júlio Cunha my girlfriend agree. she knew all their songs by heart when she was a teenager. peter hammill was her god. that was written on her bag...;]
júlio Cunha - You haven't heard all the bands in the universe so how can you possibly know. You probably haven't even heard all the bands on this planet.
I've loved "Pawn Hearts" ever since I bought it in 1972. There are a lot of bands that I enjoy for a lot of different reasons but I've never heard a band like this that demands to be forced into your head. I hold off on listening to PH for a special time that I can fully relax and listen to every little nuance. It's not a guilty pleasure but it's a pleasure that I don't take lightly. It's an acquired taste this band and once you get it, it gets you.
@@michaelgove9349 That was same with me and “Trout Mask Replica”! I was a massive Zappa fan in the early 70’s and bought “Trout Mask” on the strength of FZ’s involvement. But the first few times I listened I couldn’t make head nor tail off it. I wouldn’t say I hated it…I just didn’t think it was anything! It was a jumbled up mess to me, and I put it away and never listened again for months, until one night I heard “The Blimp” on Radio Luxembourg and it must’ve been percolating away in my subconscious all that time, because it totally made sense and made me dig the album out again…and that was that…I was smitten. It wasn’t until many years later I found out that the music for “The Blimp” was actually Zappa’s band at the time, playing one of his unreleased tunes on a multitrack that FZ laid a phone call from Beefheart and his cousin narrating the lyrics, on a free track, and bounced the two together to make “The Blimp”. So it was actually Zappa that got me into Captain Beefheart, in more ways than one!
"Godbluff" is a fantastic album, and so is "World Record", the track "Wondering" is one of my personal favourites along with Still Life's "My Room (Waiting For Wonderland)". The notion that they "shouldn't have reformed" is so beyond ludicrous it sounds like something only a mentalist would say! Oh right! It *was* a mentalist! It was Malcolm Dome!
VDGG changed my life! Musically. I bought Pawn Hearts when it was first released on the recommendation of a record shop owner. Actually I came to his shop to buy a Quicksilver Messenger Service album but they were out so he suggested Pawn Hearts. I'd never heard such music and it forever changed my appetite for quirky, adventurous but sophisticated music from then on.
NO OTHER band in the history of rock used guitar so sparsely, and that's what distinguishes them. Anybody else? Think ELP and some of the 80's techno acts. I agree, D. Jackson is a most unique sax player.
TO EACH OTHER, TO EACH OTHER, it's "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" not "AT EACH OTHER". There, I said it. Glad I got that off my chest. ( * _ * )
VDGG became my favourite around ’76 (I was 15), my sister bought the album Pawn Hearts and her boyfriend borrowed me the rest of the band’s albums. Since that I have been a keen fan. And I am still, soon turning 63….
Any overview of Van Der Graaf Generator from this period is only half done without reference to Hammill's solo albums "Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night" and "The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage", in particular the tracks "(In The) Black Room" and "A Louse Is Not A Home", both of which were to be part of the next VDGG album after "Pawn Hearts". These "solo" albums are VDGG albums in all but name anyway! The same can be said for "In Camera" and "Nadir's Big Chance" too, although they have a more "solo" feel to them.
"Godbluff is their best album." I could not express how deeply I agree with you. I only add: for me, Godbluff is the best rock album ever, not only the best VdGG's one.
Trying to think if there's a VDGG I don't have...Pawn Hearts I find is the best; man what a journey into night!, but by Godbluff and Still Life, etc. they got more acidic, incisive, biting, iconoclastic...yet still beautiful. Great band to have had on your planet indeed...!
It's a blessing in disguise that the documentary-makers didn't (couldn't?) use the studio version of "Darkness (11/11)", as in my view, VdGG's 1970 "Beat Club" TV performance of it (seen here) completely blows it away. The studio version just sounds weedy and anaemic next to the band's raging performance for the cameras - what wouldn't I give for a time-machine, to see a 1970-era VdGG live gig (on a good night)!
Thx so much for uploading this. vddg is sadly under documented so I hate to be in any way critical of this, but I was so disappointed that it left off at godbluff. The only explanation I can think of is that they only had David Jackson to offer any insight. If Godbluff is a 'comeback' album then so is H the e... I doubt theres anyone who spent the last hour watching this that at LEAST doesn't want to hear about Still Life! I completely agree w PH's standpoint on rehashing the bands history. I don't wan to talk about work I did last year, can u imagine 40 years??!! hell no! But I selfishly long for a full length film like the Rush doc...a girl can dream..
+stone8man Agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly. Godbluff was my 1st VDGG lp and I was fortunate enough to see the Selling England and Lamb tours. After seeing suppers Ready' live on 4-25-74 my life [in terms of musical appreciation] was changed forever!
nice1, when listening to albums and when you have a hard time spotting the weak parts, then you know its great and for me Godbluffs that way. Although I think Schorched earth and Arrow slightly better of the four, I wouldnt want it any other way!
Great band live - Saw them at the Roundhouse in mid 70s opening with the Undercover Man. Very emotional power there. Hammill's voice is astoundingly original. So too his songs (including solo work)
I would add “The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage” and “Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night” to that list, even though they’re ostensibly Peter Hammill solo albums, they’re really VDGG albums in all but name.
Discovered this band in the early eighties. Haven't looked back. They are so uniquely brilliant. I wouldn't have them any other way. Pure supreme excellence. Saw Peter Hamil play live in Brighton once too. Splendid music full of busy complexity to fill the room with.
I see the thumbnail and think, great! A documentary about Van Der Graaf Generator. After watching it I think I should have sandpapered my eyeballs instead.
I guess the the common course of event by hearing a song by VDGG is, either you get hooked by obsessions and this blessed passion will then follow you for years. I have no ide of the other side of "either"----
Thanks so much for uploading this. I wish they could have got some input from PH, HB, and GE. I never heard anyone refer to H to He as "H" to "He", I've always said "H to H-E", Hydrogen to Helium, but then since I haven't met anyone else who like VDGG, who knows. I always thought of Godbluff, World Record, and Still Life as a unit - I still listen to them regularly (when the wife is out, LOL! - Boy, she hates VDGG). I tend to find World Record a little melodramatic. Godbluff is my favorite of all their work. I have been listening to Quiet Zone/Pleasure Dome A LOT lately - I think it is really clever, varied and very musical. Anyhoo - thanks again, 3 years later, for uploading this.
If only your wife could grasp the profundity of Hammill and VDGG...I introduced my wife to it with La Rosa...She really liked it...She's not blasting Scorched Earth or Arrow anytime soon though....:(... Godbluff is my favorite album too...And Sleepwalkers my most cherished piece...Hammill just captures the sleep world so well! Senses dimmed in semi-sentience, only wheeling through this plane, only seeing fragmented images, prematurely curtailed by the brain, but breathing, living, knowing in some measure at least the soul which roots the matter of both Beauty and the Beast. **From what tooth or claw does murder spring, from what flesh and blood does passion? Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing in deadly but delicate fashion. **-----------------------------------I just love that part... And every range of feeling is there in the dream and every logic's reeling in the force of the scream; the senses sting. And though I may be dreaming and reality stalls I only know the meaning of sight and that's all and that's nothing.
How great and necessary documentary. I've seen several others, but not by so many protagonists. Im an old huge fan (look at my nick !) and I've loved to learn so many things that I didn't know about them.
Arrow is the cut on Godbluff for me with Undercover man..i think 4 stars is right for Godbluff and i always thought that Sill Life was The album of the reunion... Glad to hear that Potter favourite's track is Lost i do think the same... youth lyrics, despair, magnificent music and the final is just a perfect reflection of all the words and emotions that the song is talking about...
I Remember ordering Godbluff from England as a new album. The previous album I bought in 73 , I will say Godbluff and Still life are their best albums as they are the most consistent albums with some great tunes that I will call more classical than rock ! All their albums up to and including World record are good, even tough world record may show first signs of strain , THat said Hammill never were able to make solo albums nearly as good as the fabulous Foursome (5 initially with Potter )
When I was age 16 in 1980 , my chums’ elder sister left home without her records . Being in the midst of musics’ New Wave or Post Punk heyday , we were outcasts by enjoying the “ hairy music “ of older popular acts like PinkFloyd Hendrix Rory Gallagher, Mountain , Purple etc which were in her collection but my chum couldn’t get his head around “ the least we can do is wave to each other “ and handed it to me saying “ you might like this “ as I’d found & loved early music by Zappa & Genesis 2 years before. I tore home on my racing bike and plopped the Heavy vinyl onto the turntable - and never looked back apart from wishing I’d been 16 in 1970 ! 😀
I first heard this band when Killer was on a various artists double sampler Charisma Disturbance...then again on a wet afternoon in 1976 at my first Reading Festival...bought almost everything ever since,though Aerosol Grey has so far eluded me.Brilliant box set The Charisma Years,and the latest box set on order - released today 30 September 2022...Amazon about to deliver it.I hope there is a Charima Years set concentrating on Peter Hammill's solo stuff.
It took several attempts to enjoy VDGG, and Peter Hammill, 1974-1996. 1996, I bought the most excellent 1995 VDGG Tribute: Eyewitnesses: a Tribute to VDGG. It is an Italian tribute featuring fabulous 1990's+ prog bands- Landberk Zauber French TV DEUS EX MACHINA After learning the VDGG interpretations, I started listening to the original songs- and that's all it took!
Both 'A Grounding In Numbers' and 'Do Not Disturb' are exceptionally good albums, even by VdGG standards. So too was 'Quiet Zone / Pleasure Dome', come to think of it, and that wasn't very Jaxonish either. 'Present', on the other hand.....oh dear, oh dear. I was livid when Jaxon was removed, but I'm OK with it now.
an encouraging ( electrostatic?) retrospective, and interesting to hear slightly more informed than usual opinions. I rate the early stuff, being lucky to see them at that time, and hammill solo. the material goes in phases to me with the first 3 up to pawn hearts, which I ll get into trouble for not seeing as their masterpiece, but obviously very good.I disagree with those who denigrate aerosol gry machine. it has that wild prototypical exploratory sound and mystery thats a real one off. then, from the post reform material, I think still life has the most thoughtful content, but the magical zeitgeist of the late 60s atmosphere had gone, so it was a bit exposed and isolated in the desert of the mainstream 70s. I was again lucky to play football with them a few times in 1970, with david jackson in killer mode. its good theyre still with us....
With all the intellectual or philosophical stuff talked about VDGG and their somewhat eccentric or challenging to many music , “ playing Football with them “ is an angle on them that I’ve never heard discussed 😁❤️🐢
Theses guys are bonkers. Godbluff disappointing? They evolved and grew up! Music in the 70s was evolving every second! They finally learned to stitch the pieces together of their Frankenstein monster properly and it shows in Godbluff. Sure, there is no House with no door, no Man-Erg, but it has 4 consistent and unforgettable pieces of music. This is for VDGG what The Lamb was for Genesis: a step forward in the right direction. The Meddle for Pink Floyd. The Lark Tongues in Aspic for King Crimson.
I just hate how Malcolm Dome is in so many documentaries. I don't think he deserves it. He's one of the journalists, that will be talking about everything and anything, yet they don't know as much as the true fans and followers.
"He's one of the journalists, that will be talking about everything and anything": Yeah, well - that's what journalists usually do. It's their job after all.
The classic footage was great. The opinions of the nonentities (who mostly seemed too young to have been there at the time was unnecessary. And then it stopped, right before the Magnum Opus, Still Life, where the production quality, lyricism, musicianship et al finally gelled and there was no finer experience to be had. "Citadel reverberates to the sound….." still sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear it. World record is a fantastic album too. PH is the most emotive singer ever IMHO. Back to the seventies!
I've *never* heard anyone calling "H To He, Who Am The Only One" "H To *HE*" (as in 'him') rather than "H To H.E . (as in 'helium') before watching this video! It never occured to me that someone wouldn't get the fusion reference, it was so obvious!
@@dodibenabba1378 I think it could be a reference to a peter Hamil poem called 4:30 4.30 It's funny... on your first un-schoolgirl day your aura of innocence fell away. We made love in the afternoon and afterwards, a shadow came, past presence touched me. Now I see you're not innocent not gullible not a child. And it's funny... when all that innocence went, some of it just fell on me. Ha ha ha. hee hee: HE. But also..... The fusion of hydrogen nuclei to form Helium nuclei is the basic exothermic reaction in the sun and stars, and hence is the prime energy source for the universe.
I wonder where the music royalties for this documentaries are going? Talking heads are 10 a penny in rock music documentaries, honest and full payments for the music used are much rarer.
Only 2 reasons i dont like this documentary is they dont mention anything at all to with the other tracks on Pawn hearts, They only do Theme one and Lighthouse Keepers and 2, they stop at godbluff and give it such harsh comments even though its my favorite album by them
I'm a HUGE guitar fan. If the band has no guitar, most likely I won't like them. Here is the exception. I know they had Robert Fripp on a few things but not guitar based at all. These guys are amazing. Love the dark, menacing quality of their stuff.
Hi Marissa...yes, very good band and very original music. Peter's voice is unique and very expressive....just amazing. There was a period in my life when they were the best I could listen to back in the mid 70s...In Italy they were quite famous...more than in UK. Take care. Fabio
I was really hoping to see some insight or footage of White Hammer and the end of After the Flood (you know, the part at "total annihilation"). Jackson talks about, "You wouldn't know who played what ..." That's how I feel about that what I'm pretty sure is a Hammond organ noise, driven through crushing effects, at the end of White Hammer. I could put that on loop all day long, would make me smile.
This next documentary is a little bit odd ... Yes, well may you laugh ... A very selective selection, and I guess Evans, Hammill, and Banton weren't available? Nice having Michel Foucault as one of the reviewers ... But, here now, I just want to emphasize, the band is a team effort, yes, and Hugh Banton is truly, truly, truly not given enough credit. Hammill obviously is a vocal genius, and has managed a metric shit-ton of amazing songs on his own, and it's always his voice and lyrics that first bring me back (and still explain or "reassure" me about reality again and again), but his best stuff seems to appear when Hugh is there to not necessarily put in guardrails, but at least to place a safety net, or a trampoline, at the bottom of the cliff. His ability to hold down everything and be the bassist when necessary. I'm blanking on the song at the moment, but it's one of those ones where two different sections are playing simultaneously (I'm actually going to guess Pioneers over c), and there's a live performance from the reunited group (i.e., lately) where Hugh is the one play both parts, even though they have nothing to do with one another ... really drove home what he's up to. He's the Chris Squire of VDGG. Also, Vital is probably the VDGG album I go back to most frequently. It's a delicious cross-section, just like King Crimson's USA is. Thanks for the documentary!
+doug marcus Beg to differ. King Crimson is King Crimson. I embrace them that way. This does not mean that I don't appreciate Guy Evans. It's just that some teams / bands are a well-rounded complete entity!
but guy would had brought a heaviness that even bruford could not match. the rhythm might not be as complicated but he would had been a better fit than ian wallace.
+doug marcus yea he is a jazzy rock maven but he was in his own world with VDGG. I mean the 3 other could of very well been members of Crimso but thats not the story is it. Like a better than Prog band and they transcended the genre definitions.
Well, Well, Well!!! To stop the career of VDGG with Godbluff is rather strange. After this masterpiece (which is MHHO - my humble and honest opinion) like I reviewed it on Prog Archives (nick name: ZowieZiggy) they released the wonderful "Still Life". I rated both albums with 5 stars (the maximum possible). Even if I started to know them with "Pawn Hearts" and then worked backwards in their discography (in the early seventies when I was ...14), their second era with these two wonderful albums is my preferred one. It is true to say that after this, even if "World Record" is a good album, it doesn't reach the level of their prior work. It is also for me, their last good album (not great). "Present" is also good but definitely should have been released as a single album. Not a double one. The second CD is just cacophony.
Unfortunately, as good as this documentary appraisal was so much had been left out. "When She Comes," and "La Rossa," were superb. No mention of Robert Fripp playing with them on two of their albums. No mention of David Jackson briefly playing on two songs by the English pub-rock band Brinsley Schwartz (to show his diversity). Why didn't Pete Hammill & Guy Evans or any of the others comment at all? Was this when Peter had his heart attack? So many appearances of the musicians of Van der Graaf on Hammill's solo albums that those solo albums were actually VGG albums. The song "Modern," was magnificent. Touching upon the fact that Hammill was a great ballad writer: "The House With No Door." If ballad/easy-listening singers ever heard this song they would cover it. But I guess their publishers are not pushing in that direction. But any good singer could do that tune. They discuss their "hit" instrumental "Theme One," but never mention that it was written by The Beatles' George Martin. They never mention the period when VGG adds a violin player -- Graham Smith (formerly of the String Driven Thing). OK, possibly this all happened after 2005 when this film was made. Good documentary anyway.
He's not wrong about Prog b ands and first albums. Pink Floyd's Pipers at gates of dawn is an iconic album but it really has little DNA in common with Dark Side of the Moon or any of those later albums. Frank Zappas first mother albums where kind of loose and freaky and while the elements of his later career are there, Freakout comes from almost a different dimension to something like Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe or even Hot Rats. Cardiacs first albums are almost punk albums compared to the post-rock prog insanity of their late 80s-90s stuff. And that list goes on. These bands need to percolate for a few years.to really hit their peak, and that should suprise absolutely nobody when you consider the complexity of the work.
La mia personale classifica degli album dei Van Der Graaf Generator 1 Pawn hearts 2 The Aerosol grey machine 3 The Least we Can Do Is wave to each other 4 H to He Who am the only One 5 Godbluff 6 The Quiet zone the pleasure dome 7 Still Life 8 World Record 9 Quello senza HAMMILL lo strumentale The Long hello 10 Grounding in Numbers 11 Trisector 12 Do Not Disturb 13 Present 14 Alt
Great video. Only two things appear.. 1. Guy Evans is little bit off the film, and he's one of the strongest pillars of The Band. So, underrated... 2. Why 'H to He" has only 4 starts...
I am disappointed they only took it up to Godbluff, and surprised the two of them (one their former bassist) didn't think it was any good compared to the past work. I think that IS the problem with those generally not making the music but depend on it like the front office. They hear a bands great First record, and they want you to make more of that. I think Neil Young said it best when talking about the music business. Which I'll leave for those that do not know to find and for that do know to reflect on. The one guy didn't like it for it's heaviness, which is why I love it so much. Then there was the story that made me think about what an arrow would feel like it hit by one and the life flowing out with the music slowly fading away. Tastes in music notes and vibes, are never going to be the same.
Papparapapappapappa. Papparapapappapappa etc con sax e mellotron secondo me una chiara ispirazione da i Carmina Burana di Carl Orff l'episodio in questione mi pare sia The clot Thickens tratto dalla suite A plague of lighthouse keepers Per finire un saluto in memoria di Chris judge Smith il primo batterista della formazione e cofondatore nonché quello che ha suggerito il nome Van Der Graaf Generator alla band poi un ricordo anche per Nic Potter bassista in diversi album del gruppo il suo soprannome era Mozart perché aveva una certa somiglianza con il compositore classico nato a Salisburgo in Austria ed anche un saluto in ricordo dell altro bassista Keith Ian Ellis quello di The Aerosol Grey Machine per intenderci Insomma questa è veramente una delle più grandi ed importanti bands in assoluto della storia della musica moderna Ma cosa aspettano a mettere il loro nome nella Rock'n'roll of Fame ? PROVVEDERE AL PIU PRESTO !!!!!!
I love VdGG! H to He is my favourite, find Pawn Hearts a bit dense (but still like it!), And Godbluff is godlike! BTW, Jaxson looks more like a Geography teacher than a sax god! But a sax god he is!
Oops. No. Peter Hammill built upon what Jim Morrison started but couldn't quite do. Hammill finally accomplished it for all eternity to hear. Poetry with compelling, emotional performance.
Te doy like porque también quisiera subtitulos para entender todo al 100% y porque tenemos casi-casi el mismo nombre de canal (claro el significado es el mismo) xDD
Who are these people . Most importantly , stuff from Aerosol Grey was played live by the band back then and was part of the VDGG set . Radio 1 Sunday Show for example when , if my memory serves me , Octopus and Squid were performed ....
The more you watch this the more bullshit you hear! This Rob Corich, at 14:57 for instance, claiming that it would be hard to call ANY bass player a "genius". Oh yeah? Tell that to Jaco Pastorius, or Stanley Clarke, or Jeff Berlin, or Paul Chambers, or Ron Carter, or Charles Mingus! Where do they dig these people up from?
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Best band in the universe. Period!
júlio Cunha my girlfriend agree. she knew all their songs by heart when she was a teenager. peter hammill was her god. that was written on her bag...;]
júlio Cunha true !
júlio Cunha - You haven't heard all the bands in the universe so how can you possibly know. You probably haven't even heard all the bands on this planet.
@@warmswarm well, you know. All those aliens from other galaxy's must sound like deep sea fish...z😂😂😂
@@warmswarm I’ve heard all of the bands in the Universe, and Julio is correct in his claim! VDGG are the best!
I've loved "Pawn Hearts" ever since I bought it in 1972. There are a lot of bands that I enjoy for a lot of different reasons but I've never heard a band like this that demands to be forced into your head. I hold off on listening to PH for a special time that I can fully relax and listen to every little nuance. It's not a guilty pleasure but it's a pleasure that I don't take lightly. It's an acquired taste this band and once you get it, it gets you.
I couldn't have put it better myself.
_H to He: who am the only one_ should get 5 stars for the track _Killer_ on its own.
..and Lost!!
@@TbsDltn As well as the melancholic House with No Door
and pioneers over c!
@@volkerd714 Well, yeah, I like that too.
The greatest band ever
Next to Genesis
Dave Jackson's weird trademark cap should be mounted framed and hung in the Rock Hall of Fame
Nic Potter was the perfect bass player for Van Der Graaf. It's such a shame he left them when he did. His playing on "Vital" is amazing!
Yeah, he could have enriched their music even more on next albums...VDGG is PERFECT band anyway... Geniuses, period.
@@michaelgove9349 That was same with me and “Trout Mask Replica”! I was a massive Zappa fan in the early 70’s and bought “Trout Mask” on the strength of FZ’s involvement. But the first few times I listened I couldn’t make head nor tail off it. I wouldn’t say I hated it…I just didn’t think it was anything! It was a jumbled up mess to me, and I put it away and never listened again for months, until one night I heard “The Blimp” on Radio Luxembourg and it must’ve been percolating away in my subconscious all that time, because it totally made sense and made me dig the album out again…and that was that…I was smitten.
It wasn’t until many years later I found out that the music for “The Blimp” was actually Zappa’s band at the time, playing one of his unreleased tunes on a multitrack that FZ laid a phone call from Beefheart and his cousin narrating the lyrics, on a free track, and bounced the two together to make “The Blimp”.
So it was actually Zappa that got me into Captain Beefheart, in more ways than one!
His playing is astonishing, amazing warm deep agressive tone.
Guy and nic together are like a ticking time bomb wanting to explode.
pioneers over c on vital is basically a bass song
VDGG redefined how songs were made... True to themselves they refused to compromise their craft.
"Godbluff" is a fantastic album, and so is "World Record", the track "Wondering" is one of my personal favourites along with Still Life's "My Room (Waiting For Wonderland)". The notion that they "shouldn't have reformed" is so beyond ludicrous it sounds like something only a mentalist would say! Oh right! It *was* a mentalist! It was Malcolm Dome!
"Pilgrims" from Still Life may be the most profound piece of music I have ever heard.
Golden age of rock music: 1966-1974.
Couldn't agree more
1968-1978 for me...the last amazing albums comes out in 78
1965-1979 for me. Gotta have The Wall up there
indeed
VDGG changed my life! Musically. I bought Pawn Hearts when it was first released on the recommendation of a record shop owner. Actually I came to his shop to buy a Quicksilver Messenger Service album but they were out so he suggested Pawn Hearts. I'd never heard such music and it forever changed my appetite for quirky, adventurous but sophisticated music from then on.
Happy trails.
NO OTHER band in the history of rock used guitar so sparsely, and that's what distinguishes them. Anybody else? Think ELP and some of the 80's techno acts. I agree, D. Jackson is a most unique sax player.
TO EACH OTHER, TO EACH OTHER, it's "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" not "AT EACH OTHER". There, I said it. Glad I got that off my chest. ( * _ * )
VDGG became my favourite around ’76 (I was 15), my sister bought the album Pawn Hearts and her boyfriend borrowed me the rest of the band’s albums. Since that I have been a keen fan. And I am still, soon turning 63….
very underrated prog groupo ...VDGG ...
One of the absolute best
Don Abercrombie indeed
A superior biography of VDG. A shame all the band members failed to comment but ofcourse the music speaks for itself!
Any overview of Van Der Graaf Generator from this period is only half done without reference to Hammill's solo albums "Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night" and "The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage", in particular the tracks "(In The) Black Room" and "A Louse Is Not A Home", both of which were to be part of the next VDGG album after "Pawn Hearts". These "solo" albums are VDGG albums in all but name anyway! The same can be said for "In Camera" and "Nadir's Big Chance" too, although they have a more "solo" feel to them.
agreed
«Louse» is one of the best rock epos ever
Best band with best singer/songwriter ever!!! Enjoy the music a lot and, when more in bad times, the music pulled me through everuthing
Crazy talk. Godbluff is their best album.
Still, magnificent documentary.
"Godbluff is their best album." I could not express how deeply I agree with you. I only add: for me, Godbluff is the best rock album ever, not only the best VdGG's one.
Trying to think if there's a VDGG I don't have...Pawn Hearts I find is the best; man what a journey into night!, but by Godbluff and Still Life, etc. they got more acidic, incisive, biting, iconoclastic...yet still beautiful. Great band to have had on your planet indeed...!
It's a blessing in disguise that the documentary-makers didn't (couldn't?) use the studio version of "Darkness (11/11)", as in my view, VdGG's 1970 "Beat Club" TV performance of it (seen here) completely blows it away. The studio version just sounds weedy and anaemic next to the band's raging performance for the cameras - what wouldn't I give for a time-machine, to see a 1970-era VdGG live gig (on a good night)!
Thx so much for uploading this. vddg is sadly under documented so I hate to be in any way critical of this, but I was so disappointed that it left off at godbluff. The only explanation I can think of is that they only had David Jackson to offer any insight. If Godbluff is a 'comeback' album then so is H the e... I doubt theres anyone who spent the last hour watching this that at LEAST doesn't want to hear about Still Life! I completely agree w PH's standpoint on rehashing the bands history. I don't wan to talk about work I did last year, can u imagine 40 years??!! hell no! But I selfishly long for a full length film like the Rush doc...a girl can dream..
well rating Godbluff as 4/5 is a crime for me it may be my second favorite all time album after Genesis Foxtrot, just imo!
+stone8man Agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly. Godbluff was my 1st VDGG lp and I was fortunate enough to see the Selling England and Lamb tours. After seeing suppers Ready' live on 4-25-74 my life [in terms of musical appreciation] was changed forever!
nice1, when listening to albums and when you have a hard time spotting the weak parts, then you know its great and for me Godbluffs that way. Although I think Schorched earth and Arrow slightly better of the four, I wouldnt want it any other way!
stone8man definitely crime of the century
Chatoyant Reverie it’s not crime of the century it’s godbluff?!
@@Eleventhearlofmars I think he just made a joke
Van der Graaf! I love Darkness 11/11, Lost and The undercover man, among with When she comes, The emperor in his war room and Pilgrims
Undercover man an pilgrims are my top 2
Excellent documentary, now I'll go back and listen to those albums
Thank you so much such a great band.
Sharing this video was a service to music and history in general. Thank you very much brother. VDGG Favorite band of all time HANDS DOWN.
Great band live - Saw them at the Roundhouse in mid 70s opening with the Undercover Man. Very emotional power there. Hammill's voice is astoundingly original. So too his songs (including solo work)
Pawn Hearts, Still life & Godbluff are the best albums they ever made. Period!
I would add “The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage” and “Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night” to that list, even though they’re ostensibly Peter Hammill solo albums, they’re really VDGG albums in all but name.
H to He?
@@fcamiola H to He is awesome as well at The Least We can Do...
Great little program. Thanks!
Discovered this band in the early eighties. Haven't looked back. They are so uniquely brilliant. I wouldn't have them any other way. Pure supreme excellence. Saw Peter Hamil play live in Brighton once too. Splendid music full of busy complexity to fill the room with.
Thanks for sharing, very interesting. I love vdgg/ph since 35 years. Cheers from Italy !
Absolutely wonderful music. No extra words are necessary.
I see the thumbnail and think, great! A documentary about Van Der Graaf Generator. After watching it I think I should have sandpapered my eyeballs instead.
I guess the the common course of event by hearing a song by VDGG is, either you get hooked by obsessions and this blessed passion will then follow you for years. I have no ide of the other side of "either"----
Ome of My Favorit Bands !
The Least We Can Do is one of the best albums in music history
Yes indeed!
''ANNIHILATION''
Killer + Man-Erg are the absolute best.
Thanks so much for uploading this. I wish they could have got some input from PH, HB, and GE. I never heard anyone refer to H to He as "H" to "He", I've always said "H to H-E", Hydrogen to Helium, but then since I haven't met anyone else who like VDGG, who knows.
I always thought of Godbluff, World Record, and Still Life as a unit - I still listen to them regularly (when the wife is out, LOL! - Boy, she hates VDGG). I tend to find World Record a little melodramatic. Godbluff is my favorite of all their work.
I have been listening to Quiet Zone/Pleasure Dome A LOT lately - I think it is really clever, varied and very musical.
Anyhoo - thanks again, 3 years later, for uploading this.
If only your wife could grasp the profundity of Hammill and VDGG...I introduced my wife to it with La Rosa...She really liked it...She's not blasting Scorched Earth or Arrow anytime soon though....:(... Godbluff is my favorite album too...And Sleepwalkers my most cherished piece...Hammill just captures the sleep world so well!
Senses dimmed in semi-sentience, only wheeling through this plane,
only seeing fragmented images, prematurely curtailed by the brain,
but breathing, living, knowing in some measure at least
the soul which roots the matter of both Beauty and the Beast.
**From what tooth or claw does murder spring,
from what flesh and blood does passion?
Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing
in deadly but delicate fashion.
**-----------------------------------I just love that part...
And every range of feeling is there in the dream
and every logic's reeling in the force of the scream;
the senses sting.
And though I may be dreaming and reality stalls
I only know the meaning of sight and that's all
and that's nothing.
I agree, the "wife acceptance factor" of VDGG is poor.
How great and necessary documentary. I've seen several others, but not by so many protagonists.
Im an old huge fan (look at my nick !) and I've loved to learn so many things that I didn't know about them.
Arrow is the cut on Godbluff for me with Undercover man..i think 4 stars is right for Godbluff and i always thought that Sill Life was The album of the reunion... Glad to hear that Potter favourite's track is Lost i do think the same... youth lyrics, despair, magnificent music and the final is just a perfect reflection of all the words and emotions that the song is talking about...
Undercover man is my favorite. Not just on godbluff, not just of vdgg, no of all kind of songs all kinds of music!
I Remember ordering Godbluff from England as a new album. The previous album I bought in 73 , I will say Godbluff and Still life are their best albums as they are the most consistent albums with some great tunes that I will call more classical than rock ! All their albums up to and including World record are good, even tough world record may show first signs of strain , THat said Hammill never were able to make solo albums nearly as good as the fabulous Foursome (5 initially with Potter )
VDGG was like a mutant jazz rock band with vocals. I love them madly...nothing like Hammill and co
Such an amazing band!
after pawn hearts, van der graaf generator weren't the same. In other hand, Peter Hammil solo career is interesting.
When I was age 16 in 1980 , my chums’ elder sister left home without her records . Being in the midst of musics’ New Wave or Post Punk heyday , we were outcasts by enjoying the “ hairy music “ of older popular acts like PinkFloyd Hendrix Rory Gallagher, Mountain , Purple etc which were in her collection but my chum couldn’t get his head around “ the least we can do is wave to each other “ and handed it to me saying “ you might like this “ as I’d found & loved early music by Zappa & Genesis 2 years before. I tore home on my racing bike and plopped the Heavy vinyl onto the turntable - and never looked back apart from wishing I’d been 16 in 1970 ! 😀
I recently discovered VDGG and they're shooting up to the sky for me!
Nice to see Nick Potter in good health, RIP Nick.
sad sweet faces...its the good ship of VDGG!!
rip Nic Potter & Keith Ellis!!
Ah, I so miss those good old bad acid days! ;) x
I first heard this band when Killer was on a various artists double sampler Charisma Disturbance...then again on a wet afternoon in 1976 at my first Reading Festival...bought almost everything ever since,though Aerosol Grey has so far eluded me.Brilliant box set The Charisma Years,and the latest box set on order - released today 30 September 2022...Amazon about to deliver it.I hope there is a Charima Years set concentrating on Peter Hammill's solo stuff.
It took several attempts to enjoy VDGG, and Peter Hammill, 1974-1996.
1996, I bought the most excellent 1995 VDGG Tribute:
Eyewitnesses: a Tribute to VDGG. It is an Italian tribute featuring fabulous 1990's+ prog bands-
Landberk
Zauber
French TV
DEUS EX MACHINA
After learning the VDGG interpretations, I started listening to the original songs- and that's all it took!
You can see and hear what an influence Jaxon was and how he has been missed in recent times
Both 'A Grounding In Numbers' and 'Do Not Disturb' are exceptionally good albums, even by VdGG standards. So too was 'Quiet Zone / Pleasure Dome', come to think of it, and that wasn't very Jaxonish either. 'Present', on the other hand.....oh dear, oh dear. I was livid when Jaxon was removed, but I'm OK with it now.
an encouraging ( electrostatic?) retrospective, and interesting to hear slightly more informed than usual opinions. I rate the early stuff, being lucky to see them at that time, and hammill solo. the material goes in phases to me with the first 3 up to pawn hearts, which I ll get into trouble for not seeing as their masterpiece, but obviously very good.I disagree with those who denigrate aerosol gry machine. it has that wild prototypical exploratory sound and mystery thats a real one off. then, from the post reform material, I think still life has the most thoughtful content, but the magical zeitgeist of the late 60s atmosphere had gone, so it was a bit exposed and isolated in the desert of the mainstream 70s. I was again lucky to play football with them a few times in 1970, with david jackson in killer mode. its good theyre still with us....
With all the intellectual or philosophical stuff talked about VDGG and their somewhat eccentric or challenging to many music , “ playing Football with them “ is an angle on them that I’ve never heard discussed 😁❤️🐢
Fabuloso!
I still don't get why they only go up to Godbluff? There are more albums...
Still Life is fantastic. I think it's their best.
I cut my teeth on World Record...
Music like no other!
Theses guys are bonkers.
Godbluff disappointing?
They evolved and grew up!
Music in the 70s was evolving every second!
They finally learned to stitch the pieces together of their Frankenstein monster properly and it shows in Godbluff.
Sure, there is no House with no door, no Man-Erg, but it has 4 consistent and unforgettable pieces of music. This is for VDGG what The Lamb was for Genesis: a step forward in the right direction. The Meddle for Pink Floyd. The Lark Tongues in Aspic for King Crimson.
How can they all say Godbluff is under the previous albums. And talk about it like the come-back too much ! This is their best album…
I've got the full sert of Classic Rock Prodution DVDs and they're all excellent
VDGG is my favorite band. Period.
Where’s Hammill here? He was and always will be the leading force behind VDGG and you couldn’t invite him?!
More like he didn't want to come...
Where can I find english subtitle for this?
I just hate how Malcolm Dome is in so many documentaries. I don't think he deserves it. He's one of the journalists, that will be talking about everything and anything, yet they don't know as much as the true fans and followers.
Prob. Jew
Is that the bold guy with funny teeth? I also think he is quite annyoing
That's the one:) He does documentaries from Napalm Death to VDGG.
"He's one of the journalists, that will be talking about everything and anything":
Yeah, well - that's what journalists usually do. It's their job after all.
Yeah, but you have to have an idea about what you are talking about don't you? :)
The classic footage was great. The opinions of the nonentities (who mostly seemed too young to have been there at the time was unnecessary. And then it stopped, right before the Magnum Opus, Still Life, where the production quality, lyricism, musicianship et al finally gelled and there was no finer experience to be had. "Citadel reverberates to the sound….." still sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear it. World record is a fantastic album too. PH is the most emotive singer ever IMHO. Back to the seventies!
Steve Hall Well said!
Thank God Jaxon doesn't understand The Sleepwalkers (lyrics) because i never could understand it either as the same for many songs of VDGG LOl
I've *never* heard anyone calling "H To He, Who Am The Only One" "H To *HE*" (as in 'him') rather than "H To H.E . (as in 'helium') before watching this video! It never occured to me that someone wouldn't get the fusion reference, it was so obvious!
iT'S HEE-lee-əm IF YOU DON'T KNOW
I actually think there's a spiritual element to that title as well that people are overlooking...
@@dodibenabba1378 I think it could be a reference to a peter Hamil poem called 4:30
4.30
It's funny...
on your first un-schoolgirl day
your aura of innocence fell away.
We made love in the afternoon
and afterwards, a shadow came,
past presence touched me.
Now I see
you're not innocent
not gullible
not a child.
And it's funny...
when all that innocence went,
some of it just fell on me.
Ha ha ha.
hee hee:
HE.
But also.....
The fusion of hydrogen nuclei to form Helium nuclei is
the basic exothermic reaction in the sun and stars, and
hence is the prime energy source for the universe.
I wonder where the music royalties for this documentaries are going? Talking heads are 10 a penny in rock music documentaries, honest and full payments for the music used are much rarer.
Only 2 reasons i dont like this documentary is they dont mention anything at all to with the other tracks on Pawn hearts, They only do Theme one and Lighthouse Keepers and 2, they stop at godbluff and give it such harsh comments even though its my favorite album by them
Peter is from Pluto, not earth. Genius. A Plauge of Lighthouse Keepers still make my hair stand up, after 50 ys. Listen.
I'm a HUGE guitar fan. If the band has no guitar, most likely I won't like them. Here is the exception. I know they had Robert Fripp on a few things but not guitar based at all. These guys are amazing. Love the dark, menacing quality of their stuff.
Great great great band!!!!
Hi Marissa...yes, very good band and very original music. Peter's voice is unique and very expressive....just amazing. There was a period in my life when they were the best I could listen to back in the mid 70s...In Italy they were quite famous...more than in UK. Take care.
Fabio
I was really hoping to see some insight or footage of White Hammer and the end of After the Flood (you know, the part at "total annihilation"). Jackson talks about, "You wouldn't know who played what ..." That's how I feel about that what I'm pretty sure is a Hammond organ noise, driven through crushing effects, at the end of White Hammer. I could put that on loop all day long, would make me smile.
0
i'd really would have enjoyed it if they'd tried to get ph to assign stars on their work.. expletives and all..
That would've been funny to read.
what about still life video review?
VDGG Organist rocked like a MoFo back in the 70s!
This next documentary is a little bit odd ... Yes, well may you laugh ... A very selective selection, and I guess Evans, Hammill, and Banton weren't available? Nice having Michel Foucault as one of the reviewers ... But, here now, I just want to emphasize, the band is a team effort, yes, and Hugh Banton is truly, truly, truly not given enough credit. Hammill obviously is a vocal genius, and has managed a metric shit-ton of amazing songs on his own, and it's always his voice and lyrics that first bring me back (and still explain or "reassure" me about reality again and again), but his best stuff seems to appear when Hugh is there to not necessarily put in guardrails, but at least to place a safety net, or a trampoline, at the bottom of the cliff. His ability to hold down everything and be the bassist when necessary. I'm blanking on the song at the moment, but it's one of those ones where two different sections are playing simultaneously (I'm actually going to guess Pioneers over c), and there's a live performance from the reunited group (i.e., lately) where Hugh is the one play both parts, even though they have nothing to do with one another ... really drove home what he's up to. He's the Chris Squire of VDGG. Also, Vital is probably the VDGG album I go back to most frequently. It's a delicious cross-section, just like King Crimson's USA is.
Thanks for the documentary!
Nic Potter is astounding on “Vital”, especially on my favourite track “Urban”….one of the “hidden” gems of the VDGG catalogue!
would had loved to see guy evans play with king crimson.
+doug marcus Beg to differ. King Crimson is King Crimson. I embrace them that way. This does not mean that I don't appreciate Guy Evans. It's just that some teams / bands are a well-rounded complete entity!
but guy would had brought a heaviness that even bruford could not match. the rhythm might not be as complicated but he would had been a better fit than ian wallace.
+doug marcus yea he is a jazzy rock maven but he was in his own world with VDGG. I mean the 3 other could of very well been members of Crimso but thats not the story is it. Like a better than Prog band and they transcended the genre definitions.
RIP Nic.
Well, Well, Well!!!
To stop the career of VDGG with Godbluff is rather strange. After this masterpiece (which is MHHO - my humble and honest opinion) like I reviewed it on Prog Archives (nick name: ZowieZiggy) they released the wonderful "Still Life". I rated both albums with 5 stars (the maximum possible). Even if I started to know them with "Pawn Hearts" and then worked backwards in their discography (in the early seventies when I was ...14), their second era with these two wonderful albums is my preferred one.
It is true to say that after this, even if "World Record" is a good album, it doesn't reach the level of their prior work. It is also for me, their last good album (not great). "Present" is also good but definitely should have been released as a single album. Not a double one. The second CD is just cacophony.
Unfortunately, as good as this documentary appraisal was so much had been left out. "When She Comes," and "La Rossa," were superb. No mention of Robert Fripp playing with them on two of their albums. No mention of David Jackson briefly playing on two songs by the English pub-rock band Brinsley Schwartz (to show his diversity).
Why didn't Pete Hammill & Guy Evans or any of the others comment at all? Was this when Peter had his heart attack? So many appearances of the musicians of Van der Graaf on Hammill's solo albums that those solo albums were actually VGG albums. The song "Modern," was magnificent.
Touching upon the fact that Hammill was a great ballad writer: "The House With No Door." If ballad/easy-listening singers ever heard this song they would cover it. But I guess their publishers are not pushing in that direction. But any good singer could do that tune.
They discuss their "hit" instrumental "Theme One," but never mention that it was written by The Beatles' George Martin. They never mention the period when VGG adds a violin player -- Graham Smith (formerly of the String Driven Thing).
OK, possibly this all happened after 2005 when this film was made. Good documentary anyway.
Guy Evans is overlooked in this
He's not wrong about Prog b ands and first albums. Pink Floyd's Pipers at gates of dawn is an iconic album but it really has little DNA in common with Dark Side of the Moon or any of those later albums. Frank Zappas first mother albums where kind of loose and freaky and while the elements of his later career are there, Freakout comes from almost a different dimension to something like Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe or even Hot Rats. Cardiacs first albums are almost punk albums compared to the post-rock prog insanity of their late 80s-90s stuff. And that list goes on. These bands need to percolate for a few years.to really hit their peak, and that should suprise absolutely nobody when you consider the complexity of the work.
Also Genesis :)
La mia personale classifica degli album dei Van Der Graaf Generator 1 Pawn hearts 2 The Aerosol grey machine 3 The Least we Can Do Is wave to each other 4 H to He Who am the only One 5 Godbluff 6 The Quiet zone the pleasure dome 7 Still Life 8 World Record 9 Quello senza HAMMILL lo strumentale The Long hello 10 Grounding in Numbers 11 Trisector 12 Do Not Disturb 13 Present 14 Alt
Great video. Only two things appear.. 1. Guy Evans is little bit off the film, and he's one of the strongest pillars of The Band. So, underrated... 2. Why 'H to He" has only 4 starts...
I am disappointed they only took it up to Godbluff, and surprised the two of them (one their former bassist) didn't think it was any good compared to the past work. I think that IS the problem with those generally not making the music but depend on it like the front office. They hear a bands great First record, and they want you to make more of that. I think Neil Young said it best when talking about the music business. Which I'll leave for those that do not know to find and for that do know to reflect on. The one guy didn't like it for it's heaviness, which is why I love it so much. Then there was the story that made me think about what an arrow would feel like it hit by one and the life flowing out with the music slowly fading away. Tastes in music notes and vibes, are never going to be the same.
Jesus.
Why drop a fictional name in here, and why not use Frodo.
Nonsensical twit.
says someone that drops jesus into the page? Yeah, that devils got yuh just where it wants yuh.
Papparapapappapappa. Papparapapappapappa etc con sax e mellotron secondo me una chiara ispirazione da i Carmina Burana di Carl Orff l'episodio in questione mi pare sia The clot Thickens tratto dalla suite A plague of lighthouse keepers Per finire un saluto in memoria di Chris judge Smith il primo batterista della formazione e cofondatore nonché quello che ha suggerito il nome Van Der Graaf Generator alla band poi un ricordo anche per Nic Potter bassista in diversi album del gruppo il suo soprannome era Mozart perché aveva una certa somiglianza con il compositore classico nato a Salisburgo in Austria ed anche un saluto in ricordo dell altro bassista Keith Ian Ellis quello di The Aerosol Grey Machine per intenderci Insomma questa è veramente una delle più grandi ed importanti bands in assoluto della storia della musica moderna Ma cosa aspettano a mettere il loro nome nella Rock'n'roll of Fame ? PROVVEDERE AL PIU PRESTO !!!!!!
I love VdGG! H to He is my favourite, find Pawn Hearts a bit dense (but still like it!), And Godbluff is godlike! BTW, Jaxson looks more like a Geography teacher than a sax god! But a sax god he is!
The record producer Les Davidson looks like Peter Gabriel. 😂
Jajaja .... P.G. con 15 años menos. 😂😂
This Van der Graaf album gets... 3 quarter portions...
Interesting "Documentary". How come nothing from Peter Hugh and Guy?. Were they not available
cmikex2 Probably because it's a bad documentary?!
They are still in the band. Following his decision to appear in this documentary, Jaxon isn't.
Oops. No. Peter Hammill built upon what Jim Morrison started but couldn't quite do. Hammill finally accomplished it for all eternity to hear. Poetry with compelling, emotional performance.
Subtítulos en Español please!!!!! :)
Te doy like porque también quisiera subtitulos para entender todo al 100% y porque tenemos casi-casi el mismo nombre de canal (claro el significado es el mismo) xDD
Siiiiii, hay algunas cosas q no comprendo al 100% :(
I believe Jackson appearing in this doc was a factor in his parting of the ways with the rest .
I've heard similar rumblings.
I was hoping this was part 1 of 2 but alas........
❤❤❤❤
and let's not ´´lest we forget´´ the great The quiet zone the pleasure dome… there are simply no Satisfactory albums by VDGG...
Who are these people . Most importantly , stuff from Aerosol Grey was played live by the band back then and was part of the VDGG set . Radio 1 Sunday Show for example when , if my memory serves me , Octopus and Squid were performed ....
Yes! Let's spend 20 minutes on The Least We Can Do and 5 minutes on H to He!
The more you watch this the more bullshit you hear! This Rob Corich, at 14:57 for instance, claiming that it would be hard to call ANY bass player a "genius". Oh yeah? Tell that to Jaco Pastorius, or Stanley Clarke, or Jeff Berlin, or Paul Chambers, or Ron Carter, or Charles Mingus! Where do they dig these people up from?
Godbluff was when they lost their hippie skin. Perfection.