Drummer reacts to "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" by Van Der Graaf Generator

[@L33Reacts]

This should be regarded as one of the most ambitious and abstract prog epics of all time. This is the real deal, authentic, 100% beef, rocking out with it's cocking out, progressive rock. And wow, does it not challenge you to be... more? Thank you so much for watching y'all! It means the world to me, it really does. If you want to help support the channel, please consider liking this video and subscribing to the channel. If you would like to make a request or just send a one time donation, here's how! @L33Reacts - PayPal WWW.PATREON.COM/L33REACTS Thank you so much. A donation of any amount will get your named added to the supporter video that plays at the end of every video.

[@GerhardKlingholz]

i thank you so much for your comments, i think, you met the point, but we are all a part in the lyrics changes with we are all apart. i bought this album in 1973 at the age of 16..have agood time bro

[@MTheoOA]

It's the most beautiful philosophical darkness in music. This is a epic, artistic, full of emotions, and it's transcendent when you compare the whole song with just the lyrics. It's insane. I love them, it's like the bless light you got only from Yes, but it's a black bless light

[@L33Reacts]

the darkness shines just as bright sometimes, but most avert their eyes...

[@Olive-gd3wn]

And so underrated!!😢

[@Olive-gd3wn]

And so underrated!!😢

[@heinzmuller159]

For me personally, Peter Hamill is the greatest Lyricist in the Rock-Music History of all Time. He also is a great Composer as well as one of the best vocalists at all. Other very good Tracks from VdGG for example are: 'Killer' (the first Track from the same Album 'Pawn Hearts') and 'A House with no Room' from their second Album 'H to He' - I am the only One'. Have a good 'Halloween' ☺Kind Regards Heinz.

[@garri5108]

Yep he is in my top with Peter Gabriel.

[@Elvin_Pelvin]

ahem! 'Killer' - is the first track from 'H to He ...'

[@rareearth97]

There is no next level after this, after hearing this song you will never be the same.

[@L33Reacts]

I tend to agree.... This was unlike any experience I've ever had with music. It was almost like a legit trip.

[@flowersnyams]

Exactly how I feel. This is the very pinnacle of English progressive music, indeed, of modern musical composition in general. Just superb

[@VladimirChupin]

@@L33Reacts Music as a drug substitute, yes. No need to take in any chemical substances, this music will transport you to the same places.

[@L33Reacts]

You are dead on the money Vlad! I just wish I had learned that a few years earlier then I actually did... I probably wouldn't in be such a hole to start my family off... but hey... it's worth the struggle. Every tear and every drop of blood will be worth it one day. This music is magic

[@VladimirChupin]

@@L33Reacts To be honest, I don't think it's possible, to start with the milder awakening tools. Chemical substances are harsh and damage the body, no doubt, but they shake our overconfidence and stubbornness and crack our shell open. I have never seen a person who would really be able to break out of the jail of common stupidity without first passing through that stage of substance abuse. I really think it's necessary. But it's important to pass this stage as quickly as possible. The substances do a lot of damage. But it's a deadly poison used to cure a deadly disease. After all, what's the point in preserving your health, if in the end you die anyway, with the only difference that you never achieve any understanding?

[@benoitrenaud519]

The contrast between this and Supper’s Ready always struck me. One is about loneliness and the other about togetherness. Like Genesis wanted to bring hope to answer Hammill’s despair.

[@L33Reacts]

that is such an interesting way to look at this... and it fits. its almost like they were "Hey bud, it's ok!" haha

[@TrevRockOne]

"All things are a part All things are apart" It's written both ways in the lyrics.

[@L33Reacts]

Such a good line. He is very clever lol

[@ErwinBlonk]

@@L33ReactsHe did the same with “And now my nights are numbered too\two”. The end of the song he leaves it open, as he said in interviews, to the listeners if the protagonist comes out with resignation yet alive, or sought freedom in suicide. There many two-sides aspects to this song.

[@ErwinBlonk]

It’s up to the listener. He said as much in interviews.

[@KarlElvis]

This song is a real mind-blower. I feel like this record changed my life when I heard it a few years back. The dynamics, the crescendos, the emotion. It’s unlike anything else. The album title is actually a spoonerism, supposedly something David Jackson said. If you spoonerise ‘horn parts’ in a British accent, it’s ’porn hearts’. 😆

[@L33Reacts]

porn hearts! LOL thats great. everyone was so clever back in the day... not so much these days lol. thank your for watching karl. i truly appreciate it.

[@PJprog]

We are all blessed to have lived within this era and time space of music like this. It certainly is , as you say , an art form for the ears and the more you listen to this band ( and Hammill's solo work ) you realise what absolutely immortal music it is !! Beautiful and Bonkers in equal measure. Alright I don't listen to VDGG every day but they are such an important part of my musical and lyrical life. Amen. 😍

[@benoitrenaud519]

Hammill was inspired and a raw tallent. Never gets old.

[@ericjurgens6976]

I first got into VDGG when I was 15 or so. Hammill’s words capture complex and melancholic emotions more than most, and his ability to change the texture of his voice is unmatched.

[@LambLiesDownOnBroadway]

This is a true gothic masterpiece. One of the BEST Prog Epics of all time. 10/10!!! 🖤

[@maciejkrasuski]

I had to listen this around ten times to access *some* parts of this epic. This is The Art for sure. Note, that this is the first prog epic and one of the most important ones... Many further long prog suites were inspired by this, for sure. Please try other tracks on this album "Lemmings" and Man-erg" are incredible. This album is whole perfect - TOP5 of prog music. Hammill is genius and coleagues are virtuozzos...

[@raymondregis6219]

During their tour for this album Genesis was the opening act (Foxtrot era). Steve Hackett 'borrowed' a riff from the middle of this song for 'Slogans' from his Defector album.

[@mrwiffler9942]

You really need to hear the Peter Hammill song "Accidents". "Accidents" to Peter Hammill is what "Red" is to King Crimson.

[@grahamhowes6904]

They used a simple effect in the middle of the trippy part with the foghorn. The buzzing in the background is a battery shaver placed on top of a grand piano and miked. One of their more haunting pieces.

[@mannycalavera6011]

"When tone-clusters are not used, the harmonic language of the piece is perverse, especially in the tart and unsettling chordal sequence of the finale's hollow grandiosity, which sounds as if it is being played by a ghostly silver band. Such two-fisted vehemence was unique in rock at the time, let alone in Progressive - it was the stuff cults were made of". Paul Stump, History of Progressive Rock.

[@Raiderblack]

Pawn Hearts! A great album... Haunting Song!

[@Alix777.]

Absolute love this track, its rawness, madness and paranoid vibe. Peter Hamill is just possessed. I think it's an overlooked masterpiece. In my top 2 with Supper's Ready.

[@L33Reacts]

that is a wonderful description of the energy felt in this song. raw, mad, and paranoid. This was fantastic, seriously.

[@peterculshaw5651]

All things are a part - also all things are apart... The man in the lighthouse might be stuck behind his phone, atomised, drowning, but is also divine

[@progperljungman8218]

You know, they were on the Charisma label together with Genesis. VDGG were the bigger band in the beginning (since more established). Genesis were going comparatively more mainstream, hence gathering a bigger audience (I said COMPARATIVELY mainstream!😊) By the way, Steve Hackett (Genesis guitarist 71-77) nicked a passage from this for the main theme of his instrumental solo track Slogans. Anyways, amazing track! Hope you were sincere when stating you liked it that much at first listen. I sure had quite a rough time getting into them at first....

[@ErwinBlonk]

The song is using the analogy of a lighthouse keeper seeing a ship in danger but helpless to do anything about it. Early in the song you hear imitations of ship horns and steam engines. By the end of the song the rhythm and structure (I’m missing knowledge of proper technical terms) imitates waves. The protagonist feels detached from life and helpless. Does he end up resigned and alive, insane end alive, or taking his own life. At any rate he found peace in however it turned out. It’s up to the listener how it ends and it say something about that listener. Hammill often likes to leave room for his audience.

[@lemming9984]

Pawn Hearts is a Spoonerism of "Horn Parts" by Jaxon when they were recording this.

[@porflepopnecker4376]

Side one of this album is equally great. Amazingly, these guys could play "Lighthouse" live and make it sound good. I think there's a video of it on KZbin somewhere. Now I'd love to see you react to some Nektar, especially their album "Recycled" which I think is one of the greatest prog albums of all time. And also such Nektar albums as "Remember the Future", "A Tab in the Ocean", and "Magic Is a Child."

[@L33Reacts]

i will add them to the list, sounds like fun :D thank you for watching my friend. I saw there was a live video for this but I forced myself to do the studio instead. I know the sound would be 10000x better

[@porflepopnecker4376]

@@L33Reacts Yeah, I almost always prefer studio versions, with some exceptions like "Supper's Ready" from the "Seconds Out" album, side one of "Yessongs", "Peel the Paint/I Lost My Head" by Gentle Giant, and a few others. Thanks for the reply!

[@axolotl8694]

thanks for this... nice to have an excuse to revisit. it's been referenced in other comments but the other two long tracks off this album, Lemmings and Man-Erg, are pretty phenomenal too. Plague is the epic but you'll have fun with both the other two too. Man-Erg especially... one of their strongest tracks.

[@L33Reacts]

I will do Man-erg next... it was either that or this for this video so i was planning on doing it next anyway! i am so glad you enjoyed it... this was a hell of a ride lol

[@Olive-gd3wn]

" Peter Hammill is the jimmy Hendrix of the voice" Robert Fripp

[@ericjurgens6976]

Fripp on guitar is just gilding the lilly!

[@paulhooton6261]

It's hard to say what a genius Peter Hamill is. I especially like the Van Der Graaf stuff but Peter's solo stuff also has plenty of great music ("A louse is not a home" immediately comes to mind). I have always admired what he did on a song called "A way out" where he strings together phrases that contain the word "Out" eg Out of order, out of control. His genius is that this seems to sound like a proper lyric that makes perfect sense.

[@yes_head]

This is pretty good prog for Halloween. A haunted lighthouse keeper musing on death. Almost every early prog band had its album-side epic, and this was Van der Graaf's. But yeah -- abstract, angular, atonal, angry... there are times when Van der Graaf makes Gentle Giant sound like the Beach Boys. Re: the cover art, it's the same guy who painted early Genesis covers, Paul Whitehead.

[@markmaxwell1013]

Gentle Giant like The Beach Boys. That's funny and I'm a huge Gentle Giant fan!

[@wendellwiggins2900]

My most cherished VDGG album. A true fluid mysteriously epic masterpiece! Finally after 60 years ONENESS has become a genetic mantra of the masses yet most still cling to the delusion of a Separate Gawd or a FORCE Beyond. If you can't perceive IT then IT doesn't exist except in your imagination. So the highest WAY for anyone EVER to comprehend THE ULTIMATE SOURCE is through NATURE which includes EVERYTHING in Existence. Science/ Math is the tool with which we best Understand GAWD through NATURE. IT'S the essence of ALL that is within and manifest the spiritual, physical, mental, emotional aspects of reality! not delusion and fairytales. AND LOVE IS THE KEY to finding IT! THE UNI-VERSE (one-cycle) and everything we have yet to know and will NEVER know of GAWD!

[@L33Reacts]

When I say God i don't mean the judeo-christian deity yahweh or El. I am speaking of the God of gods. You may call it whatever you like, the source, one, sin, I don't care. But the realms that lie outside and around our own are beyond your understanding unless you've actually seen it. Nature is but one of many ways to commune with God. When you ask something, he always answers. But not with words. He speaks to you through your reality and the world around you. Man has done what he has always done, corrupt and abuse. We have been given a gift beyond our wildest dreams and yet we still doubt that something greater than us has designed and planned every single atoms entire existence? I think this is a 'simulation' of life. Designed for whatever purpose... I could only imagine... but the proof is everywhere that we are just running in a system of sorts. I am VERY good at recognizing patterns and I see them in so many different places that I shouldn't. But hey, great song dude 🫠

[@webkahmik]

@@L33Reacts Thar ya go. This song literally changed my life at age 14, back in the hazy halcyon days of 1980(!) Here's a bit of a poem I just rendered which sort of fits with the themes you are hitting on, Just wrote it: But for grace we go without sustenance without the ability to prehend, to apprehend the knowables, not as simply objects of thought but implementations of the fire

[@wendellwiggins2900]

@L33Reacts I feel you and perceive IT ALL as you do as well. My use of YOU was plural & was not aimed at you specifically. The only difference in our perspective is that I perceive GAWD as NATURE in the broadest sense possible. ALL is NATURE. Not One Way but Everything. Even what is beyond what we can perceive just like the rest of the UNI-VERSE that we have not and can not detect. IT IS THE DIVINE & the entangible FORCE flowing in, through around Controlling and Determining ALL THAT IS. A Creator suggests there is more. I don't perceive a Creator. I perceive IT as having ALWAYS been even before this season. of Stars & Light & Life which will not last. GAWD is the FORCE ever morphing & we are just a microcosmic part of THY process. Everything that exists is an aspect of GAWD or a part of GAWD in disguise needing to be recognized as such. Even You! No Separatism! ALL is ONE is GAWD. YOUNIVERSOUL! This is GAWD! "WE HAVE HEAVEN" is another YES song you must hear! Glad to got to the Divine OLIAS by Jon! Pure HEAVEN revealed through sound!

[@VladimirChupin]

@@L33Reacts *It behoveth him who is a wayfarer in the path of God and a wanderer in His way to detach himself from all who are in the heavens and on the earth. He must renounce all save God, that perchance the portals of mercy may be unlocked before his face and the breezes of providence may waft over him. And when he hath inscribed upon his soul that which We have vouchsafed unto him of the quintessence of inner meaning and explanation, he will fathom all the secrets of these allusions, and God shall bestow upon his heart a divine tranquillity and cause him to be of them that are at peace with themselves.* (Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 25-26)

[@Qkano]

It's worth watching the LIVE version of this to understand what it's about (and why they never palyed it live as one piece) Though the sound quality is MUCH better on this studio version. Van Der Graaf Generator - A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers (1972) kzbin.info/www/bejne/hF63iX6apM5rjbM

[@TheBRBvideos]

An incredibly influential track and lyric. Over the decades fragments of it's imagery have turned up in other media, including movies and novels.

[@sylvanm4216]

I enjoy the "all things are apart"/"all things are a part" ambiguity of the ending. Was the narrator's great revelation that everything is connected to a greater whole? Or that nothing is connected and we are all alone forever? Oops, he forgot to clarify! As for your next stop in the VDGGverse, I would recommed "Childlike Faith in Childhood's End".

[@TheBRBvideos]

The guitar at the end is by guest Robert Fripp (King Crimson).

[@leureo9879]

No it´s not - it´s Hugh Banton and organ.

[@jstock2317]

my holy prog trinity Yes, VDGG and Jethro Tull correspond to the 3 alchemical stones. Yes is the good white stone. VDGG is the shadow black stone. Jethro Tull is the passionate red stone. i think they provide balance with each other and have the depth to take up years of your time. (and the solo albums lol)

[@L33Reacts]

hope, fear, passion hopefully I have enough time left to really sit with these masterpieces and let them do some real work.

[@jstock2317]

the first proper prog song i ever heard... literally just listened to this one today!

[@L33Reacts]

great minds think alike my friend! :D

[@Larsangel]

VdGG are so great, next listen to "La Rossa". A great piece of music. You should also check out a norwegian band called Wobbler. A band who embraces the 70s prog sound, their last 2 albums "From Silence to Somewhere" and "Dwellers of the Deep" are amazing.

[@lemming9984]

I'd heard so much good of Wobbler over the last few years so I bought Dwellers of the Deep. Love the music - hate the vocal! I'd have played it a lot more if there was a different vocalist.

[@Larsangel]

@@lemming9984 I got a similar problem with Rush, okay music but the vocals are so off-putting for me.

[@Icannothandleany]

Check out Man Erg. It's nuts.

[@L33Reacts]

next week is man-erg :D

[@TheFriendlyBushlion]

I'm so happy to hear about your re-connection with God! The same happened with me recently, as well! Love this album BTW. Heard it for the first time over 15 years ago in high school, but I didn't quite know what to make of it then. Revisited it around 10 years later and got kinda obsessed with it lol.

[@devinmcphee7633]

Hi there, big watcher of KZbinrs like you who react to prog epics like this - but most importantly I really loved your religious dive at the end there, it was very enlightening to hear you speak about your trials and tribulations with religion and I loved hearing about it. Thank you for sharing that.

[@gregjones861]

Frankenstein dreams on royal jelly...

[@neilparnell5712]

I myself see Man Erg and APoLK as a pair of songs showing two different views of men wondering who they are in the face of their shortcomings but one ends with redemption and the other with damnation. How can I be free? How can I get help? Am I really me? Am I someone else? I am a lonely man...my solitude is true my eyes have borne stark witness and now my nights are numbered too. It seems to me that the human condition theme from Man Erg, where he questions who he is but at the end realises he is ''just a man'' with faults but seems to be accepting of knowing who he is. Man Erg for me ends on an uplifting note but this is inverted in APoLK where the keeper questions whether he is responsible for the wrecks and deaths he has witnessed and is wracked by guilt for all he has done or has failed to do and again states '' I'm just a man'' but only after seeing the lemmings coming which seems to signify impending doom (suicide ?) He seems accepting of his fate in the face of all his past experiences. What genius songwriting to make me dig so deeply into my own psyche for answers (and we all see some of the keeper in ourselves I am sure - I know I do) to try and make sense of it all !!!! Jeez, Hammill sure makes you think..................

[@axolotl8694]

that slow building organ just a few minutes in... it's like Tony Banks on LSD. and I mean that in the nicest way. don't mean to belittle Hugh Banton in any way... he's up there neck / neck with Banks, Emerson, Wakeman on the all-timers list. also, if you just want to rock out for a quick couple minutes to Peter Hammill, check out Fripp's solo album Exposure - "I may not have had enough of me..."... contains one of my favorite bits. machine elves? DMT?

[@zigzag2510]

Guy Evans suona da diiiiiiiio!!!! Ascoltatelo in "In Camera" !❤

[@juhist4598]

You have to do Childlike faith in Childhoods end next!

[@L33Reacts]

I will add it to the list, thank you!! :D

[@markmaxwell1013]

PLEASE!

[@1183newman]

man-erg is the best track on this album in mine and many peoples opinion.

[@markmaxwell1013]

That's the song that makes the VdGG light bulb go on for so many people including myself!

[@michaelpotts2964]

Awesome stuff. Now do The Lie by Peter Hammill it will blow you away!!!

[@L33Reacts]

I plan on doing some solo Peter stuff soon! I think he's earned it after all the great songs in VDGG!

[@michaelpotts2964]

It's such a pleasure to watch your reactions to some of these classic pieces of genius by some of the most talented musicians. And the surface has only been scratched. What a journey!@@L33Reacts

[@willyvlyminck138]

Imagine that PH was only 22-23 by than

[@L33Reacts]

Jesus.... he must have had some real shit happen to him. Kinda like me. That's crazy

[@Grithron2]

When Lee talks of "sounds from dreams" - I wonder does he ever suffer from either sleep-paralysis episodes or auditory hallucinations when inbetween full sleep and wakefulness? (As a willing victim of the psychological-abuse that is "religion", would he even understand that that was what had happened?)

[@L33Reacts]

I'm not a part of any religion. I believe in a higher power. I call it God because it's easier then what it's real name is.

[@L33Reacts]

And I'll let you In on a little secret... I've seen it work in real time. 😳 I didn't seek it out, it uh.... just kinda found me.

[@L33Reacts]

And yes I have suffered sleep paralysis. Usually from attempted lucid dreaming. And If that's what you want to call it, I absolutely do hear stuff that is unexplainable when in between waking up and sleeping and going to sleep in general. What would you call it?

[@ErwinBlonk]

The sounds of dreams are meant to imitate ship horns. A bit later you hear steam engines.

[@L33Reacts]

I love how this dude commented this shit and never replied LOL