Van der Graaf Generator - People You Were Going To / Firebrand 7" (1968)

Before posting the "almost complete" Van Der Graaf Generator BBC sessions (and make the fuck shut up this blog that shat on my uncomplete version), I'll reup the individual singles of this great band with the true single versions of the songs and some "did-it-myself" cover sleeves. Here the first one, released in December 1968 and not with the classic VDGG line-up. But interesting for completists like me (and you I'm sure). Catch it here.

Here's the first post from a series about the singles published by one of my fave bands all styles confounded: Van der Graaf Generator. Of course it's mainly because of my admir- ador- ation for Peter Hammill this band is so important to me but not only. And this series will show you how they could compete with the most chart-winning artists when came the time to create great songs with ultimate melodies and arrangements. This first single did not feature the classic line-up since Chris Judge Smith and Keith Ellis were still in the band. The A-side is rather familiar to Hammill's fans since it was rearranged by him 7 years later on his Nadir's Big Chance album. The 2 versions are quite different but both worth the listen. The B-side is not very satisfying, experimentally dated, and the voice of Smith is not a sapid choice to listen to. This single (without sleeve, so I did one with an Alfred Kubin drawing since this artist fits perfectly the Hammill's world in VDGG) was short-lived since Capitol asked Polydor to withdraw it because they were under contracts with them. Moreover, Peter Hammill did not add it to the reissue on Fie! records of the Aerosol Grey Machine album, so that it can be found only as bonus tracks on the German Repertoire reissue of the same album.


The nucleus of the band at the time: Smith, Hammill, Banton


Reverend Hammill with Judge Smith

People You Were Going To. Your father has just left your mother, gone off to live with his latest lover: she sits there, just staring. So you get back to your own flat because the atmosphere in there is so bad you can't bear it. And the people you were going to America withjust left on the dawn plane without you, without you. The people in the downstairs flat are no longer there now because they left the gas tap on, they're all dead. So you've no-one left to talk to, you just lie there in melancholy, half-naked on your unmade bed. And the people you were going to Africa with just left on the Southern Star without you, without you. Yes, the haze that's been forming round your window-panesis now protracted and poisonedand you cannot feel a portionof the world outside.Can you imagine the way you'd feel if all these things had happened to you and the doctor says you're dying? That is the way that I feel now on finding that your love belongs to someone else and not I. My chance of heaven has just blown away upon a passing cloud and there is nothing that I can do without you. The people you were going tohave left, gone far away and you're lonely.

People You Were Going To