Van Der Graaf Generator [Still Life]
Ah, there's two great records by Van Der Graaf Generator, this one and World Record, this probably isn't quite as good as the other, but they're close, i bought the vinyl LP of World Record first, choosing it completely blind, knowing nothing about VDGG, and i hit the jackpot, and so off i went looking for another gem from them, and here it is, VDGG don't have many tracks on their albums, that's because some of them are so long [in fact most of them!], also you might not agree with the cosmic re-incarnation of Peter Hammill's lyrics [i don't particularly], but they're still meaningful, i must have bought this album when it was quite new and freshly released, now all these years later i find that i've probably listened to it fifty times, and it's still a revelation each time i hear it, it's timeless music, it's racking up quite a 'following' in my Blog [3rd January 2011 / 5th February 2012 / 6th September 2012].
Van Der Graaf Generator are a Prog Rock band, started up in Manchester in 1967, and still going strong today, though they did have an amazing quarter of a century hiatus in the eighties and nineties, they brought this album out in 1976, the front cover is of an electrical discharge, i think it's quite good, the small VDGG logo at the top is excellent, there's a lovely symmetry to it all.
Well in listening to this again, it was actually the first two tracks on the album that i liked the best, i listened to the album in random order [3 / 5 / 2 / 4 / 1], so it ended up being the last track i played that was the best of all, a really strong musical statement, here's a synopsis of the track,
1 Pilgrims [7:07] - If you don't know VDGG, then Peter Hammill takes some explaining, his voice is almost operatic, and yet it's not a melodic singing voice, at times it degenerates to almost wailing, it's something to get used to, this is the shortest track on the album at seven minutes!, the lyrics are a little naive, about everyone on the beach holding hands in brotherhood!, it's quite a slow number in the verses, very much organ led, i like the transition to the chorus [1:29-2:17], and when the chorus hits it goes up several notches [2:17-3:18], there's real passion in his voice, the second verse is stronger than the first, and the second transition has a greater sense of surprise, the second chorus is a gem [4:42-5:42], VDGG build up the song nicely, that it gets better and better, plus there's the most loveliest surprise at the end, a sort of third chorus, except it's only instrumental [5:45-7:07], and without any vocalist, this is where they play their hearts out, and especially David Jackson who hasn't done a lot, comes to the fore with his saxophone, it's a tour de force, it's a wonder why so many other bands don't use this brilliant technique, it's a fantastic opener to the album.
Van Der Graaf Generator are a Prog Rock band, started up in Manchester in 1967, and still going strong today, though they did have an amazing quarter of a century hiatus in the eighties and nineties, they brought this album out in 1976, the front cover is of an electrical discharge, i think it's quite good, the small VDGG logo at the top is excellent, there's a lovely symmetry to it all.
Well in listening to this again, it was actually the first two tracks on the album that i liked the best, i listened to the album in random order [3 / 5 / 2 / 4 / 1], so it ended up being the last track i played that was the best of all, a really strong musical statement, here's a synopsis of the track,
1 Pilgrims [7:07] - If you don't know VDGG, then Peter Hammill takes some explaining, his voice is almost operatic, and yet it's not a melodic singing voice, at times it degenerates to almost wailing, it's something to get used to, this is the shortest track on the album at seven minutes!, the lyrics are a little naive, about everyone on the beach holding hands in brotherhood!, it's quite a slow number in the verses, very much organ led, i like the transition to the chorus [1:29-2:17], and when the chorus hits it goes up several notches [2:17-3:18], there's real passion in his voice, the second verse is stronger than the first, and the second transition has a greater sense of surprise, the second chorus is a gem [4:42-5:42], VDGG build up the song nicely, that it gets better and better, plus there's the most loveliest surprise at the end, a sort of third chorus, except it's only instrumental [5:45-7:07], and without any vocalist, this is where they play their hearts out, and especially David Jackson who hasn't done a lot, comes to the fore with his saxophone, it's a tour de force, it's a wonder why so many other bands don't use this brilliant technique, it's a fantastic opener to the album.
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