I always took sleepwalking here as a metaphor for the unexamined life. We sleepwalk through life if we don't fully engage. But Hammill like few others can sustain a metaphor so doggedly and completely that it becomes its own reality.
The crazy note Hammill hits in the middle of the phrase "does your body rise in service?" is one of my favorite VDGG moments. There's never been another rock singer who can deliver a philosophical sermon with so much passion and theatricality, a little (maybe more than a little) campy yet deeply sincere and powerful.
Hammill's lyrics and vocals are among the most intense of any writer/singer ever. I saw him live, solo, back in the mid-70's. I can only describe the experience as being like a person who willingly gives themself over to a vampire. He sucked the energy right out of the whole crowd and then gave it right back to us with his performance. The most draining yet rewarding concert I have ever been to. NO ONE does spiritual angst and hope better than Hammill did. He could take one from utter despair to the highest hope for humanity in one song. And he did it over and over again. Blessings.
Back in the day when I was discovering prog I never got into Van Der Graaf Generator. It was somehow too disjointed for me then but is worth listening to again now. It really is amazing how music changes for us at different ages. The strength of Hamill is his intellectualism which I missed completely the first time around. Most of these tracks are first listens for me so my experience is the same as yours. A nice review.
I'm really enjoying (re)discovering VDGG through your ears. This album was my introduction and remains my favorite. My first Hammill solo album was A Black Box, which I highly recommend.
Not a memory of the first time I heard it, but the memory that does come to me is when I was 16 and was asked to DJ for a party my dad organised at his boat club. This album had just come out and I was listening to it over and over so when I set up the tracks to play I included Sleepwalkers between things like Glen Miller, Little Eva and Gerry and the Pacemakers. I thought it would shock the old people (actually they would have been younger than I am now) but I got no reaction to this or anything else I played that night.
First time I heard this it gave me chills and everytime since then it has given me chills. Hammill usually uses metaphor in his songs. On the literal level I grew up with a younger brother who sleepwalked regularly. It was creepy trying to shake him out of it so this really hits home to me on the most literal basic level also. The next album Still Life has a different theme and sound to it. It is a wild philosophical roller coaster with a somewhat more accessible sound. Thanks for staying on schedule with VdGG! Who else but you would talk about lucid dreaming during a review! Stay the best Justin!
Yeah Godbluff is dark, edgy and fiery like a sermon on life, whereas Still Life is mellower, more philosophical and sometimes humorous. I think I rate them both equally. :)
@@vdggmouse9512 Was looking for your usual eloquent comment earlier. Lots of positive feedback and several requests for Still Life. I hope JP stays on the two-week schedule. The "league of their own" comment was pretty cool and deserved. VdGG is really close to a hundred thousand followers on Spotify. That means 40,000 more "young" people have become fans since a couple of years ago. Not bad for such an "underrated" band.
I like to sum up "Still Life" with five sentences, each relating to one of the songs: "Life is a pilgrimage. Butt eternal life would be unbearable. Therefore you have to live for the moment. In the end you will wind up alone and disappointed though. But maybe there is a life after death".
The delight of a well placed cowbell. This is the VDGG song that really resonates with me. Everything is there for a purpose and really flows well. I wonder if Rob Halford is influenced by Hammill. I would think yes.
16:19 - "It's like slipping into something more comfortable. And their comfort is an evil merry-go-round." LOL that's a quote to keep. Wow, I've heard this album once or twice and tbh I didn't care too much for it, believe it or not, but I really enjoyed this. Hmm maybe this album can grow on me. We'll see, it always starts with one song that I like.
My first reaction when I heard it? I already heard some of the older stuff and I loved this song at first listen! One of my favorites and one of the VdGG that you can share with family without having a disbandment ;-)
Thanks! My favorite VDGG song. First heard it in '75 or '76. It raised my heart rate, caught my breath got me moving in my seat. It still affects me physically.
One of VDGG's career very best, and I was mesmerized at first listen (something that rarely happens). About sleepwalking... My elder brother (at the time playing American football) was a serial sleepwalker. One night he stood up in the middle of our room, looked to the right, looked to the left, then ran full speed against the bookshelf. Ever since I made sure that the door window's shutters were firmly sealed - our parents' apartment was at the third floor!
:)>..It's NOT about sleepwalkers. It's about the entities that inhabit your dreams while you sleep... At night, this mindless army, ranks unbroken by dissent, is moved into action and their pace does not relent. In step, with great precision, these dancers of the night advance against the darkness - how implacable their might! Eyes undulled by moon, their arms and legs akimbo, they walk and live, hoping soon to surface from this limbo. Their minds, anticipating the dawn of the day, shall never know what's waiting mere insight away - too far, too soon.
@@godbluffvdgg Hammill delights in using metaphor. I remember an interview with him where he talks about the different meanings most of his early VdGG songs take on. He did leave room for each listener to make their own interpretation. Some of his solo songs are very straightforward.
@@markmaxwell1013 :)...You're right; Hammill is a master with Metaphor. But; his work isn't ambiguous. His metaphors stand out quite clearly...To me, as a fan for over 40 years, his work shouldn't be misinterpreted either; as in the comment I replied to. The meanings in songs like this are too profound to be ignored in their essences....
I've heard very little of VDGG, but I liked this. I kind of felt like I was hearing music from a play, like Sweeney Todd, or Les Miserables, or heck any play for that matter, lol. The music was just so darn interesting and his voice is very theatrical, I think. You gotta give them all the credit in the world for not sounding like just another rock group. Just very interesting and different music.
" To sleep, perchance to dream?" Perhaps you may walk about and scream! Maybe take a midnight trip,you wont remember to get ice cream. In any case keep up this progressive musical scene. Peace
Hey man, thanks for covering my absolute favorite song by VdGG. An absolute masterpiece in my book. Won't go into detail with you about I interpret the lyrics, but in case you missed it, there's an homage to Undercover Man, which ends with: "There may not be time for us all to run in tandem together The horizon calls with its parallel lines It may not be right for you to have and hold in one way forever But yet you still have time" And the ending to Sleepwalkers, "Soon my time is ending". Just thought you'd find that interesting
Because we're album listeners and we heard this over and over we didn't miss how Hammill 'ties up the album' at it's conclusion. On someone's (JP's) first listen - too much to hear - too much to concentrate on - and - subsequently they miss things. I made a special note to see if JP would mention that after the first song - 'You still have time' - and after the last song - 'But soon my time is ended.' But I guess that's one of the benefits JP will receive with repeat listens. But will there actually be repeat listens? JP does have a lot on his plate. Good catch - Sidney!
Yes that is very true. The songs are a lot to digest and I have the benefit of listening to them for, well crap, now that I think of it, over a decade lol (getting old). Whole album is just so, so good. I look at it this way: Undercover Man - Finding oneself Scorched Earth - Anger at the world, needless acts of violence Arrow - Pain from burned bridges and past mistakes Sleepwalkers - Acceptance and giving up, realizing you're no better than anyone else, getting old No idea if that's how Hammil meant it, but that's how I took it. Beautifully dark
OK, I'm 63 and first heard this song when it was released in 1975 (high school). My first thought was "WOW!" It is so very much to take in. Lyrics first. It is written similar to a Greek chorus; turn, counter turn, stand. It is an elaborate comparison of sleepwalking to life and "waking" as death -- or awakening. The sleepwalkers are an an army of dancers; waking and sleeping is intertwined. The music is beyond amazing. The '40s dance music is sort of a musical joke, but it fits perfectly. So, in 2021, this song still has surprises for me. I still can't move past it. It does grow and grow. "If I only had time."
My favourite lyric from this has to be "Tonight, before you lay down to the sweetness of your sleep, do you question your surrender to the drop from Lover's Leap?" My answer is always, I'm one of the people who worries every night if I'll ever wake up again. I guess more than 45 years of listening to VDGG makes me over think everything.
So many great lines, but I always loved the almost Shakespearian feel of :- From what tooth or claw does murder spring, From what flesh and blood does passion? Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing In deadly but delicate fashion. Hammill really is an incomparable lyricist.
Thanks for this. It's one of my favorites from VDGG. Many years ago, I had to draw an illustration about warriors raising from the dead on a battlefield... For background music during all the drawing/painting process, I listened only to this song, over and over. Although the song is not about living deads, it did fit perfectly.
Glad to see you rock this... it's a very profound song from a very profound album... One of Hammill's masterpieces... Some of my favorite lines in prog; From what tooth or claw does murder spring, from what flesh and blood does passion? Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing in deadly but delicate fashion.
I first heard it on a VdGG compilation CD in 1986. I liked it, except for the repetitive section later in the song. Similar to Scorched Earth's over-repetitive bridge around the 3;44 mark on that song. I just have to live with these sections for the sake of the entire song. Also, consider PH's 1974 solo album In Camera for future reactions.
One of the first albums I could find of his back in 83. Tried to play it a few times and scratched my head. Still have the scars. Sleepwalkers was the first song I could understand a bit. I loved the world weary vocal delivery. Needed a dictionary also. Like what is semi-sentience? He uses many characters that kind of act like stage whisperers with the other voices it seems. When he sings ‘but soon the dream is ended’ I get goosebumps
Pay attention to those recommending "Still Life". It is the best of later VDGG. "Godbluff" is a great album, but "Still Life" is, to my mind, waaay superior. "Childlike Faith In Childhood's End" is a MUST. Blessings.
For me, the best music is that where the band says "This is our world. If you wish to enter, you are welcome." For me, that sums up Van der Graaf. You come to them - they don't come to you. I enjoy these videos and look forward to seeing more of them.
I never noticed myself, when I saw VDGG live, and I don't know if this is true but I've either read or heard from Hammill that Jaxon wasn't consistent with the Cha Cha Cha bit and played whatever he felt like on the night, and sometimes the band didn't know in advance what was coming.
I am not somnambulent, but I love that someone is reacting to Van der Graaf Generator. Life is good. I suspect the song is an homage to Hermann Broch's wondrous novel, "The Sleepwalkers", about which Wikipedia says: "With his epic trilogy, Hermann Broch established himself as one of the great innovators of modern literature, a visionary writer-philosopher equivalent of James Joyce, Thomas Mann, or Robert Musil. Even as he grounded his narratives in the intimate daily life of Germany, Broch was identifying the oceanic changes that would shortly sweep that life into the abyss."
This is the song where they threw everything in including the kitchen sink and the ballroom lights and just let it run wild. It could well be the POAT (proggiest of all time). I absolutely love it but I'm always completely knackered by the time it ends.
At night, this mindless army, ranks unbroken by dissent, is moved into action and their pace does not relent. In step, with great precision, these dancers of the night advance against the darkness - how implacable their might! Eyes undulled by moon, their arms and legs akimbo, they walk and live, hoping soon to surface from this limbo. Their minds, anticipating the dawn of the day, shall never know what's waiting mere insight away - too far, too soon. Senses dimmed in semi-sentience, only wheeling through this plane, only seeing fragmented images, prematurely curtailed by the brain, but breathing, living, knowing in some measure at least the soul which roots the matter of both Beauty and the Beast. From what tooth or claw does murder spring, from what flesh and blood does passion? Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing in deadly but delicate fashion. And every range of feeling is there in the dream and every logic's reeling in the force of the scream; the senses sting. And though I may be dreaming and reality stalls I only know the meaning of sight and that's all and that's nothing. The columns of the night advance, infectiously, their cryptic dance gathers converts to the fold - in time the whole raw world will pace these same steps on into the same bitter end. Somnolent muster - now the dancing dead forsake the shelter of their secure beds, awaken to a slumber whose depths they dread, as if the ground they tread would give way beneath the solemn weight of their conception. I'd search the hidden corners of all this world, make reason of the sensory whorl if I only had time, but soon the dream is ended. Tonight, before you lay down to the sweetness of your sleep do you question your surrender to the drop from Lover's Leap or does the anaesthetic darkness take hold on its very own? Does your body rise in service with not one dissenting groan? These waking dreams of life and death in the mirror are twisted and buckled; lashes flicker, a catch of breath, skin whitening at the knuckles. The army of sleepwalkers shake their limbs and are loose and though I am a talker, I can phrase no excuse not to rise again. In the chorus of the night-time I belong and I, like you, must dance to that moonlight song and in the end I, too, must pay the cost of this life. If all is lost none is known and how could we lose what we've never owned? Oh, I'd search out every knowledge that I could find, unravel all the mysteries of mind, if I only had time, if I only had time, but soon my time is ended.
when I first listened to this song I didn't really get it and only after like the third time It really clicked in my mind and ever since then I consider it one of the best if not the best song by vdgg
My initial reaction to this song was it's fantastic. Very few VDGG songs are immediate, but for some reason, even unknown to me, this was immediate. Lord knows how, because it's completely mental. This and Man ERG are my joint favourite VDGG songs. There are times I can hear Peter Hammill in Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Some people get that, some people think I'm hearing things. What's the verdict?? The 'Tonight before you lay down' section in particular in this song. Think also 'Take away the threat of death' from Still Life.
If Ziggy’s an androgynous alien of love here to save the planet then, these guys are his leaders… some weird stuff. So far more out there than Ziggy. Geez. I enjoyed those ten songs in one. That Wurlitzer and sax part was a blast in the face juxtaposition, quite enjoyed that. I did sleepwalk once that I know of, where I walked down a flight of stairs… this must have been the music in ma head. Peace and dreaming Music
My first contact with Van der Graaf was with this album. I certainly didn't catch everything the first time I heard it (I didn't speak English back then ...), but I knew something amazing was happening. The voice and this complex, textured and unique music made this group one of my favorites. I leave you a live version of Wonderland. For me, we see and understand everything that VDG represents : intensity in the verb and musicality. ua-cam.com/video/ZxWoYmb3MKw/v-deo.html
Twelve minutes ago? Hmm...a little proggy, bouncier Kraftwerk, a little blip-bloopy, like 80s synth-pop, also evocative of Pete Townshend's synth experiments on Who's Next as 'Baba O'Riley' and 'WGFA'. It gets heavier, and I'm missing tons...not researching my response. Cool, knew the name, not the work, gotta listen more now. Cheers, mate, yeah, an interesting trip as always. ✌😘🎶🎹🔥🎸💞
my favourite VDGG album, the first I got first impression on whole album was wtf is that????? in positive way man, in this song, sax solo, Phil was playing two saxes at the same time!!!!
One thing I have a fair bit of experience with is murder (and I think it's best to just leave that ambiguous like this). Murder, where it becomes part of almost ordinary life, ceases to have any particular association with passion. (Murder as a crime of passion is just murder, as it happens in worlds where it hasn't become almost normal - or perhaps where has just remained as normal as it was, say, in Victorian times or the Wild West - where it hasn't been made the rarest exception. The last, intractible little residual part of the murder problem is the crime-of-passion murder). Murder in the old way (or in the way it goes where the pile of crimes-to-solve gets bigger than the queue lining up for jobs as detectives) is much more of a caterpillar-eating-a-leaf kind of thing. There's no passion in it. Prey or fodder appears, and murderer has mouthparts ready to munch on it. Someone dies in the process. You have murders in which the killing takes place simply because the murderer hasn't had occasion to murder someone for ages, and has a victim it would be easy to kill on hand at the moment. (For instance I knew someone whose brother was robbed of his disability pension on pension day, and then murdered. For what? Because he put up a fight? I doubt it.) But the lyrics cover the residual case quite well. (And it's not like it's OK that there are still these crimes of passion.)
@Bookhouse Boy All of the solo albums Hammill recorded during the "prime" VDGG years (1970-77) are well worth hearing, I think, especially the stuff recorded with the help of some of the band members.
VDGG is one of those bands that I found when I was really down and they are great because Hammill thinks in a very similar way to me where he obesses over concepts and meanings until everything that remains is meaningless and here he goes over how we are born into this life as sleepwalkers (ie living) and how he wishes he could grow from that and discover the world if only he had time but because of the inherent nature of time he will never be able to do that.
Um; no. While I understand that you can perceive the words like that. There is NOTHING in the song regarding, in anyway, "born as sleepwalkers" ...What hammill is referring to is; if dreams could last forever; he'd be able to figure it all out. He admits his mortality in the final lines; In the chorus of the night-time I belong and I, like you, must dance to that moonlight song and in the end I, too, must pay the cost of this life. If all is lost none is known and how could we lose what we've never owned? Oh, I'd search out every knowledge that I could find, unravel all the mysteries of mind, if I only had time, if I only had time, but soon my time is ended.
@@godbluffvdgg You are saying the same thing just with a different spin. It doesn't matter if his dreams could last forever because as soon as you use the term forever in that situation the entire concept becomes meaningless because it revolves around time and if you had forever everything is a dream.
Nice, this's more the VDGG I like. A fine closer, and almost a balm to the tumult of the previous, 'Arrow'. Great musicians doing their thing on a track (like lot's of theirs) that sweeps, and meanders in varying styles, cadences. I particularly like their slip into 'lounge music'. All good, but the sax and keys the stand outs for me. And fine vocals from PH. Reigning it in, i feel, to a more measured performance here, even through the more frenetic parts. Great track.
Warning: take a mood enhancer of your choice before AND after listening to the title track of Still Life - a bleaker lyric, I have never heard. Stunning track though. Meanwhile, Sleepwalkers isn't my favourite track off Godbluff - pick any one of the other three - but is still top quality prog.
@@pentagrammaton6793 True, some people including JP like classic (REAL) Genesis and pop Genesis. I personally am not as kind (to say the least) to pop Genesis as I am to Mark Knopfler's career including his movie scores. It takes all kinds of taste in music to get to bands like VdGG.
Well - I was busy all day today - and at 21:30 (9:30 pm west coast time) I clicked on JP and BAM! Sleepwalkers! Well - too late to converse with you all - but judging from your comments - VdGG may have clicked with some of you. Growing up in and with the prog-era - this group - this album - and this song fit right in immediately. But I love it more every time I hear it. Peter Hammill's solo albums do not play second fiddle to the band's albums - they're just more introspective and different. One commenter finds PH's solo albums of this period outshine the band's work because of PH's overblown ego!?! You can favor what you want but to blame the band's work or find some fault on Godbluff, Still Life and World Record on an ego thing - c'mon. To each his own as we all say. JP - there is a difference between all artists - but there just happens to be a very wide chasm of difference between VdGG and all other prog bands. All the other bands have great musicians - guitarists, drummers, bassists, and horn players - but there's only one Peter Hammill - and he writes the songs - and he sings the songs - and there's nobody like him. And it will take you a long time to cover the 55 or so studio albums that Peter Hammill has released. He has so many great moments/albums/songs - it will take the rest of your life to discover them. I had the benefit of getting them all as they came out. You happen to be learning 50 years of music all at once. You don't have chronology on your side. Will that matter? I suppose with effort and will and if you like what you hear - you just may become a VdGG/PH fan - but it really will require some fervent devotion. Where will you go from here? You might think about examining a Hammill solo album as that will further open more doors as to the myriad of talents that he possesses - Peter Hammill is extraordinary. Thanks for Godbluff, Pawn Hearts and H to He - and lets move on to the next one - whichever one that may be!
I still hope he does Still Life next and then alternates PH solo somehow like he alternated with Genesis and Gabriel. So many people in JP's VdGG comments have been hoping for him to hear 'Childlike Faith.' Can you blame them? :-)
@@markmaxwell1013 Can't blame them - of course not. Regarding Sleepwalkers - I wanted to read David O's reaction and also Ariadne's. They missed Sleepwalkers - bummer.
@@markmaxwell1013 If JP thinks he's in Dracula's castle with Sleepwalkers - what or who's castle will he be in when he hears 'Black Room' or 'Gog'? Really Mark - I can't wait for those two. Looking back - he one-offed 'Louse' - he probably wasn't ready for that yet. He's almost ready to hear everything now - hear everything now and he will love everything later!
@@markmaxwell1013 I always wondered Mark - all those other great songwriters - do you think Dylan, N Young, Joni, Van Morrison, Ray Davies, Tom Waits, Kristofferson - whoever else you want to include - do you think they know/have heard/examined Peter Hammill? I've always wondered about that. But I mostly wonder if Dylan or Neil know of PH.
@@vdggmouse9512 They may still post. It seems to have been a hectic Saturday for most. Some interesting philosophical discussions from others though. Several people have their own interpretation of Sleepwalkers. Nice to see such discourse about a song.
Can't help it but the music here is in a minor role because Peter's ego grew too big. His solo album Over reflects some remorse and is much better than the band albums of this period.
I always took sleepwalking here as a metaphor for the unexamined life. We sleepwalk through life if we don't fully engage. But Hammill like few others can sustain a metaphor so doggedly and completely that it becomes its own reality.
Wow, wonderfully put
I like that a lot Bob! Good one
The crazy note Hammill hits in the middle of the phrase "does your body rise in service?" is one of my favorite VDGG moments. There's never been another rock singer who can deliver a philosophical sermon with so much passion and theatricality, a little (maybe more than a little) campy yet deeply sincere and powerful.
I agree, definitely a peak VDGG moment. You just feel the song coursing through your veins at that point.
Hammill's lyrics and vocals are among the most intense of any writer/singer ever. I saw him live, solo, back in the mid-70's. I can only describe the experience as being like a person who willingly gives themself over to a vampire. He sucked the energy right out of the whole crowd and then gave it right back to us with his performance. The most draining yet rewarding concert I have ever been to. NO ONE does spiritual angst and hope better than Hammill did. He could take one from utter despair to the highest hope for humanity in one song. And he did it over and over again. Blessings.
The best track, IMO, on my favourite album by any artist. ♫ Senses dimmed in semi-sentience ♫
You must have seen the 2005 Rockpalast version. David Jackson really ramps up the drama in his feature in this song!
@@markmaxwell1013I must have.
One of their best songs and Now you need to do Still Life which is hugh bantons favourite Vdgg album and you would probably like it too
Yes indeed! Just look out for ♫ Frightened in the...SILENCE!...♫
Back in the day when I was discovering prog I never got into Van Der Graaf Generator. It was somehow too disjointed for me then but is worth listening to again now. It really is amazing how music changes for us at different ages. The strength of Hamill is his intellectualism which I missed completely the first time around. Most of these tracks are first listens for me so my experience is the same as yours. A nice review.
So so true WM! Sometimes it just takes time and personal growth/taste change
Amazing, tremendous piece of artistry... Awesome. Nothing sounds like this.
I'm really enjoying (re)discovering VDGG through your ears. This album was my introduction and remains my favorite. My first Hammill solo album was A Black Box, which I highly recommend.
This might be my favorite song ever.
You made me think, and so I did, and I realised that Place to Survive is my favourite VDGG song. Ultra-positive lyrics and saxophones!
Not a memory of the first time I heard it, but the memory that does come to me is when I was 16 and was asked to DJ for a party my dad organised at his boat club. This album had just come out and I was listening to it over and over so when I set up the tracks to play I included Sleepwalkers between things like Glen Miller, Little Eva and Gerry and the Pacemakers. I thought it would shock the old people (actually they would have been younger than I am now) but I got no reaction to this or anything else I played that night.
The intro is so cool that I have it for a while as my cellphone call sound!
Same
When I first listened to the album, this was not my favourite from the album. Now it might be my favourite from the band.
First time I heard this it gave me chills and everytime since then it has given me chills. Hammill usually uses metaphor in his songs. On the literal level I grew up with a younger brother who sleepwalked regularly. It was creepy trying to shake him out of it so this really hits home to me on the most literal basic level also.
The next album Still Life has a different theme and sound to it. It is a wild philosophical roller coaster with a somewhat more accessible sound. Thanks for staying on schedule with VdGG!
Who else but you would talk about lucid dreaming during a review! Stay the best Justin!
Yeah Godbluff is dark, edgy and fiery like a sermon on life, whereas Still Life is mellower, more philosophical and sometimes humorous. I think I rate them both equally. :)
I worked all day - got here late - but this was great, Mark! JP's followers liked Sleepwalkers.
@@vdggmouse9512 Was looking for your usual eloquent comment earlier. Lots of positive feedback and several requests for Still Life. I hope JP stays on the two-week schedule. The "league of their own" comment was pretty cool and deserved. VdGG is really close to a hundred thousand followers on Spotify. That means 40,000 more "young" people have become fans since a couple of years ago. Not bad for such an "underrated" band.
I like to sum up "Still Life" with five sentences, each relating to one of the songs: "Life is a pilgrimage. Butt eternal life would be unbearable. Therefore you have to live for the moment. In the end you will wind up alone and disappointed though. But maybe there is a life after death".
@@BaldJean Well said! Hope without being preachy.
You reviewing this has just reminded me I saw them live in the 70’s and I had no idea what I was going to hear that night 🤣🤣
Lol! I can imagine how shocked and likely amazed you were
Thanks Justin!! Looking foward for Still Life!
The delight of a well placed cowbell. This is the VDGG song that really resonates with me. Everything is there for a purpose and really flows well. I wonder if Rob Halford is influenced by Hammill. I would think yes.
my wishes you will be still in love with this song in 46 years as me from 1975
16:19 - "It's like slipping into something more comfortable. And their comfort is an evil merry-go-round."
LOL that's a quote to keep.
Wow, I've heard this album once or twice and tbh I didn't care too much for it, believe it or not, but I really enjoyed this. Hmm maybe this album can grow on me. We'll see, it always starts with one song that I like.
🎪
My first reaction when I heard it? I already heard some of the older stuff and I loved this song at first listen! One of my favorites and one of the VdGG that you can share with family without having a disbandment ;-)
Lol!
Thanks! My favorite VDGG song. First heard it in '75 or '76. It raised my heart rate, caught my breath got me moving in my seat. It still affects me physically.
So good! Great Saturday evening aperitif.
🥗
One of VDGG's career very best, and I was mesmerized at first listen (something that rarely happens). About sleepwalking... My elder brother (at the time playing American football) was a serial sleepwalker. One night he stood up in the middle of our room, looked to the right, looked to the left, then ran full speed against the bookshelf. Ever since I made sure that the door window's shutters were firmly sealed - our parents' apartment was at the third floor!
Wow! I just posted about a younger brother of mine who was a serial sleepwalker. Now I am grateful he wasn't older and did not play football!
:)>..It's NOT about sleepwalkers. It's about the entities that inhabit your dreams while you sleep...
At night, this mindless army, ranks unbroken by dissent,
is moved into action and their pace does not relent.
In step, with great precision, these dancers of the night
advance against the darkness - how implacable their might!
Eyes undulled by moon, their arms and legs akimbo,
they walk and live, hoping soon to surface from this limbo.
Their minds, anticipating the dawn of the day,
shall never know what's waiting mere insight away
- too far, too soon.
@@godbluffvdgg Hammill delights in using metaphor. I remember an interview with him where he talks about the different meanings most of his early VdGG songs take on. He did leave room for each listener to make their own interpretation. Some of his solo songs are very straightforward.
@@markmaxwell1013 :)...You're right; Hammill is a master with Metaphor. But; his work isn't ambiguous. His metaphors stand out quite clearly...To me, as a fan for over 40 years, his work shouldn't be misinterpreted either; as in the comment I replied to. The meanings in songs like this are too profound to be ignored in their essences....
@@godbluffvdgg My comment was a reply to Justin's question, not referring to PH's lyrics, which is clearly a metaphor.
I always enjoy a jamming Hammond organ, with everything else piled on - genius work!
I've heard very little of VDGG, but I liked this. I kind of felt like I was hearing music from a play, like Sweeney Todd, or Les Miserables, or heck any play for that matter, lol. The music was just so darn interesting and his voice is very theatrical, I think. You gotta give them all the credit in the world for not sounding like just another rock group. Just very interesting and different music.
" To sleep, perchance to dream?" Perhaps you may walk about and scream! Maybe take a midnight trip,you wont remember to get ice cream. In any case keep up this progressive musical scene. Peace
Hey man, thanks for covering my absolute favorite song by VdGG. An absolute masterpiece in my book. Won't go into detail with you about I interpret the lyrics, but in case you missed it, there's an homage to Undercover Man, which ends with:
"There may not be time for us all to run in tandem together
The horizon calls with its parallel lines
It may not be right for you to have and hold in one way forever
But yet you still have time"
And the ending to Sleepwalkers, "Soon my time is ending".
Just thought you'd find that interesting
Because we're album listeners and we heard this over and over we didn't miss how Hammill 'ties up the album' at it's conclusion. On someone's (JP's) first listen - too much to hear - too much to concentrate on - and - subsequently they miss things. I made a special note to see if JP would mention that after the first song - 'You still have time' - and after the last song - 'But soon my time is ended.' But I guess that's one of the benefits JP will receive with repeat listens. But will there actually be repeat listens? JP does have a lot on his plate. Good catch - Sidney!
Yes that is very true. The songs are a lot to digest and I have the benefit of listening to them for, well crap, now that I think of it, over a decade lol (getting old). Whole album is just so, so good. I look at it this way:
Undercover Man - Finding oneself
Scorched Earth - Anger at the world, needless acts of violence
Arrow - Pain from burned bridges and past mistakes
Sleepwalkers - Acceptance and giving up, realizing you're no better than anyone else, getting old
No idea if that's how Hammil meant it, but that's how I took it. Beautifully dark
OK, I'm 63 and first heard this song when it was released in 1975 (high school). My first thought was "WOW!" It is so very much to take in.
Lyrics first. It is written similar to a Greek chorus; turn, counter turn, stand. It is an elaborate comparison of sleepwalking to life and "waking" as death -- or awakening. The sleepwalkers are an an army of dancers; waking and sleeping is intertwined.
The music is beyond amazing. The '40s dance music is sort of a musical joke, but it fits perfectly.
So, in 2021, this song still has surprises for me. I still can't move past it. It does grow and grow.
"If I only had time."
one word for these guys....Genius
My favourite lyric from this has to be "Tonight, before you lay down to the sweetness of your sleep, do you question your surrender to the drop from Lover's Leap?"
My answer is always, I'm one of the people who worries every night if I'll ever wake up again. I guess more than 45 years of listening to VDGG makes me over think everything.
So many great lines, but I always loved the almost Shakespearian feel of :-
From what tooth or claw does murder spring,
From what flesh and blood does passion?
Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing
In deadly but delicate fashion.
Hammill really is an incomparable lyricist.
Thanks for this. It's one of my favorites from VDGG. Many years ago, I had to draw an illustration about warriors raising from the dead on a battlefield... For background music during all the drawing/painting process, I listened only to this song, over and over. Although the song is not about living deads, it did fit perfectly.
I love the creative process Zefklop!
Glad to see you rock this... it's a very profound song from a very profound album... One of Hammill's masterpieces...
Some of my favorite lines in prog;
From what tooth or claw does murder spring,
from what flesh and blood does passion?
Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing
in deadly but delicate fashion.
Very Shakespeareian - Hammill really is on a different level to most rock lyricists.
I first heard it on a VdGG compilation CD in 1986. I liked it, except for the repetitive section later in the song. Similar to Scorched Earth's over-repetitive bridge around the 3;44 mark on that song. I just have to live with these sections for the sake of the entire song.
Also, consider PH's 1974 solo album In Camera for future reactions.
Candlelight would have been fitting for this:-) Looking forward to Still Life,
Might be my favourite VDGG song so far.
One of the first albums I could find of his back in 83. Tried to play it a few times and scratched my head. Still have the scars. Sleepwalkers was the first song I could understand a bit. I loved the world weary vocal delivery. Needed a dictionary also. Like what is semi-sentience? He uses many characters that kind of act like stage whisperers with the other voices it seems. When he sings ‘but soon the dream is ended’ I get goosebumps
Pay attention to those recommending "Still Life". It is the best of later VDGG. "Godbluff" is a great album, but "Still Life" is, to my mind, waaay superior. "Childlike Faith In Childhood's End" is a MUST. Blessings.
'Childlike Faith' and Man-Erg are my two favorite songs by anyone.
For me, the best music is that where the band says "This is our world. If you wish to enter, you are welcome." For me, that sums up Van der Graaf. You come to them - they don't come to you. I enjoy these videos and look forward to seeing more of them.
Great point alspacrat! Thanks for being here and watching :)
End of the best VDGG album. I'm sad. But I hope, you go into the next one, Still Life.
I never noticed myself, when I saw VDGG live, and I don't know if this is true but I've either read or heard from Hammill that Jaxon wasn't consistent with the Cha Cha Cha bit and played whatever he felt like on the night, and sometimes the band didn't know in advance what was coming.
Oh, you are gonna love this song, together with Pawn Hearts these are their best albums, and they are completaly brilliant
I am not somnambulent, but I love that someone is reacting to Van der Graaf Generator. Life is good. I suspect the song is an homage to Hermann Broch's wondrous novel, "The Sleepwalkers", about which Wikipedia says: "With his epic trilogy, Hermann Broch established himself as one of the great innovators of modern literature, a visionary writer-philosopher equivalent of James Joyce, Thomas Mann, or Robert Musil. Even as he grounded his narratives in the intimate daily life of Germany, Broch was identifying the oceanic changes that would shortly sweep that life into the abyss."
I like this band, they're peculiar without being too chaotic (like Zappa) although I could do with less of the horns.
This is the song where they threw everything in including the kitchen sink and the ballroom lights and just let it run wild. It could well be the POAT (proggiest of all time).
I absolutely love it but I'm always completely knackered by the time it ends.
A metaphor for the band itself.
Great song. Great review. VDGG at their best. My first reaction was: unworldly.
At night, this mindless army, ranks unbroken by dissent,
is moved into action and their pace does not relent.
In step, with great precision, these dancers of the night
advance against the darkness - how implacable their might!
Eyes undulled by moon, their arms and legs akimbo,
they walk and live, hoping soon to surface from this limbo.
Their minds, anticipating the dawn of the day,
shall never know what's waiting mere insight away
- too far, too soon.
Senses dimmed in semi-sentience, only wheeling through this plane,
only seeing fragmented images, prematurely curtailed by the brain,
but breathing, living, knowing in some measure at least
the soul which roots the matter of both Beauty and the Beast.
From what tooth or claw does murder spring,
from what flesh and blood does passion?
Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing
in deadly but delicate fashion.
And every range of feeling is there in the dream
and every logic's reeling in the force of the scream;
the senses sting.
And though I may be dreaming and reality stalls
I only know the meaning of sight and that's all
and that's nothing.
The columns of the night advance,
infectiously, their cryptic dance
gathers converts to the fold -
in time the whole raw world will pace these same steps
on into the same bitter end.
Somnolent muster - now the dancing dead
forsake the shelter of their secure beds,
awaken to a slumber whose depths they dread,
as if the ground they tread would give way
beneath the solemn weight of their conception.
I'd search the hidden corners of all this world,
make reason of the sensory whorl
if I only had time,
but soon the dream is ended.
Tonight, before you lay down to the sweetness of your sleep
do you question your surrender to the drop from Lover's Leap
or does the anaesthetic darkness take hold on its very own?
Does your body rise in service with not one dissenting groan?
These waking dreams of life and death
in the mirror are twisted and buckled;
lashes flicker, a catch of breath,
skin whitening at the knuckles.
The army of sleepwalkers shake their limbs and are loose
and though I am a talker, I can phrase no excuse
not to rise again.
In the chorus of the night-time I belong
and I, like you, must dance to that moonlight song
and in the end I, too, must pay the cost of this life.
If all is lost none is known
and how could we lose what we've never owned?
Oh, I'd search out every knowledge that I could find,
unravel all the mysteries of mind,
if I only had time,
if I only had time,
but soon my time is ended.
when I first listened to this song I didn't really get it and only after like the third time It really clicked in my mind and ever since then I consider it one of the best if not the best song by vdgg
To You - Walt Whitman - Whoever you are I fear you are walking the walk of dreams
ua-cam.com/video/_JvhIWOM-7U/v-deo.html
My initial reaction to this song was it's fantastic. Very few VDGG songs are immediate, but for some reason, even unknown to me, this was immediate. Lord knows how, because it's completely mental. This and Man ERG are my joint favourite VDGG songs. There are times I can hear Peter Hammill in Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Some people get that, some people think I'm hearing things. What's the verdict?? The 'Tonight before you lay down' section in particular in this song. Think also 'Take away the threat of death' from Still Life.
Godbluff is in my top 10 albums ever made. Solid 5/5 if there ever was one.
If Ziggy’s an androgynous alien of love here to save the planet then, these guys are his leaders… some weird stuff. So far more out there than Ziggy. Geez. I enjoyed those ten songs in one. That Wurlitzer and sax part was a blast in the face juxtaposition, quite enjoyed that.
I did sleepwalk once that I know of, where I walked down a flight of stairs… this must have been the music in ma head.
Peace and dreaming Music
Chaos! looking ahead at the Kraftwerk video coming up.
My first contact with Van der Graaf was with this album. I certainly didn't catch everything the first time I heard it (I didn't speak English back then ...), but I knew something amazing was happening. The voice and this complex, textured and unique music made this group one of my favorites. I leave you a live version of Wonderland. For me, we see and understand everything that VDG represents : intensity in the verb and musicality. ua-cam.com/video/ZxWoYmb3MKw/v-deo.html
Twelve minutes ago? Hmm...a little proggy, bouncier Kraftwerk, a little blip-bloopy, like 80s synth-pop, also evocative of Pete Townshend's synth experiments on Who's Next as 'Baba O'Riley' and 'WGFA'. It gets heavier, and I'm missing tons...not researching my response. Cool, knew the name, not the work, gotta listen more now. Cheers, mate, yeah, an interesting trip as always. ✌😘🎶🎹🔥🎸💞
The "merry-go-round" part is actually a cha-cha-cha.
my favourite VDGG album, the first I got
first impression on whole album was wtf is that????? in positive way
man, in this song, sax solo, Phil was playing two saxes at the same time!!!!
One thing I have a fair bit of experience with is murder (and I think it's best to just leave that ambiguous like this). Murder, where it becomes part of almost ordinary life, ceases to have any particular association with passion. (Murder as a crime of passion is just murder, as it happens in worlds where it hasn't become almost normal - or perhaps where has just remained as normal as it was, say, in Victorian times or the Wild West - where it hasn't been made the rarest exception. The last, intractible little residual part of the murder problem is the crime-of-passion murder).
Murder in the old way (or in the way it goes where the pile of crimes-to-solve gets bigger than the queue lining up for jobs as detectives) is much more of a caterpillar-eating-a-leaf kind of thing. There's no passion in it. Prey or fodder appears, and murderer has mouthparts ready to munch on it. Someone dies in the process. You have murders in which the killing takes place simply because the murderer hasn't had occasion to murder someone for ages, and has a victim it would be easy to kill on hand at the moment. (For instance I knew someone whose brother was robbed of his disability pension on pension day, and then murdered. For what? Because he put up a fight? I doubt it.)
But the lyrics cover the residual case quite well. (And it's not like it's OK that there are still these crimes of passion.)
It's time for Still Life!
This song is about zombies
Solo Hammill would be nice too, Gog/Magog is great, I wouldn't know what album to specifically recommend of his, though
@Bookhouse Boy All of the solo albums Hammill recorded during the "prime" VDGG years (1970-77) are well worth hearing, I think, especially the stuff recorded with the help of some of the band members.
VDGG is one of those bands that I found when I was really down and they are great because Hammill thinks in a very similar way to me where he obesses over concepts and meanings until everything that remains is meaningless and here he goes over how we are born into this life as sleepwalkers (ie living) and how he wishes he could grow from that and discover the world if only he had time but because of the inherent nature of time he will never be able to do that.
Um; no. While I understand that you can perceive the words like that. There is NOTHING in the song regarding, in anyway, "born as sleepwalkers" ...What hammill is referring to is; if dreams could last forever; he'd be able to figure it all out. He admits his mortality in the final lines; In the chorus of the night-time I belong
and I, like you, must dance to that moonlight song
and in the end I, too, must pay the cost of this life.
If all is lost none is known
and how could we lose what we've never owned?
Oh, I'd search out every knowledge that I could find,
unravel all the mysteries of mind,
if I only had time,
if I only had time,
but soon my time is ended.
@@godbluffvdgg You are saying the same thing just with a different spin. It doesn't matter if his dreams could last forever because as soon as you use the term forever in that situation the entire concept becomes meaningless because it revolves around time and if you had forever everything is a dream.
@@ELUnderwood I see your point...
Nice, this's more the VDGG I like. A fine closer, and almost a balm to the tumult of the previous, 'Arrow'. Great musicians doing their thing on a track (like lot's of theirs) that sweeps, and meanders in varying styles, cadences. I particularly like their slip into 'lounge music'. All good, but the sax and keys the stand outs for me. And fine vocals from PH. Reigning it in, i feel, to a more measured performance here, even through the more frenetic parts. Great track.
Warning: take a mood enhancer of your choice before AND after listening to the title track of Still Life - a bleaker lyric, I have never heard. Stunning track though. Meanwhile, Sleepwalkers isn't my favourite track off Godbluff - pick any one of the other three - but is still top quality prog.
The final stanza of Childlike Faith is pretty bleak also and the last line is a killer ''In the death of mere humans life shall start.........''
react to the new dream theater song the alien!! please!!
Ahh that's better, VDGG is a good antidote to the suckiness of Dire Straits. :D
I like Dire Straits but VdGG is my favorite band of all time!
@@markmaxwell1013 it takes all sorts. :)
@@pentagrammaton6793 True, some people including JP like classic (REAL) Genesis and pop Genesis. I personally am not as kind (to say the least) to pop Genesis as I am to Mark Knopfler's career including his movie scores. It takes all kinds of taste in music to get to bands like VdGG.
Love Over Gold and Godbluff are my firmly in my top 20 albums.
I'm a VdGG fan, but I was very delighted to see Justin doing Straits on this channel
Well - I was busy all day today - and at 21:30 (9:30 pm west coast time) I clicked on JP and BAM! Sleepwalkers! Well - too late to converse with you all - but judging from your comments - VdGG may have clicked with some of you. Growing up in and with the prog-era - this group - this album - and this song fit right in immediately. But I love it more every time I hear it. Peter Hammill's solo albums do not play second fiddle to the band's albums - they're just more introspective and different. One commenter finds PH's solo albums of this period outshine the band's work because of PH's overblown ego!?! You can favor what you want but to blame the band's work or find some fault on Godbluff, Still Life and World Record on an ego thing - c'mon. To each his own as we all say. JP - there is a difference between all artists - but there just happens to be a very wide chasm of difference between VdGG and all other prog bands. All the other bands have great musicians - guitarists, drummers, bassists, and horn players - but there's only one Peter Hammill - and he writes the songs - and he sings the songs - and there's nobody like him. And it will take you a long time to cover the 55 or so studio albums that Peter Hammill has released. He has so many great moments/albums/songs - it will take the rest of your life to discover them. I had the benefit of getting them all as they came out. You happen to be learning 50 years of music all at once. You don't have chronology on your side. Will that matter? I suppose with effort and will and if you like what you hear - you just may become a VdGG/PH fan - but it really will require some fervent devotion. Where will you go from here? You might think about examining a Hammill solo album as that will further open more doors as to the myriad of talents that he possesses - Peter Hammill is extraordinary. Thanks for Godbluff, Pawn Hearts and H to He - and lets move on to the next one - whichever one that may be!
I still hope he does Still Life next and then alternates PH solo somehow like he alternated with Genesis and Gabriel. So many people in JP's VdGG comments have been hoping for him to hear 'Childlike Faith.' Can you blame them? :-)
@@markmaxwell1013 Can't blame them - of course not. Regarding Sleepwalkers - I wanted to read David O's reaction and also Ariadne's. They missed Sleepwalkers - bummer.
@@markmaxwell1013 If JP thinks he's in Dracula's castle with Sleepwalkers - what or who's castle will he be in when he hears 'Black Room' or 'Gog'? Really Mark - I can't wait for those two. Looking back - he one-offed 'Louse' - he probably wasn't ready for that yet. He's almost ready to hear everything now - hear everything now and he will love everything later!
@@markmaxwell1013 I always wondered Mark - all those other great songwriters - do you think Dylan, N Young, Joni, Van Morrison, Ray Davies, Tom Waits, Kristofferson - whoever else you want to include - do you think they know/have heard/examined Peter Hammill? I've always wondered about that. But I mostly wonder if Dylan or Neil know of PH.
@@vdggmouse9512 They may still post. It seems to have been a hectic Saturday for most. Some interesting philosophical discussions from others though. Several people have their own interpretation of Sleepwalkers. Nice to see such discourse about a song.
Can't help it but the music here is in a minor role because Peter's ego grew too big. His solo album Over reflects some remorse and is much better than the band albums of this period.
Lol wut?
"Over" is an intense listening experience.