A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
| "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Van der Graaf Generator | |
| from the album Pawn Hearts | |
| Released | October 1971 |
| Recorded | July–September 1971 |
| Length | 23:04 |
| Label | Charisma |
| Composer(s) | Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton, Guy Evans, David Jackson |
| Lyricist(s) | Peter Hammill |
| Producer(s) | John Anthony |
"A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" is a track from the English band Van der Graaf Generator's fourth album Pawn Hearts (1971). It is a concept piece over 23 minutes long, which comprises the whole B-side of the album. "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" evolved in the studio, recorded in small sections and pieced together during mixing. The song has many changes in time signature and key signature, and even incorporates some musique concrète.
"A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" was recorded at intervals between gigs. It was recorded in small sections that were pieced together during mixing, and it took about three to four months to record, non-continuous. According to producer John Anthony, the track features a lot more studio experimentation than on previous albums, saying "we pushed the facilities at Trident to the limit and had involved the use of every single tape machine in Trident at some stage." The experiments included tape manipulation and Hugh Banton experimenting with Mellotron and synthesizer. According to David Jackson, one section of it features the entire band overdubbed 16 times.Robert Fripp provided a cameo appearance on electric guitar, which can be heard from 8:10–10:20 into the song and near the end of the song. (Fripp also had a cameo on Pawn Hearts track "Man-Erg".)
Peter Hammill, interviewed by Sounds, said: "It's just the story of the lighthouse keeper, that's it on its basic level. And there's the narrative about his guilt and his complexes about seeing people die and letting people die, and not being able to help. In the end – well, it doesn't really have an end, it's really up to you to decide. He either kills himself, or he rationalises it all and can live in peace... Then on the psychic/religious level it's about him coming to terms with himself, and at the end there is either him losing it all completely to insanity, or transcendence; it's either way at the end... And then it's also about the individual coming to terms with society – that's the third level..."
...
Wikipedia