"Recorded at Trident Studios, London W1 July through September 1971 aided and abetted by Nohjndijcrackycracky."
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Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
Year of Release: 1971
Genre: Progressive Rock
Length: 45:01
Tracks:
1. Lemmings (Including Cog) (11:38)
2. Man-Erg (10:20)
3. A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers (23:04)
a. Eyewitness
b. Pictures/Lighthouse
c. Eyewitness
d. S.H.M.
e. Presence Of The Night
f. Kosmos Tours
g. (Custard's) Last Stand
h. The Clot Thickens
i. Land's End (Sineline)
j. We Go Now
All Lyrics by Peter Hammill.
All music composed by Peter Hammill, except:
"Pictures/Lighthouse" (Banton/Jackson)
"Kosmos Tours" (G. Evens)
"The Clot Thickens" (P. Hammill/Band)
"Land's End (Sineline)" (D. Jackson)
"We Go Now" (Jackson/Banton)
Band Members:
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| Peter Hammill | - | Lead Vocals, Acoustic & Slide Guitar, Electric Piano, Piano
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| Hugh Banton | - | Keyboards, Hammond E&C, Farfisa Professional Organs, Piano, Mellotron, ARP Synthesizer, Bass Pedals, Bass Guitar, Psychedelic Razor, Vocals
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| Guy Evans | - | Drums, Tympani, Percussion, Piano
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| David Jackson | - | Tenor, Alto & Soprano Saxophones and devices, Flute, Vocals, Keyboards, Wind
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Additional Musicians:
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| Robert Fripp | - | Electric Guitar
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Further Credits:
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| Producer | : | John Anthony
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| Engineers | : | Robin Geoffrey Cable
David Hentschel
Ken Scott
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| Tape Operator | : | Mike and Dave C.
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| Brightest Hope | : | Howard
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| Cover | : | Paul Whitehead
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| Photography | : | Keith Morris
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| CD Artwork | : | Mekon
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Buy:
Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
"How to describe it??? How about the existential angst of the darkest Pink Floyd meets the wildest sonic assault of earliest King Crimson with Peter Hammill trying to be the "Hendrix of the voice" on top of it all and singing profound lyrics at that. If that description appeals to you at all, purchase immediately!"
...Thus reads one of the costumer reviews at Amazon.com, and I though the description was just too good not to be quoted here. I think it should be able to give you an idea what this spectacular album is all about.
Where do I begin? Van Der Graaf Generator (VDGG). Oh, how I've come to love this band since I first came in contact with their music less than a year back! As of the moment I've only got two albums by the band (this one and "Godbluff", 1975) and one of Peter Hammill's solo albums ("Nadir's Big Chance", also from 1975) but I can't wait to delve further into the wonderful world of the genious that is Peter Hammill. I actually had a hard time chosing if to feature "Pawn Hearts" or "Godbluff", as both are about equal (while quite different from each other in style) and you truly deserve to have both in your collection.
Now, as you can tell from the track listing, "Pawn Hearts" features only three tracks, all three being quite lengthy, with the epic "A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" taking up the entire second side of the original LP.
To start explaining the music, I can start off by saying that this band (most likely) sounds like nothing you've ever heard before. The guitars do not have a very prominent role in this band's sound, instead it's organs and (more than anything else) saxophones(!) that plays the lead role, while Evans keep it all together with some impressive drum playing.
With that said, the man who makes this album so fantastic is mainly the band leader Peter Hammill. This man has an amazing voice, sometimes sounding a bit like David Bowie, sometimes quite like Rob Halford (ex-Judas Priest), but first and foremost, he sounds like himself, and noone else! In the introductory quote it was said that Hammill was trying to be the "Hendrix of the voice." That one may need some explaining. This expression refers to Hammill having such an amazing, original and impressive style of singing that it can be compared to what Jimi Hendrix did for the way of playing guitar! This, if anything, ought to tell you that band is something really out of the ordinary.
I find it hard to explain how the individual tracks sound, as they are very varied and not very conventional. "Experimental" is a word that come to mind if I am to describe them. I once heard that some person considered VDGG to play "suicide music." I'm not sure what exactly he meant by that. OK, it's dark and quite depressive at times, but still... There might be some little ounche of truth to it though, it's definitely not uplifting music. It's not something you'd put on at a party or such, if you know what I mean. It's probably best suited for being experienced (yes, I use that word, rather than "listened to") in solitude. Alone, lying in your bed in the dark, listening to "Pawn Hearts" with headphones, that can be quite an immense emotional experience...
What about lyrics then? Well, with vocals the way Hammill delivers them, he could sing whatever crap he wanted to, and it still would come across as thoughtful, I guess... However, while not always easy to understand, I think the lyrics for a big part of the album are quite strong and poetic. Perhaps it's all clichés without much meaning behind the words, but I don't want to belive that and instead find parts of the lyrics quite thoughtful. For example we can take the first track, "Lemmings." Amongst all the dark, grim (greasy machinery slides on the rails, young minds and bodies on steel spokes impaled) and depressive (what cause is there left but to die?), there's also a glimmer of light in the end (Cowards are they who run today, the fight is beginning... / death offers no hope, we must grope for the unknown answer / look to yourselves and the stars,yes, and in the end what choice is there left but to live in the hope of saving our children's children's little ones? / What choice is there left but to try?). If I have understood the lyrics for the track correctly, the big picture is about thinking for yourself and not, like lemmings, following the masses into disaster (all that I could see were those that I would dearly love to share with crashing on quite blindly to the sea....) Actually, the entire album ends on a bright note, changing the pessimistic "All things are apart" into "All things are a part" after even admitting that "It doesn't feel so very bad now, I think the end is the start, begin to feel very glad now"
It seems as if when I am to write about an album I really like, I always write too much. This much text is probably too much for anyone to bother to read. Therefor I'll now try to end this edition of "The Webmaster's Pick." Perhaps I should first point out that it's not the most easy album to listen to however. The first few times I listened to it after making the purchase I was very dissapointed. I felt it hadn't much to offer musically. How I could think so is a mystery to me now, however, as I now consider this to be one of the finest albums ever released!
With that said, I hope that You too will eventually get to discover the wonderful music of Van Der Graaf Generator. If you haven't already, today would actually not be a day too early!
// Cristoffer Eriksson. June 15, 2002
AMG Review: The group's third album, and its second most popular — at one time this record was a major Crimson cult item due to the presence of Robert Fripp on guitar, but it has more to offer than that. The opening track, "Lemmings," will call to mind Gentle Giant, with its eerie vocal passages juxtaposed against extended sax, keyboard, and guitar-driven instrumental passages, and the weird keyboard and percussion interlude. Hammill vocalizes in a more traditional way on "Man-Erg," against shimmering organ swells and Guy Evans' very expressive drumming, before the song goes off on a tangent by way of David Jackson's saxes and some really weird time signatures. The monumental "Plague of Lighthouse Keepers," taking up an entire side of the LP, shows the same kind of innovation that characterized King Crimson's first two albums, but without the discipline and restraint needed to make the music manageable — the punning titles of the individual sections of this piece (which may have been done for the same reason that Crimson gave those little subtitles to its early extended tracks, to protect the full royalties for the composer) only add to the confusion. The band was trying for something midway between King Crimson and Genesis, and came out closer to the former, at least instrumentally. Hammill's vocals are impassioned and involving, almost like an acting performance, similar to Peter Gabriel's singing with Genesis, but the lack of any obviously cohesive ideas in the lyrics makes this a very obscure and obtuse work — Bruce Eder (All Music Guide)
