Dave Brock coasting?

[John Majka]

Someone mentioned that Dave Brock is just coasting, musically speaking,
these days, and I would have to agree.  It was a sad day when I realized
that the best songs on Distant Horizons are by Ron Tree, and Dave's songs
are some of the ones I could have done without!  I suppose Dave has been
there/done that, and he's getting older.... I suppose he's just shifting
into retirement mode, sad as it is to think about.  I would love it if he
could "get in gear" and give us a totally new album (not remakes of old
songs) which features more input from him.  Most of his more recent output
has sounded like fairly disinterested/idly composed stuff.  I guess I'm just
saying that anything he's written in the past few years just hasn't been
very good.  There.  I've said it.  There are exceptions of course.... "Alien
I Am" was pretty cool, for example.  On the other hand, looking at the Brock
songs on Distant Horizons, let's see.... "Waimea Canyon Drive"--YUCK.
"Clouded Vision"--YUCK.  "Population Overload"--YUCK.  And the last
instrumental bits at the end of the album are really just filler (and
besides we've all heard Love in Space on the album of that title and the EP
of that title, do we really need to waste album space rehashing it again?).
The best Brock bit on this album would be the words to Kauai, where he's
saying, "Thermos of oil, sandwich of steel" etc.  And then "Alchemy" by
Jerry Richards and Richard Chadwick is just plain bad, and inappropriate for
a Hawkwind album.  The two Ron Tree songs are fun, but I worry that this
kind of silliness will wear thin pretty quickly, if we are asked to endure
much more of it.  The title track is OK, but there just isn't much "meat" to
it, and I feel like I could do without Captain Rizz or whoever that is doing
the reggae vocal bit.  OK I guess I've ranted enough... Hawkwind are still
great.
John Majka
flossbac at wcic.org