BOC: HW: Moorcock BOC tracks

[Andrew A. Apold]

>> Agreed. Now can anyone remind me which Moorcock books the characters and
>> ideas in these songs are drawn from? 'The Great Sun Jester' is obviously
>> the Fireclown from 'Winds of Limbo'. I guess that 'Black Blade' is an
>> Elric reference. Not sure about VotPW. Some Jerry Cornelius thing
>> possibly?
>
>        Is it actually tied to a book? I took it as a kind of Song of the
>Eternal Champion. Like the spoken-word pieces on HW's _Warrior at the Edge
>of Time_ - some of them are almost verbatim culls from _The Eternal
>Champion_ (is that just the omnibus title? The one with Erekose in,
>anyway), some of them seem more general. Is it not more a song from the
>cycle than from any book in particular? My 2pworth, yours,


All this info is availabe in the BOC FAQ at http://hometown.aol.com/bocfaqman

to quote:

The BOC/Michael Moorcock Connection===================================
     Science-Fiction writer and former Hawkwind member Michael Moorcock
has collaborated with Eric Bloom on three BOC tunes:  "The Great Sun
Jester", "Black Blade", and "Veteran Of The Psychic Wars".  The lyrics
to these songs have been inspired by, or used in several of Moorcock's works.
     "The Great Sun Jester" is mentioned in two of his novels:  "The
Fireclown" (a line from the song), and "The Transformation of Miss Mavis
Ming" (this latter has recently been included in a collection of
Moorcock's stories under the title "Constant Fire" - the collection
itself is called "Behold the Man and other stories").  Perhaps
coincidental, but in "The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming" (titled
"Messiah at the End of Time" in the U.S.), the character who appears
claiming to be the Fire Clown states one of his many names as Emmanuel
Bloom (E. Bloom - co-author of "The Great Sun Jester"?).
     The song "Black Blade" refers to Elric the albino king, featured
prominently in several Moorcock stories (e.g. "Elric of Melnibone",
"Stormbringer").  Elric was a melancholic individual who relied on a
supernatural, but treacherous sword for his strength and vigor.  The
"Black Blade" is that sword, which rules its master, and eventually the
universe.     The title of the song, "Veteran Of The Psychic Wars" was used in
Moorcock's "The Dragon in the Sword" (published in 1987) -- "We are the
lost, we are the last, we are the unkind.  We are the Warriors at the
Edge of Time.  We are the cold, the halt, the deaf, the blind.  Fate's
frozen forces, veterans of the psychic wars..." (from "The Dragon in the
Sword", p.68.)  In addition, the line "we are veterans of a thousand
psychic wars" appears in Moorcock's song "Standing On The Edge", which
appeared on Hawkwind's 1975 concept album, *Warrior On The Edge Of Time*.
     There is an interesting connection between two of the three
BOC/Moorcock tunes.  One of the lyrics in "Veteran Of The Psychic Wars"
refers to "the winds of limbo".  "The Winds Of Limbo" was the
alternative title of Moorcock's novel, "The Fireclown".  As previously
mentioned, "the fireclown" is mentioned in song "The Great Sun Jester".
     In addition to the three songs mentioned, Michael Moorcock also
wrote lyrics for a BOC song which eventually became "Feel The Thunder".
Although the lyrics were not used, some form of them were eventually
used in the song, "Sleep Of A Thousand Tears", which was released on
Hawkwind's 1985 album, *Chronicle Of The Black Sword*.
     Eric Bloom and Michael Moorcock once performed "Black Blade" and
"Veteran Of The Psychic Wars" together in 1987 at the Dungeons and
Dragons convention, "Dragoncon '87".  Moorcock has also performed
slightly different forms of the songs "Black Blade" and "The Great Sun
Jester" as spoken-word pieces.  "Black Blade" was performed in 1977 (3
years before appearing on *Cultosaurus Erectus*), and "The Great Sun
Jester was performed with Hawkwind in the early 1980's.

.....
side note - I believe Darxtar (with Nik, IIRC) did a spoken word version
of the Great Sun Jester..
"Left behind by the latest trends...
 eating fried chicken with his regicidal friends...
   - "Porcelain Monkey" by Warren Zevon
===============
Andrew Apold