Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night
Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night | ||||
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Studio album by Peter Hammill | ||||
Released | 4 May 1973 | |||
Recorded | February and March 1973[1] | |||
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Genre | Progressive rock, psychedelic rock | |||
Length | 50:21 | |||
Label | Charisma | |||
Producer | John Anthony | |||
Peter Hammill chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night is the second solo album by British singer-songwriter Peter Hammill. It followed in the aftermath of the breakup of Hammill's band Van der Graaf Generator, and (as with many of Hammill's solo albums from this period) other ex-members of Van der Graaf Generator perform on the album.
The album was produced by John Anthony at Rockfield Studios, Wales, for the first time using pre-recorded parts done by Peter Hammill in his home studio in Worth. For final mixing the then much better equipped Trident Studios were used. The album was released in May 1973 on Charisma Records.
Some of the songs ("German Overalls" and "In the End") relate to Van der Graaf Generator's decision to split, following an exhausting, demoralising and poverty-stricken experience of being a touring rock band.[3] "German Overalls" name-checks bandmates Hugh Banton and David Jackson.
Hammill has continued to perform "Easy to Slip Away" in concert to the present day. The song relates to him losing touch with student housemates Mike and actress Susan Penhaligon (who were also namechecked in the Van der Graaf Generator song "Refugees").
The complex and atmospheric "(In the) Black Room/The Tower" was originally planned for inclusion on Van der Graaf Generator's album following Pawn Hearts, an album that because of the band's split never came to be.[4] But the song was already performed on stage by Van der Graaf Generator in 1972, and a recording of it from July 1972 rehearsals (albeit in bad audio quality) is included on the compilation Time Vaults. The album version from Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night features Van der Graaf Generator's ex-members Banton, Jackson and Evans. Later, when the band reformed in 1975 and 1976, "(In the) Black Room" was again part of their live sets, and also during their 2005 reunion.
Cover
The cover was designed by Paul Whitehead, who also was the artist for Fool's Mate as well as sleeves for Van der Graaf Generator (The Least We Can Do is Wave to Each Other and Pawn Hearts) and Charisma labelmates Genesis (Trespass, Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot). It shows Peter Hammill's astrological sign Scorpio twice, as a painting of a real scorpion and as part of a personal logo which Hammill introduced with this album and which would appear on the covers of many coming releases. The photo of Hammill on the front side was taken by Bettina Hohls in Hamburg.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Peter Hammill
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "German Overalls" | 7:04 |
2. | "Slender Threads" | 4:57 |
3. | "Rock and Rôle" | 6:41 |
4. | "In the End" | 7:21 |
Total length: | 26:03 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "What's it Worth" | 3:56 |
2. | "Easy to Slip Away" | 5:18 |
3. | "Dropping the Torch" | 4:11 |
4. | "(In the) Black Room/The Tower" | 10:53 |
Total length: | 24:18 |
No. | Title | Notes | Length |
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1. | "Rain 3 AM" | Recorded during studio sessions | 4:45 |
2. | "Easy to Slip Away" | Live at the All Souls Unitarian Church, Kansas City, on 16 February 1978 | 4:47 |
3. | "In the End" | Live at the All Souls Unitarian Church, Kansas City, on 16 February 1978 | 7:23 |
Personnel
- Peter Hammill – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars (1-3, 5, 7), piano (3, 4, 6, 8), Mellotron (6), harmonium (credited with "tesseraschizoid warbling...one flight of mellotrons and some Gothic harmonium")
- Hugh Banton – Hammond organ (8), piano, bass pedals, bass guitar (credited with "Bomber, banshee, organ and leaping piano, foot and hand bass, the Rack")
- Guy Evans – drums, cymbals (3, 8) (credited with "The Thundering Horseman of the Darkest Dawn")
- David Jackson – acoustic and electric tenor and alto saxophone, flute (1, 3, 5, 6, 8) (credited with "screams in the night and icy waterfalls")
- Nic Potter – bass guitar (3, 6) (credited with "Cortina")
Technical
- John Anthony - producer
- Peter Hammill - recording engineer (Sofa Sound, Sussex)
- Pat Moran, Ralph Down – recording engineers (Rockfield Studios, Monmouth)
- David Hentschel – mixing (Trident Studios, London)
- Paul Whitehead – artwork
- John Pasche - art direction
- Bettina Hohls – photography
References
- ^ "Photographic image of album cover" (JPG). Vandergraafgenerator.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ Album review, AllMusic
- ^ Gallo, Armando. ""Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night" (review)". Vandergraafgenerator.co.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ Christopulos, J., and Smart, P.: "Van der Graaf Generator – The Book", page 174. Phil and Jim publishers, 2005. ISBN 0-9551337-0-X
External links
- Album information on the unofficial VdGG site
- v
- t
- e
- Fool's Mate (1971)
- Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night (1973)
- The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage (1974)
- In Camera (1974)
- Nadir's Big Chance (1975)
- Over (1977)
- The Future Now (1978)
- pH7 (1979)
- A Black Box (1980)
- Sitting Targets (1981)
- Enter K (1982)
- Loops and Reels (1983)
- Patience (1983)
- Skin (1986)
- And Close As This (1986)
- Spur of the Moment (1988)
- In a Foreign Town (1988)
- Out of Water (1990)
- The Fall of the House of Usher (1991)
- Fireships (1992)
- The Noise (1993)
- Roaring Forties (1994)
- X My Heart (1996)
- Sonix - Hybrid Experiments 1994-1996 (1996)
- Everyone You Hold (1997)
- This (1998)
- The Appointed Hour (1999)
- None of the Above (2000)
- What, Now? (2001)
- Unsung (2001)
- Clutch (2002)
- Incoherence (2004)
- Singularity (2006)
- Thin Air (2009)
- Consequences (2012)
- Other World (2014)
- ...All That Might Have Been... (2014)
- From the Trees (2017)
- In Translation (2021)
- The Margin (1985)
- Room Temperature (1990)
- There Goes the Daylight (1993)
- The Peel Sessions (1995)
- The Union Chapel Concert (1997)
- Typical (1999)
- The Margin + (2002)
- Veracious (2006)
- Pno Gtr Vox (2011)
- Pno Gtr Vox Box (2012)
- Peter Hammill & The K Group Live at Rockpalast 26/11/81 (2016)
- X/Ten (2018)
- Not Yet Not Now (2019)
- "Red Shift" (1973)
- "Birthday Special" (1975)
- "Crying Wolf" (1977)
- "If I Could" (1978)
- "The Polaroid" (1979)
- "My Experience" (1981)
- "Paradox Drive" (1982)
- "Film Noir" (1983)
- "Just Good Friends" (1985)
- "Painting by Numbers" (1986)
- A Fix on the Mix (1992) (CD, EP)
- In the Passionskirche (1992)
- Live at Rockpalast - Hamburg 1981 (2016)
- Vision (1978)
- The Love Songs (1984)
- The Essential Collection (1986)
- The Storm (Before the Calm) (1993)
- The Calm (After the Storm) (1993)
- Offensichtlich Goldfisch (1993)
- After the Show - A Collection (1996)
- Past Go: Collected (1996)
- The Thin Man Sings Ballads (2002)
- Judge Smith
- David Jackson
- Guy Evans
- John Ellis
- Nic Potter
- Roger Eno
- Stuart Gordon