Music today has been Van der Graaf Generator’s The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other (1970), their second album. Despite being released 52 years ago for me it never gets old. The mood, the songs, the instrumentation, Peter Hammill’s incredible voice. The band at this time was David Jackson on sax, Guy Evans on drums, Hugh Banton on keyboards, Nic Potter on bass, and Peter Hammill on lead vocals, acoustic and occasional piano. A magnificent album featuring the poignant Refugees. Here are the lyrics:

North was somewhere years ago and cold
Ice locked the people’s hearts and made them old
South was birth to pleasant lands, but dry
I walked the waters’ depths and played my mind
East was dawn, coming alive in the golden sun
The winds came, gently, several heads became one
In the summertime, though August people sneered
We were at peace, and we cheered

We walked alone, sometimes hand in hand
Between the thin lines marking sea and sand
Smiling very peacefully
We began to notice that we could be free
And we moved together to the West

West is where all days will someday end
Where the colours turn from grey to gold
And you can be with the friends.
And light flakes the golden clouds above all
West is Mike and Susie
West is where I love

There we shall spend our final days of our lives
Tell the same old stories: yeah well
At least we tried
Into the West, smiles on our faces, we’ll go
Oh, yes, and our apologies to those
Who’ll never really know the way

We’re refugees, walking away from the life
That we’ve known and loved
Nothing to do or say, nowhere to stay
Now we are alone
We’re refugees, carrying all we own
In brown bags, tied up with string
Nothing to think, it doesn’t mean a thing
But we’ll be happy on our own
West is Mike and Susie
West is where I love
West is refugees’ home

Music Of The Daze

The musical musings in this post are an excerpt from my daily blog, TO WHERE I AM NOW, featured on my main website. Read the full blog post here.