ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- Early uploads to go Patreon.com/johnslop!
Donations welcome!
Venmo: @jslop90
Cashapp: $jslop90
Paypal: @johnslop691
BTC: 3GpZgFtNGuUp3QApjAh7fmFmkGAvmpj1kT
Movie & TV Reactions
/ @slopsmovietvcorner1625
Robocop Reaction
• Robocop 1987 First Tim...
Alien Reaction
• Alien 1979 First Time ...
Total Recall Reaction
• Total Recall First Tim...
The sax sounds you're hearing are David Jackson pulling a Roland Kirk and blowing the two saxes at the same time. Incredible talent all around with VDGG.
Happy to see my request up! VDGG are a superb prog band with a very deep catalog, strikingly unique and cerebral. As others have already said, highly influential on any number of different genres/bands.
The electric saxes were fed through effects boxes. 'Lost' and 'Plague' are my favourite two VdGG songs.
A very influential band in the early days of prog. They have an extensive catalog, of which this song is pretty representative. This is the first track from their second album, 1970 if I remember right.
Van Der Graaf Generator have long been a favourite of mine along with Peter Hammil's solo work, of which A Black Box is my personal go to from him. A silent corner of an empty stage is also very good and Sitting Targets.
I haven't heard anything from this band until just now and wow! Such fantastic musicianship. And the funky keys hiding behind that imposing synth is just delicious. Thanks for the reaction. I'm gonna devour their entire discography
Yasss! Really appreciate you reacting to VDGG. We don't get much of that.
You might be interested in Henry Cow and Soft Machine.
This is opener for the second album where The Band is awakening to do greatest things. VDGG released two albums in one year (1970) and both are epic. Everyone with sublime rock music taste should dive deep to VDGG - music is not so easy to get at the start, but very fruitful. This band, like King Crimson, settled many trends and innovations in prog-rock and rock as a whole. Many other bands and artists verbosely declare that VDGG and Hammill are their inspiration. 4th album "Pawn Hearts" from 1971 is believed to be one of the gems of rock and "The Plague Of The Lighthouse Keepers" is the first epic prog-rock suite, considered to be one of the best.
Would love to see more Van Der Graaf Generator and Peter Hamill
Arte musical del más fino, como ésta banda no hay
Peter later admitted that a lot of the lyric was basically stream of consciousness. He has no idea how Herod the Wake got in there (boats burn the bridge in the fens). Wicked little Scorpio is rather more self referential.
Indeed, this track is rather easy listening in terms of Van der Graaf Generator.
One of my eternal 4 which are King Crimson/Robert Fripp; Van der Graaf Generator/ Peter Hammill; Gentle Giant; Soft Machine
@@frankh9600 I can easily do without Soft Machine, but otherwise...YEAH!
Yes, I felt like it would be a good intro track before delving into some of the more intense/intricate material.
Jump into the deep end. "A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" would certainly do the trick. VDGG own their own corner of the progressive rock scene. Peter Hammill did spiritual/existential/relationship angst like no one else.
And don't try too hard to understand Hammill's lyrics. Instead FEEL them.
Perhaps "Man-Erg" from the VDGG album "Pawn Hearts" would be better. Either way...deep waters, great band.
You may not realise it yet John, but you just listened to the greatest band of all time! If you ever get around to listening to their full catalogue ( including Peter Hammill solo material, which is often backed up by the VDGG boys ), you will begin to understand this!
Hey so about the meaning of the song - it's a reenactment of a revelation the vocalist experienced as he found the motivation to start making music to psychically combat the Vietnam War that was ongoing at the time. Most of Van der Graaf Generator's music is about anti-fascist revolution or spiritual revelation in some way, but you really need to study the lyrics because Hammill loves to communicate in parables and metaphors. Particularly at this time (in the year 1970, when this album was released) the US was becoming increasingly violently involved in the Vietnam War, and Hammill started experiencing revelations and divine cosmic downloads (he describes this process in this song; it's also why he specifies "I did not choose it") and rose up to start leading a revolution of unity and thought that would hopefully stop the imminent genocide he saw gaining support around him. It's easier to come to that conclusion after listening to their entire catalog. Pawn Hearts (their 3rd album) for example is such a politically intense anti-fascist album that the band became more popular than The Beatles in Italy for a short time.
Love the reaction though! This is just scratching the surface of this band. If you want to explore one of the most raw and passionate albums ever recorded you should check out Godbluff. Again I think it helps to have the context that the album is about revelation, complete societal unity, and a willingness to die to defend freedom from violent fascists. The lyrics can come across as meaningless fantasy drivel if you don't catch on to Hammill's real meanings
The song was written on 11 November, Remembrance Day as it happens although that was by chance rather than by design, but there are also other layers of significance in the numbers. November is the month of Scorpio, under which sign PH was born and 11 is his life number. There's also a connection in a novel he wrote some time before the song, an Icelandic saga apparently, which when he re-read it some time after finishing the song's lyrics it struck him that the first line was "It was the eleventh day of the eleventh month". All this from the notes in his book of lyrics and poems Killers, Angels, Refugees.
Don't see Pawn Hearts as overtly politically intense. Lemmings is the only track that for me has political oppression / media manipulation references.
Both Man - Erg and APOLHK are intense studies on the human condition and psyche, psycopathy, empathy, guilt, redemption etc. Can't see political intensity in either.
I don't think I have ever read of Peter writing specifically about the Vietnam war and I can't see references in his lyrics myself either.
I may be missing something as his lyrics can be obtuse, but I am wondering if you are mixing the author PETE HAMILL up with VdGG's Peter Hammill ?
Vietnam: The Real War: A Photographic History by the Associated Press (Hardback)
Pete Hamill (author), Associated Press (author)
Well I think this song is about evolution and the role of free will within a deterministic universe.
PH indicated that the lyric had something to do with Hereward The Wake...that's all I know.