Ride the Lightning was released on July 27, 1984 by Megaforce Records and re-released by Elektra Records on November 19, 1984. It has sold over 5 million copies in the U.S. and have been certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA.
In July 1983, Metallica released their debut studio album, titled Kill 'Em All through Megaforce Records. On February 20, 1984, the band began work on their second album, titled Ride the Lightning, at Sweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark. The album was produced under Flemming Rasmussen, founder of Sweet Silence Studios, who also went on to produce the band's following two albums, Master of Puppetsand ...And Justice for All. Metallica finished recording Ride the Lightning on March 14, 1984, and the album was released through Megaforce on July 30, 1984. On September 12, 1984, Metallica signed with major label Elektra Records who re-released the album on November 19, 1984.
Ride the Lightning is the last Metallica album to credit former lead guitarist Dave Mustaine with co-writing any songs. Mustaine was kicked out of the band in 1983, prior to the recording of Kill 'Em All. He is credited on the title track, "Ride the Lightning", and instrumental track "The Call of Ktulu". The album is also the first for which lead guitarist Kirk Hammett is given writing credits.
In 1984, the French record label Bernett Records misprinted the color of the album cover in green, rather than blue. 400 copies with the green cover were pressed. Because of their rarity, this misprint caused these green albums to become a guaranteed collectors item.
0:00 Fight Fire With Fire 4:40 Ride The Lightning 11:13 For Whom The Bell Tolls 16:08 Fade To Black 22:56 Trapped Under Ice 26:57 Escape 31:19 Creeping Death 37:54 The Call Of Ktulu
In January 1967, after both groups had split, Phillips and Rutherford continued to write together and proceeded to make a demo tape at a friend's home-made studio, inviting Banks, Gabriel, and Stewart to record with them in the process. The five recorded six songs: "Don't Want You Back", "Try a Little Sadness", "She's Beautiful", "That's Me", "Listen on Five", and "Patricia", an instrumental. When they wished to have them professionally recorded they sought Charterhouse alumnus Jonathan King, who seemed a natural choice as their publisher and producer following the success of his 1965 UK top five single, "Everyone's Gone to the Moon". A group friend gave the tape to King who was immediately enthusiastic. Under King's direction, the group, aged between 15 and 17, signed a one-year recording contract with Decca Records.From August to December 1967, the five recorded a selection of potential singles at Regent Sound Studios on Denmark Street, London where they attempted longer and more complex compositions, but King advised them to stick to more straightforward pop. In response Banks and Gabriel wrote "The Silent Sun", a pastiche of the Bee Gees, one of King's favourite bands, which was recorded with orchestral arrangements added by Arthur Greenslade. The group exchanged various names for the band, including King's suggestion of Gabriel's Angels and Champagne Meadow from Phillips, before taking King's suggestion of Genesis, indicating the start of his production career. King chose "The Silent Sun" as their first single, with "That's Me" on the B-side, released in February 1968. It achieved some airplay on BBC Radio One and Radio Caroline but it failed to sell. A second single, "A Winter's Tale"/"One-Eyed Hound", followed in May 1968 which also sold little. Three months later, Stewart left the group to continue with his studies. He was replaced by fellow Charterhouse pupil John Silver.
King felt the group would achieve greater success with an album. The result, From Genesis to Revelation, was produced at Regent Sound in ten days during their school's summer break in August 1968. King assembled the tracks as a concept album which he produced, while Greenslade added further orchestral arrangements to the songs, something the band were not informed of until the album was released. Phillips was particularly upset about Greenslade's additions. When Decca found an American band already named Genesis, King refused to change his group's name. He reached a compromise by removing their name from the album cover, resulting in a minimalist design with the album title printed on a plain black background. When the album was released in March 1969 it became a commercial failure, because record shops put the album in the "Religious" section upon seeing the cover. Banks recalled the album "after a year or so, had sold 649 copies". A third single, "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet"/"In Hiding", was released in June 1969. None of the releases were commercially successful and led to the band's split with King and Decca. King continues to hold the rights to the album which has seen numerous reissues. In 1974, it peaked the US chart at No.
When the album was recorded, the band went their separate ways for a year; Gabriel and Phillips stayed at Charterhouse to finish exams, Banks enrolled at Sussex University, and Rutherford studied at Farnborough College of Technology. They regrouped in mid-1969 to discuss their future as their offers in further education would result in the group splitting up. Phillips and Rutherford decided to make music a full-time career as they were starting to write more complex music than their earlier songs with King. After Banks and Gabriel decided to follow suit, the four returned to Regent Sound in August 1969 and recorded four more demos with Silver: "Family" (later known as "Dusk"), "White Mountain", "Going Out to Get You", and "Pacidy". The tape was rejected by each record label that heard it. Silver then left the group to study leisure management in America. His replacement, drummer and carpenter John Mayhew, was found when Mayhew looked for work and left his phone number "with people all over London"
Tracklist:
1. Where the Sour Turns to Sweet 0:00
2. In the Beginning 3:14
3. Fireside Song 7:01
4. The Serpent 11:20
5. Am I Very Wrong 15:59
6. In the Wilderness 19:31
7. The Conqueror 23:01
8. In Hiding 26:42
9. One Day 29:20
10. Window 32:42
11. In Limbo 36:16
12. The Silent Sun 39:46
13. A Place to Call My Own 42:00
BONUS TRACKS:
14. The Silent Sun (Single Version) 43:59
15. That's Me 46:14
16. A Winter's Tale 48:53
17. One Eyed Hound 52:25
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the sixth studio album from the English rock band Genesis, released as a double album on 18 November 1974 on Charisma Records. It is their last album recorded with Peter Gabriel as lead vocalist before his departure from the group in May 1975. Its concept centres around a Puerto Rican youth in New York City named Rael and his spiritual journey of self-discovery and the characters he meets on the way. Recording was met with several incidents, including Gabriel's temporary absences and his insistence on writing its lyrics, which put strains on the group.
It marked the start of Gabriel's increasingly strained relationship on the rest of the group which contributed to his departure. The album was written at Headley Grange in East Hampshire where upon their arrival, the building was in a state left by the previous band with excrement on the floor and rat infestations.
Gabriel objected to Rutherford's idea of an album based on The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, thinking the idea was "too twee". He persuaded the band with a less fantastical and more complicated story involving Rael, a Puerto Rican youth living in New York City who embarks on a spiritual quest to establish his freedom and identity while meeting several bizarre characters on the way. Gabriel wrote the story with influences from West Side Story, "a kind of punk" twist to Pilgrim's Progress, author Carl Jung, and the film El Topo by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Most of the album's lyrics were written by Gabriel, leaving much of its music to the rest of the group. His absence from a considerable amount of writing sessions due to difficulties with his wife's first birth was something Rutherford and Banks "were horribly unsupportive" of.
Gabriel also left the group when director William Friedkin asked him to write a screenplay, but returned after the project was shelved. In August 1974, production moved to Glaspant Manor in Carmarthenshire, Wales with Burns, as co-producer, operating Island Studios' mobile equipment. Further work and mixing took place at Island where Brian Eno contributed synthesizers and effects that the album's sleeve credits as "Enossification". When Gabriel asked Eno how the band could repay him, Eno said he needed a drummer for his track "Mother Whale Eyeless". Collins said, "I got sent upstairs as payment". Gabriel was pleased with Eno's work but Banks was less enthusiastic.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was released to initial mixed critical reception, though it has since been met with critical acclaim. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Album Chartand No. 41 on the US Billboard 200. Two singles were released, "Counting Out Time" and "The Carpet Crawlers". Genesis toured the album in North America and Europe, playing the album in its entirety across 102 dates. The album continued to sell, and reached Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales over 500,000 copies in 1990.
Tracklist:
1. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 0:00 2. Fly on a Windshield 4:52 3. Broadway Melody of 1974 7:37 4. Cucoo Cocoon 9:48 5. In the Cage 12:01 6. The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging 20:13 7. Back in N.Y.C. 22:59 8. Hairless Heart 28:44 9. Counting Out Time 30:54 10. Carpet Crawlers 34:35 11. The Chamber of 32 Doors 39:50 12. Lilywhite Lilith 45:35 13. The Waiting Room 48:24 14. Anyway 53:41 15. Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist 56:58 16. The Lamia 59:47 17. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats 1:06:45 18. The Colony of Slippermen: Arrival / A Visit to the Doktor / Raven 1:09:46 19. Ravine 1:17:58 20. The Light Dies Down on Broadway 1:20:04 21. Riding the Scree 1:23:36 22. In the Rapids 1:27:43 23. It. 1:30:05
