HW: The REAL Hawks

[RJ]

> Well...  I agree that the early '80s were Hawkwind's darkest hour, but
I'm not
> sure it's right to put the blame on Turner.  I think it was a time when
Brock
> himself seemed to lose interest in the band - he wasn't writing much, he
hid
> behind his synths as much as possible, and he just didn't look as if he
was
> enjoying himself.  As you say, Hawkwind had no new ideas or spirit - and
I
> don't have to listen to any tapes, I was there!

anything sounds great when you are there.i have been to about 35 dead
shows,and had tapes
of almost everyone i went to. very few shows were 'bad' while they were
going on,but listening to
the tapes was always an eyeopener.
and the same goes for hw. i have seen hw shows that blew me away. then
listened to the tapes;
i could hear every mistake,every break in voice..etc.
i have turned many people on to hw. i failed to do so in almost every
instance where i showed them the stonehenge bit with nt. they all wanted to
know who the fruit was,and would they have to sit thru that if
they went to see them.

> I tend to think the moment that crystallized HW's decline was that sleeve
note
> in _Sonic Attack_, that goes something like "we didn't get a keyboard
player,
> because me and Harvey could do it"...  and even at the time, when I still
> tried to believe Hawkwind could do no wrong, I always skipped side one,
track
> one when playing that album...  _SA_, from the title down, was a real
signal
> that they'd run out of ideas, in fact.  The _Black Sword_ thing was the
real
> act of desperation, though - a ten-years-on attempt to recapture the
glory of
> _Warrior_ - and it wasn't until _Xenon Codex_ that they stopped the rot.
> (IMO!)

well,i hope so,as COTB is one of the best albums i own! (IMO)
and the live records of it were bested only by spaceritual.
but i dont want to go sit thru a three or four hour spaceritual these
days.in the days when i was dropping cid and mushrooms,yes,but now i need
the music to be more upbeat to keep me awake.

> Hey, I like a lot of punk music!  (But actually, I dislike genre labels.)

a lot of people feel that way. i hate seeing it applied in a restrictive
way, but one must have some sort
of label to put on things so that they can discuss them. i usually make up
my own.i really hate the
'timely" labels that get applied- like "alternative" and the dreaded "new
age".
one thing i have noticed is that a lot of people that bitch about
labels,often wear uniforms.
be it nose rings and colored hair, or bandanas and leather,or flanel and
torn jeans...whatever.
it all came to me at a deadshow,that while claiming nonconformity,they were
all dressed almost exactly alike.eating the same foods,and buying the same
silly baubles.
some drunk idiot girl walked up to me and said- your socks dont match your
tiedye.      rj

> - Andy