New Peter Hammill album: "All that might have been"

The 2014 album of Peter Hammill is out
"All that might have been" on 3 cds and vinyl

The Best Songs in the World #39 . Peter Hammill, "The Comet, The Course, The Tail"

I will continue to dig in the dust to bring to the light forgotten and invaluable gems, be assured.

This time it is the operatic singer and composer of Van Der Graaf (Generator) from its 1974 album, "In Camera", with a powerful and disturbing lyric.



They say we are endowed with Free Will -*
At least that justifies our need for indecision.
But between our insticts and the lust to kill
We bow our heads in submission.
They say that no man is an island
But then they say our castles are our homes;
It's felt the choice is ours, between peace and violence...
Oh, yes, we choose, alone?

While the comet spreads its tail across the sky
It nowhere near defines the course it flies,
Nor does it find its own direction.

Though the path of the comet be sure,
Its constitution is not
So its meaning is possibly more
Than the tracing of a tail
In one brief shot at glory.

Love and peace and individuality,
So order and society are man-made?
War and hate and dark depravity,
Or are we slaves?
Channeling aggressive energies,
The Death Wish and the Will to survive,
Into finding and preserving enemies,
Is that the only way we know that we're alive?

In the slaughterhouse all corpses smell the same,
Whether queens or pawns or innocents at the game;
In the cemetery a uniform cloaks the graves
Except for outward pomp and circumstance.

There is a time set in the calendar
When all reason seems barely enough
To sustain all the shooting stars:
Times are rough.
I'm waiting for something to happen here,
It feels as though it's long overdue...
Maybe a restatement of yesteryear
Or something entirely new.

And the knowledge that we gain in part
Always leads us closer to the very start,
And to the founding questions:
How can I tell that the road signed to hell
Doesn't lead up to heaven?
What can I say when, in some obscure way,
I am my own direction?

The Best Songs In the World #32 - Peter Hammill - " The Comet, the course, the tail"

I may be partial to this guy, although I have seen play drunk this year in Gouveia Art Rock. But he grows everytime I listen to him. He is a force of nature, and I pity you if you never listened to his solo work! This one is from In Camera, 1974.

When I started this very personal series of the greatest songs in the world, I never said it would be easy. That's why I like it.



They say we are endowed with Free Will -*
At least that justifies our need for indecision.
But between our insticts and the lust to kill
We bow our heads in submission.
They say that no man is an island
But then they say our castles are our homes;
It's felt the choice is ours, between peace and violence...
Oh, yes, we choose, alone?

While the comet spreads its tail across the sky
It nowhere near defines the course it flies,
Nor does it find its own direction.

Though the path of the comet be sure,
Its constitution is not
So its meaning is possibly more
Than the tracing of a tail
In one brief shot at glory.

Love and peace and individuality,
So order and society are man-made?
War and hate and dark depravity,
Or are we slaves?
Channeling aggressive energies,
The Death Wish and the Will to survive,
Into finding and preserving enemies,
Is that the only way we know that we're alive?

In the slaughterhouse all corpses smell the same,
Whether queens or pawns or innocents at the game;
In the cemetery a uniform cloaks the graves
Except for outward pomp and circumstance.

There is a time set in the calendar
When all reason seems barely enough
To sustain all the shooting stars:
Times are rough.
I'm waiting for something to happen here,
It feels as though it's long overdue...
Maybe a restatement of yesteryear
Or something entirely new.

And the knowledge that we gain in part
Always leads us closer to the very start,
And to the founding questions:
How can I tell that the road signed to hell
Doesn't lead up to heaven?
What can I say when, in some obscure way,
I am my own direction?
Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/peter-hammill/the-comet-the-course-the-tail-lyrics/#lvlVB32j0gdsJbdD.99

The Best Songs In the World #31 - Van Der Graaf - "House With No Doors"

Sorry, guys and girls, back to 1970. This one is from the Van Der Graaf's Third Album and considered by many considered one of their finest. Loneliness and Claustrophobia, anyone?

There's a house with no door and I'm living there
At nights it gets so cold and the days are hard to bear inside
There's a house with no roof, so the rain creeps in
Falling through my head as I try to think out time

I don't know you, you say you know me, that may be so
There's so much that I am unsure of
You call my name, but it sounds unreal, I forget how I feel
My body's rejecting the cure

There's a house with no bell, but then nobody calls
I sometimes find it hard to tell if any are alive at all, outside

There's a house with no sound, yes, it's quiet there
There's not much point in words if there's no one to share in time

I've learned my lines, I know them so well, I am ready to tell
Whoever will finally come in

Of the line in my mind that's cold in the night, it doesn't seem right
When there's that little dark figure, running, somebody help me

There's a house with no door, there's no living there
One day it became a wall, well I didn't really care at the time

There's a house with no light, all the windows are sealed
Overtaxed and strained

Now nothing is revealed, but time
I don't know you, you say you know me, that may be so
There's so much that I am unsure of

You call my name, but it sounds unreal, I forget how I feel
My body's rejecting the cure, won't somebody help me

Um tema por dia (1/05/2011)

A esta hora, deve tocar em Gouveia Peter Hammill. Para recordar este resistente e espírito inquieto, lúcido e romântico, um dos seus temas mais belos, do primeiro álbum a solo "Fool's Mate": The Birds.

Um tema por dia (23/03/2011)

O Gouveia Art Rock esgotou pouco tempo depois dos bilhetes terem sido postos à venda.

Ainda não foi desta que lá fomos... (eu e todo o meu plural). Adeus Peter Hammill, Three Friends (banda de ex-Gentle Giant) e Caravan... e os outros. Por aquilo que não verei, algumas imagens de flagelação.

Eis aqui Peter Hammill, que dispensa apresentações, no extase do imediatismo revolucionário. "The Future Now". Esta música é um programa de vida. "Make life more worth than dreams".Ora leiam / vejam:

The Future Now

Here we are, static in the latter half
of the twentieth century
but it might as well be the Middle Ages,
there'll have to be some changes
but how they'll come about foxes me.
I want the future now,
I want to hold it in my hands;
all men equal and unbowed,
I want the promised land.

but that doesn't seem to get any closer,
and Moses has had his day...
the tablets of law are an advertising poster,
civilisation here to stay
and this is progress?
You must be joking!
Me, I'm looking for any kind of hope.
I want the future now,
I want to see it on the screen,
I want to break the bounds
that make our lives so mean.

Oh, blind, blinded, blinding hatred
of race, sex, religion, colour, country and creed,
these scream from the pages of everything I read.
You just bring me oppression and torture,
apartheid, corruption and plague;
you just bring me the rape of the planet
and joke world rights at the Hague.
Oh, someday the Millennium!
But how far is someday away?
I want the future now
I'm young, and it's my right.
I want a reason to be proud.
I want to see the light.
I want the future now,
I want to see it on the screen,
I want to break the bounds:
make life worth more than dreams.