Van der Graaf Generator
Pawn Hearts

After releasing two near-masterpiece albums like "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" and "H To He - Who Am The Only One", the Van Der Graaf Generator churns out "Pawn Hearts", which is unanimously considered their pinnacle and one of the most important albums in all of progressive music. The album was recorded between June and July 1971 at Tony Stratton Smith's imposing country mansion - the Luxford House - in Crowborough, a small town in Sussex. It's said that the ancient building, surrounded by a large garden, was haunted by ghosts. It was indeed a very dark and gloomy Tudor period villa: it's in this lugubrious atmosphere that this mythical album was recorded. Inside the album cover, the group is depicted giving the Nazi salute, a deliberately provocative gesture. Hammill will return to the theme in "German Overalls", a track from his second solo work "Chameleon In The Shadow Of Night". Initially, "Pawn Hearts" had been conceived as a double album: the first and second sides were to consist of the material eventually published while the third was to feature a "live in studio" performance of the band's classics like "Killer", "Darkness" and "Octopus": the last side was instead to include solo tracks by Hammill, Guy Evans, Hugh Banton, and David Jackson: an operation somewhat like "Ummagumma". The "live" version of "Octopus" can now be heard as a bonus track on the 2005 CD reissue of "H To He" and gives an idea of the raw and explosive potential the Generator was able to reach at the time.

The cover is the work of Paul Whitehead: in the background of planet Earth, one can recognize the figures of Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare, Jesus Christ, Charlemagne, and John Lennon depicted as pawns on a cosmic chessboard: in this way the underlying theme of "Pawn Hearts" was exemplified, where man is a pawn at the mercy of a hostile Universe. The album opens with the lugubrious and suicidal atmospheres of "Lemmings": Lemmings are, in fact, small rodents from the Great North which, according to legend - later proven false - commit mass suicide by drowning themselves in the sea. This story was fueled by a documentary made by Disney in 1958, in which several dozen animals were purposefully transported to a cliff and forced to dive into a river. In any case, the metaphor is perfect according to Hammill for the human race and would also be used - a few months before "Pawn Hearts" - by the Krautrock band Amon Duul II in "Tanz Der Lemminge" (the dance of the Lemmings). The music is supported by Banton's organ, who also tackles the Mellotron and ARP synthesizer in this album, and by the legendary sax of David Jackson as well as the versatile inventiveness of Guy Evans' drumming.

The next track "Man-Erg" is characterized by a touching piano introduction and is considered by fans to be one of their best ever: here Hammill's lyrics delve into the human subconscious and aim to exorcise the unsettling phantoms that lurk within. The masterpiece of the entire album remains the extraordinary suite (almost inevitable for a prog group) "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers", which begins with the famous lines "I'm still waiting for my saviour...": the Lighthouse Keeper, protagonist of this famous piece, lives in a regime of forced isolation in a dwelling at the mercy of the sea. The Keeper bears witness to the catastrophes occurring at sea, when ships, at the mercy of fog and waves, collide and sink. The Keeper's solitude closely resembles an unfinished tale by Edgar Allan Poe, namely "The Lighthouse". In "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers", the listener is catapulted into an atmosphere that is sometimes dramatic and frantic, sometimes seemingly calm but always pervaded by a subtle unease: the music is held together, as usual, by the fundamental contribution of the sax and organ and features the participation of Robert Fripp guesting on guitar.

It must be said that VDGG, compared to contemporary bands like Genesis and Yes, appear more modern in the long run: while these bands told stories of elves and enchanted kingdoms, here we are faced with a grim existential expressionism and a dark-prog "sound" influenced by contemporary music, jazz, and psychedelia, which finds expression in a perfect sonic kaleidoscope. The album surprisingly jumps to the top of the Italian sales charts, bringing the band on tour in our country for many dates.

It should also be noted that "Pawn Hearts" marks the first breakup of the band: but fortunately, there will be other incarnations of the Generator that have lasted until today.