Sobre
certas canções
(notes
on certain songs)
2
Os comentários sobre certas canções foram escritos por Peter Hammill em seu livro "Killers, Angels, Refugees" e nos encartes dos Cds "The Calm (After the Storm)" e
"The Storm (Before the Calm)* ".
Os
originais em Inglês foram mantidos somente para que as palavras e
idéais do autor
não
fossem deturpadas.
*
| Nadir's Big Chance
My first three chord trick. I recall driving everyone out the control room with the SHEER VOLUME of the (neo)solo, played on a cheap and wonky lap steel guitar. The tune was written when I was sixteen. These lyrics came later! |
| Golden Promises
"A Black Box", from which this track is taken, had a frankly bizarre drum sound and even more bizarre drumming. It would be, since I did it myself ! More crank in the guitars, too. Only the egg-boxes which clad Sofa Sound's then location protected innocent ears. The "mail-order holy vows", by the way are absolutely non-specific. |
| Tapeworm
Brutal compresson and noise - and that's only the lyrics! Guy Evans did a great job of overdubbing drums onto a pretty vagrant (sic) basic rhythm. The middle section was original (yet another) guitar riff; just for once, I thought it better to hold that fuzzed-out hand. |
| Nobody's Business
Another aural slab from "Nadir" session. The anti-outro at the start is typical of the welling-up of the the noise. The song dates from ' 67; the final mix wrapped up a tightly-riffed structure in a wall of noise. Good thing too. |
| Crying Wolf
(Conscious) self-parody has supposedly never been a strong suit of mine. This song at least has a twinkle in the eye! A rare foray into questionable soloing, too. |
| You Hit Me Where I Live
After finishing the recording of "Skin"I was still fired up, and bashed out this tune in a week or so. Only a madman would have played, rather than sequenced, all the keyboard arpeggiation. That man was I. |
| My Experience
An unusually mysterious subject for a three-chord trick; something of the film noir about it, I think. I certainly had a couple of grainy cinematic images in mind while writing it. The questions and the silences keep nagging here. |
| Breakthrough
An implied sci-fi story. I don't know if the guns are slung across the desks in aggression or resignation. I do know (still) that time is the real question here. Foxy text. |
| Skin
I wish the Wah-wah pedal used on this still worked! Guy's drums were overdubbed at the Wool Hall; my (then) 16-track had to be hauled up some extremely awkward stairs for the recordings. The last bow of my cha-cha-in-the-living-room organ. |
| Energy Vampires
Ah, that faithful old 33/4 ips Revox echo! This track was originally ten minutes long, but was reduced by drastic editing of the multitrack tape... cut and live with it! Recorded in mid-winter in a rented house where the central heating sent clicks all over the tape; so I had to turn it off and work swathed in sweaters. I should point out that the EV is a specific type, rather than yer "average fan" - whoever that might be. |
| Porton Down
A very germ-ey sound. I'm not so sure at all where it came from. jackson and Smith, on sax and violin respectively, went down last of all, and therefore had only one track each to play with - solo, accompaniment and all.The song itself impels that urgency... |
| Birthday Special
What a silly song. but it has got that mad (overloaded Nadir era) forward drive. Here's too all the parties. |
| Lost and Found
The rhythm section - Guy and Nic - arrived in mid-Wales just in time for the sesssion, direct from Piraeus. the middle section is an afterthought/afterintention to "La Rossa", the VdGG song; it was originally intended as a coda to that version. Better for it to be here. It ties in with the conceit of a getting in a snatch of "Hi-heel Sneakers". You can still hear me retuning the over-hammed guitar in mid-riff down at the end! |
| Central Hotel
Bruxelles. Yes, I found myself on the balcony, looking down on the road works which went on year after year. yes, I keep going on/coming back. The joke stays the same - and so does that buzz of electric guitar. |
