Van Der Graaf Generator
Recorded live for Belgian TV in 1972, this was – until the arrival of the internet – a rarely seen performance of the band’s side-long epic track, pieced together in the studio and then learnt and adapted for playing live.
A PLAGUE OF LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS
Still waiting for my saviour, storms tear me limb from limb;
my fingers feel like seaweed…I’m so far out I’m too far in.
I am a lonely man, my solitude is true,
my eyes have borne stark witness
and now my nights are numbered, too.
I’ve seen the smiles on dead hands,
the stars shine, but they’re not for me.
I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost…
I shine but, shining, dying, I know that I am almost lost.
On the table lies blank paper and my tower is built on stone;
I only have blunt scissors, I only have the bluntest home.
I’ve been the witnessand the seal of death
lingers in the molten wax that is my head.
When you see the skeletons
of sailing-ship spars sinking low
You’ll begin to wonder if the points of all the ancients myths
are solemnly directed straight at you…
