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Frenetic Zetetic View Drop Down
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    Posted: February 11 2020 at 11:45


I've been on a massive H to HE kick this week. I've always enjoyed it, but totally forgot about the poll thread I started last year. It's amazing to see how little love the final two tracks get; they are some of the most catchy and prog on the album for me! This record is ahead of its time for me. Very Earthy, organic production. I need to do a thorough review. This one's resonating strongly this winter!

What are your honest thoughts on this classic piece of progressive rock? I love everything about the production, songwriting, themes and feel. Lost and Pioneer Over C truly are pioneering tracks for me, given this came out in 1970. KC was still gearing up and Yes were barely getting started with Fragile material. 

Discuss!!!

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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My introduction to VdGG...on a long bus ride back home after a trip to the Métropole. Love at 1st hearing (repeat mode on the discman) and still a favorite after all these years.
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One of the "holy" trio of VdGG for me alongside The Least We Can Do... and Pawn Hearts. I like it a great deal. "House with No Door" was my introduction to VdGG, soon heard "Killer" which was killer, and then got the album (my first to get by VdGG).
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Hard to get into, but rewarding in the long term. Not for VdGG starters. 
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Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

Hard to get into, but rewarding in the long term. Not for VdGG starters. 


Personally, I've found it to be one of the more accessible VdGG albums that I've listened to. Accessible if you're coming at it from the perspective of a classic prog fan, that is.
My prog band - Boreal Kinship
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Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

Hard to get into, but rewarding in the long term. Not for VdGG starters. 
 
I got into H to He straightaway after hearing it for the first time on Christmas Day, but it's a good thing I didn't start with the Pawn Hearts album, or that might have put me off Van der Graaf Generator for life. Smile
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Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

Hard to get into, but rewarding in the long term. Not for VdGG starters. 


That's a broad generalisation, which seems bit odd considering the two posts that came before yours. Both Barbu and I (the only two respondents at the time) had both stated that it was our introduction and it worked for us. Love at first hearing Barbu said, and it was the same for me. What should we have started with would you think?

I guess The Least We Can do might have been just as good a starting point for me. The post Pawn Hearts ones proved rather more challenging for me.

Edited by Logan - February 11 2020 at 15:45
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Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

Hard to get into, but rewarding in the long term.
Not for VdGG starters. 

Bien au contraire...The Least We Can Do, H to He and Still Life are the sole three i would recommend to a VdGG newbie, in that order.
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Originally posted by Barbu Barbu wrote:

Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

Hard to get into, but rewarding in the long term.
Not for VdGG starters. 

Bien au contraire...The Least We Can Do, H to He and Still Life are the sole three i would recommend to a VdGG newbie, in that order.
 
The least I can do is say I totally agree with you, because that's the same order I listened to those albums in as a VDGG newbie. Smile
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I love this thread! You've got me listening to the album as I write this!
 
"Killer" was the key for me getting into VDGG/Hammill (though it is now one of my least favorite songs on the album--the other songs have all grown in my esteem)--after YEARS of trying.

I finally picked up H to He a half dozen years ago and I was sold, I became a fan. (There is a lot of commonality with this album with a lot of the stuff coming out of the RPI scene within the next three-four years.) And, yes! Side two is amazing: "Pioneers over C" is my absolute favorite song of theirs! Even though the "Lost" suite used to be my "least" favorite song on the album, it has grown on me to become a favorite: it has so many memorable riffs and motifs and now earns 18 or 19 points out of 20 on my personal rating system. 

I hear so much in this album that predates so much in prog: Uriah Heep, Gentle Giant, and so much of the RPI scene had to have been influenced by these songs and all they did in 1970. I suspect that maybe even Bowie and Roxy felt emboldened and empowered to become more sonically experimental by this album and I can only imagine what effect it may have had on Robert Fripp.   


Edited by BrufordFreak - February 11 2020 at 18:48
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Along with Pawn Hearts, one of THEE best albums EVER

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Originally posted by BrufordFreak BrufordFreak wrote:

I love this thread! You've got me listening to the album as I write this!
 
"Killer" was the key for me getting into VDGG/Hammill (though it is now one of my least favorite songs on the album--the other songs have all grown in my esteem)--after YEARS of trying.

I finally picked up H to He a half dozen years ago and I was sold, I became a fan. (There is a lot of commonality with this album with a lot of the stuff coming out of the RPI scene within the next three-four years.) And, yes! Side two is amazing: "Pioneers over C" is my absolute favorite song of theirs! Even though the "Lost" suite used to be my "least" favorite song on the album, it has grown on me to become a favorite: it has so many memorable riffs and motifs and now earns 18 or 19 points out of 20 on my personal rating system. 

I hear so much in this album that predates so much in prog: Uriah Heep, Gentle Giant, and so much of the RPI scene had to have been influenced by these songs and all they did in 1970. I suspect that maybe even Bowie and Roxy felt emboldened and empowered to become more sonically experimental by this album and I can only imagine what effect it may have had on Robert Fripp.   

Yes!!! Predates is a great way to describe it. They were already experimenting with archetypes and sounds that would become prog staples. I always, always come back to H to HE the most out of any VDGG album. I think it's the production and presentation. It's perfect to me!

Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

Hard to get into, but rewarding in the long term. Not for VdGG starters. 

Honestly I can't think of a single good record to start with regarding VDGG; I heard H first, and the vocals immediately threw me off. Pawn Hearts didn't click because I'd rather have heard Genesis or Yes epics at the time. Godbluff was over my head. They are all some of my favorite records now!

I find myself returning to H the most, however.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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It's the VDGG album I've listened to the most and when/if I'm in the mood for them, I usually returm to this album.


Edited by Cristi - February 12 2020 at 01:31
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On some days it is my personal favorite from them. Everything that makes prog good is represented here. 
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Points: 9233 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 12 2020 at 02:17
Originally posted by Man With Hat Man With Hat wrote:

On some days it is my personal favorite from them. Everything that makes prog good is represented here. 

Clap

Agreed! It hits all the right notes, pun fully intended.

The production does it for me big time. "...Crawling over the windowsill...into your...LIVING ROOM..."; when the bass trills during that part = prog orgasm lol.

The whole album just BREATHES.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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Points: 24295 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote someone_else Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 12 2020 at 23:54
Nice to read that some othere here had less problems getting into H to He, but this album took me way more time to get into than Godbluff or Still Life. H to He is my third favorite VdGG album nowadays.
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Points: 1544 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LAM-SGC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 13 2020 at 06:47
Thanks for reminding me about it. Actually the only VDGG i really like. In about 1988 an old head, and a friend, gave me his original vinyl copy, one day out of the blue, he liked the pronky music me and my band were making.
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Points: 4780 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote I prophesy disaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 13 2020 at 10:18
Hydrogen to Helium is my second favourite album (not just VdGG album) after Pawn Hearts. It was the fourth or fifth VdGG album I got (which I got at the same time as Godbluff) after World Record, Pawn Hearts, and The Quiet Zone / The Pleasure Dome. Currently, my favourite track from the album is Lost, although in earlier times, my favourite was Pioneers Over C. My favourite lyric from the album is:
 
Ghosts betray you, ghosts betray you,
in the night they steal your eye from its socket
and the ball hangs fallen on your cheek.
 
from The Emperor in his War-Room. House With No Door is my favourite VdGG ballad. Killer is a great track that makes the album easier to digest, though it pales in comparison to the last three tracks of the album.
 
 
 
No, I know how to behave in the restaurant now, I don't tear at the meat with my hands. If I've become a man of the world somehow, that's not necessarily to say I'm a worldly man.
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If nothing else, always loved the improper English . 


Edited by ProcolWho? - February 13 2020 at 22:37
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Not that improper, it takes 4 Hydrogen to get one Helium (or actually 6, but you get two back). So Peter, who certainly knew this, might have been playing his language skills when using this plural. At least that has always been my thought,

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