inferior to the rest of the album.
Just personal opinion of course, but to me a better title for "The Lamb" would have been "Alice in Wonderland - the nightmare version". And while I personally think it contains some of their very best music, it also seems to have far too much tedious padding; they really should have upped the quality of some of it, or accepted reality and made it a single album. By comparison, the previous album "Selling England" barely contains a single sub par moment.
As a Genesis fan since the early ‘70s I consider Lamb to be a masterpiece whether it’s characterized as Prog or not.I am amused by the well known drama surrounding it’s creation ,reception and aftermath.Let’s face it Hackett doesn’t like Lamb because it’s not a guitar album. Gabriel was pissed because Collins and Rutherford were totally unsupportive during Peter’s wife’s health issues.Banks doesn’t like anything any time. Yet we fans love it
I think "The Lamb" was a creative tug of war with Pete on one side and Tony/Mike on the other. Steve and Phil were not, at that point, key decision makers within the band, so had very little say in the direction that album would take. I'm not sure any of them were completely satisfied with the results. I love the album, but can certainly see their frustration with the lyrical approach that Peter took. He wanted to tell an album length story and, in effect, made many of the songs nonsensical when taken out of context. I believe it's why only the tribute bands will venture into performing much of the material now.
Interesting that Steve mentions the "punk" aspect of the Lamb. I've always thought that Back In NYC has the best punk lyric ever: "Your progressive hypocrites Hand out their trash But it was mine in the first place So I'll burn it to ash"
Thats what makes it brilliant, and irrepeatable. Rael splits in two on so many levels, its Tony and Pete splitting, its Pete and the whole music business. Pete really was Rael on so many levels, the 'pop star' life is VERY schizophrenic, as we saw with Syd Barrett, and its also very claustrophobic-you can't go outside without knowing when somebody is going to jump out of the shadows wanting an autograph or saying they love you. That pop star existence, from all I can tell (obviously not being a pop star) really IS that 'sacred and profane', and many people outrightly worship some of these people far more than others do God. That 'maybe' is Pete flipping on its head the notion of "life imitating art'. Imagine that maybe we never would have had Security or those albums had Pete simply found a job that paid a decent wage when he walked away. But then I think he's also admitted to being a little irked after Trick of the Tail, I think he said "they went from saying I was doing ALL the music to NONE of it". And that stubborness came out, but you can tell his career, apart from So and Up maybe, has never been about 'crowd pleasing'. Those early albums were very much "I"m going to do what I want and hope people like it". Of course the mass public didn't, and the music industry REALLY dislikes artists who don't go commercial.
Curious he says listening to the Lamb in its entirety leaves him with a sense of claustrophobia. I get that feeling too. It lacks variety of tone and texture for me. I prefer the albums that precede The Lamb, and to a lesser extent the two that follow it.
As much as I love it, I'm of the opinion that The Lamb would have been far stronger as a single album, but then again, as Steve says... what do you leave out? Even the weak bits contribute to the overall tone and atmosphere.
For me the problem has always been that supposedly it is a concept album but the narrative makes less sense than 20 random songs plucked from other albums and strung together.
Fans love "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" as do I but to call it their BEST work I just don't agree with that I know many fans consider it the holy grail of Genesis albums but I just don't agree with it being their best but that's just my opinion doesn't make me right but great interview nevertheless.
There's another great guitar solo on this album and you can find it on «Here Comes The Supernatural Anesthaetist», a track often neglected but very special. The solo last almost 2 minutes, very expressive!
The Lamb is not Genesis’ best album and true Genesis fans knows this! Selling England by the Pound would be the tour I’d love to see, unfortunately Peter cannot sing anymore. Adore Steve’s reference to Shakespeare!
That’s not entirely true. He does some cuts . The lamia, chambers, and fly on the windshield and lamb lies down. But I get his point. The rest of the album does not lend itself to life in itself in itself entirely
One of Steve's best moments in Genesis was the fill that Steve does in the bridge behind "Though man-made light at night is very bright...". Also be seems to forget his solo on Anyway and the whole Supernatural Anaesthetist. I also love his fills In the Rapids. Sometimes I can't decide which solo I love more on the Lamb, but those goose-bump moment fills are the very sound that drew me to Genesis. I think Steve vastly underestimates how much he is the guy that can do more with less. And how much that is a brand he has.
When it comes to successful and acclaimed albums generated from a band in utter turmoil, give me Fleetwood Mac's concise and concentrated _Rumours_ over the excess of The Beatles' _White Album_ or Genesis' _The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway._
Listen closely to "The Lamb" and you'll see(hear) that Steve was pretty much relegated to doing only solos throughout the record. It's mostly Banks and Rutherford(of course) writing and performing the album...with Phil doing some very admirable drumming. No wonder Steve shies away from performing the whole album...he's only featured in rare instances, and there are long sections of the album where he doesn't play at all. There are a number of prog bands that have tackled the whole album, and have presented a "guitarist's path" through it, most notably(IMHO) The Rock Orchestra's version which you can find on UA-cam. They come off as a "Community Theater" type of operation, but the guitarist stays "busy" throughout the performance, something that Steve should take note of.
I think if you listen more closely you’ll hear his parts. He’s got piles of quirky lines throughout, but that are low in the mix and often very difficult to hear. But sure, go ahead and give him your advice.
Hackett is a genius musician. One cannot fully comprehend how great this man really is.
Sometimes I feel that the artists don't quite get what makes the music great for us fans, but this interview proves Steve Hackett is a rarity who totally gets it and still carries the prog torch. Jon Anderson is another of the rarities. It's as if they somehow never got jaded.
Nothing is more annoying then hearing an artist you love trashing one of their own songs or albums that you love.
@@davel7791 To be fair he WAS sort of trashing the Lamb as not having enough guitar moments, and if he 'loved it' that much he'd likely do it live. To be fair its MOSTLY Phil that puts down the old lyrics, which is just not his cup of tea, and if he WAS a normal rock drummer we'd never hear his opinion about much of anything. Heck I think Bill Bruford hated EVERYTHING he worked on, or seems to. But I get what you mean, I don't know why so many musical artists produce, well produced albums, but albums that are nowhere near as creative or interesting as when they were twenty. But then maybe THATS why they feel the need to put it down. Like physicists they say they are most creative at around 21, the same could be true of musicians and so its a hell of thing to 'peak' and spend the rest of life hearing "boy you were really good fifty years ago, what happened?"
@@davel7791 That's absolutely what I think, too. I would freak out if Hackett would be trashing Seconds Out. However in the case of TLLDOB, I am actually totally on his side. It's one of those albums that, taken as a whole, I find rather heavy on the heart. I'm not sure, maybe Steve feels the same.
And they both performed with Todmobile!
@@maxmeister5064
If I could only have one album to listen to forever, it would be TLLDOB.
I saw them them preform this live in NYC back in November of ‘74 and still to this day it still stands as the best live show I’ve ever seen, hands down.
I was there. Academy of Music. Sept. 1974
You guys have the month wrong it was early December
IN New York which is the setting in the album. Amazing.
@@ACooke108 I have a feeling it must have been late November 1974 because they were supposed to start the tour at the beginning of the month but Hackett had injured a tendon on his thumb and so they had to wait three or four weeks to start the tour.
I was fortunate enough to see Steve Hackett and Genesis back in 1973. It was a small club on the UC campus in Cincinnati. Genesis was virtually unknown in the US at the time. Needless to say I was completely mesmerized when they opened with "watcher of the skies". Sitting on the floor in front of the stage I watched as Peter Gabriel did costume changes throughout and Steve Hackett sat in a chair the whole time!! Never had seen a lead guitar player sitting down during a performance. Been a huge fan ever since.
Yep... Saw them in Cleveland days apart from that. Great, great show!! Then saw them a few more times thru the Lamb tour.
Skunk Baxter sat down with Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers. It wasn't unusual for guitarists of the 1960's/70's to be seated.
Fripp
@@swinetrek Do you have any more examples because there are a LOT of guitarists out there.
Great interview John. Steve Hackett is on of my favorite guitarist of all time.
Oh yes. There are a few moments of notes here and there of his riffs during 'Firth of Fifth' which play through my mind very often.
Steve is FINALLY able too come back to Atlanta after two years too play his show he has postponed due to Covid-19.
Love Steve and his lasting influence on Genesis to this day.
Hearing one of the best guitarist of all times talking about one of the greatest albums of all time is just mind blowing. U can see the gears turning in his head as he tries explaining it to us common folks. This was back when u could just put a record on and let it play all the way through because it was designed that way.
Steve and his Band have done lots of tracks live off "The Lamb" and they have done a brilliant job, especially with the keyboards. Doing a complete suite is a different thing altogether and requires much more than individual tracks to hold it all together. The original Genesis concerts featuring "The Lamb" required a hell of a lot from Peter both vocally and, of course, visually. Steve's Band, IMHO, is not about visuals; it's about capturing the moment in song. Peter, despite his brilliance with the flute, was a visual vocalist and he played this up to the fans, not least in "The Lamb" where some of his outfits were "odd" to say the least. Just playing "The Lamb" is not enough and that, I reckon, is why Steve won't do it.
The Lamb is one of the best concept albums ever written. A masterpiece. Steve is very proud about it.
He didn't really seem that proud here. Honestly, seems rather indifferent to the album.
@@kingcrimson234 It was a difficult tour. Also, during the writing was also stressful. Steve had personal troubles at that times as well as Peter's.
He seemed to be proud of the album, but he sees it more as Gabriel’s project. Less of a collaboration, but there is some big moments of collaboration albeit only on 2 or 3 songs. But yeah, Hackett is way more proud of “selling England by the pound” and “wind and wuthering” for sure.
A truly masterpiece, what a set of songs!
I’m a Lamb Fanatic!! One of my favorite records of all time. I wouldn’t change a thing. The Musical Box did it justice re-creating the stage show.
They are doing UK gigs postponed to 2023. The Musical Box that is.
The thing to hate about The Musical Box is that they do it SO well that thats one of the main reasons I've heard from the Genesis guys that they don't do the Gabriel era Genesis tunes, The Musical Box does it even better than they did (they've said).
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is to me, the best album Genesis ever produced, and my personal favorite of all of them!
I think some of Genesis best music is on that album, the lamia, silent sorrows etc.....some great stuff
Wow. He still looks and sounds fantastic. He's an inspiration. Saw him in Philly a few years ago. My 2nd time seeing his band recreate the Peter Gabriel era albums. Shows were fantastic. Small theatre setting. Blew us away. Hope he tours america soon again.
Totally awesome. Him and ritchie blackmore are ageless inspirations for all of us.
The guitar solo on Anyway is my favorite piece of his. The spatial relationship, feeling and timing is overlooked amongst his other output. It’s the shortness of it that makes me beg for more. I guess Shakespeare was right: brevity is the soul of wit.
Look, you're part of a band that's trying to put out a solid product. Be proud of being a part of it! Every Genesis album with or without whom, or what, is a sound concept and that's what makes Genesis so legendary. I'm so looking forward to see Mr. Hackett on April 20th!!!
Steve Hackett is brilliant! Thanks John and Steve! 🎸
I just re-bought "The Lamb" and it is just magnificent! I saw them perform it in Edinburgh back in the day; what an experience!
On vinyl? I recently bought it again on cd (I'm not a vinyl person). There's no other album like it in their catalog.
@@mikereiss4216 on cd.
Great album Great Band...Great Guitarist....love Steve Hackett's technique.
For me, The Lamb is a perfect fusion between the early years with Gabriel and the later Musical style up through ...And Then There Were Three. Not to mention it is one of the great thematic albums of all time. Couldn't recreate it properly without Phil on drums, though.
totally agree
@@paolos22 Phil's son is a heck of a drummer.....
They were so young when they produced this album and they were so amazing. It's my all time favourite and I am still surprised how good it is when I listen to it again.
I saw them do this live in Birmingham England in 1975 it was a stunning show and still my favourite and I think the best album Genesis ever did.
Same here same concert being seeing him ever since great live and his band
I was there too. Amazing show!
Lawks a mercy ... me too. Fan for life :)
As much as I love _The Lamb,_ my favorite Genesis album, I can understand why Steve doesn't want to perform it live. It has always stood as a massive undertaking in rock, and those who have been able to do it justice are few and far between. Plus they've been assisted by improvements in technology post-1974.
If you want to see/hear a great alternate version of _The Lamb,_ I have to recommend the 1994 performance by Kevin Gilbert and his band Giraffe. It's somewhere on UA-cam.
Love Kevin Gilbert
Another group that does the album live Justice is “The Musical Box”. They’re a North American genesis tribute band but they do the whole act to part.
Oh dude, absolutely the 1994 Gilbert/Giraffe performance is incredible! It's the ONLY band besides Genesis that I've heard do it justice.
wow, thank you so much, this makes so much sense, with the album being so busy with lyrics/keys, Lamb is one of my all time favorites, not only Genesis albums but all., thx again.
Steve Hackett - what a lovely, honest, genuine man....the creative force behind Genesis.
SO Flippin' AWESOME!
I would love to see "The Lamb" live w/ Gabriel & Hackett, also, I would dig hearing Gabriel cover "Trick Of The Tail" ..that would be a TRIP
Next time The Musical Box does it anywhere, go. It is as close as you'll get.
PG doing postPG Genesis stuff would be awesome.
I agree
Wow, I'm a HUGE Peter fan but I never gave that any thought. As well as Phil sings on TRICK...it would be quite interesting. Thank you for that wonderful image and thought. :)
It's coming! AI can do it.
This guy is crossing Genesis songs and singers and it's brilliant.
m.youtube.com/@AIARS/videos
I remember The Lamb album never came off the turntable for my brother and I until A Trick came out. We were besotted with it.
Thanks for a great interview. Steve is an amazing musician.
I’m so glad that I am still alive to see Steve, Phil, Tony, Mike, Peter (and others like Leland Sklar) speak about their music. When I started listening to Genesis in the early 70s there was nothing like this.
Steve is always very classy in discussing Genesis politics -- he gets his observations in, but it never sounds like whining or sniping or sour grapes.
Class can be defined as the ability to bestow dignity on others.
That's because Mr .Hackett seems to be a GENTLEMAN.😀
That's how I've always felt abut him 😀
To me Phil Collins is a bit of a clown .Over the years I just don't like him that much.
lamb is possibly the greatest rock/prog album ever made. it is one of 2 albums that i never get tried of listening to. the other is pink floyd animals.
It's always interesting to hear everyone/anyone in the band at that time talk about how they all either hated the album, hated the concept or hated Gabriel for performing in costume on tour. What they all fail to accept is that all of those particular tensions might have amounted to the very reason this album was/is such a success with the die-hard Genesis fans. To me ....this album has never aged one bit which in my mind is a testament on how far advanced they were at the time.
I guess looking back they simply loathe this or that about it because it wasn't a very look backable time. As you tend to do.
You're right about that😀
Hes played tracks from the lamb...I wouldn't expect him to do whole thing...
Their greatest. Still holds up as a whole. The other albums (Gabriel period) has tracks that has aged terribly as well as highlights, but this ...
There is a wonderful recent production of the Lamb by a community music group, I believe in Delaware. Well executed and filmed. Do a search on UA-cam for it. They call themselves the Rock Orchestra.
Before COVID raised its ugly head, Steve was doing meet n greets with fans before his shows with a special unheard set of Lamb material. So while doing The Lamb in its entirety is off the table, we can hope for maybe a compilation of The Lamb’s top tunes. Maybe for the albums 50th anniversary.
Funny Steve should mention that claustrophobic feel surrounding the entirety of listening to The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Cos I as a fan have always felt the very same about it. Just like Steve, I like to listen to bits and pieces of it which they played live over the years, like of course the title track, Broadway Melody of 1974, The Carpet Crawlers, In The Cage, It, or I happen to have a Peter Gabriel bootleg where he plays Back In NYC (with Fripp on guitar!), but I don't at all enjoy the album in its entirety. It's what I would call "uneasy listening".
Steve looks like a painting come to life!!
Nice intersite into the album Lamb lies down on Broadway I was lucky to see that show back in 1974 in Cleveland Ohio I was quite amazed because before that I saw the tour with selling England by the Pound which was incredible but this one was like something I never saw before the visual effects peters theatrical movements and costumes and the band sounding like an orchestra it was absolutely incredible I believe the show was like two over two hours long and then he did an encore with watches of the sky and the musical box which was incredible I’ll never forget that those are neat moments that was a real genesis back then
Wow, I think it was one of the Cleveland shows when Peter told them he would be leaving.....They ended up doing the rest of the tour knowing that, must've been 6 months they were going out night after night putting on such amazing shows even being aware that at the end of it all he'd be gone.
It's very strange, but I still play The Lamb and Supper's Ready (with Horizons, of course) a great deal. Considering that I bought them when they were released, and I played them till the grooves wore out back in the day, there's very little else from the 70's (and 80's for that matter) that I revisit as much. And why would Steve Play it in its entirety?- it's Gabriel's album. And of course it's claustrophobic, as there was definitely 'a womb vibe' about it (In the Cage, Cuckoo Cocoon, 'You gotta get in to get out'???) the birth of his first child turned out to be very difficult, and also, maybe indirectly, he felt trapped in the band itself. Makes sense to me. Also, no one seems to mention how great the title track is; it's hands down my favorite song by them (I really can't count Supper's Ready as one song.)
The Lamb is raw and polished at the same time...
The amazing thing about Steve Hackett as a live performer is that he hasn't just *maintained* his form over the past 50 years, he has *improved* it. I don't know any other artist quite like that. He really has aged like fine wine, and the fact that he is doing these Genesis Revisited shows gives younger fans like me arguably to closest alternative to experience this music in a live setting as it was intended (even if there are no Gabriel-esque theatrical elements like costume changes- which by the way I believe was the appropriate choice for Steve Hackett and his band to take and it would have felt a bit silly otherwise).
I absolutely CANNOT understand why some fans are so opposed to these tours, even if they are a minority. I personally cannot wait to see those shows, and there are currently two of them that are in my top five most played albums in 2024 according to my Last FM account. They're just so brilliant. Steve is just in a class of his own, but his entire band is absolutely phenomenal.
The Lamb is however not among my favorite albums. I always feel the conceptual angle drags it down, and the relative incoherence of the story doesn't quite compensate for it. The first disc does contain absolute moments of brilliance, but I feel like it peters out around side 3, and I do miss the stronger guitar presence. Mind you, I'm not saying it's a bad album by any means, but it's not one that jives with me nearly as much as the other albums of the Hackett-era of Genesis. I would pick Foxtrot or A Trick of the Tail over The Lamb any day.
If there was an album Steve needed to do live more than any other else is The Lamb, using the original film footage and dressing up Nad as a slippery man.
Now seriously, it's the the tour where no footages of it exist, and it's a shame no one from posterior generations can experience what it was live like.
He can always add more guitar parts in the live performance, no one would bat an eye, only Tony, and that would be great, to make Tony furious, lol.
I hope Steve changes his mind.
Very interesting interview, and very good to know the things in the backstage of the music we really love.
Genesis is my favorite band, "The Early Genesis" I mean.
I always say "And also THE BEATLES", because they must just be there always, I think.
But I love Genesis sound:
Thanks for this space to know more, specially trhough Steve Hackett, who really keep live that kind of music and sound.
Best wishes from Argentina
I guess in the traditional sense, at the time, The Lamb Lies Down didn't fit the mold of what they'd been doing. They did a lot of very English-sounding, pastoral, 12 string guitar stuff and such, which I loved. But this record was kind of a new thing - it had a harder edge throughout and it was PG's lyrics for the first time, instead of lyrics by committee or by Tony Banks. I think it's a masterpiece and a hell of a way for Peter Gabriel to make his exit. I regret that he left, because they were on such a trajectory, but they all seemed to do just fine. ;-) Still, it's interesting to think of what might have happened after, if he had stayed...
I.love the Lamb lies down on Broadway. Every song every solo. It's a brilliant recording perfect in its entirety.
The Lamb is far and away the black sheep (no pun intended) of the Genesis discography. It’s possible to listen to their LP’s (starting with Trespass) in order, but skipping The Lamb and going straight to Trick of the Tail and the subsequent releases, and not realize you’ve missed something. It’s almost like they took a major detour with that one, then picked up from the natural progression point from Selling England after Peter Gabriel left. I love it - it’s no less a Genesis album than any other but it’s thoroughly unique even among a catalog where no two albums were alike.
@@richardrobbins9660 ...I'm a big Genesis fan from the beginning up through Then There Were Three after that not too much. The Lamb was great except the last song "It". Something about 'It" just didn't quite fit IMO. As far as PG goes my 2 favorite LP's are his first and his last "studio" LP "UP". I haven't heard he's retired from recording but I assume he's done "UP" was released in 2002 so I'm thinking he's retired. 20 years is a long time between records...even for Peter Gabriel's rather lengthy breaks between releases.
Genesis made a sharp left turn and with the inclusion of basically soul and pop they lost me as a fan, I'm just glad they produced some of the best Prog Rock ever.
One thing about the Prog releases I've NEVER gotten tired of listening to them, they still are as fresh as the day they were released, I don't feel that way about any other group.
The Lamb I consider one of the top ten albums of all time.A unique piece of musical work
I saw them perform "Lamb". That night was recorded and ended up in the box set.
4:50 I thought maybe he wouldn't do The Lamb live. There is some guitar on it but not on many tracks. He has covered very few Lamb tracks in the past few years. The title track and the next two and that's about it. They make a great trio segued into each other. Epic start to an album. All the other early albums, he and his band could play in their sleep by now .
The Three Steves: Hackett, Howe, and Morse.
don't forget Hillage
@@slickjames2541 and Wilson!
And Vai and Rothery. And Lukather. Any more?
@@donaldanderson6604 Steve Stevens and of course the three dead Steve's: Steve Gaines. SRV and Steamin' Steve Clark.
Lamb Lies Down is undoubtedly their finest moment.
I love _Lamb,_ and it's certainly a triumph in many ways, but for my money album-wise you can't beat _Selling England_
As a Gabriel-era Genesis fan, I agree. While I loved SEBTP at the time it came out, certain songs don't hold up well IMO; the musical passage in the Cinema Show is quite maudlin. An opposite situation occurs in Firth of Fifth; musical passages are great, but the verses feel clunky. And I can't stand More Fool Me. After the Ordeal is only OK, and nowhere near as good as Horizons on Foxtrot. But I do still like Moonlit Knight, Wardrobe, and Epping Forest. Those 3 songs, plus Horizons/Supper's Ready and Watcher of the Skies, plus the Entire Lamb album, are Genesis at their greatest.
I agree that the lamb lies down on Broadway album was a very good album but in my humble opinion I think selling England by the pound is their best work
:Like The Wall, I think it neeeded trimming. A bit over indulgent at times.
@@swinetrek agreed its good, Not amazing like fox trot, chryme or pound
Steve's sentiment is right on the money, regarding that release. In 1975, my friend Tim and I went from University of Redlands to see Genesis at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was of course "The Lamb" tour. I think Tim was expecting something "Claptonesque" guitar-wise, because he didn't know much about Genesis. Realize that at that time Tim was very good at electric guitar, where I was still struggling with classical guitar. Anyway, on the way home from the concert, Tim's concert review was understandable: "What? No guitar solos?"
I so agree with Steve Hackett, I am a big Genesis fan but this album I can't listen too long a few short highlight s like Lamia, Fly on a windshield and too long a depressive atmosphere, yes and miss the guitar in it too. Lamia stands out with great guitar solo!
It makes sense, but I'll bet Nad and the band would love to tackle more of those songs.
Please do ask Mr Hackett why he will not co-create an album with Rick Wakeman as he suggested? I think it would be fantastic, plain and simple !
What he wants to play is up to him and there isn't anything wrong with that!!!
Well said buddy😀😀 You got that right ,BLOODY WELL RIGHT😀
Such a great man. Fully understandable not wanting to play an album in which he doesn't do much. Very careful choice of words to describe a difficult period.
I saw the Musical Box homage band play the Lamb in Montreal, with all the props and slides. It was fantastic. Go see it if they tour again.
TLLDOB is my favourite Genesis album, and my favourite Genesis song is The Lamia.
I would have left off "It". The album would have ended with the intriguing " . . . that's not your face, it's mine, it's mine!". As it is, "It" provides no answers whatsoever and it's too joyous after all that angst and psychological horror.
Good evening John, I always look for the link of the whole interview you say is in the description. Seems that when I open it, I turn blind cos I never find it.
Claustrophobic is always the word I’ve used to describe TLLDOB. In some ways it’s their best album.
Steve's guitar solo on "Counting Out Time" is the weirdest-sounding guitar I've ever heard, and that's saying something. It was "Enossified" or something like that.
'Take it away, Mr. Guitar!'
Might have been a Godley and Creme Gizmotron.
They brought Brian Eno in and he played around with some of the recorder music hence Enossified
I can completely understand where Steve's coming from as far as The Lamb is concerned. The whole point about Steve's band is that it's... well, Steve's band. If he were to do The Lamb, you'd get relatively little of his playing (compared to what he's been doing up to now). You may as well just have a cover band do the whole thing. Steve Hackett standing in the shadows adding some 'colour' is hardly a motivator for him doing his own shows, or for fans going to see them. I love The Lamb, but I'd rather see Steve play Firth of Fifth, Every Day, Spectral Mornings et al.
Genesis GOAT . STEVE HACKETT IS A GENIUS.
The Lamb was a Epic Album...💯💯💯🥰💜💜💜🙏🎧🎹🎹🎹🥁🥁🥁🎤🎸🎸
The Devil's Cathedral. He's not wrong there! I will look forward to watching the full interview later.
Saw steve do in the rapids live..what a moment
The Lamb is the only Genesis album I still listen to. It sounds like no other Genesis album and a has aged remarkably well. The reason for this I think is mostly due to Steve's playing and the variety of tones he wrangled from his guitar rig, creating sounds that do not sound far out of place in today's music.
Its unfortunate that the experience of recording the album was so difficult that each member associates those memories with the music and have been reluctant to play much of it ever since. I know PG has flirted with the idea of a revival or a movie, but few seem to have the heart for it.
Its a fact that great music, and art in general, is often result of adversity while plesant conditions can result in complacent mediocrity.
Steve does perform the best tracks from the album live. I always thought the album was overblown and needed trimming. But there are exquisite moments on it. but Steve's guitar was mixed too low as usual.
My 2nd Favorite from GENESIS is Selling England by the Pound..💯💯💯🙏💜💜🥰
but he HAS done it live... not in it's entirety, but he's played plenty of Lamb tracks
As he says here, he likes certain songs a lot, but to do the complete thing is not as exciting a prospect for him.
Including "The Lamia".
Correct. Carpet crawlers comes to mind. I’ve watched him perform it.
Those Hadley Grange raw development tapes are amazing. Steve was great on the album, if underutilized. The next two albums are wonderful.
It may not be like earlier albums, or anything that came after it, and at first, I didn't like it that much - that is until I had to play it twice a day for weeks upon end!
I have seen him perform “The Carpet Crawlers” in one of the ‘Revisited’ performances with the last fellow to sing with Genesis singing it.
That would probably be the Scotsman Ray Wilson ,who is the best singer Genesis ever had😀
I bet he won't do "Invisible Touch" live...
Hackett, always a class act, was very kind to allude to the personal problems Peter Gabriel was having at the time of the making of The Lamb which would culminate in his leaving the band during the tour. As for making The Lamb a single album, it was done well live by the late Kevin Gilbert to CD length, but I don't think it would work squeezed further to single LP length. It's always been my own perception that the most often cited songs from The Lamb ("In the Cage," "The Carpet Crawlers") are catchy, but vastly inferior to the rest of the album.
Great stuff, thanks.
Interesting, as he's touring the Lamb next year in the UK (October 2024), I'm going to see it.
Just personal opinion of course, but to me a better title for "The Lamb" would have been "Alice in Wonderland - the nightmare version". And while I personally think it contains some of their very best music, it also seems to have far too much tedious padding; they really should have upped the quality of some of it, or accepted reality and made it a single album. By comparison, the previous album "Selling England" barely contains a single sub par moment.
Everyone knows that the band recorded many concerts during all the tours through sound boards and one air microphones. They are out there.
As a Genesis fan since the early ‘70s I consider Lamb to be a masterpiece whether it’s characterized as Prog or not.I am amused by the well known drama surrounding it’s creation ,reception and aftermath.Let’s face it Hackett doesn’t like Lamb because it’s not a guitar album. Gabriel was pissed because Collins and Rutherford were totally unsupportive during Peter’s wife’s health issues.Banks doesn’t like anything any time. Yet we fans love it
I think "The Lamb" was a creative tug of war with Pete on one side and Tony/Mike on the other. Steve and Phil were not, at that point, key decision makers within the band, so had very little say in the direction that album would take.
I'm not sure any of them were completely satisfied with the results. I love the album, but can certainly see their frustration with the lyrical approach that Peter took. He wanted to tell an album length story and, in effect, made many of the songs nonsensical when taken out of context. I believe it's why only the tribute bands will venture into performing much of the material now.
Interesting that Steve mentions the "punk" aspect of the Lamb. I've always thought that Back In NYC has the best punk lyric ever:
"Your progressive hypocrites
Hand out their trash
But it was mine in the first place
So I'll burn it to ash"
Thats what makes it brilliant, and irrepeatable. Rael splits in two on so many levels, its Tony and Pete splitting, its Pete and the whole music business. Pete really was Rael on so many levels, the 'pop star' life is VERY schizophrenic, as we saw with Syd Barrett, and its also very claustrophobic-you can't go outside without knowing when somebody is going to jump out of the shadows wanting an autograph or saying they love you.
That pop star existence, from all I can tell (obviously not being a pop star) really IS that 'sacred and profane', and many people outrightly worship some of these people far more than others do God.
That 'maybe' is Pete flipping on its head the notion of "life imitating art'. Imagine that maybe we never would have had Security or those albums had Pete simply found a job that paid a decent wage when he walked away. But then I think he's also admitted to being a little irked after Trick of the Tail, I think he said "they went from saying I was doing ALL the music to NONE of it". And that stubborness came out, but you can tell his career, apart from So and Up maybe, has never been about 'crowd pleasing'. Those early albums were very much "I"m going to do what I want and hope people like it". Of course the mass public didn't, and the music industry REALLY dislikes artists who don't go commercial.
Some great songs (“Carpet Crawlers”, “Fly on a Windshield”, Lilywhite Lilith”... ) but, my least favourite Genesis album from the classic line-up.
Curious he says listening to the Lamb in its entirety leaves him with a sense of claustrophobia. I get that feeling too. It lacks variety of tone and texture for me. I prefer the albums that precede The Lamb, and to a lesser extent the two that follow it.
As much as I love it, I'm of the opinion that The Lamb would have been far stronger as a single album, but then again, as Steve says... what do you leave out? Even the weak bits contribute to the overall tone and atmosphere.
So that leaves Nursery Cryme and A Trick of the Tail then Steve! Which next?
For me the problem has always been that supposedly it is a concept album but the narrative makes less sense than 20 random songs plucked from other albums and strung together.
Fans love "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" as do I but to call it their BEST work I just don't agree with that I know many fans consider it the holy grail of Genesis albums but I just don't agree with it being their best but that's just my opinion doesn't make me right but great interview nevertheless.
The Lamia is my favorite track on TLLDOB
Lots of Genesis fans would agree with you.
"The Lamia" is such a diamond, but rock radio never allows it to 'shine'
He's played a lot of the songs from the Lamb live.
There's another great guitar solo on this album and you can find it on «Here Comes The Supernatural Anesthaetist», a track often neglected but very special. The solo last almost 2 minutes, very expressive!
The Lamb is not Genesis’ best album and true Genesis fans knows this! Selling England by the Pound would be the tour I’d love to see, unfortunately Peter cannot sing anymore. Adore Steve’s reference to Shakespeare!
Really? And just what makes a "true" Genesis fan Lynne and have you interviewed all of those that put Lamb on top as to their Genesis fan-trueness?
What a silly comment. Not all Genesis fans have the same favourite album.
Just had to click on to find out if 'Lamb......' was going to be correct guess
That aged well 😅
That’s not entirely true. He does some cuts . The lamia, chambers, and fly on the windshield and lamb lies down. But I get his point. The rest of the album does not lend itself to life in itself in itself entirely
Lamb is up there with let it be, ziggy, machine head, lz1, etc. Thinking it cut down sends chills
Are you still worth a million dollars? 😂
One of Steve's best moments in Genesis was the fill that Steve does in the bridge behind "Though man-made light at night is very bright...".
Also be seems to forget his solo on Anyway and the whole Supernatural Anaesthetist. I also love his fills In the Rapids.
Sometimes I can't decide which solo I love more on the Lamb, but those goose-bump moment fills are the very sound that drew me to Genesis. I think Steve vastly underestimates how much he is the guy that can do more with less. And how much that is a brand he has.
When it comes to successful and acclaimed albums generated from a band in utter turmoil, give me Fleetwood Mac's concise and concentrated _Rumours_ over the excess of The Beatles' _White Album_ or Genesis' _The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway._
Listen closely to "The Lamb" and you'll see(hear) that Steve was pretty much relegated to doing only solos throughout the record. It's mostly Banks and Rutherford(of course) writing and performing the album...with Phil doing some very admirable drumming. No wonder Steve shies away from performing the whole album...he's only featured in rare instances, and there are long sections of the album where he doesn't play at all. There are a number of prog bands that have tackled the whole album, and have presented a "guitarist's path" through it, most notably(IMHO) The Rock Orchestra's version which you can find on UA-cam. They come off as a "Community Theater" type of operation, but the guitarist stays "busy" throughout the performance, something that Steve should take note of.
I think if you listen more closely you’ll hear his parts. He’s got piles of quirky lines throughout, but that are low in the mix and often very difficult to hear. But sure, go ahead and give him your advice.