Van Der Graaf Generator

electricsilence wrote: Pawn Hearts first two songs are amongst the best music ever written IMHO.

You have my vote on this too. Lemmings is incredibly well written. Specially the end. Superb. Hammil was born to perform that song.

My first VDGG album was First Generation, it was a great starting point for me. Here's the tracklist:

1. Darkness (11/11)
2. Killer
3. Man Erg
4. Theme One
5. Pioneers Over C
6. A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
7. Refugees

I'd also recommend I Prophesy Disaster for tracks from a wider range of albums:

1. Afterwards
2. Necromancer
3. Refugees
4. The Boat of Millions of Years
5. Lemmings (including Cog)
6. W
7. Arrow
8. La Rossa
9. Ship of Fools
10. Medley (Parts of "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" and "The Sleepwalkers")

These two compilations include all three tracks from Pawn Hearts.

Pawn Hearts is a must have and this should be your first. I listen to it every night when I go to bed on repeat, Phenomenal album!

First i borrowed Pawn Hearts, couldn't possibly get into it.

sean wrote: Bj-1 wrote: Pawn Hearts was my first VDGG album and it clicked right away, it's one of my favorite albums!   It's their darkest and most avant-garde album so it's a pretty difficult listen. Godbluff and H to He are generally better starting points, IMO. But if you can handle Pawn Hearts well, then go ahead and buy their other albums as well     I think it being the darkest and most avant-garde was why i was liking man-erg so much, although i really liked all the other samples, particularly childlike faith in childhood's end.

Still Life is also not a bad starting point, i started with that one and it remains one of the albums which has impressed me the most, it's simply a masterpiece. Lyrics are the best Peter created in VDGG, and Childlike faith is such a bombastically emotional song! Love it to bits, and Pilgrims is almost as powerful, as is La Rossa..
If you start with second era (in my opinion, the best of the two), Still Life is better than Godbluff. If only because it is almost 10 minutes longer :)

It would be a tossup between H to He and Godbluff for me. Pawn Hearts pushed the limits too far for me and I'm not sure everyone in the band thought 'Plague' was such a good idea. If you want to see what I mean look for the Godbluff DVD - another good place to start especially if you have a netflix/bb subscription - and see Peter toasting the camera with his glass of red wine and a knowing grin on his face........

There are two really good comprehensive review pages on VDGG that have a POV from the wider, not necessarily prog, music scene:

http://starling.rinet.ru/music/vander.htm
http://www.johnmcferrinmusicreviews.org/vdgg.htm

[who said first posts have to be painful?]

I'm still not so sure on their liking 'Plague.' I mean they could have included a live version on Real Time if they wanted, especially since the live version on Vital was part of a medley.

All I know is that for me at least 'Plague' is not to VDGG what 'Supper's Ready' is to Genesis, who did by the way include a live version of the latter in their boxset.

Having just listened to H to He again just solidifies my position as that being their best work. It's got great vocal performances, personal lyrics, and some damn fine hooks. Something like 'Lost' really packs an emotional punch. If it wasn't for Pioneers over C it would be in my top 3 prog albums.

A B Negative, you're correct.

I love Lost almost as much though, it's going to be my break-up song ad naueum, if I ever break-up with my girlfriend.

Let's hope that isn't the case.

Still Life is my favourite album though, it's perfect.  Some people say the drumming isn't as good as earlier albums, but I disagree.  The drumming is different for a reason, the music is stripped-down, slower and less-bombastic and therefore often more depressing.  The bombastic drumming from Plague isn't required on a song like Still Life, or Pilgrims really (although there are moments, of course).

Guy Evans still has it as a drummer.

They also rarely touched their earlier material from The Aerosol Grey Machine, but when they did, oh my did it sound good!  Squid 1/Squid 2/Octopus is a perfect example of that.

Other tracks they didn't play that often live (correct me if I'm wrong), were White Hammer, Lost and W (although they played them in Brescia in 1972, I know - they also played Aquarian there too, at the end of the gig, which is odd, but very intriguing), but not for any reasons like for Plague I don't believe, but probably because they weren't favourable tracks for the band at the time.

I don't think they ever did a live version of Whatever Would Robert Have Said? either, but that maybe due to a lack of Bob Fripp... the run-through bonus version without Fripp sounds weak in comparison.

Jim,

Oops, yes, I meant "Emperor in his War Room" my mistake.

"Whatever Would Robert Have Said?" did indeed have Nic Potter playing on it, but not on bass, as he usually did for VdGG, but on electric guitar.  He makes a great job of it in my opinion, even though I've read that was the first time he'd ever picked up an electric guitar.

Ah, well I haven't seen many setlists from back in the early '70s, but have heard the Brescia tape (although "German Overalls" doesn't appear on it, even though Hammill mentions it...) and was presently surprised to hear "White Hammer" and "Lost", because they're two of my favourites.

Aquarian was a great surprise though.  Another track I would have liked to have heard live was Orthenthian Street, but I don't think they ever did that one (again, correct me if I'm wrong).

Yes, I've seen and heard the Beat Club version of "Whatever Would Robert Have Said?".