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Topic ClosedLyricists Battle: Peter Hammill or Roger Waters

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Poll Question: So, so, so?
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22 [66.67%]
11 [33.33%]
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Earthmover View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Lyricists Battle: Peter Hammill or Roger Waters
    Posted: September 06 2012 at 10:30
Only take into consideration lyrics, not vocal abilities. Who do you prefer?

I'm voting for PH.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 11:05
Very tough choice, but Peter Hammill for me. Waters wins in the sarcastic lyrics department
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 11:11
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.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 11:31
I would like to vote for Waters... but I just don't know Hammill's lyrics (nor music, as a matter of fact, which I must do something about soon), so I can't really vote.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 12:00
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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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 12:36
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.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 14:40
Originally posted by lazland lazland wrote:

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.  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 15:37
Originally posted by Horizons Horizons wrote:

Originally posted by lazland lazland wrote:

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.  

I have The Silent Corner & The Empty Stage on now. An utter classic, with killer lyrics.

My preference has little to do with "popularity". It has more to do with how they both speak to me, and as a former political activist, Waters speaks to me more.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 17:54
It's Hammil for me.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 18:06
Originally posted by lazland lazland wrote:

Originally posted by Horizons Horizons wrote:

Originally posted by lazland lazland wrote:

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.  

I have The Silent Corner & The Empty Stage on now. An utter classic, with killer lyrics.

My preference has little to do with "popularity". It has more to do with how they both speak to me, and as a former political activist, Waters speaks to me more.

Not much in it, thoughBig smile

Oh i wasn't saying you were going with Waters because of his popularity, i was just saying that i wish Hammill would be in the limelight with Waters - but VdGG is lesser-known.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2012 at 19:21
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. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2012 at 07:18
That is one tough poll! Confused
Whoever wins here it would be unfair for the other one.
They both are excellent songwriters, with great lyrics.
I guess the difference is our point of view...
P. Hammill's lyrics are more 'dark' and sophisticated IMHO, whilst R.Waters' are more 'personal'...
I don't know who to choose. I find them equally brilliant...
I will vote for R.Waters I think, cause he doesn't deserve to have that big a difference from P.Hammill in votes...
(The time I'm writting this the votes are 13-6 for P. Hammill)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2012 at 22:42
Hammill for sure.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2012 at 16:01
Originally posted by Wanorak Wanorak wrote:

Very tough choice, but Peter Hammill for me. Waters wins in the sarcastic lyrics department
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2012 at 22:38
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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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 10 2012 at 06:54
peter hammill
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