ON (Calvert) & OFF (Robin Trower)

[Julian Christou]

Fisrtly ON

I have to agree with the following:

> Hi all,
> Just got hold of "the hawklords live" bloody brilliant really wish that =
> I could have seen hawkwind live when calvert sung with them. My fav of =
> all time period of hawklore is when he fronted them classics like =
> steppenwolf, reefer madness, death trap, damnation alley(my all time fav =
> hawkwind track!), highrise, over the top (I could go on!!!!). An =
> unrecognised genius of wordplay!!!!!! My all-time fav hawkwind moment is =
> when they played spirit of the age at Brixton with astralasia and =
> calvert vocal was used as a live sample for the song. I was in heaven =
> let me tell you!
>
> colm

I first got into HW in the pre-Lemmy days with "ISOS" and as their sound
changed in the 70's, I lost interest in them as they were losing their
roots or so I naively thought.  It wasn't 'til about 1978 that I
belatedly discovered the Charisma albums.  What hooked me was Calvert's
word play on the Hawklords album, especially on Psi-Power and Flying
Doctor (now there's an FCC-band drug refernce song).  I really liked the
refernce to the old radio drama series I heard as a child updated and
nicely paradied by Calvert.  Damnation Alley is also one of my faves -
"Phoenix is fried up" - what a great line if you've ever been there!
And of course there's the beatiful "QS&C" which appeals to us nerdy
scientists.  How many have spotted the factual errors in that song?
(this is especially for the science nerds like myself in the list.)
That's part of which makes it special.  I recently made a Calvert
compilation tape putting Ejection next to Freefall.  Was the latter
actually scheduled for "Lockheed" or was he just following a trend?

Now the Calvert years are my favourite of all the HW incarnations.  A
few weeks ago I asked the group in "Tales from Atomhenge" and "PXR5" are
still available on CD?  Still waiting for a kind soul out there to
reply.

Also been noticing the band lists being put up.  Thought I'd add those
musicians I listen to a lot ..

Solo Artists:

Peter Hammill
Roy Harper
Richard Thompson
Jimi Hendrix

Canterbury Sound: (pretty much all of them but especially)

Soft Machine
Robert Wyatt
Gong
Kevin Ayers
Hatfield & the North

Prog:

Jethro Tull (all incarnations - the 20 yr bix set is indispensable)
Genesis (up to Wind & Wuthering)
Curved Air (with Way & Monkman)
Manzanera/Eno  How can anyone not get into "Diamond Head" and "Taking
Tiger Mountain" and "801 Live"
Amion Duul II
Yes (esp. the early 70s)
Pink Floyd (up to The Wall but the greatest is "Piper at the Gates of
Dawn")
Vand der Graaf (Generator)

Neo-Prog

Pallas
Marillion
Twelth Night

60's Pop

Taken in context of their time, the following were great innovators

Beatles (not even getting into that argument!)
Who     (Pete Townshend visions of teenage angst and wry observations)
Kinks   (Ray Davies was and still is a great songwriter)

Hard Rock/Blues

Atomic Rooster
Cream  (not so much for Clapton but for Bruce)
Deep Purple
Led Zeppelin
Rory Gallagher

Of course there are notable ommisions but these came off the top of my
head!

OFF:

A couple of days ago, went to see Robin Trower on tour here in
Albuquerque.  Still got it.  A great guitarist.  Check out his US tour
for a great show. Three tracks from "Bridge of Sighs" and the show
opened with "Too Rolling Stoned" !

Julian