When did u not only "get", but actually love VDGG?

I remember listening to my father's friend's CD collection and discovering Godbluff mere months after falling in love with 70's Genesis and 70's King Crimson (I was 15-16 yrs old). From that record only "Arrow" touched my heart, but more VDGG CDs followed, and there was at least one song I'd like from each album - "Darkness 11/11", "Necromancer', "Still Life", etc.

And then in coupla years it sorta clicked for the first time - I remember it was a remarkably cold winter, I was sitting on a sofa wrapped in several blanket in one corner of the room, and my audio system was playing World Record (I burned myself a CD-R copy just in case) in another corner, and it felt too dark and disturbing to me at that moment. But it was too cold to unwrap myself and go change the CD, so I was just sitting there listening, and gradually finding this music to be more and more appropriate to the situation, ahah.

But then it clicked for real ten years ago, after I watched that Godbluff live on YouTube. It dawned on me that they're basically a singer/songwriter+jazz trio combo They were never Symphonic Prog or whatever, so I just learned to love them for what they were really good at - actual SONGS. Then I found the VDGG book on eBay, then I started digging into PH discography (listened to ALL his stuff in recent years, early 80s is my favourite era), then I named my band's album after their song, hehe... I'm a fan

^ I've got to be honest and say Van der Graaf Generator's "Present" (2005) album is one of the worst prog albums I've ever heard. For instance, have a listen to this discordant mess on the first track on Disc Two.....

Psychedelic Paul wrote: ^ I've got to be honest and say Van der Graaf Generator's "Present" (2005) album is one of the worst prog albums I've ever heard. For instance, have a listen to this discordant mess on the first track on Disc Two.....   Van der Graaf Generator - Vulcan Meld   [ VIDEO REMOVED ]

Edited by I prophesy disaster - November 18 2020 at 05:03

Cristi wrote: Psychedelic Paul wrote: ^ I've got to be honest and say Van der Graaf Generator's "Present" (2005) album is one of the worst prog albums I've ever heard. For instance, have a listen to this discordant mess on the first track on Disc Two.....   Van der Graaf Generator - Vulcan Meld   I don't think "discordant" is the word there, but "dissonant". It would make sense.

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - November 18 2020 at 05:20

Lewian wrote: micky wrote: like Doc.. I get them..  the way only a few truly have but can't love them.. no f**king way... they were the fathers of mediocre prog..   prog for prog's sake..  where the trapping of prog were substituted for talent and creativity.. and thus cursing the whole genre of prog from thereafter haha You didn't listen to them enough I'm afraid. I'm prescribing 3h of VDGG every day for the next five years. If you don't love them by then, increase the dosage to 5h. You may think you get them, but this way they will get you!

^ You know that whole area is strange..

Circa 1985 when I was sixteen. I got Godbluff on vinyl and it rewired my brain.

Mascodagama wrote: Circa 1985 when I was sixteen. I got Godbluff on vinyl and it rewired my brain.

Frenetic Zetetic wrote: Mascodagama wrote: Circa 1985 when I was sixteen. I got Godbluff on vinyl and it rewired my brain. That's a unique time period to discover VDGG, IMO! Everyone else was probably blasting Flock of Seagulls and here you are diving deep LOL .

I had to be into stuff nobody else liked - perverse moody teenager that I was. Prog was fairly good for that. Even the other members of the tiny prog clique at my school (...there were three of us...) didn't really dig VdGG, so I knew I was onto a winner. Plus it probably goes without saying that I was a doomed poet living in a meaningless world of fools, so I related to Peter Hammill straight away. 

Edited by Mascodagama - December 06 2020 at 07:09