The song describes the feelings of loneliness and isolation of a killer shark, because he is killing everything.
Any Van der Graaf Generator fans in the house? I’ve been listening to these guys since high school. They were perfect for a pretentious teenager who loved science fiction and wanted to be an artist.
This band gets pigeon-holed as prog rock, but I really couldn’t fit them into any genre at all. They don’t sound like anybody else.
They’ve got this bizarre lineup of instruments with compositions driven by organ, saxophone, and vocals. Sometimes they don’t even have a drummer and usually they don’t have a guitar!
Peter Hammill is one of the weirdest vocalists I’ve ever heard. He’s this operatic, theatrical crooner, but when he really gets going he can screech, howl, and scream like the meanest punk singer. His lyrics are delightfully overwritten, and only this wildman could possibly perform them properly.
I mean, check out this gnarly except from that shark song above:
On a black day in a black month
At the black bottom of the sea
Your mother gave birth to you
And died immediately
'Cause you can’t have two killers
Living in the same pad
And when your mother knew that her time had come
She was really rather glad
The guy delivers this convincingly! It’s magic!
This band is so nerdy, but in such a fun 70’s new wave sci-fi way. They have songs about:
- Transhumanism
- Apocalyptic floods
- Faster than light travel leading to psychedelic existential confusion
- A plague of sleepwalkers
- A plague of lighthouse keepers
- The perils of immortality
And each of these incorporates some kind of overwrought half-convincing philosophical metaphor. It’s great!
The song at the top of this post is the fan favorite, and the one below is a personal favorite:
