![Pawn Hearts [Original recording remastered]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0009F9O6W.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Remastered album includes the bonus tracks 'Theme One' (original version), 'W' (alternate take) and the previously unreleased tracks 'Angle Of Incidents', 'Ponker's Theme' & 'Diminutions'. EMI. 2005.
Pawn Hearts,Van Der Graaf Generator,Blue Plate Caroline,Experimental,Pop,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Rock,Rock/Pop
Pawn Hearts [Original recording remastered]
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Pawn Hearts
Van Der Graaf Generator Manufacturer: Blue Plate Caroline ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
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ASIN: B0009F9O6W Release Date: 2005-06-14 |
Tracks:
- Lemmings (Including Cog)
- Man-Erg
- A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers (Medley)
- Theme One (Original Version)
- W (Alternate Take)
- Angle Of Incidents
- Ponker's Theme
- Diminutions
Album Description
Remastered album includes the bonus tracks 'Theme One' (original version), 'W' (alternate take) and the previously unreleased tracks 'Angle Of Incidents', 'Ponker's Theme' & 'Diminutions'. EMI. 2005.Album Details
Following the Release of the Band's Studio Album `present', the Van Der Graaf Generator Catalogue is Finally Being Remastered (By Peter Hammill). Each Comes with Bonus Tracks, Many of which Are Previously Unreleased and Eagerly Awaited by their Many Fans (Whom Include Graham Coxon, John Lydon, Julian Cope, George Martin and Chilli Peppers Guitarist John Frusciante to Name a Few.)Customer Reviews:
solid.......2007-05-24
I'd say Van Der Graaf Generator is a pretty tough band to get into (unlike Gentle Giant) because their musical ideas are pretty insanely OUT there, not to mention their lead singer is the definition of an acquired taste. More often than not, the guy reminds me of Alice Cooper the way he tries to sound serious and believable, but instead ends up sounding goofy thanks to some of his rather odd vocal reaches. Unlike Cooper though, he's actually singing most of the time instead of talk-singing (the main thing about Alice Cooper that drives me nuts).
But for every time the music rears in an insanely goofy direction, they are quickly taken back to a friendlier and more enjoyable melody. This is basically an album for people who prefer vocal melodies in their progressive rock, instead of lengthy jams and multi-part instrumental pieces and what have you.
Do I prefer vocal melodies over jams? No, not really. But I can't deny, with time and patience, you will find a highly enjoyable listening experience about lighthouses if you give Pawn Hearts an honest chance.
One the VdGG's best....ever!.......2007-04-13
Speechless!.......2006-12-15
The 1st Vah Der Graff !!!!in my heart .......2006-12-14
Damn I was born 10 years too late!}.This was my 1st experience to Van Der Graff. Now, as i write this, I put on the timeless"PAWN HEARTS" once again..All I can say with my WHOLE heart, as a listener, as a musician, and a love of PROGRESSIVE. THIS 'druid', beautiful recording named;"PAWN HEARTS"!?,TRULY!..., is timeless,. Progressive, jazz; >ie{"Would you cry,If I die?{'Plague of Lighthouse Keepers'}.Time changes, a Ballad, a nervous breakdown!!!, almost a DALI'soundtrack '!. music compoised in symphony.
Summary;
PLEASE!!!! If you can appreciate Music creativity ,Harvard, Vivaldi,Kierkregard Genesis,...Just buy it!!! But !...Be open
God Bless
Give it time -- you'll be glad you did.......2006-11-11
I share that little story to encourage you not to write off this album if you, too, don't get it the first time around -- or even the 10th time around! Even by prog-rock standards, it's not easily accessible. It makes some parts of "Tales From Topographic Oceans" seem lightweight by comparison! But stick with it, because eventually, you'll be richly rewarded.
I've heard VdGG's early music referred to as "jagged." That's a pretty good description for a lot of what you'll hear here. There are some light and transcendently beautiful moments, including some absolutely irresistible vocal melodies from Peter Hammill, but most of the record will probably remind you of the harsh, manic, claustrophobic cacophony of King Crimson's "Lizard" album, with all of its demented jazziness, twittering percussion, and honking woodwinds. Add in some prominent keyboard work that calls to mind both Deep Purple (the heavy, grinding organ work) and McDonald & Giles (no joke -- you'll hear swatches on here that call to mind the "Suite in C" piano and the "Birdman" organ), and you've got a fairly good handle on what to expect.
I know that Peter Hammill is a rather polarizing artist. Me? I take his voice as just another very quirky instrument in an already bizarre band. And I simply can't imagine this music without his voice over the top of it. But are the lyrics really the profoundly penetrating blasts of human-condition poetry that Hammill's hardcore fans say they are? Well, I can say that I do find a certain level of genuine emotional depth here that I don't hear in a lot of other prog bands from this era. Ian Anderson was sarcastic and cynical; Peter Gabriel was spinning Victorian fantasies; Jon Anderson was lost in the mystical ether; Peter Sinfield was a flower child. Hammill, meanwhile, was certainly earnest and serious about what he had to say, and he seemed to focus more on existential Everyman concerns -- rather like Roger Waters, but not as acerbic, and certainly more varied than Waters' well-worn themes of madness and war. Where Waters seemed to draw from Syd Barrett and his father's death as lyrical reference points over and over, Hammill isn't so insular -- the entire human race and its trials and tribulations are the canvas on which he paints. And he does it all in a theatrical, nearly operatic delivery, with his voice sliding seamlessly from piercing choir-boy heights to exasperated growls and lots of unpredictable points in between. He has a very pronounced and distinctive vibrato, a polished falsetto that only Freddie Mercury could rival in the world of rock, and an unbelievable amount of control over his delivery. You'd expect a few clinkers with these kinds of vocal acrobatics, but he seems to hit the notes perfectly every time. Even more intriguing, there are a few points near the end of "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" where he strongly conjures up the stylings of David Bowie and "After the Gold Rush"-era Neil Young. Pretty amazing.
There's not a weak track among the three here. "Lighthouse Keepers" will probably take you the longest to penetrate, just because there's so much going on. Sometimes, the music seems to be on the verge of flying out of control, and before you know it, it's been reined back in and ready to fly off somwhere else. The whole thing pretty much teeters on the edge of chaos. To top off the perversity of it all, the piece builds up at the end rather majestically en route to a musical resolution, to give us a much-needed release from our 23-minute journey, but instead of the resolving chord your ears expect, the band goes slightly off-kilter at the very last minute. Jarring and jagged, just like the rest of this incredible album. You never know what to expect next; the music keeps messing with your expectations. That's a good indication that we're dealing with some masterful and very brave musicians here. Had this band received more popular acclaim in its day, it might not have been as willing -- or able -- to take so many musical chances. So maybe its relative obscurity was a blessing in disguise -- it meant the band never had to compromise what it did. And that was to every listener's benefit.
Whatever you do, get this remastered version of the CD. The bonus tracks are so-so, but the three songs that make up the original album sound light-years better than they did on the Caroline disc. This version brings out lots and lots of nuances that were hidden before -- luscious details that make this music all the more deep, rich, challenging, and ultimately very satisfying.
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Pawn Hearts
Van Der Graaf Generator Manufacturer: EMI Japan ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General
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ASIN: B0009OAVHY Release Date: 2005-08-01 |
Tracks:
- Lemmings (Including Cog)
- Man-Erg
- Plague of Lighthouse Keepers (Medley)
- Theme One [Original Version]
- W
- Angle of Incidents
- Ponker's Theme
- Diminutions
Album Description
Japanese pressing of the 1971 album has been remastered and features the 3 original tracks plus 5 bonus tracks 'Theme One' (original version previously unreleased), 'W' (alternate take), 'Angle of Incidents' (previously unreleased), 'Ponker's Theme' (previously unreleased) & 'Diminutions' (previously unreleased) packaged in a paper sleeve. Virgin. 2005.Album Details
24bit Digitally Remastered Japanese Limited Edition Issue of the 1970 Album Classic in a Deluxe, Miniaturized LP Sleeve Replica of the Original Vinyl Album Artwork. This EMI Reissue Comes with Five Bonus Tracks: "Theme One (Original Version)" and "w (Alternate Take)", "Angle of Incidents", "Ponker's Theme" and "Dimunitions". Following the Release of the Band's 2005 Studio Album "Present", the Van Der Graaf Generator Catalog was Remastered by Peter Hammill.Customer Reviews:
one of the best prog rock albums of all time.......2006-02-17
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Pawn Hearts
Van Der Graaf Generator Manufacturer: Caroline ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General
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Progressive Rock
| Progressive
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ASIN: B000000HTM Release Date: 1992-01-31 |
Tracks:
- Lemmings (Including Cog)
- Man-Erg
- A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers: A. Eyewitness...
Customer Reviews:
perfect, but shhh! don't tell anyone..........2007-07-18
The album is the most original and complex material ever released by any rock band, even when it only has 3 tracks (apart from Theme One), it shows every aspect of mature sounds that could ever be released; it assimilates the greatest content of progressive rock, applying the most changing musical pattern in a cd that I've ever heard, the most stunning musical performance, the best mellodies applied by the band and the most strange and difficult to follow moods in a rock album. A MUST for every prog fan and every one who search incredible complexity and rythm combined. The album was released in 1971, but even though the critics were very impressed, the album went largely unnoticed for the charts, which demonstrate that Peter Hammill and his bandmates learned quickly from the big errors made in The Aerosol Gray Machine and the little mistakes made in both clever The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other and H To He, Who Am The Only One.
Within the tracks, every song is unique and perfect; they seemed to go from more simple rythms from the first track to completely changing and complex rythms to the last track:
1. Lemmings: a severe introduction to the masterpiece, wich is very mellodic and more comprehensible with a balanced level of complexity; quiet and suddenly hard moods dominate the song.
2. Man Erg: a classic among classics from VDGG, possibly the band's most remembered song, wich suits with majesty in the album and is a fearfully composed track that starts with a calm piano and a simple fragment sang by Hammill, suddenly interrupted by Banton's heavy organ and Jackson's saxophone, and this two moods combine eventually among the song.
3. A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers: perfect, just perfect, the greatest rock song ever composed; its 23 minutes long, so you can enjoy it for a while, and its so complex and difficult, switching from an instruments full performance to a single instrument, changing the mellodies eventually among the track, like if they were many songs together, and Hammill's neurotic voice gives the song the perfect frenetic touch.
The artists' performances are in the top of all their other albums. Peter Hammill's voice is neurotic and impressive as always. Banton's organ is played fiercefully and potent, a performance that leaves a trace of great originality. Jackson's saxophones are delicatelly played and gives a smooth sound to the album. Evans' drums are played very hard, for me he is one of the greatest drummers in the world and he shows that not only on this album, in every VDGG album. Pawn Hearts even includes guitar legend King Crimson front man Robert Fripp playing the electric guitar!
Well in conclussion Pawn Hearts is among the most exclusive and mature compositions in the world, stays as the best VDGG album ever released and keeps a unique sense of music. As I said before, a MUST.
Best Kept Secret in Prog.......2005-08-02
I agree that this may not be the best "starter" album for someone new to Van Der Graaf. For that I would recommend "The Least we Can Do..." which features (among other things) the beautiful by any standard "Refugees" as well as the opening track, "Darkness 11/11" (Peter Hammill's birthday, by the way), an excellent 6-minute precis of what the band is all about.
Even if you find "The Least we Can Do" tantalizing, "Pawn Hearts" may still not work for you. It is indeed jagged, raw, dissonant and jarring. You may not like it at all at first; stick with it--in time it will reveal itself as one of the most profound rock albums EVER--I agree totally with a previous reviewer's ranking in the all-time prog top 10. This is a work of intense depth and perception, and Hamill's lyrics & songwriting are in absolutely top form. I especially want to express my own fierce admiration for "Man-Erg"-musically, lyrically and emotively one of the most powerful cries of existential pondering ever! The stately vocal/piano intro "falls off the cliff" into an inferno of blasting staccato sax, to be overlaid with Hammill's throat-ripping screams, "how can I be free? How can I get help? Am I really me? Am I someone else?" This section yields to a less urgent midsection highlighting Banton's organ, Peter's less frantic but no less intense wordplay, concluding with some beautifully melodious saxaphone flourishes by Dave Jackson (with restrained ornamental riffing by that Fripp guy on electric guitar). All of which eases us back to an even more dignified restatement of the opening verse, this time opened up on the back end to another berserk crescendo of voice and band jacking it up to 11 for a thunderous close. Lyrically, it's all about exploring the nature of the human condition--"A killer lives inside me, I can feel him move..." It's all subjective of course, but to my ears no one has ever captured the riddle of living so succinctly as Peter Hammill did in this song. Does it provide answers? No, of course not--but in the act of articulating a sense of humanity I'd never felt captured before, Hammill surely enriched my life in a way that still moves me. This is not just a pop song, it's art.
I too lament the absence of "Theme One" from all CD editions of this recording. This was one of the few times the American LP was better than the import--the US version dropped "Theme One" between track 1 (Lemmings) and track 2 (Man-Erg), and gave the whole album a shot in the arm. Yes, it was written by the Beatles' George Martin, but it's a kick-ass instrumental number with sinew & muscle to spare. The band really shows some swagger that very few of Hammill's compositions allowed (well, perhaps until "Godbluff," anyway). I should also briefly mention that another "little" song, the INCREDIBLE song "W" was also recorded at this time, and we can only hope that some future CD reissue will gather all these tracks in one package.
"Pawn Hearts" may never find a wide audience, but those of us "on the inside" recognize just what a pinnacle it is. The word "Masterpiece" has been debased badly by overuse, but I can think of no better title to bestow. Five supernova stars.
Teters on the Top of a high mountain, almost falls.......2005-05-07
I love it; it is something you have to grow to appreciate though. The catchy themes from past times are gone, and it's almost entirely based on atmosphere and that contrast between beauty and ugliness. I believe that A Plauge is one of the best side longs in all of prog. It flows close to perfectly. The other two tracks have sections that are wonderful, others that are not. If you enjoy this album, you'll enjoy the rest of the band's albums. This is their hardest to get into, but it is worth it, i believe.
Responding to Sponge Lover.......2005-04-18
Dense, Colorfully Psychedelic, Terrifying and BRILLIANT!!.......2005-03-16
From start to finish, this is a wild roller-coaster rid e through the depths of the human psyche that many times we're afraid to confront. What's even more striking, in addition to Peter Hammill's unique lyric writing (very deep and oblique at times, informed by science, religion, sci-fi, horror etc), these things are just as much vividly painted by the musicians themselves.
"Lemmings (including Cogs)" looks headlong at society gone mad and losing touch with its very humanity and opting for machine-like precision and logic as opposed to compassion. Hammill provides the disturbing narrative as Guy Evan's jazz-informed drumming goads it along. Organist/electronics tinkerer Hugh Banton provides appropriately gothic and alternately mysterious atmospheres as saxophonist David Jackson screams out what words cannot.
"Man-Erg" - A deceptively rousing song (at the outset) where the protaganist tries to discern who they actually are, looking for identity from within and without and going mad in the process. A pounding, manic middle section just emphasises the struggle all the more.
"Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" - The discs' magnum opus, taken at face value, it seems to be the tale of a lonely lighthouse keeper going mad from the isolation and confronting his own inner demons. Musically, the band pulls out all the stops with one twist and turn after another (it is reputed they NEVER played this live because of the difficulty involved in recreating many of the sounds and making the thorny transitions between segments). Beginning with a stark echoed electric piano, Hammill parts the curtain for our frightening tale which slowly builds momentum as he goes from thoughtful musing to manic screams. David Jackson has a field day doing his own unique take on foghorns and seagulls, as Guy Evans handles the chugging passing boats and Hugh BAnton provides the mysterious moonlit and fog-shrouded scenery. From there, the tension mounts as Hammill takes us on a wild ride through the mouth of madness and finally ends with either the protaganist having lost it completely or finding hope, not sure which to be honest. A harrowing but very thrilling musical ride if ever there was one.
The recording quality is a bit echo-drenched at times and sounding a bit of its time (1971) but despite that, has a certain charm to it you wouldn't want removed.
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