HW: My First Experience

[John Majka]

Around 1986 I was sixteen or seventeen and was a big fan of Michael
Moorcock's novels.  I looked up his name in my high school library and soon
discovered that not only was he an author, but also an occasional musician.
I found that he had played with Hawkwind, a group I had never heard of, but
I intended to find out more.  I went to my local record store where there
were a lot of Hawkwind import albums (no Hawkwind CDs existed yet) for big
prices and I searched through the lot and eventually pulled out "The
Chronicle of the Black Sword" because it had the most obvious Moorcock
connection, and I was fascinated by the idea that this band should reference
the Eternal Champion books so closely.  I had to borrow $10.00 from my
friend to buy it, and we immediately went to his house and sat in his
bedroom and listened to it.  I was immediately horrified by the first
track--Song of the Swords--which sounded to me like all that can be bad
about heavy metal (slightly screechy vocals, sword and sorcery lyrics, power
chords, trilled guitar solos, synthesizers) and thought that I had made a
bad mistake.  As we listened further, though, I could detect a certain
"something" which wasn't as formulaic and cheesy as heavy metal usually is.
This band was weird!  "Shade Gate" and "Pulsing Cavern" were kind of odd,
and many of Huw's leads were phrased in a peculiar way.  It was psychedelia
masquerading as heavy metal.  I was not overly impressed by listening that
album for the first time, but in the ensuing days, I found myself against my
better judgment putting it on the turntable again and again, until I had to
admit that despite its flaws and heavy metal excesses, I liked it.  I soon
bought the "Angels of Death" compilation which showed me a completely
different and more psychedelic side of the band.  I went from there, soon
getting "Hall of the Mountain Grill" and "This Is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic."
I was hooked.  These guys were for real, I realized.  They composed music in
such a way as to completely disregard all accepted values.  The music could
be beautiful, ugly, tastful or tasteless as they willed it, yet somehow
behind it all was some certain quality which was undeniably
"Hawkwind-esque."  I soon had to own everything and thus the addiction
began.  For years afterward, I never met another person who had even heard
of HW, let alone one who was a fan, but after the 1989 USA tour, all these
people crept out of the woodwork and HW even became vaguely fashionable and
known around these parts.  I remember being horrified to discover that most
HW fans were also fans of the shittiest Rock (capital R) ever made.  I had
thought that HW was something very, very different from, say, Bad Company,
or Foreigner, and I thought it was insane that anybody could listen to one
of those schlocky bands and also listen to HW.  I just couldn't find the
correspondence.  I still believe they have little or nothing in common with
most "70's rock."  This band supersedes all categories, to simply be a band
that makes good music which is, thankfully, not locked into a rigidly narrow
style. I guess I've gone on for a while.  Hope I haven't pissed off too many
people.
John Majka
flossbac at wcic.org