Hawkwindforum

I discovered Hawkwind in 1973 when I bought Space Ritual and to me everything from the Lemmy-years (1971-75) is Hawkwind, the best music ever made on this planet. I listen to "The 1999 Party" several times every week still, Space Ritual weekly and prefer "Hall of the Mountain Grill" (a nod to my fellow Norwegian, the quite well known classical composer Edvard Grieg and his "In the Hall of the Mountain King", a part of the music written for Grieg's contemporay Norwegian writer, Henrik Ibsen's great epic poem "Peer Gynt", so that's alone is a good reason to like the album!) (and thanks also to King Crimson, of course, who maybe was the direct inspiration to the title with their debut album "In the Hall of the Crimson King") over Doremi Fasol Latido and Warrior on the Edge of Time. Turner's "D-Rider" is magnificent, Lemmy's "Lost Johnny" is a real hit that should have been, but "Paradox" might be the best song from Brock ever. Maybe the key is my astral soul? The Calvert years are very good, but totally different from the first half of the seventies - and the eighties produced few tracks I can enjoy, although "Needle Gun" stands out with "Green Finned Demon". The nineties is weird to me, a great version of a Stones' song (when you cut away the awful vocal sounds made by that girl I won't mention) - but I didn't get into Hawk for long synth-tours into Eno-land. I heard "Winter Solstice 2009" recently and wow! Brock does all the great tracks from the seventies - in new and creative versions, a masterpiece from a man in his 68th year. How time flies! But to me a lot of the music made by "Hawkwind" is not the type of music I really find hypnotizingly edible. So... is it possible to like all of Hawkwind?

No.....

for me its the calvert years,i thought HW were such different class with Bob,and thats no discredit to the guys now.

I think any band with a prolific output including reworks etc, will make some music that some of the fans are not too keen on. When the band is one that pushes limits and fails to conform to trends then they are more likely to upset a few folk on the way. Take a look at Dylan or Captain Beefheart.

There is a well known saying about pleasing some of the people some of the time etc etc.

Hawkwind will always be Hawkwind and they will do some stuff that you don't appreciate. But they will do hell of a lot more that just hits the groove.

Keep the faith my friend.

couldnt agree more.

Agree with a lot you say IO. I tend to think you generally like a bands music most the era that you first heard them and they blew you away. Tha Hawks have been around so lomg that obviously there style and direction have [quite rightly] changed a bit as they"ve gone along. I first heard and got into them in the early 70"s and its still that era that I listen to the most [with the exception of "Astounding Sounds" which does nothing for me I"m afraid]. The 80"s also was a bit of a downer for me, because I was so used to the band as it was before. I suppose everyone will have some kind of period when they think "This does nothing for me", and that was it. The good thing is, today they sound as strong, and tight as ever, and you get the feeling the band feel happy and content with the way things are going. And if they"re happy, then we are.

I doubt that anyone would like all of it equally, as there have been so many styles and phases and eras.

Some of their stuff leaves me unmoved but I wouldn't say I actively dislike more than a tiny handful of tracks.

don't like some of the ambient stuff from the nineties but on the whole not to bad for the first 40 years and here's to the next 40(dave might need his reading glasses as well as a lyric board by then )

i was never to big on the 80s straight rock style but mostly the 90s stuff gets played the if i was to average them out.

this thread just goes to show the appeal HW have,stevie k dosn't like astounding sounds,for me its the most played album,the hawks have such a variety of tunes to there libary its a credit to them and long may it continue !!!

lee clark wrote:

jonnim wrote:

for me its the calvert years,i thought HW were such different class with Bob,and thats no discredit to the guys now.

couldnt agree more.

The Calvert years get my vote too

I love most of it , only a very tiny fraction i don't like . And i think my all-time fave is Hall Of the Mountain Grill too .

Different era's have thrown up different styles but all of it is pretty much the areas I like in music (i hate it when reviewers say HW = space rock and nothing else, it's so much more than that), and i like pretty much all the 'studio'. Calvert era gets the nod but it depends on the mood, just ahead of 70-75, followed by the rest (but i'm not as keen on Business or Chronicles). There isn't a track I don't like prior to 1993. I've got roughly 37 albums worth of Hawkwind that I like, maybe an album-worth less than they've done. On top of this, I have about a dozen alternate version compilations and lots of great live stuff - Hawkwind are the best live group around, so many artists/groups are crap live. Add to this the solo output and it's a lot of music - c.4 albums worth of Brock, 7 of Calvert, 10 of Turner/ICU/SR, stuff by House, Richards, Morcock, Swndells, Bainbridge, HLL, Tree, totalling 71 albums worth of music plus related stuff - Motorhead, Blake, Adrien Wagner, Anubian Lights, Melodic Energy Commission...

Now how about listening to every official/studio/first version of each track from Sweet Mistress of Pain through to Prometheus then go through all the main solo artists/groups?

[Now how about listening to every official/studio/first version of each track from Sweet Mistress of Pain through to Prometheus then go through all the main solo artists/groups? [/quote]

After the net gave me access to the huge Hawk-library that I didn't know existed, I have accumulated close to 200 'albums' somehow credited to Hawkwind and the solo stuff from central members. I have therefore at least 100 'albums' with sounds that barely can be called music - some of these are so called 'official' releases, like "The Text of Festival". (Sundown itself is amazing in all ways, of course.)

I have a dozen to two dozen versions of most of the songs from the seventies, some made back then and many taped from live shows in the later decades. Many versions of stock tracks like "Brainstorm" are interesting, but none is better - soundwise or otherwise - than the version on Space Ritual, although some make for good listening.

I have bought and payed for all the Hawk-albums I can find for sale, although I download bootlegs without feeling guilty. And I have spent a year of my life listening to different versions of Hawk-tracks, probably - so that "lol" I quoted seems to be a joke on me, then! I remain a true Hawkwind fan and rarely listen to other music: I would rather take the worst Hawk-album with me to an isolated island than any other band's work. I'm telling you, it ain't no lie!

There are only a handful of tracks that I'm not as keen on, but do still enjoy listening to on occasion:

Douglas in the Jungle
Turner Point
Dreams of Isis
Space Love (but am getting to enjoy it a bit more)