HW:Recent v Old/Poll (ASAM and Hawklords)

[david hall]

Yeah, I dug out ASAM today. Steppenwolf, Reefer Madness, Kerb Crawler
(crying out for a heavier version by the current line-up), Chronoglide all
great. Kadu Flyer depends on the mood I'm in. The other two tunes(?), no use
at all (what happened to Paul Rudolph in the period between leaving the Pink
Fairies and joining HW is a mystery). Is the bold Baron Brock on them, I
think not - which may explain it.
After listening to ASAM I dug out some more vinyl, I like watching that old
"Famous Charisma" label rotating at 33rpm, and stuck the Hawklords LP on.
Brilliant stuff: humour, great playing, style, and tunes (one more
time:"cabinet key, cabinet key"). Followed this with Quark and PXR5 (get
PXR5 back in the set list now).
The sound of the Charisma LPs has a roundedness not present on a lot of the
later material, whether or not that is good or bad is a matter of taste I
suppose.

Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Pearson <ceres at SIRIUS.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list BOC-L <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Date: 02 December 1999 20:48
Subject: Re: HW:Recent v Old/Poll


>On Wed, 1 Dec 1999 12:09:24 GMT, M Holmes <fofp at HOLYROOD.ED.AC.UK> wrote:
>>ASAM is a strange one.
>
>It definitely is.  I'm sure that part of the reason it's "underrated" is
>that it falls between two of the band's best albums (WotEoT / QS&C - both
>in my top 5 HW albums).
>
>>I get times when I love everything on it and
>>other times when I can't stand hearing anything except Reefer Madness.
>
>"Reefer Madness" definitely rules, but I also love "Steppenwolf" for having
>some of Calvert's most theatrical moments, and "Kadu Flyer" for its superb
>melodicism (just like all of Simon House's compositions), nice sitar drones
>and soprano sax.  One of the most disappointing things (for me) about Nik's
>1995 US tour (captured on 'Past or Future') was that Len Del Rio played
>keyboards on that song instead of Simon (who was there, dammit!).  Len's a
>great synth player, but when it comes to keyboards, he's no Simon House
>(but Steve Swindells and Fred Reeves are the only HW keyboard players who
>even come remotely close to his talent IMO, and neither was in the band for
>very long).
>
>But yeah, I can go either way on "Kerb Crawler" and the instrumentals
>(although the transition from "Kadu Flyer" to "Chronoglide Skyway" is
>brilliant),
>
>        -Doug
>         ceres at sirius.com
>