Peter Hammill- Modern (REACTION//DISCUSSION)

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Song Link: • Peter Hammill - Modern

[@michaelhudson2912]

one of those Hammill classics that sounds like absolutely NOTHING else on the planet.

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

I still wonder how does he makes that heavy low bass sound... It seems a saxofone...

[@AlbertoVO5]

In ‘81 walked through this door and life changed.

[@BaldJean]

This track has no drums in it, but somehow it feels as if there are drums because it is so heavy. It is a live favorite of Hammill; we heard it in many concerts, solo as well as with a band. That instrumental section in the middle really blows you away in live concerts.

[@cameodamaneo]

I never noticed it has no drums! Incredible!

[@ericdupont1326]

Modern times ; Seven Trumpets ; Seven Bowls ; Apocalypse ; Revelation those times are near Peter a genius

[@renepeterse1884]

I’ve heard him play this song many times during the 80’s. Brilliant. Those simple four notes introducing that song, you immediately now its that song.

[@martinpaterson6535]

I saw Van Der Graaf Generator exactly a month ago in Edinburgh: Hammill, Banton and Evans on magnificent form. So glad you are going back to Hammill, and you have the wonders of In Camera and Over ahead of you. As for heavy metal Hammill, that's the Nadir's Big Chance album, especially Nobody's Business and Birthday Special. You are right: Hammill is a genius. I was lucky enough to see him many times in the 1970s, and then again last month!

[@vincenzodisabato6969]

Peter Hammill is incredible. I had the honor of hearing this song live in 2017.

[@chrisogburn8240]

Highly Recommend Hammill: A Louse is Not a Home, In the Black Room, Gog and Magog (in Bromine Chambers) These make Modern look almost like like easy listening.

[@markmaxwell1013]

Justin covered 'Louse' already. It was the first PH solo song he did. PH has such a vast solo catalog I don't know where to begin requests but JP started off well and it seems he is still on track.

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

Never mind all the rest, here's Peter Hammill!

[@gratefultom4210]

Hammill is a genious. That‘s Right. Thank you for your excellent analysis. I agree hundred percent.

[@sicko_the_ew]

Now there's no doubt that that was worth listening to. (No need to have a little argument with oneself first.) Thanks.

[@leoscone4036]

I've seen Hammill perform solo. Playing piano or guitar and singing. It was incredibly draining. He drew on us like a vampire and we were willing victims. Peter is as deep, raw, and bare as it gets.

[@webkahmik]

This is one of his most iconic songs (of which there are a plethora, "Mr. X") I know everyone here is echoing that sentiment. This is beyond prophetic and maps disturbingly close to our current societal landscape.

[@AlbertoVO5]

Great sentence. “maps” is a perfect way to describe it.

[@markofrontz1343]

There's something about Hammell's vocals that does it for me. His accent? Delivery style? Don't know. Don't really care. Wonderful stuf.

[@Cpayne30]

This is one of the best. It's great done completely acoustic as well.

[@lemming9984]

Wonderful. One song from an album chock-full of goodies!

[@didierchapelot5671]

I know every song from PH with or without VDGG and it's my all-time favorite. Each time I listen to it, my spine is chilling. Yes, a genius. Glad you picked it. You should try Gog/Magog from In Camera. Another unique aural experience.

[@jstock2317]

Hammill!!! This song is classic in my mind. Love the fat guitar and also the acoustic guitar. It really takes you on a journey.

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

Justin, I was already sleeping, falling into dream and rest, and clicked on update button and saw this new video of yours... And all the sleep was switched into full attention and expectation. How cannot be listening to this?

[@JustJP]

Lol! I love it :D

[@therealtwiggyleaf]

Thanks for doing this song, my favourite on the album. I know the lyrics are deep but in my opinion, it is Hammill making a comment on "MODERN" society, and warning us not to be "too proud" of what we think we are acheiving, because, as history (or historic myth) shows us, these pinnacles of human acheivement never last. I wonder if his last repeated line "I can't live under water" was purely a reference to the Atlantis stanza, or whether it may also be a somewhat prophetic fear regarding Climate Change. Apart from the possible lyrical meaning, the song is an aural soundscape extraordinaire! "Demonic", as you put it, seems to me an apt expression. 😎

[@fvsch]

I know everyone has given recommendations for other solo Hammill songs and albums, and really if you pick anything from the 70s or 80s it will always be interesting. But my own recommendation would be "Flight". It's the one 20 minute song that I actually enjoy and often go back to. It manages to feel like one piece (unlike, say, most prog "epics" including Supper's Ready) while not feeling like a song stretched out or slowed down for no good reason.

[@outernothingness1177]

Surely you mean "Flight" and not "Patient"?

[@fvsch]

@@outernothingness1177 OMG yes, no idea how I messed that up. Probably because "Patient" comes right before "Flight" on the live album The Margin, and I've listened to that version of Flight more than the studio one.

[@josdurkstraful]

Want metal Hammill? Check out "Ship of fools" from the "Vital" album, it's as heavy as Hammill gets.

[@BaldJean]

Yes; that whole live album of Van der Graaf is EXTREMELY heavy. There are a few quiet passages, but all songs get really heavy somewhere.

[@Pstephen]

@@BaldJean It's all bass, wildly distorted bass guitar, cello, Hammill playing the lower bits of his guitar, ditto Graham smith with his violin, bass sax...

[@Rowenband]

And the album The Noise ! Especially the song of the same name.

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

Vital is the heaviest album by a non heavy band. Rough, frenetic. Forget the violin-cello studio album (the one is just for completists, their (vdg's) worst (non best), avoidable (like the German Hammill solo album) "Pleasure Dome".

[@Rowenband]

@@Eduardo-Ferreira1982 But Vital is a live album, not studio. Justin is mainly doing studio recordings. I like Vital a lot, and yes it's really heavy and agressive.

[@pianocovers4227]

Hi Justin Hammill lover !

[@Rowenband]

I liked your analyse of the lyrics a lot. Thanks for that. And it's so connected with our present time of coming disasters. Makes me rediscover Hammill (which I listen really regularly). Thanks again Justin.

[@JustJP]

Ty Chris :)

[@markmaxwell1013]

AFP till now but this song has been going through my head all day since you posted the city-esque Gershwin tune early. No need to request it now😁 More great quotables from you such as "this feels like life going backwards into the ocean and drowning.":-) That is how the city makes some of us feel. Some love it and good for them but it is just not my thing 🌊🌴⛵🤙 The look on your face when you are trying to unwrap Hammill's lyrics is the look on mine when I am trying to unwrap some of your reactions. How you can think up so many insightful and funny things so quickly amazes me sometimes! You are the best Justin!

[@JustJP]

Haha ty Mark :D Hammill always gives me an abundance to talk about

[@jfergs.3302]

This is the PH I know and love. Think this was my fave track off this disc. And it was never off my walkman, back in the day. Funny hearing it now, out of context, so to speak. Discordant, stark, and with that odd break prior the reprise, but it works. Top prog.

[@MisterWondrous]

This sort of thing came to pass because of folks like Stravinsky and Walt Disney (who did "Fantasia") and others who made music for the imagination. Not for marching, not for dancing. Dreaming. While awake. An early genius mentor turnt me onto Peter and Company in the mid-70s, and, back then, it took a good deal of help from the medicine cabinet to resonate with its dreamlike construction and atmospheres.

[@markmaxwell1013]

Stravinsky cannot be overlooked! He was prog before prog. Justin did do a reaction to Rite Of Spring. I don't know how much chemicals played a part but they were a big deal in the seventies. Interesting how genius minds seem to manage when they get a little older and or have a family and get away from "chemicals." I like to think that the creativity was already there.

[@edgeofnow]

Hammill, a truly diabolical genius !

[@PaulMDove2]

Gershwin and Hammill reactions on the same day. Thank you. You seemed surprised that this wasn't quite what you expected. Although not with the same theatrics as Bowie I think PH's style and character does change from album to album and song to song so you need to expect the unexpected. Especially when he's singing with the voice of his teenage punk rock alter-ego Ricky Nadir. You really do need to listen to more of this, and many other, PH albums. Interesting to hear you say that you think he's composing and singing for himself not the audience because in other songs he's called his fans "Energy Vampires", and in another says that for some of his more obsessive fans he needs a "Nutter Alert". Yet on the three times I met and spoken to him he seemed to be a really nice bloke; but then I think I was quite drunk on one occasion when I said how much I liked that evening's performance of Childlike Faith his response was "We aim to please".

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

Ahah...

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

"Hellishly"? Yes, I realize now (after hundreds listenings...) the hell starts here (wait for In Camera final tracks)...

[@koukouvania]

if i'm not mistaken a lot if not all of this was done on a home studio 4 track (reel to reel) which was a very rare thing in those days

[@markspooner1224]

A really great piece of music! When this popped up I was listening to 'We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal' by Amorphous Androgynous (who are the guys from Future Sound of London) with none other than Peter Hammill. Which I highly recommend.

[@-davidolivares]

That ought to be wild, I’ve heard them with Noel Gallagher, on mixes.

[@markspooner1224]

@@-davidolivares It is very good, Peter sings on the first track which is 11+ mins. I have the vinyl but the CD has bonus tracks.

[@kidflersh7807]

Might as well finish this album. Alot people will tell you to listen to songs from In Camera or Chameleon in the Shadow in the Night, but I HIGHLY reccommned checking out A Black Box. Insanely underrated, he dips into noisey tape loops and pratically makes darkwave before it was invented.

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

Darkwave... Hum, great point!

[@georgesonm1774]

wow that's something else - reminds me of some of work by Coil and Current 93

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

Yeah, Current can be nightmarish sometimes. Like their Island (with Icelandic artists, Bjork included) first track.

[@klaashalma8572]

On the spot, JP! Thanks!

[@dennisdenbrok7690]

Thanks for the great and insightful (even if you tried not to be) reaction. I'm particularly glad about two words: "genius" and "metal", which I wholly agree with. If you'd like to go on a bit of a 'metal' tangent wrt PH, I recommend Robert Fripp -- Disengage (voice: PH!) or PH -- The Emperor in his War Room (Peel Sessions). In the latter, the only accompaniment is the piano, yet to my ears, it sounds even more powerful and 'metal' than the studio version with VdGG.

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

I said it before : he had such power he could make songs without heavy instruments as drums or electric guitar. Just check "Octopus" (with drums but no guitar) or "the comet, the course, the tail" (with acoustic guitar but no drums) or the previous reacted "the lie" (no guitars nor drums) Who other musician did that in pop music history?

[@brelfpv1437]

Such diabolical acoustics have never been heard since. Keiji Haino is the next best thing.

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

It's curious, your thinking on if Hammill was in a metal band. I must say, the first Hammill / vdgg album I listened and own was my life album Pawn Hearts. And one the first thinkings was how similar his voice is as Rob Halford's!

[@willyvlyminck201]

This is how despair sounds , masterpiece!

[@kenl2091]

Love 'Modern'. Hammill at his most Hammillesque. Love the organ, love the distorted bass, love the vocals, love the (very basic - I can play it!) guitar work, love all the other stuff going on and there's a brilliant cover version by Gold Frankincense and Disk Drive out there if you want to search hard. I had this in my Hammill top 10 posted a while back.

[@willyvlyminck201]

It still sounds as otherworldly as It did back than. I had to order the album in Holland back than.

[@uapuat]

Have you done 'A Louse Is Not A Home' yet? That's the masterpiece on this album, I think.

[@nobrains6107]

Agreed

[@BaldJean]

He already did it January last year; here the link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJXSY6uldrKkhsk

[@davidreddick6212]

Justin did review that. Search for Justjp and hammill and you'll find it.

[@georgesonm1774]

Also, I wonder - is it just me or are these lyrics reminiscent of Eliot's The Waste Land (the pre-eminent "modern" poem, which ), with its vision of "Unreal City", "death by water" and the overall apocalyptic vibe? I also feel that the title "Modern" indicates that the descriptions of falling cities in his song form some sort of a diagnosis of modern society/culture - in a similar way as what Eliot conveyed in his poem. What do you guys think - is that a stretch?

[@qtpwqt]

Not sure if you checked out this one yet , if not you should...Nadir's Big Chance

[@lemming9984]

Even better - A Black Box!

[@qtpwqt]

@@lemming9984 Well if we are going there , Over , In Camera , or Fool's Mate

[@vdggmouse9512]

Or Chameleon, Future Now, pH7, Sitting Targets, Enter K, Patience, and on and on.

[@markmaxwell1013]

He did review the title song a while ago.

[@markmaxwell1013]

@@vdggmouse9512 Ditto! Cool you are still around. You and Lemming998 seemed to disappear for a while. It isn't a complete review without seeing what fellow VdGG/PH fans have to say! Just wonder if JP will go forward or backwards with VdGG or stay on PH's solo works.

[@daveking9393]

Works for me. Thank you!

[@benoitrenaud519]

The instrumental parts remind me of the strangest parts of The Lamb, which came out the same year.

[@benoitrenaud519]

David Bowie once said that this was the best album ever. PH was at his peak. No one talk about mental health and existential issues like him. A Louse is not a Home is the ultimate song.

[@boq780_2.0]

I really like this track, especially the music and Hammill's vocal twists and turns. The reference to Scott made me think that one day you should listen to a track from 'Tilt' by Scott, although, that album and those that follow can be tough and unpleasant for the unprepared listener!

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

Yeah, but how can you prepare anyone for that??

[@boq780_2.0]

@@Eduardo-Ferreira1982 I suppose listening to Climate of Hunter followed by a viewing of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle? A nice cup of tea and some reassuring words?

[@Eduardo-Ferreira1982]

@@boq780_2.0 Well, must check that! Thank you! If it works I'll let you know.

[@kentclark6420]

Reminds me a little of David Bowie. Very unique sounds.

[@gendalfsery1]

I do not know about Peter's other albums, but I really hope that in the future you will listen to the album The End, there is a Crying Wolf, Time heals and the Lost is found.

[@BaldJean]

You mean his album "Over" which is about the end of a relationship he had with a woman named Alice; two songs reference her name, "Alice (Letting Go)" and "This Side of the Looking Glass", which is a reference to Lewis Caroll's second Alice book "Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found there". Alice, by the way, is also mentioned on the cover of the VdGG album "The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other"; she is thanked for - the donuts.

[@jameshouston2174]

Red Shift….or Patient

[@toshibautoob]

I will always watch your channel and enjoy seeing/hearing your reactions to music both familiar and unknown to me but I REALLY wish you would return to some Procol Harum albums. There is so much yet to explore and you will be surprised at their range, not all their songs sound like A Whiter Shade of Pale. This would be especially timely with the recent passing of the great Gary Brooker. Try Simple Sister from Broken Barricades (the last album with Robin Trower on guitar) to contrast it with their next album Grand Hotel's song Toujours L'amour (with new guitarist Mick Grabham, who no doubt was playing in much the style of Robin)

[@sammelis6777]

Are you planning to continue reacting the Bowie albums any time soon? No pressures. I’m just really looking forward to those :)

[@sammelis6777]

Christian Adams probably Low or Aladdin Sane