Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night

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Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night
Studio album by Peter Hammill

Publication
(s)

1973

Label (s) charisma

Format (s)

LP, MC, CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

8th

running time

50m35s

occupation
  • Nic Potter - E-Bass on Rock and Rôle and Easy to slip away

production

Peter Hammill and John Anthony

Studio (s)

Sofa Sound, Rockfield, Trident

chronology
Fool's Mate
(1971) 		Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage
(1974)

Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night (May 1973 ) is Peter Hammill's second solo album . In February and March 1973 he recorded it for the most part at home in his newly furnished studio (called Sofa Sound , as the mixer was in the living room due to lack of space and was operated from the sofa). He played most of the instruments himself (including the electric guitar for the first time ), but also brought the ex-colleagues of his former band Van der Graaf Generator , which broke up in August of the previous year, into the studio for some songs .

The songs are much more complex than on the previous album Fool's Mate ; Hammill had originally written some of them for VdGG, including (In the) Black Room , which was taken over into their live repertoire in 1975 when the band was reorganized. Easy to slip away is a kind of continuation to Refugees (from the album The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other ), while German Overalls describes the experiences of the Germany tour in May 1971 - the title is a (probably intentional) mistranslation of "Deutschland über everything".

Hammill also experimented for the first time with effects like echo and feedback , which a few years later would play a major role on albums like pH7 or A Black Box .

Track list

page 1

  1. German overalls - 7:04
  2. Slender Threads - 4:57
  3. Rock and Rôle - 6:41
  4. In the End - 7:26

Page 2

  1. What's it Worth - 4:00
  2. Easy to slip away - 5:21
  3. Dropping the Torch - 4:11
  4. (In the) Black Room / The Tower - 10:46

The CD remaster, released in 2006, also contains three bonus tracks: Rain (3am), recorded in 1973 but not released at the time, and live versions of In the End and Easy to slip away from 1978.

Web links