HW: Ron no Bob! (was: OFF/HW: Cybernetic Love with your Orgasmatron)

[Christian Mumford]

At 17:18 20.11.97 -0500, Steve Swann wrote:

>How strange.  I think Tree is the best thing to happen to Hawkwind's
>live show in years (haven't heard him yet on album).

As a zany punk frontman, yes I agree. Blew me away at the Limelight '95
since I had no clue who he was and he put on a truly exciting act.

>  I love the fact
>that he brings a lot of Calvert's work back into the mix, and I think
>he does it with a real flair for the poetic/dramatic element in
>Calvert's spoken word pieces - something that's very hard to do well.
>I tend to see poetic recitations during rock concerts as being fairly
>ridiculous in general, and only a certain combination of audacity,
>showmanship, and inner conviction will carry it off well.  Calvert had
>it.  I think Tree has it, too.


Ron Tree = poetic flair???? Are you losing your mind? :)
The guy is about as poetic as slamming headfirst into a brick
wall at 200 mph with The Knack blaring at full volume!!! Calvert had a
sinister delivery, was a twisted crazy maniacal bastard, whereas
Tree is but a mere Hawk-sapling who's poetic achievments go no further
than Robotussin induced X-Files quotes scribbled on a high school lavatory
wall! Still, that can be enjoyable enough, I enjoy alot of awful poetry
myself! (not to mention post my own on BOC-L...)

I wouldn't even place Tree and Calvert together in one sentence (OOOPS!!!)

Actually, Reptoid Vision is the only IMHO decent lyric of his I have seen....
(a case of *good* Robotussin induced X-Files lyrics - uh the lyrics, not the
Robotussin.)

He's intentionally campy cos he can't do it seriously anyway.... at least he
sounds pretty campy to me...

>His singing voice sounded excellent to me at the two NYC show a couple
>of months back, he sounded positively dangerous during Hassan I Sabha
>and Reptile Vision (?).

He's gotten better. I like the punk edge being retained in HW, and in that
he does a good job! It's just sometimes he makes me cringe.

> I'm not sure about the quality of his own
>lyrics; it's tough to pick out the lyrics when you hear them for the
>first time at a live show.  If that's his greatest weakness, then
>I'll still be glad to have him, even if only as a Calvert stand-in.

Well, all his corny alien stuff on Alien 4 is IMHO pretty unlistenable,
and I certainly *can* appreciate bad comic book writing, awful sci-fi
flicks, crappy Hawklords novels - u-name it, dear god, I can't keep a
straight face even looking at that CD... let alone play it... every now
and then I put it on, and then violently take it off in giggle-induced
fits of madness!

Christian