Going To Extremes

I've been trying to get hold of Van der Graaf's 1978 live album Vital on CD for quite some time. One attempt, more than a year back failed as it was reported as unavailable at amazon.com and I just didn't have the energy to try and track it down, despite my curiosity about it. That curiosity was based partly on the fact it was one of those albums that completely passed me by when it was originally released, I guess because I was too focused on professional survival to pay much attention to the world of contemporary music, but based mainly on my awareness of just how highly rated it was in some quarters, whilst being seen as distinctly iffy in others. Its iffiness seemed related to how 'raw' it sounded to some ears - that in itself constituting a major point of attraction for myself.

Not to be deterred, fascination undiminished, I included the disks in my most recent order, only to receive everything else on my list (the crowning glory of which being Dylan's Rough & Rowdy Ways, of which I'll have something to say at a later date) but to find myself left in limbo with regard to Vital. And then it arrived, on its own, late last week.

On the back of the handsome CD booklet there's an image of the original advertisement for the live set from 1978 (when it was priced at 4 pound, seventy-five pence, which I reckon I would have found a tad expensive back then.) The main copy reads: FROM THE MOST EXTREME LIVE BAND IN THE WORLD THE MOST EXTREME LIVE ALBUM. Gentle Reader, trust me when I tell you that for once the advertisers spoke the truth.

On my first play-through I was stunned, and delighted, at the ferocity of it all. Actually, I'd wondered whether the questionable reputation of the album was based on a poor quality of recording - a bit like the infamously wonderful Earthbound of King Crimson -  but in broad terms it's more than acceptable, despite the problem they had with the failure of one channel to record Jaxon's contributions to proceedings such that the reeds and flute needed to be inserted from what had bled into other channels being enhanced. No, as advertised, it was the blistering, take no prisoners attitude of the musicians that had served to alienate some listeners. 

The astonishing version of Pioneers over C sort of sums it all up. The studio version is a splendid piece, veering nicely between the theatrical and melodic as VdGG so often did on the early albums. The version on Vital just tears everything up with glorious contrasts between soft yearning and punk rage. At his most extreme Pete Hammill makes punk admirers like John Lydon sound mild and restrained.

This is not the sort of music one can play with the ladies around. (Dreadfully sexist, I know, but I'm keeping it real.) Yes, vital stuff. (Dreadful pun, I know, but I thought I'd take some chances myself in this final paragraph.)