Birth of Space Rock

[Christian Mumford]

Chris Bates wrote:
>
> Alex wrote:
>
> So you'll be familiar with Pink Floyd, Can, Gong, Van Der Graf
>Generator etc who all use(d) repetition and drones to create an
>atmosphere?
> Listen to early Floyd and you'll clearly see that they are coming from
> the same place as HW. Trippy droney stuff that either recreates or
> enhances the drug experience. Hmmm that's also what house music tries
> to do isn't it :-) This kind of stuff is totally different to the
> intellectual exercises of the prog mega-bands (Genesis, Yes, ELP), it's
> much more visceral.



The Birth of Space Rock: 1967:

>From the acid-freak out jams of the Summer of Love the droning
sound of Space Rock was born.............

Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" & "Astronomy Dominy",
Rolling Stones' "2000 Light Years From Home",
Kaleidoscope's "Beacon from Mars",
and, possibly, riff-wise, Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysees".
Perhaps Sun Ra's Arkestra predated them all with his Space Jazz.....


I believe Hawkwind owe much of their influence to these particular
tracks. Symfo-prog like ELP, Yes or Rush (which I personally detest)
have very little in common with space rock like early Floyd, Hawkwind,
Can or Amon Duul..... or other oddball jazzy/spacey-prog like Gong, Soft
Machine or Van Der Graaf Generator for that matter.

Christian