Listen: Afterwards / Van Der Graaf Generator
Afterwards / Van Der Graaf Generator

I can only guess the reason to press 7″ promo records in the 60′s and early 70′s for underground artists, as they were known, had a singular purpose. Focus the very close to the mic disc jockey and his music director on edited versions of the album’s more/most playable songs.

Sometimes though, like with ‘Afterwards’, the label opted instead for the full length track, providing it wasn’t over four or five minutes long. Mercury generally preferred un-edits to edits, if memory serves me well, as I have several from the era, all full album versions.

Our local stations, WAER and WOUR, played early Van Der Graaf Generator quite generously for a few good years. I particularly loved ‘Killer’ from their third album, H TO HE, WHO AM THE ONLY ONE, and always hoped it’s eight minutes and change would get chopped into a single, but that never happened.

Took me ages to find a copy of ‘Afterwards’ from their debut, THE AEROSOL GREY MACHINE, figuring a shorter version would be a fun listen, if only to see how someone, preferably producer John Anthony, thought to edit it up.

No, Mercury pressed the full length album track. Regardless, a nice item to score.