In the rapid history of rock, sometimes everything is organized into comfortable pigeonholes. On the one hand, progressive rock. On the other, punk. On the one hand, the ambitious albums. On the other, urgency. Lie: it is enough to look and listen a little better to the biography of Johnny Rotten and Luca Prodan so that that border is broken.
At the end of April 1976, Van der Graaf Generator published Still Lifeone of the most intense albums by Peter Hammill and company. Fifty years later, the album’s anniversary also brings another story: that of a musician admired by John Lydon and heard by Luca Prodantwo names that are enough to dismantle the idea that everything ended in punk.
Geoff Barton, journalist for the English magazine Soundswas categorical: “Still Life is an essential album. “If you think you have problems, listen to Hammill.”
When Johnny Rotten chose Peter Hammill: punk before punk
The Sex Pistols could wear their famous «I hate Pink Floyd» t-shirt. But In July 1977, in his musical selection for Capital RadioJohn Lydon included two solo songs from Peter Hammill: “The Institute of Mental Health, Burning” and “Nobody’s Business.” More than a random statement or provocative sympathy, he chose to put Van der Graaf Generator’s leader on air as part of his own musical education.
One more day as a guest on the radio or a date that disregarded commonplaces? That is to say: punk did not appear out of nowhere nor was it fed only by simple and frontal sounds.
British anarchy also took audacity from strange, tense and theatrical artists. Hammill brought that: a physical intensity in his voice, an urban darkness and a way of pushing songs to the limit that are much closer to that world than the “progressive” sticker lets you imagine.
Luca Prodan, a record player with his own ear
Before Sumo and before Argentina, Luca Prodan He already had a musical education done between punts. In London he worked at Virgin Records, in Marble Arch, in the midst of the punk explosion.
I sold records, I listened to new things, I saw strange things happen. learned something that would later be in Sumo: that a song could come from progressive, reggae, punk. Or the luminous post-punk darkness, as he sings Magazine en su clásico «The light pours out of me»: The cold light of day / It flows from me / Leaving me in the darkness / And it’s so healthy… The light emanates from me»
That’s why in their musical chess they could coexist Van der Graaf Generator, Genesis, Joy Division, Sex Pistols, The Clash y Bob Marley. But without forced eclecticism or posturing: record shop craftsmanship, trained ear and lethal curiosity.
Why Still Life doesn’t sound like classic prog
The specialized Argentine journalist Marcelo Gobello explained it with a precise image: if progressive rock were a cathedral, Pink Floyd would be in the towers, Genesis in the gardens, King Crimson in the rooms and Van der Graaf Generator in the catacombs..
And that is also felt in Still Life. There are five songs, 44 minutes and 57 seconds, with a classic lineup (voice, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, sax) in a state of permanent tension. There is complexity. But there is also nerve, dirt and a sense of danger that separates it from the more ornamental progressive.
Still Life, Johnny Rotten and Luca Prodan
50 years after his departure, Still Life no es domesticable. They recorded it in Rockfield, in January 1976, with Hammill, Hugh Banton, Guy Evans y David Jackson together again after Godbluff’s return. They didn’t want to sound nice: it’s Van der Graaf Generator at work with long songs, sax, organ, abrupt changes and a voice that’s impossible to tame.
No song is too much. “Pilgrims” opens with a kind of march filmed in an aberrant shot; “La Rossa” takes desire to an almost theatrical place; “My Room” lowers the intensity without becoming mushy; and “Childlike Faith in Childhood’s End” closes with a huge question put in song format. Pure Hammill: big ideas, sung as if they were a physical problem.
And then it is understandable that it has reached listeners like Johnny Rotten and Luca Prodan. Rock energy that is not from a museum. Still Life it could come from progressive, but it doesn’t sound clean or comfortable. He has drama and a way of singing that is closer to overflow than applied virtuosity.
In Argentina, furthermore, that link was not just a distant influence. Since his first visits to Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata and Rosario in the 90sPeter Hammill was building his own fidelity, outside the mass circuit but also absolute secrecy.
And not by chance, “La Rossa” and “Still Life” always appeared among the songs most requested by that audience. That place helps to understand the album: Still Life keep rearranging lockers.
