Andy Greene
View all posts by Andy Greene July 30, 2026
Genesis in 1975. In nearly every version of the group, "The Carpet Crawlers" has been a live staple. Jorgen Angel/Redferns/Getty Images “The Carpet Crawlers” is far from the most famous Genesis song. If you play “Land of Confusion,” “Invisible Touch,” “I Can’t Dance,” or “Follow You Follow Me” to very casual fans or anyone who paid attention to pop music between 1978 and 1991, they’ll probably recognize them in an instant. “The Carpet Crawlers” is likely to be met with blank stares. That’s because it comes from 1975’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, years before the band broke through to mainstream success. It was released as a single all across the globe, and it charted exactly nowhere.
It has, however, had a very long and surprising afterlife, even if the band can’t seem to decide whether to call it “The Carpet Crawlers,” “Carpet Crawlers,” or “The Carpet Crawl.” Phil Collins sang it for years after taking over the frontman position from Peter Gabriel, it remained in the setlist during the brief period in 1997/98 when Ray Wilson fronted the group, and it’s been revisited over and over again by various alumni from the band, onstage and in the studio.
When Genesis staged what they thought was their last concert in 2007, and when they played their real last concert in 2022, barring a miracle, it was their closing number both times. Let’s take a journey through its evolution, including some rather odd and obscure detours.
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The Original Studio Recording
Image Credit: Chris Walter/WireImage The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the most beloved rock opera of the progressive era, even if the story is so trippy and convoluted that most members of Genesis still have little idea what it’s actually about. Written almost entirely be Peter Gabriel, it tells the tale of a half Puerto Rican gang member named Rael in New York City circa 1974, who gets sucked into an alternate universe, and has to find a way out. Along the way, he encounters strange creatures, including the dastardly “Doktor Dyper,” who castrates him, and places the removed appendage in a container around his neck. Before that traumatizing event, Rael enters a long corridor and sees a sea of people crawling toward a wooden door. These are, of course, the “Carpet Crawlers” from the title of the song.
