Thursday 15 November 2012

Killer (Van Der Graaf Generator, 1970)

How strange this song was to me the first time I listened to it! Based on warm and rough sax riffs, a pulsing bass guitar and keyboard waves swarming around, the track features an intense vocal performance by Peter Hammill, the prince of sorrow singing his despair. The lyrics are very strong: the song is about a strange and murderous fish (the "killer") living in the deepest waters, destined to live alone ad feared by anyone else. Solitude, pain, darkness: these will be the trademarks of VDGG career and find here one of their greatest moments.

VDGG in the early '70s

Prog rock makes miracles. Even if the "killer" is a vicious predator, the listener ends up being sorry for him and recognising in the murder's life a bit of our common destiny. Cheer up!
 

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