HW: The Quest for Levitation

[Keith A Henderson]

Alex joins the 'dark' side.....
>
> Okay you all, I've just made my first HW buy. But first, let me tell you a
> little story :-)

<story deleted, though a nice story it was>
>
> I liked the books, and I love BOC's "Black blade". I don't like Elric's face
> on the cover,

Note that there are already several different covers to this CD....mine looks
like original LP sleeve...lots of very dark blues and violets.  Your's sounds
like the most recent Griffin release.

> but the rest of the artwork is magnificent, and not only on
> the outside, the inner sleeve is also great. Anyway, I did hesitate a while
> because (if I recall correctly) no one had recommended this one to me,

Well, that's because people are afraid to have this topic resurface on boc-l.
It tends to emphasise any minor dissention between list members on HW's
catalogue, similar to what Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music did 20 years ago to
the band.

There are those who believe this was their best work, and those who think it's
total rubbish.  Some people think the lyrics are completely atrocious, and I
believe (not paying any attention to the lyrics whatsoever), that's it's just
not a particularly good album because the songs aren't very strong (I only
really like Sleep of a thousand tears), although I like the 'flow' of the
album, and the overall work is greater than the sum of its parts.

And I think the drumming is horrible!  Amateurish at best....

> What can I say ? Well, for the moment I like it. A lot. Even more than the
> little I've heard from "Levitation".

Well, I think Levitation is absolutely brilliant.....Motorway City is my
favourite HW track, although somedays I'll answer with 'Assault & Battery/The
Golden Void' from 'Warrior'.  Surprised you didn't notice this one
particularly.

> Weird though when you're used to seeing
> Elric in music through "Black blade". Oooooohhh... A new song has just
> started and it gives me shivers up my spine... Wait... "Zarozinia" is the
> title ! Wow, that one's struck something in me there... Anyway, I digress
> (ohboyohboyohboy... I like this... :-)

This is the only HW love song/ballad ever made....so it's a one of a kind song.
For me, it doesn't even begin to touch the beauty of something like BOC's 'I
love the Night'.  Although Brock's voice seems to work much better than I
would've expected.  I remember hearing him sing 'Micro Man' (which I guess also
has a ballad character to it, now that I think about it) in Canada last year,
and being blown away about how great his voice was on that kind of track.  Too
bad only two gigs featured this song......

> and I'll definitely look into some more HW stuff in the (not too far)
> future...

Levitation still awaits you...and Quark, and Warrior, and you'll be surprised
how different something like Space Ritual sounds compared to *any* of these
others..... :)

> P.S.
> One question : why is there a song called "Needle gun" ? I don't recall
> reading about a needle gun (or any kind of gun, for that matter) anywhere in
> Elric's Cycle... is my memory failing me ? :-(

Well, that would be Jerry Cornelius' weapon of choice...one of the other
'aspects' of the Eternal Champion that Moorcock wrote about...part of Elric in
a way, but a different time and place.......see, you need to read 'books' to
get the whole story, lyrics can't answer all these questions.......ha! :)

Keith H. (FAA)