“Some bands flirt with the edge. Van Der Graaf Generator routinely operated as if it didn’t exist. Though routine is probably the wrong word, there being nothing remotely normal about anything they ever released. As for Killer (found on their second proper album), I tend to think of it as a white shark’s blues, concerning as it does the travails of just such a creature, loveless, having never known love, forever prowling, forever hungry, never sated, just keep moving, keep eating – oblivion either way.” (Philip Random)
This continues to be Randophonic’s main focus, our overlong yet incomplete history of the so-called Prog Rock era (presented in countdown form) – 661 records from 1965 through 1979 with which we hope to do justice to a strange and ambitious time indeed, musically speaking.
Part sixteen of the journey went as follows:
Kraftwerk – radioactivity
Queen – ’39
David Bowie – Andy Warhol
Barclay James Harvest- in my life
King Crimson -the night watch
King Crimson – Lizard [parts a+b]
Van Morrison – Snow in San Anselmo
Genesis – unquiet slumbers for the sleepers
Genesis – in that quiet earth
Genesis – Afterglow
Van der Graaf Generator – undercover man
Van der Graaf Generator – scorched earth
Hawkwind – you shouldn’t do that [live etc]
Hawkwind – you know you’re only dreaming
Fresh episodes air pretty much every Saturday night, starting 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and download options available within twenty-four hours via our Facebook.
Peter Hammill (aka The Jesus of angst) actually has fun here in a track from his first solo album Pawn Hearts. Dating back to 1971 (the same year that Hammill’s band Van der Graaf Generator called it quits for a while, though they would return to further trouble our dreams), Philip Random wouldn’t actually hear Imperial Zeppelin until at least 1979 at which point it quickly became a key part of the soundtrack to his short, albeit rich “tea drinking period”.
The Solid Time of Change is Randophonic’s latest project, an overlong yet incomplete history of the so-called Prog Rock era – 661 records from 1965 through 1979, presented in countdown form, with which we hope to convey some sense of what was indeed a strange and ambitious time.
Part seven of our journey went as follows:
Van der Graaf Generator – theme one
Roxy Music – in every dream home a heartache
Godley + Crème – I pity inanimate objects
Horslips – King of morning Queen of day
Horslips – ride to hell
Captain Beyond – as the moon speaks
Captain Beyond – Armworth – myopic void
Brian Eno – dead finks don’t talk
Mothers of Invention – oh no
Mothers of Invention – Orange County Lumber Truck
Mothers of Invention – weasels ripped my flesh
Chilliwack – changing reels [edit]
Annexus Quam – osmose 1
Mike Oldfield – Hergest Ridge [fragments]
Anthony Phillips – Henry: portraits from Tudor times
Steve Hackett – hands of the priestess
Steve Hackett – a tower struck down
Steve Hackett – hands of the priestess (2)
Solid Time of Change #8 airs Saturday, July 2nd at 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and download options available within twenty-four hours.
Randophonic’s first ever attempt at a proper Christmas show aired December 20th on CiTR.FM.101.9.
Here it is in two Mixcloud streams.
Plus a very special Movie of the Week — Monty Python’s Pleasures of the Dance.
The podcast of the full program is available for download here …
A special program in which we look back with fondness at cherished memories of Christmases past. Try to anyway, as it turns out the Jukebox is still stuck in minimum 49-percent prog-rock mode after the previous week’s 1974 blowout.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of highlights, seasonal and otherwise.
Sorry about that. The rest are guaranteed highlights, presented more or less in the order they were broadcast.
Van Der Graaf Generator – theme one
Written by George Martin for some TV show or other. Reimagined for drums, keyboards and various horns by Van Der Graaf Generator at their 70s freakout peak.
They don’t say which King Henry, though this strikes us as decidedly Shakespearean. Which raises the question. Where the hell are all the rocked up Shakespearean Christmas carols?
The Clash – if music could talk …
… then we truly would have peace on earth.
Delaney + Bonnie – where the soul never dies
What it’s really all about.
Beatles – Christmas time + The Word
The word is love. The time is now.
Emerson Lake + Palmer – Jerusalem
An interpretation of William Blake’s cosmic musing on Britain’s industrial revolution (those dark Satanic mills) and Jesus Christ himself taking a little walk ‘cross England’s green and pleasant. ELP at their least annoying.
December even mentions the Christ child, but it’s not so much a Christmas song as a meditation on the gloomiest time of year, and how we always seem to find the light to see our way through, which seems to be what spirit’s all about.
Van Morrison – St. Dominic’s Preview
A song about many things, most of them indecipherable, but there is homesickness at the root of it. You think Buffalo’s a long way away? Try Belfast.
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – father of night, father of day
In which the Earth Band manage in ten minutes what Bob Dylan’s original accomplished in less than two. And yet, we’re pretty damned sure that the good Lord has love enough for both.
The band that brought bassoons and krumhorns to rock. And one more time, why is there not more of this sort of Shakespearean groove available this time of year?
Randophonic 
