Rael, a Puerto Rican New York punk is walking down Broadway, returning from a hard days night as a graffiti artist, when a lamb appears before him and proceeds to lie down. Rael is simultaneously engulfed by a 'wall of death' and transformed into a fly on  a windshield. He then embarks on his surreal journey.

He watches his brother work in a factory producing lifeless packaging that looks strangely humanoid, and gets trapped in the cage of his own memories before heading back towards the womb in the company of the carpet crawlers. Rael manages to crawl away, and finds himself in the chamber of 32 doors, only one which leads out.

The blind Lillywhite Lilleth promises to lead him out by following the breeze, but instead dumps him in the waiting room. There he meets The Lamia, a trio of snake-babes who lure him to their pink water pool for a topless massage. But it all goes wrong when they start nibbling at his flesh and then shrivelling up. In desperation, Rael starts eating them instead.

Retracing his steps, he runs into a colony of Slippermen, an ugly bunch of hedonists devoted to the pleasure of the flesh. His brother is already one of them, and it appears that The Lamia have turned Rael into one as well. The only solution is castration by the evil Doctor Dyper. Rael and the other Slippermen are reduced to wandering around with their balls in a yellow plastic tube hung around their neck.

When a raven swoops down and steals Rael's bollock necklace, he gives chase, but the raven throws the necklace into a ravine. He scrambles down the scree to the bottom of the ravine where he meets his brother [again], who is struggling to stay afloat in the rapids. Rael rescues him, only to discover that his brother is ....himself.

What does it all mean?

  Excellent synopsis. I don't think as a story it means much. To me the story is more a vehicle for different emotions

abandonment, (chamber of 32 doors ),alienation ( fly on a windshield), crucifixion (the cage ), rage ( Back In NYC ), first sex ( Counting out Time ),freedom (It),mechanisation (grand parade), tragedy (the lamia), lamentation (silent sorrow), humor ( colony of slippermen)

It's pretty open ended. One interpretation is as good as another.

Having done some research on how the album was initially recieved and the bands own recollections I thought I would post some of those findings!

''It got a pretty mixed response in terms of reviews-and from the fans initially''. Banks remembers.''people tend to look back and see it as the culmination of the early era of the band, but it wasn't seen that way at the time. I t was darker than our earlier albums, and being a double album it took people longer to get into''.

''When it was done, I rember thinking ''phew!'', guitarist Steve Hackett recalls. ''some albums are a natural birth. This one was defineatly a breech birth. It came out kicking and screaming, rather than in the tranquility of a birthing pool in your living room''.

''It didn't feel like a glorious moment or anything.'' Banks agrees. ''I was pleased with the album, but it was rather a bumpy ride. There's a dark edge to the album all the way through, and maybe the fact that we weren't at our happiest comes across''.

 '' The others were not happy and didn't go down well with the rest of the band, to be honest''. says Banks.'' We'd always written the lyrics between us. And I still feel now that it would have been a better album if other people had been involved as well. It was fairly fragmented concept. There was scope for a lot of things other people could have done.''

''Once Peter was saddled with the lyrics, he took less part in writing the music than he might have done'' says Banks.''Most of the music was written without any lyrics, we'd write bits to illustrate various parts of the story. Some of the more experimental ideas like Fly On A Windshield and atmospheric pieces like Silent Sorrow In  Empty Boats were just improvisations that we could edit into shape later''.

Progger,

Do you write for Classic Rock magazine (February 2006 issue, page 40)? If not, you should give credit where it it due. We don't want any copyright issues now do we? 

(All -  that issue has an excellent article on the album)