HW:Space rock...IT IS! DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!

[Jon Jarrett]

On Mon, 2 Apr 2001 DASLUD at AOL.COM wrote:

> In a message dated 4/1/01 9:42:19 PM, jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK writes:

        Well, actually it was Mike C.; but I quoted it sure, enough.

> << HAWKWIND invented it, and are still BEST at it........ >>
> =========
> see:
> *"astronomy domine"
>
> *"interstellar overdrive"
>
> *"set the controls for the heart of the sun"
> =
> *"rocket reducer #62 (rama lama fa fa fa)"
> =======
> c'mon guys, we sorta knew better.
> ...and Chuck Berry had some song about flying around in his l'il rocket ship,
> whose title eludes me, but it does dovetail nicely in to Hawkwind's most
> memorable "hit record",
> which hinged, explicitly, upon the riffing of Chuck Berry.

        I've been thinking about this because although I've often thought
about how Chuck Berry's family would do if they sued generally for prior
invention of The Riff, I can't quite see him as space-rock before its
time. Nor the MC5, quite. The Floyd thing threw me, but now I have thought
and I know what I think I would say about this, and it is this. Songs
about space aren't the whole thing. I think what made the difference at
the beginning was the drugs - altered state/outer space comparisons easy
to make and suddenly here's the Pink Floyd and other people too making
music designed to levitate. And when I got _Hawkwind_ its very self the
thing I thought of most when I played it was the live half of _Ummagumma_,
particularly Terry Ollis's cymbal-tapping sounded just like Nick Mason
theer I thought, though when they sped up they became clearly different
drummers. But they were cruising in the same space.

        And then, and then Hawkwind *add* the Chuck Berry engine to the
craft and it's away under power while the Floyd are still floating gently
above the rooftops, as ST37 wisely put it, `Ur-Punk to the Moooooon!' I
think it's the combination of the elements that makes the Hawkwind formula
the New Thing. Undeniably you can trace them all back somewhere else
(except perhaps the noises of Dave's guitar) but they never went off like
that before.

        On the other hand I wasn't there so this impression may be utterly
faulty, but that's how I imagine it to have been.

> whether they be 'BEST at it'....well, anyway, they're no less than "the last
> ones standing".

        Apart from the odd one or two like Man or Gong who have also made
it through this is sadly true. But the last ten years have seen a slew of
new bands it would seem; just trawl the results of that top ten spacerock
bands thread I inadvisedly started. But it's very difficult to compare ay
of them to Hawkwind's lifetime achievement whether they be better now or
no. And in concert I'm not sure Hawkwind still aren't the best in the
genre. At the moment at least. Until I can get to see Farflung and or ST37
or any of the other American bands I doubt I shall have this opinion
challenged too seriously either.

        But having stated my views as arrogantly self-confidently as all
that, let someone come in and knock holes in it, I'm sure I deserve
it... Yours,
             Jon

ObCD: Ash Ra Tempel - _Ash Ra Tempel_
--
       Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)     jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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  "There is a certain pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know"