HW: Where to now

[Paul Mather]

On Wed, 14 Oct 1998, Andrew A. Apold wrote:

=> >My collection to date consists of
=> >Choose Your Masques
=> >Hall of the Mountain Grill
=> >Sonic Attack
=> >Independent Days v1 & 2
=> >Levitation
=> >Mighty Hawkwind Classics 80 - 85
=> >Space is Deep
=> >Hawkwind Classics
=> >
=> >I would like to stay away from any more compilations or live CDs.
=>
=> Recommend the following first:
=>
=> 1.  Hall of the Mountain Grill - classic stuff, Paradox, You'd Better
=>         Believe it, Lost Johnny, D-Rider, Psychadelic Warlords, etc.
=>         As one album rater put it, "If you collect Hawkwind and don't
=>         have this, you don't collect hawkwind" (paraphrasing)...
=>         They don't get much better than this.
=>
=> 2.  Levitation - somewhat debated on here at times.  Smooth as silk,
=>         polished stuff with Ginger Baker's excellent drumming (oddly
=>         the source of some of the debate)...  Some argue that it
=>         lacks "soul"...  "The 5th Second of Forever" in particular
=>         always gets me in a certain way, as well as "prelude/who's
=>         gonna win the war"...  Regardless, a must have...
=>
=> After these two, based on your desire to avoid comps, I'd probably
=> go with Choose your Masques and Sonic Attack, since they are legit
=> albums.  There are quite a few HW albums I'd place above them, though,
=> assuming you already have them).

It seems like you are recommending everything he already has, Andrew!

Even though you say you want to stay away from live CDs, for my 2p, I'd
say every Hawkwind fan should attempt to get _Space Ritual_.  You also
can't go wrong with _The 1999 Party_---especially if you like what you
hear on _Hall of the Mountain Grill_ and would like to know what some of
those sound like live.

You seem to be a bit thin on Calvert-era Hawkwind, too, so you might
consider picking up _Quark, Strangeness and Charm_.  Likewise, for more
contemporary Hawkwind, you could consider _Electric Tepee_.  And, of
course, there's the classic _Warrior on the Edge of Time_...

One thing I've found through BOC-L is that no two Hawkfans seem to be
able to decide whether any given album is worth getting or not.  For
every person who ranks something at the top of their list, there's
always some come crawling out of the woodwork to say it's the worst
thing Hawkwind have ever done.  So, it would benefit you to describe
your tastes a bit better, and say what amongst your current collection
you like (and your preferences in general).  Then, people could steer
you a bit better.

Cheers,

Paul.

obCD-R: Gov't Mule, Trees---Dallas, Texas, 4/4/98

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time"
        --- James Marshall Hendrix