''H to He, Who Am the Only One'' is the third album by the British

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Van der Graaf Generator Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester by singer-songwriters Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith and the first act signed by Charisma Records. They did not experience much commercial success ...

. It was released in 1970 on

Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van de ...

. The band recorded the album in several stages throughout mid-1970 in

Trident Studios Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...

with producer

John Anthony John Anthony may refer to: *Sir John Anthony (provost) (1862–1935), Scottish businessman who served as provost of Govan, 1904–1908 *John Anthony (physician) (1585–1655), English physician *John Gould Anthony (1804–1877), United States natu ...

. The songs mentioned a killer

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

in "Killer", lost love in "Lost" and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

material in "Pioneers Over c". Bassist

Nic Potter NIC may refer to: Banking and insurance companies * National Insurance Corporation, Uganda * NIC Bank, a commercial bank in Kenya Politics, government and economics * National Ice Center, an agency that provides worldwide navigational ice a ...

left the group in August partway through recording, with

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational ...

Hugh Banton covering on bass guitar in the studio and playing bass pedals in concert.

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session ...

made a guest appearance on guitar, and the cover was the first of several by the band to feature the artwork of Paul Whitehead. The album did not chart in the UK, and contemporary reviews were mixed, but it has since been regarded as a good example of

albums by critics. "Killer" has been singled out for praise as a fan favourite.

Background

The group's previous album, '' The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other'' (February 1970) had achieved a small amount of commercial success and critical acclaim in the UK and Europe. The next project the group attempted was recording the soundtrack to the 1970 film ''

Eyewitness Eyewitness or eye witness may refer to: Witness * Witness, someone who has knowledge acquired through first-hand experience ** Eyewitness memory ** Eyewitness testimony Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Eyewitness'' (1956 film), a Britis ...

'', but it was rejected, largely for being too sinister. They started to develop a live following during 1970, counting film director

Anthony Minghella Anthony Minghella, (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He won the Academy Award for Best Directo ...

as one of their fans, but things backfired after a show at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

in June that drew negative reviews from ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

''s Chris Welch. Around this time, the band decided to write some new material for a follow-up album. The first song to be attempted was "Killer", which came out of a rehearsal that attempted to join fragments of songs together in a deliberate attempt to create something that would be commercially successful. The track was a composite of a basic song structure written by group leader

Peter Hammill Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill (born 5 November 1948) is an English musician and recording artist. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Best known as a singer/songwriter, he also plays guitar and piano an ...

in 1968, an old song written by founding member

Judge Smith Christopher John Judge Smith (born 1 July 1948), is an English songwriter, author, composer and performer, and a founder member of progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Initially working under the name Chris Judge Smith, he has been kn ...

called "A Cloud as Big as a Man's Hand", and a rock riff composed by organist Hugh Banton that he later said was influenced by

The Move The Move were a British rock band of the late 1960s and the early 1970s. They scored nine top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any real success in the United States. For most of their car ...

's "

Brontosaurus ''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from Greek , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of gigantic quadruped sauropod dinosaurs. Although the type species, ''B. excelsus'', had long been considered a species of the closely related ''A ...

". The lyrics referred to a

in the ocean, who becomes lonely through killing everything. "Killer" quickly became a live favourite with fans, and the group's signature track. Hammill wrote "The Emperor in His War Room" about a

tyrant A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to ...

who tortures people indiscriminately but is ultimately haunted by those he has tormented. The music joined together two different sections, a sombre opening and closing combined with a bass-driven rock section in the middle. "Lost" was, uncharacteristically for the band, a straightforward song about lost love and the group added several different instrumental sections into the basic structure. "Pioneers Over c" was co-written by Hammill and saxophonist David Jackson. The song had a strong

premise and was about a group of

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

s who travel faster than the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit fo ...

(hence the "c" in the title) on a relativistic one-way journey that takes them beyond the physical universe. The lyrics are a first-person account of the experience from an astronaut's point of view. The whole band helped with the arrangement, coming up with musical themes to match the lyrical themes of isolation and dissolution. The last track to be written for the album was "House with No Door". Hammill wrote the song on

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

, which was about someone who had difficulty forming friendships and was unable to have meaningful contact with other people. The song is one of several by Hammill to use a house as a metaphor, which would be revisited in subsequent solo work.

Recording

As with previous Van der Graaf Generator albums, the band collaborated with producer

, who had established a good working relationship with the band. However, recording for ''H to He'' was sporadic, and occurred intermittently between gigs throughout 1970. Hammill wanted

's guitarist and bandleader

to play on "The Emperor In His War Room". Fripp had never played as a session musician at that point, but had enjoyed listening to ''The Least We Can Do ...'' and was persuaded to take part by Anthony. Jackson recalled that Fripp "set up all of his stuff, put his headphones on, and started searing away." Fripp played the guitar part twice, having never heard the track before, and a composite of both takes appears on the final recording. Fripp has subsequently introduced Anthony as "the guy who gave me my first session" at events. Fripp would collaborate again with Van der Graaf Generator on their next album, '' Pawn Hearts'', released the following year. The group took a break from recording to play several festivals throughout the summer of 1970. In July, they played at the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and Aachen Festivals with Deep Purple,

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped de ...

and

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started ...

. In August, the group played a show as part of

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

's "In Concert" series, which included "Killer", and performed at the 10th National Jazz and Blues Festival at Plumpton on 9 August. Immediately after the show, bassist

quit the band, before the album was completed (he played on the already recorded tracks "Killer", "The Emperor in His War Room" and "Lost"). The group quickly auditioned Dave Anderson, roadie for Brinsley Schwarz who knew Van der Graaf Generator socially, but the group struggled during rehearsals to form a cohesive sound. As an alternative, Banton, who had a background in classical and church organ music, suggested he could simply play all the bass parts on bass pedals instead, purchasing a

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

to augment his existing

Farfisa Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professiona ...

. Anderson was retained as a

roadie The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This ca ...

. To further expand the sound, Jackson started working with electric saxophones, playing them through effects boxes including a wah-wah. Banton decided to play bass guitar as well as organ for the remaining studio sessions, being familiar with the instrument. "Pioneers Over c" was recorded in sections in the studio, then edited together, making it impossible to perform live in concert. Banton used an oscillator as a musical device to complement that track's lyrical theme. By contrast, "House with No Door" was mostly put down live. The group found the sessions enjoyable despite some of the downbeat themes present on the album, and all found fun in some of the esoteric sounds they were creating. To promote the album, the band went on Charisma's "Six Bob Tour" with

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...

and

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...

. As Van der Graaf Generator had been signed to Charisma the longest, they were the headline act.

Artwork

The cover was drawn by Paul Whitehead, and was inspired by "Pioneers Over c". The front cover was a painting he had already completed, called "Birthday", which showed a beam of light focusing on

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, illustrating Whitehead's birth. The inner gatefold picture was called "Checkmate". "H to He" in the title refers to the fusion of

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...

nuclei to form

helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

nuclei, a basic

exothermic reaction In thermochemistry, an exothermic reaction is a "reaction for which the overall standard enthalpy change Δ''H''⚬ is negative." Exothermic reactions usually release heat. The term is often confused with exergonic reaction, which IUPAC defines ...

between the sun and stars. The first U.S. issue of the album was on the

Dunhill Records Dunhill Records was started in 1964 by Lou Adler, Jay Lasker, Pierre Cossette and Bobby Roberts as Dunhill Productions to release the music of Johnny Rivers on Imperial Records. It became a record label the following year and was distribut ...

division of

ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...

. It featured a revised cover with a white background instead of purple. The mid-priced "Charisma Classics" re-issue from the early 1980s had a blue cover. A re-mastered version of this album added bonus tracks and was released in 2005. One of the additions is a studio version of "Squid / Octopus", a song that had been a staple of early Van der Graaf Generator concerts. Whitehead would go on to draw several other covers for the band, and for other Charisma artists, including Genesis. He became something of a "house artist" for the label in the early 1970s.

Reception

The album was released in December 1970, but did not sell as well as ''The Least We Can Do'', and did not reach the album charts in the UK. Charisma hoped the group could produce another single like "Refugees", released earlier in the year. There was some interest in releasing "Killer" as a single, but the band rejected this as they might have been pigeonholed as a hard rock band. The group felt there was some conflict of interest by having

Tony Stratton-Smith Tony Stratton-Smith (29 October 1933 – 19 March 1987) was an English rock music manager, and entrepreneur. He founded the London-based record label Charisma Records in 1969 and managed rock groups such as the Nice, Van der Graaf Generator an ...

both as manager and record company owner. Contemporary reviews of the album were mainly positive to mixed. ''

'' praised "the brilliance of the songs", '' Sounds'' enjoyed Jackson's sax playing, and ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the '' NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in '' ...

'' thought the band would be "one of the groups most likely to succeed in 1971". ''Disc & Music Echo'' were less favourable, complaining that the group's sound was "distinctive but somehow mainly boring". Retrospective reviews have been positive. In 2000, ''

Q Magazine ''Q'' was a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series ''The Old Grey Whistle Test''. ''Q ...

'' listed the album as one of the best

albums of all time, saying "texturally, they were unmistakable. No guitars, just thick dark layers of organ and saxophone."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

's Mike DeGagne rated the album 4 out of 5, noting that "the brooding tones of synthesizer and oscillator along with Peter Hammill's distinct and overly ominous voice make it one of this British band's best efforts." Paul Stump commented in his 1997 ''History of Progressive Rock'', "The deep soundstage and paradoxically close miking, the gruffly roaring timbres of Hugh Banton's organ and sudden acoustic blips - such as Jackson's astonishing shift into a choked, suffocating acoustic on 'Pioneers Over C' - shaped a nightmare. Odd chords and odd ostinati ('House with No Door') helped - indeed the whole project was by now infested with grotesquerie."

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

Bruce Dickinson Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer who has been the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden from 1981 to 1993 and 1999–present. He is known for his wide-ranging operatic vocal style and energetic stag ...

and Blur's

Graham Coxon Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Cox ...

have both spoken favourably about the album.

Track listing

Personnel

Taken from the sleeve notes

Van der Graaf Generator

– lead vocals,

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, piano on "House with No Door" * David Jackson – alto,

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors i ...

, and baritone saxophone and devices, flute, vocals * Hugh Banton –

Hammond Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in South ...

and

organs, piano, oscillator, vocals;

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

on "House with No Door" and "Pioneers Over c." *

– bass guitar on "Killer", "The Emperor in His War Room", "Lost", and "The Emperor in His War Room (First version)" * Guy Evans – drums,

tympani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Additional personnel

– guitar on "The Emperor in His War Room"

Production

–

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

* Robin Cable –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

* David Hentschel –

assistant engineer Assistant may refer to: * Assistant (by Speaktoit), a virtual assistant app for smartphones * Assistant (software), a software tool to assist in computer configuration * Google Assistant, a virtual assistant by Google * ''The Assistant'' (TV seri ...

* Paul Whitehead – front and back cover ("Birthday"), middle cover ("Checkmate")

References

Notes Citations Sources * *

External links

*
H to He, Who am the Only One (1970)
' at vandergraafgenerator.co.uk

Van der Graaf Generator - ''H to He, Who Am the Only One'' (1970) album review by Mike DeGagne, credits & releases
at AllMusic.com
Van der Graaf Generator - ''H to He, Who Am the Only One'' (1970) album releases & credits
at Discogs.com
Van der Graaf Generator - ''H to He, Who Am the Only One'' (1970) album credits & user reviews
at ProgArchives.com
Van der Graaf Generator - ''H to He, Who Am the Only One'' (1970) album to be listened
as stream at Spotify.com {{Authority control Van der Graaf Generator albums 1970 albums Charisma Records albums Dunhill Records albums Albums produced by John Anthony (record producer) Albums recorded at Trident Studios