“As I cuddled the porcupine

He said I had none to blame, but me.

Held my heart, deep in hair,

Time to shave, shave it off, it off.

No time for romantic escape,

When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. no!

Off we go...”

When Peter Gabriel wrote the lyrics to track number 7 (or track 1 of side 2 on vinyl) of “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” - “Back In NYC” - he was must have been smoking “happy baccy” of some description.

So like Genesis’ character Rael, in their last album with Peter Gabriel, I’m back in New York City, this time staying right next door to the largest train station in the world (by number of platforms) - Grand Central Station (the correct name for which is Grand Central Terminal).

And what an impressive station it is, with 44 platforms (soon to be 48). By contrast London’s Kings Cross has 11, or 12 if you include platform 9 and three quarters that goes to Hogwarts. And Kings Cross definitely doesn’t look like this, even on its best day:

Tucked away in Grand Central is the Campbell Apartment. This is a bar which was formerly the office of John Williams Campbell, a railroad executive. Back in 1923, he had the 60 ft by 30 ft space renovated at huge cost (the carpet alone was worth $3.5 million in today’s money). Since then it has been renovated twice (as well as being used in between times as a signalman’s office, gun store and small jail).

If you lie down on the $3.5 million carpet in the Campbell Apartment (a likely situation if you have a few drinks there, judging by the strength of my vodka and tonic) you can see the hand-painted timbered ceiling:

No need for Peter Gabriel to smoke anything next time he needs to write so wacky lyrics. Just pop in the Cambell Apartment when he’s back in NYC...