Hammill’s lyrics

I'm a fan of Peter Hammill an VdGG, but I just begin to acre about his lyrics. It seems that theya re pretty nice ! So, I would like to know what songs contains his greatest lyrics, in your opinion. (Especially in his VdGG cd's, and his about eight first solo).

Thanks

meurglysIII wrote: House With No Door; theres just something about the lyrics in it, they're so emotional and wonderful and powerful.  Its so hard to describe.

I absolutely agree with you. it is the penultimate song on heartbreaking loneliness. and when Hammill sings the line "it doesn't seem right when there's that little dark figure running - won't somebody help me?", it always puts tears into my eyes (ok, I'm a woman; we have a reputation for weeping)

So many songs with great lyrics it's difficult to choose just one, but from the earlier albums I've always thought that the lyrics to Refugees are among his best.

I think that Hammill's songs on the late 70s solo albums following Vital contain the best lyrics of his career, the best being The Future Now and A Black Box. The writing on those albums has a focus that some of the earlier albums lack - songs like Fogwalking are almost like an advanced songwriter's masterclass. To take a parallel case from another genre, compare the stripped down 3 stanza songs on Dylan's John Wesley Harding with the sprawling epics on Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61.