Van Der Graaf Generator - When She Comes

Song: When She Comes
Artist: Van Der Graaf Generator (VDGG)
Album: World Record
Year: 1976
Genre: Progressive Rock

Lyrics:

Slow motion in the quiet of the room;
so potent is the smell of her perfume
that you think she's eternal,
that you think she is everything...
but no-one knows what she is.
Repentance for all you should have said;
her entrance seems to raise you from the dead
and you think she's really with you,
and you think that she'll always stay,
always ready to forgive you,
always ready to grant you her mercy
but in her own way.
When she comes, she'll be a stranger;
struck dumb, you'll try to protest
as the drum beats out the danger...
too late, you should have noticed
that the lady with the skin so white,
like something out of Blake or Burne-Jones
always blocked out the light
and shadowed all you owned.

Still you think she's forever,
yesterday and tomorrow...
but no-one knows where she is.
Still you swear that you can win her
and your prayer is that she'll want you;
aware - once a saint, now you're a sinner
and your sins are going to haunt you
when the lady with her skin so white
like something out of Edgar Allan Poe
holds your hand so very tight
and you hope that she'll never let go.

Easy targets, easy crosswords, easy life:
these key margins leave you balanced on the knife,
bleeding darkly.
In the end it all comes down to sleazy bargains.
That hidden key - you tried so hard to find it,
all you can conceive is the effort to be worthy;
even now you need to be reminded
that La Belle Dame is without mercy.
The lady with her skin so white -
you never did quite catch her name -
now she holds you in the night
and she'll never let go again,
she'll never let go again.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Van
• Der
• Graaf
• Generator
• When
• She
• Comes
• VDGG
• 1976
• Progressive
• Rock
• Peter
• Hammill
• David
• Jackson

[emdotambient]

One of my favorite VDGG songs from my favorite LP by them. I remember my shock hearing it for the first time in 1977. Raw, dark, jagged, aggressive and gothic in a literary way. Totally unexpected and new. That was my introduction to the band and the start of an obsession that continues till today. Thanks for posting it!

[QualeQualeson]

Pure Genious. Thnx for uploading.

[Staworgin]

they're all ladies with skin so white, no exceptions.

[Jimysalad]

Such A song

Jazzy and just ... good like



[icarosilva16]

The lady from the skin so white will never leave you more,no more..How many knew her in 77?thumb up !

[saxofonix]

@emdotambient .. this pretty much sums up my reaction to the band as well. Listening to a bunch of tapes from a friend - all the usual Metal bands and Hard Rock bands from the 70's ... Judas Priest, Zep, Sabbath ... and then this music sprung out of nowhere ... and my reaction was WTF is *this*?? I was incredulous that music so beautiful had evaded me until then. Why hadn't anyone ever told me about this?

[saxofonix]

VDGG at their peak. An incredible song that just twisted my mind from the first time I ever heard it. Instant and enduring fan of the band.

[Husky1541]

The best song besides Murglys III on World Record. I like it!

[KingfisherBlues27]

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat. Old school prog ftw, Hammil is the most dynamic vocalist, so powerful and raw.

[ronaldmcdonald333]

peter hammill is so powerful in this one put it on full blast

[ronaldmcdonald333]

LADY WITH THE SKIN SOO WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII­IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITE