FEATURED ALBUM: Van der Graaf Generator - Still Life

[chalkpie]

I must be one of the last prog nerds in the mighty universe to not see the appeal of this band.....

I don't hate them, I just find it a bit too pretentious and overly dramatic, which I admit is odd since I dig Wagner's Ring. Crack a fuckin' joke once in a while, would you Hammill?! Anyway, I still prefer Pawn Hearts to this one.

[gregory]

Crack a fuckin' joke once in a while, would you Hammill?!

He played a lot of jokes - Imperial Zeppelin, Handicap and Equality, etc. Which doesn't mean he owe you a joke in every album. But if you estimate his stuff as "too pretentious", maybe you better listen to Rolling Stones, instead of being tortured by VgGG?

[Chuck AzEee!]

Absolutely, when I saw them in 2008, Still life is the one that broke the concert wide open... Before that, the band was still struggling,and crowd trying to get into it, but not able to.... Then Still Life came.... and right at the end, the place went wild, while being totally stunned all the same) for the rest of the night...



Vic, that (overlooking GB) would be a huge mistake... Just because there aren't 'trons??
(and who cares about synths as well, Graaf never needed them)

I agree with you Hughes. I saw VdGG last year and they played "Still Life" as the closer. STUNNING!

This album has everything great about VdGG, and also everything that might explain why the band never became one of the 'biggies.' First, Banton kills as "the organist," not the "keyboard player" which was so prevelant in the prog of the mid 70's. There's minimal melotron on this album, but it's mostly classic Hammond with those brilliant distorted crunch chords. Because of Banton's approach, this album hasn't aged in the way that Banks, Wakeman, Emerson, et at have with their mega-synth use (I can't even listen to Trick of the Tail or Wind & Wuthering anymore, they just scream 1976; Still Life is outside of time). *But*... if Banton had been more flashy (instead of merely brilliantly clued-in) and there was mega-synth on the VdGG albums, the mainstream prog fans (which were vast in the 70s) might have dug it more. Also, there was no soloing on this album (or very little) and it was tasty, ballsy sax... not guitar or keyboard. Probably too much vocal and not enough solo-ing for many fans. But that just forces you to focus on the genius lyrics, and even if you don't they're so powerfully sung that you get the gist. Finally, Hammill's vocals are pure Hammill. If you "get it" then his approach not only makes sense, but you feel there could have been no other way to sing on these tunes. Most fans, however, are probably turned off by that approach. There's no denying that one major issue that kept VdGG from getting into the international big leagues (aside from being broken up from '72 to '75, when prog really took off) is Hammill's harsh vocalizing. I know so many people who say they like the music a lot, but just can't get into the vocals

Oh Jim, You are always so hard on this band, I often believed that it wasn't beacuse of their chaotic style of playing that kept them being more famous here, but their lack of touring here in the US which doomed them. As we are finding out especially from the likes of your due dilligence, we now know that VdGG is far more beloved by many outside of the "Progressive Rock" realm. We also have to put in the realm that I've never heard anyone mentioned that they played any of their songs on radio during their heydey. Oddly, I heard "A Place To Survive" on WDRE back in the late 80's and I was floored!

[chalkpie]

He played a lot of jokes - Imperial Zeppelin, Handicap and Equality, etc. Which doesn't mean he owe you a joke in every album. But if you estimate his stuff as "too pretentious", maybe you better listen to Rolling Stones, instead of being tortured by VgGG?

Sorry, The Stones bore me.

[strawberrybrick]

I played this album non-stop for about a month when I first got it. The lyrics throughout the album are just mind-bending, some of Hammill's best prose. I still get goose-bumps when I read them.

"One more world lost, one more heaven gained"

http://www.sofasound.com/vdgcds/sllyrics.htm

[Digital_Man]

"H To He" was one of my first introductions to Prog (after Ethos "open Up") and it will always have a soft spot in my heart, so I am definitely biased to it

Interesting that you skipped over the usual Yes, Genesis, KC, ELP, PF stuff and went straight to the more obscure prog bands.


Anyway, at one point I had several VDGG albums including this one. I need to get them again. I really liked Still Life. I've always thought Pawn Hearts was a bit over rated but still very good. This and godbluff are probably their two best imo.

[Sputnik]

I played this last night. Lyrically I do think this is a good one, but musically I find it a bit monotonous. It's consistent, but to me it lacks the really standout moments like I hear on Godbluff, Pawn Hearts and H to He (coincidentally my favorite three VDGG albums). For me, a decent one, but not the masterpiece it is for some.

Bill

[bRETT]

. Crack a fuckin' joke once in a while, would you Hammill?! .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaW6IWMGGSU

[100423]

Crack a fuckin' joke once in a while, would you Hammill?!

Granted Peter's lyrics aren't as light-hearted as Jon's from Gaza, but...

[TheNefariousHED]

This is the first VdGG album I bought. Purchased it in the summer of 1984 during my first weekend in Columbus after graduating from high school. Picked up the vinyl at Magnolia Thunderpussy, still the best-named retail establishment in the world. Other slabs of vinyl purchased that day: REM Reckoning, Echo and the Bunnymen Ocean Rain (I sold both of those this past weekend to a friend from high school), and some Focus compilation.

The VdGG and Focus I picked up based on their biographies in the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock, probably the last time anything associated with that magazine has given me value (in the case of VdGG). I was suckered in by RS's bleating about Banton's "stately sepulchers of Hammond organ," Evans' virtuosic drumming, and Hammill's "terse and existential lyrics." Needless to say, I've been on a 29 year love affair with the music of VdGG and Hammill ever since that day. Still Life ranks just below Pawn Hearts and Godbluff as my Van der Faves like many of you.

Props to Rob and Chad for bringing them over here for their first US show since 1976. I'll never forget talking to Daevid Allen and Stevie Hillside half paying attention because VdGG was sound-checking beyond the wall.

[chalkpie]

Granted Peter's lyrics aren't as light-hearted as Jon's from Gaza, but...

Yeah, but I can't understand what Gaza is saying

[100423]

Yeah, but I can't understand what Gaza is saying

A bonus with most extreme metal vocalists!

[chalkpie]

A bonus with most extreme metal vocalists!

Exactly! That's why I love Italian prog so much - can't understand a friggin' word

[chalkpie]

Don't get me wrong, I do dig this band to some capacity, but I can't say they make the top 20 of my favorite bands from the UK. Cardiacs have easily entered the top 10 and quite possibly the top 5. Another top 5 group is advertised in my avatar.

Fitter Stoke

[rottersclub]

Where's my royalty cheque, you poacher?

[chalkpie]

Where's my royalty cheque, you poacher?

Hey - mines the remaster! I didn't know you had it, although you'd be a fuckin' whackjob if you didn't. I can change mine if you want, maybe to some hot porno star? It is quite possibly my favorite album ever, topping many FZ albums, which is scary. Only Aymeric would be in the running on liking it as much as we do......maybe

[Vic2012]

Originally Posted by JIF
From start to finish, this is a masterpiece!! It was my first VDGG CD purchase(before the remasters came out). I'm baffled why Z. Woof doesn't like it. It's beautiful, powerful, intense, and dramatic. All ingredients that make this band great. I don't think I'll be getting Godbluff. Seems like a step down to me. Why reduce the keyboard instruments to just organ, piano, and clavinet? Some of my fave works by these guys featured organs, pianos, synths, and trons.

Then Trane replies:

Vic, that (overlooking GB) would be a huge mistake... Just because there aren't 'trons??
(and who cares about synths as well, Graaf never needed them)

What are you talking about Trane? I didn't make that post. I think you confused me with someone else (Jif or Woof, or whoever). I'm fine with Banton's organ playing. I'll take Hammond over any other keys in prog/rock. As far as PH's guitar playing, I'm only judging it by what I've heard on the VDGG albums I have. He's not horrible, he doesn't suck, but he's not "brilliant." I dig his singing though. I don't love his singing but I think his singing is at least 25 percent of the VDGG sound. I think you have to have a sense of humor to really appreciate his singing. Believe me, I doubt I'd own 5 VDGG albums if I didn't really like them.

[JIF]

It might. If it does, it's used for effect rather than melody or soloing.



World Record has guitar on nearly every track including his first real guitar solo in VdGG. There's also a lot on the one VdG album and the trio albums. Plus there are forty plus solo albums by which one can judge PH's guitar ability.

Oh. I only have The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other, Pawn Hearts, and Still Life.

[Trane]

What are you talking about Trane? I didn't make that post. I think you confused me with someone else (Jif or Woof, or whoever). I'm fine with Banton's organ playing. I'll take Hammond over any other keys in prog/rock. As far as PH's guitar playing, I'm only judging it by what I've heard on the VDGG albums I have. He's not horrible, he doesn't suck, but he's not "brilliant." I dig his singing though. I don't love his singing but I think his singing is at least 25 percent of the VDGG sound. I think you have to have a sense of humor to really appreciate his singing. Believe me, I doubt I'd own 5 VDGG albums if I didn't really like them.

My bad, Vic , it was Jif I meant to talk too (any chance Jif is a Victor too ?)

[Vic2012]

My bad, Vic , it was Jif I meant to talk too (any chance Jif is a Victor too ?)

[JIF]

My bad, Vic , it was Jif I meant to talk too (any chance Jif is a Victor too ?)

Not unless my parents lied to me.

[JAMOOL]

He played a lot of jokes - Imperial Zeppelin, Handicap and Equality, etc. Which doesn't mean he owe you a joke in every album. But if you estimate his stuff as "too pretentious", maybe you better listen to Rolling Stones, instead of being tortured by VgGG?

I wondered about Handicap and Equality. Why would someone write that song?

Maybe you guys don't think he has a sense of humor, but I have cracked up listening to his music. The over the top drama kills me sometimes.

[rottersclub]

Hey - mines the remaster! I didn't know you had it, although you'd be a fuckin' whackjob if you didn't. I can change mine if you want, maybe to some hot porno star? It is quite possibly my favorite album ever, topping many FZ albums, which is scary. Only Aymeric would be in the running on liking it as much as we do......maybe

It's cool - strength in numbers and all that.

[alanterrill]

I wondered about Handicap and Equality. Why would someone write that song?

Maybe you guys don't think he has a sense of humor, but I have cracked up listening to his music. The over the top drama kills me sometimes.

Handicap and Equality is not a joke -its one of the most serious and direct songs he's done. I find it almost unlistenable because it is so painfully direct and doesn't have much else other than the words to deflect the attention. I don't know what the story behind it was - maybe he knew someone with a seriously disabled child or maybe a society that deals with disability asked him to write a song for something they were doing, but its certainly an earnest, no metaphors here sort of song. For those that don't know it -here's the first verse:

All men are born equal at the moment they arrive:
check the limbs and senses we require to survive.
But some come deaf and dumb and blinded,
some have damage to their brains;
parents constantly reminded that they'll never play
the normal children's games.
They may not be normal,
but they're people just the same.

I can't see how anyone could interpret that as a 'joke' song.

Alan

[strawberrybrick]

From sofasound:

""Handicap & Equality" is almost a folk song and its sentiments are fairly clear. Sonically it's notable for my "cha-cha in the living-room" organ...definitely not a Hammond!"