HW: Lemmy years

[Doug Pearson]

On Sat, 17 Jun 2000 18:43:44 +0100, david hall
<dave at PARMA29.FREESERVE.CO.UK> wrote:
>The "Lemmy years" (two and half lps worth of studio material, not a lot)

This comment has been made a couple times over the course of this thread,
so it's worth noting that those three albums were the three
highest-charting [UK, obviously] studio albums in Hawkwind's career
('Warrior' - #13, 'Doremi' - #14, 'Mountain Grill' - #16, with 'In Search
of Space' - #18 being fourth-highest and 'Sonic Attack' [!? - must've been
that major-label marketing budget] being their only other top-20 studio
album at #19).  And that 'Space Ritual' was Hawkwind's *only* top-10 album
(#9).  Also add two completely non-LP singles to the list of that era's
releases, both of which were Hawkwind's only top-40 singles (#3 & #39).
And that 'Roadhawks' (all Lemmy-era except two songs from the first album)
is the only Hawkwind compilation to chart (#33 or #34, I think), period.

So I think it IS entirely safe to say that the majority (not the majority
of boc-l, but the majority of all who have heard Hawkwind over the years
... a much larger and therefore more "accurate" statistical sample) would
"prefer" that era.

At least I'll take the era of (nearly) three GREAT studio albums and two
GREAT non-LP singles over the era of (for example) two double-LP's with a
few great songs and lots of filler ...

>were marked by a great band playing together not because of any one
>individual.

YES!  By referring to '72-'75 as the "Lemmy" era, I in no way meant to
detract from the contributions made by other members during that time (or
imply in any way shape or form that it was "Lemmy's band" or that he alone
made Hawkwind the great band they were at that time [as opposed to the
different great band they've been at other times] ... I'm fully willing to
accept that the great leap in sonic advancement from 'XISoS' to 'Doremi' is
due just as much to Simon King as to Lemmy); it's merely the most
convenient tag, since those years correspond with his membership.

And yes, I like his vocals, both lead and backing, very much.  They fit
very well with the music from that era of Hawkwind, and let's face it,
Hawkwind have *never* had a "technically great" singer (not even remotely
... it's good enough that most of them [save a keyboard player or two, and
maybe a sci-fi author] have been able to sing in-key).  I would be very
curious to hear from someone who prefers lead vocals on "Silver Machine" as
done by Bob, Dave, Nik, Ron, or any other Hawkwind-er who's handled them (I
know you're out there - I just want to know WHY you think so).

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com

Note/Disclaimer: Chart positions from M.C. Strong's 'Great Rock
Discography', which is so utterly riddled with errors that it reaches the
point of being extremely questionable as a reference work, so any of these
could *very easily* be incorrect.  Sue me for not getting an independent
verification :^).