(No More) The Sub-mariner ('73)


1973 Written by Peter Hammill

Recordings:

1973 December to April 1974; Sofa Sound, Worth, Sussex, (4-track analogue) For "In Camera" LP
Overdubbed and mixed at Trident Studios, London W1, April 1974
Produced and engineered by Peter Hammill.
Overdub/Mix engineering & ARP programming by David Hentschel

1974 August 19th John Peel Session
Studio T1, Kensington House, Shepherd's Bush
Broadcast: September 3, 1974
Producer: Tony Wilson


Releases:

1974 "In Camera" LP (Famous Charisma records)
1978 'Vision' LP (Compilation) (Passport records)
1984 "In Camera" cassette (Charisma)
1995 John Peel Sessions cd ('Sub-mariner' recorded August 19, 1974)
2003 "In Camera" Double Cassette w/"Fools Mate"
2005 "In Camera" Double cd w/"Fools Mate"
2006 "In Camera" (remastered cd) with Peel Session.

In Concert:

1974 Solo Piano in London, France and Switzerland.

Click on each Underline for:

An Illustrated look at "(No More) the Sub-mariner)"

In my youth, I played at trains: now all steam is gone.
In my dreams, brief shelter from the rain,
I try to catch the fireglow....
With Dinky Toys , I thought that I was Stirling,
with cricket bat, I saw myself as Peter May ;
now, with all these images returning,
I wonder who I am today?

As a child, I refought the war
with plastic planes and imagination:
I sank Tirpitz , blew up the Mohne dam, all these and more,
I was the saviour of the Nation!
Oh! To be the captain of a ship of war!
The pilot of a Tempest or a York!
To hold my trench against the Panzer Korps,
instead of simply being one who talks
and reminisces of his fantasies,
as though life was nothing but to lose...
these only antecede the knowledge that, eventually,
he must choose.

It's a hallmark of adulthood
that our options diminish
as our faculties for choice increase,
till we choose everything and nothing,
too late, at the finish.

In my youth, I held belief: my faith and thought were strong.
But now I'm stripped of every leaf,
and it robs me of the sight of right and wrong.
Oh! To be the son of Che Guevara!
One unit in the serried ranks of black!
A Papist or an Orangeman, a eunuch ...
then doubt would never cast the dagger in my back.
Oh! To be King John or Douglas Bader ,
Humphrey Bogart or Victor Mature!
Which one is false and easy,
which one harder?
Of that,
of this,
of me
I'm really not too sure.





(this page first appeared Feb 2002)