Van Der Graaf Generator - 'Man-Erg' - live in Manchester 2005

I hope that I'm not damned ...
Original footage (recorded by me on my own video camera - I was there) of Van Der Graaf Generator playing 'Man-Erg' during their 2005 reunion tour, live at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Sunday 13th November 2005. I had to edit out a one-minute (approx.) instrumental section at around 6:53 to make it fit the ten-minute limit by YouTube.
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Lyrics for Man-Erg:
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The killer lives inside me;
yes, I can feel him move.
Sometimes he's lightly sleeping
in the quiet of his room;
but then his eyes will rise and stare through mine,
he'll speak my words and slice my mind
inside. Yes, the killer lives.

The angels live inside me,
I can feel them smile;
their presence strokes and soothes
the tempest in my mind
and their love
can heal the wounds that I have wrought.
They watch me as I go to fall;
well, I know I shall be caught
while the angels live.

How can I be free?
How can I get help?
Am I really me?
Am I someone else?

But stalking in my cloisters
hang the acolytes of gloom
and Death's Head throws his cloak
into the corner of my room
and I am doomed.
But laughing in my courtyard
play the pranksters of my youth
and solemn, waiting Old Man
in the gables of the roof:
he tells me truth.

And I, too, live inside me
and very often don't know who I am;
I know I'm not a hero;
well, I hope that I'm not damned.
I'm just a man, and killers, angels, all are these,
dictators, saviours, refugees
in war and peace
as long as Man lives...

I'm just a man, and killers, angels, all are these:
dictators, saviours, refugees.
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Comments are welcomed.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Van
• Der
• Graaf
• Generator
• Man
• Erg
• Hammill
• Bridgewater
• Manchester

[telemacherT2]

Vielen Dank,

Doktor-Professor!

[professoricon]

es ist mir eine Freude

[TheMitzjob]

tears to my eyes...50 years from now...Peter Hammill will remain as one of the great writers of prog-rock music...

[axzck]

best lyrics ever written in english.

[saxsot]

Thanks, it's great!

[telemacherT2]

The way they are meant to be heard:

LOUD & RAW !!!

[flaneller]

@professoricon I would agree that VDGG were more consistent. The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge are among my absolute favourite albums but nearly everything else (including solo releases) after 1975 I have problems with and nearly everything after 1980 I despise! VDGG and Hammill just kept churning out classics.

[flaneller]

@professoricon Disagree very strongly with your opinion of Howe. For me he is one of the most imaginative and original guitarists in rock ever. For instance his tone is generally much cleaner and more jazz like than the average rocker, and his melodic lines have this unique sense of colour and life to them, almost like an "afrobeat" guitarist. He was certainly no boringly typical "macho" blues wailer like so many guitarists of the era.

[professoricon]

@flaneller:

Apples and oranges, or maybe the difference between classical and rock'n'roll.

[professoricon]

@flaneller:

I agree, but I still feel that VDGG have more imagination and considerably more vitality.

[professoricon]

@flaneller:

VDGG mostly played wiithout a bassist, and Hugh Banton fills in with the bass pedals as an organist would.

There are few technically better than Steve Howe, but I always felt he was perhaps a little unimaginiative, and Peter Hammill would never claim himself to be anything other than an average guitarist (or worse).

Guy Evans is exceptionally good, and in my opinion better than Bruford.

IMHO it was perhaps the control and effortless phrasing that makes Yes so uninspiring.

[flaneller]

@professoricon In terms of songwriting imagination it's difficult to compare because they were interested in totally different things. VDGG are very "dark" lyrically and musically "rougher" and more liable to explore dissonant and aggressive textures (though often within the overall form of a relatively simple song). Yes are lyrically much "brighter" and optimistic and have more controlled, "busy" textures in carefully integrated forms that develop "organically". Apples and oranges, really!

[flaneller]

@professoricon

What I like about 70s prog rock is the fact that it was so varied. No major band sounds like any other, from Jethro Tull to Henry Cow. Much as I love them however, I would disagree with VDGG being as good musicians as Yes. In comparison they lack the effortless sense of phrasing and control that Bruford, Squire and Howe had.