HW: low points and giving up (long)

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On fre 17 apr 1998 14.56 +0100 "John Cartledge"
<cs0jca at ISIS.SUNDERLAND.AC.UK> wrote:
> I think that the band have been in freefall since Electric Tepee.

     Some ups and downs, I'd say, but I think I rate _A4_ higher than you
:)
> Even so,
> the danger signs were there with the rehashed lyrics/songs starting to
appear
> (Mask Of Morning = Mirror Of Illusion, Secret Agent = On The Case).

     On the other hand, both of these were great tracks and I rate them
much higher than the originals.  I don't see why they didn't just whip out
some new lyrics for MoM.  It would have sounded like a completely
different song.

> IITBOTFTBD: Solved the lyrical problems! Gave us an album of bland
ambient
> noodling. More Rehashed lyrics. As for Gimme Shelter -- Why?

     The charity single was hysterical though :)  The album was,
admittedly, a meandering waste IMO

> Alien 4: Sorry, but I've got a real problem with this album, as I think
the
> rot really started here. Of the new stuff, I really only like Alien (I
am) and
> Sputnik Stan -- (and the riff from Xenomorph).
> The rest of it was fairly uninspired (and in the case of Beam Me Up,
> bloody embarrassing)

     "Blue Skin" eventually grew on me, and Vega was a way cool
instrumental (miles ahead of the usual Brock synth wanking :)  Festivals
wasn't bad, though the lyrics were naff.  I liked the retread 3-pack at
the end as well :)  Yeah, they were retreads, but they were cool retreads.
 I even liked "Are You Losing your Mind" :)

> Loss of Alan Davey is major blow musically and lyrically -- if not
vocally ;-)

     Yup.

> Distant Horizons: Better than I thought it was going to be, with a
couple of
> good tracks (Wheels, Reptoid Vision (apart from the lyrics)).
Unfortunately,
> it seems as though it's been cobbled together and rushed out half
finished.
> Dave's contribution is piss poor (he sounds bored/uninterested), RT's
lyrics
> are inane, and do we really need another version of Love In Space! Band
in
> creative nadir.

     I saw the DH lineup live twice before the album came out, and one
show was the best HW show I'd ever seen, and the other was the worst
(admittedly, the almost supernaturally bad mix at the second had a lot to
do with it).

     DH was somewhere in between.  It was a lot more anemic sounding that
the quite powerful Blackheath gig last June, and there was too much random
synth wanking.  What the hell does Brock think he's doing?  I mean: "Time
We Left ..." vs. "Waimea Canyon Drive".  The choice is clear.

     There were some good tracks, and I got a kick out of Tree's
offerings, which were actually the best pieces on the album, IMO.

> The problem is exacerbated by the fact that none of these albums have
> increased their fan base.

     Strangely, I do see plenty of youngsters at the UK shows I've been
too.  I mean, Shepherd's Bush last autumn was _packed_ and not solely by
geezers :)  But by looking at them, they are not a "Taxi For Max" crowd.
A lot of them seemed be the same youngsters I see at the heavy rock and
metal gigs in London.

> The only way by which I can see the mothership taking off again is for
Dave to
> take the controls, both lyrically and on stage (he may as well not have
been
> there last tour -- and most people who go to see Hawkwind want to see
Dave).

     He needs to rock out more.  What does it take?  Do we have to go down
to Devon armed with the Monster Magnet catalogue and say, "Dave, the
people your music inspired are doing this [cue: 'Dinosaur Vacuum'].
'Kauai' isn't going to inspire anything except a desire to get the new
Motorhead album." :)

> Get a full time keyboard player -- come back Harvey?

     Simon House! :)

     HW need a producer.  How about J. Yuenger?  The new Fu Manchu he did
sounded pretty good :)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/