Lyricists Battle: Peter Hammill or Roger Waters

Only take into consideration lyrics, not vocal abilities. Who do you prefer?

I'm voting for PH.

Hmm. I haven't studied Hammill's lyrics in as much depth as Waters', but my impression is that his lyrics cut much deeper into the intricacies of the human condition, while Waters' strength is in expressing negative emotions effectively. I'll pass on voting for now.

My other avatar is a Porsche

Hammill, unquestionably. He evokes the strongest feeling for me, greater breadth of subject matter, covered more profoundly. Not just with Van Der Graaf Generator either, there are few who could produce something as good as "Over" for example. I even learned new words when I first was reading the VDGG/PH lyrics Big smile

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breathing, eating, defecating, screwing, drinking, spewing, sleeping...

Originally posted by lazland

Waters, who I think will be regarded kin decades to come as one of the finest and most relevant lyricists of his or any other generation.

If VdGG were as popular as Floyd i think Hammill would be regarded highly as well. I prefer Hammill overall though.

Persuasion deflowers your sympathy.

It's Hammil for me.

Peter Hamill - easily my favourite lyricist ever. So unique within Rock music, always dabbling with the concepts of life, death, relationships and the human mind like it's his baby. I sometimes find it a bit too much to listen to some of VDGG's tunes just because the message is so overwhelming, you know? Still Life is chalk full of that.

Hammill for sure.

Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.

Waters. There is an immediacy to his lyrics and a directness that hits hard. Waters is a very shrewd observer of the human condition, and though he lacks the verbal gymnastics and theatrics of Hammill, Waters' lyrics strike a chord in a mind-boggling cross section of rock music fans, from metalheads to rockers to punks and avant-gardists. Songs like "Wish You Were Here", "Time", "Us and Them" and "Comfortably Numb" are timeless and evocative of our primal instincts.

Strange, isn't it, that such an eccentric band should have such immense popularity? The Who, Zeppelin, The Stones and The Beatles are all in that upper strata of rock bands, but they played a much different style of rock than Floyd. Yet there Floyd is, often mentioned in the same breath with them. I've heard many posters here dog Floyd's musicianship (particularly Mason and Wright), well what is it then that allows Floyd to reach such a wide and varied demographic? I think much of it has to do with Waters' lyrics. Even a song like "Another Brick in the Wall" had such an impact that it was banned by the apartheid government of South Africa in 1980 when the song was adopted for a nationwide protest of unequal education and a boycott of segregated schools. That's a feat VdGG couldn't dream of, even with Hammill's high-flown poetics.

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Poll Question: So, so, so?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Peter Hammill	22	[66.67%]
Roger Waters	11	[33.33%]
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