HW: Recent v Old (revisited) A Howl of Derision

[Douglas Pearson]

On Mon, 16 Apr 2001 14:33:19 +0100, Captain Bl at ck <starfield at SUPANET.COM>
wrote:
>Thank you Mike. Astounding ISN'T a bad album at all, BUT the point I was
>making here was if they'd used Time For Sale, Uncle Sam, Back on the
>Streets, Assassins etc on the same album as Steppenwolf, Reefer Madness
>and, yes, all the cool instrumentals............

Would it be more accurate to say a "second album by the Rudolph/Powell
lineup" rather than "ASAM as a double LP"?  (Since clearly some of those
songs hadn't been written yet when ASAM was recorded - 'Atomhenge 76' makes
it clear that the lyrics to "Hassan i Sahba" weren't written until after
that tour.)  I wholeheartedly agree that those four songs should have been
on a studio album together; heck, that probably edges out 'Earth Ritual' as
my favorite never-recorded-but-might-have-been/almost-was Hawkwind album.

>The production lacks balls - the band certainly didn't as the live material
>will testify. Maybe that was Rudolph doing his Eno-esque mixes. Armchair
>Hawkwind, anybody?

At least it's not as laid-back as the Hawklords album. (the one which I
generally referred to as "armchair"; and the live recordings by *that* band
kick ass, too)  Now, if Paul Rudolph could have actually gotten Eno to
*produce* it - wow!  That could have really been something!

I think that the main problem with ASAM is not that it's at all a bad album
("Steppenwolf" is one of Calvert's best characterizations, "Kadu Flyer" is
one of Nik's best, "City of Lagoons" perfectly captures the lazy, swampy,
overbearingly-tropical mood of Ballard's 'The Drowned World' [quite
obviously the inspiration for the piece], etc.), but rather that it falls
between two of the best albums in Hawkwind's career ... in much the same
way that Rudolph's bass playing is underrated since he fell between the two
best bassists in Hawkwind's career (and also because, as good as his bass
playing is, it doesn't come CLOSE to his six-string work with the Pink
Fairies on stuff like "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout").  The diversity of
bass playing on 'Atomhenge 76' is unquestionably impressive, but never
quite matches either Lemmy's propulsive overdrive or Adrian Shaw's warmly
melodic feel that fit so well with Simon House's keyboards.

    -Doug
     ceres at sirius.com

>----- Original Message -----
>From: The Devil <deltawave at METRONET.COM>
>To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
>Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 2:27 PM
>Subject: Re: HW: Recent v Old (revisited) A Howl of Derision
>
>
>>    Capt. Black said:
>>
>> "If only Astounding Sounds had been a well produced studio double
>> album, think what a classic that would have been."