Judge Smith is one of Britain’s great unheralded talents. Co-founder of Van der Graaf Generator in 1967, he then formed the group Heebalob – from where David Jackson emerged, before writing a series of ‘rock theatre’ shows and working as a librettist-for-hire. Sine 1993, he’s released an array of defiantly original and sometimes hugely ambitious albums. Yet he’s still best known as the writer/co-writer of some of Peter Hammill’s most renowned songs, including Been Alone So Long and Four Pails, the former one of the most beautiful love songs ever, the latter a meditation on death that outdoes even Hammill.
Both lyrics are included in this splendid book, but they’re very much the tip of the iceberg. Witty and erudite, but never obscure, Smith’s words are a joy to read. In particular, the libretti for long-form works such the astonishing Curly’s Airships – Smith’s epic ‘songstory’ about the R101 disaster – and his 1976 rock musical about pantheist breakaway Scouts’ movement The Kibbo Kift function as brilliant narratives in their own right. Coming hot on the heels of Cannonball!, Ricardo Odriozola’s recent biography of Smith, this book is indispensable for hardcore VdGG/Hammill fans and lovers of fine verse alike.