''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) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

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 Judge Smith, Chris Judge Smith. They were the first act signed by Charisma Records. They did not experience much ...

. It was released on 20 December 1970 on Charisma Records. 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. The songs' lyrics refer to a killer

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

in "Killer", isolation and loneliness in "House With No Door", lost love in "Lost" and

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

material in "Pioneers Over c". Bassist

Nic Potter Nic Potter (18 October 1951 – 16 January 2013) was a British bassist, composer and painter, best known for his work with the group Van der Graaf Generator in the 1970s. Biography Nic Potter was born in Wiltshire and left school at 15, origin ...

left the group in August partway through recording, with

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

Hugh Banton Hugh Robert Banton (born 25 April 1949) is a British musician and electronic Organ (music), organ builder, most widely known for playing organ and keyboards with the group Van der Graaf Generator. Career Banton was born in April 1949 in Yeovil, ...

covering on bass guitar in the studio and playing

bass pedals Bass pedals are an Electronic instrument, electronic musical instrument with a foot-operated pedal keyboard with a range of one or more octaves. The earliest bass pedals from the 1970s consisted of a Pedal clavier, pedalboard and analog synthesi ...

in concert.

King Crimson King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald (musician), Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Guitarist Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the ...

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is an English musician, composer, 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 mu ...

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'', 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 directed ''Truly, Madly, Deeply (film), ...

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, England. 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 G ...

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. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

''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 which tried 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 and ...

in 1968, an old song written by founding member Judge Smith called "A Cloud as Big as a Man's Hand", and a rock riff composed by organist

that he later said was influenced by

The Move The Move were a British Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1965. They scored nine Top 40, 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 ...

's "

Brontosaurus ''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from the Ancient Greek, Greek words , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in present-day United States during the Late Jurassic period. It was describe ...

". 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 List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s who travel faster than the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...

(hence the lower case "c" in the title) on a relativistic one-way journey that takes them beyond the

physical universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

. 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 A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, 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 John Anthony at

, 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 ''Pawn Hearts'' is the fourth album by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, released on 12 November 1971 on Charisma Records. The original album features just three tracks, including the side-long suite "A Plague of Lighthouse ...

'', 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 is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

Festivals with

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

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

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

and

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English British folk rock, folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson (musician), Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Marti ...

. 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 Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

'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

instead, purchasing a

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

to augment his existing

Farfisa Farfisa () 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, Professional and VIP ranges, and later, a se ...

. Anderson was retained as a roadie. 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 Oscillation is the repetitive or periodic variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Familiar examples of oscillation include a swinging pendulum ...

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: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

and

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

. 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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, 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 a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

nuclei to form

helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...

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 define ...

that takes place in the Sun and other stars. The first U.S. issue of the album was on the Dunhill Records 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 Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band. The group felt there was some conflict of interest by having

Tony Stratton Smith Tony Stratton Smith (born Anthony Mills Smith; 11 August 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, V ...

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 published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...

'' 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 British popular music magazine. 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'' was published in print in the ...

'' 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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'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 music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

Bruce Dickinson Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer who is best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Dickinson has performed in the band across two stints, from 1981 to 1993 and from 1999 to the present d ...

and Blur's Graham Coxon 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 The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

, and

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

and devices, flute, vocals *

– Hammond and

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

s, piano,

, vocals;

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

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 Guy Randolph Evans (born 17 June 1947) is an English drummer. He is best known as a member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator, appearing on each of their studio albums. He is also a member of Echo City and Subterraneans. Ca ...

– drums, tympani,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Additional personnel

– guitar on "The Emperor in His War Room"

Production

* John Anthony – producer * Robin Cable –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

David Hentschel David Hentschel (born 18 December 1952) is an English recording engineer, film score composer and music producer who engineered on George Harrison's ''All Things Must Pass'' and Elton John's ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'', as well as for such a ...

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

Charts

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