H/W remix & Thrilling Adventures.

[Nick Medford]

In message <008f01c084d4$fc4530e0$eb16bc3e at s8d3c4>, ANDREW
GARIBALDI <andygee at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> writes
>and mine would say it's completely full - great album - listened to best
>without thinking about the origin of the tracks or where they came from -
>just listen to it as a unique entity and it's one storming album.

Can't make up my mind about this. I do agree, although others haven't, that
it hangs together as an album. Fragments like, say, 'Kauai' make perfect
sense in the context of the whole. If it was the first HW album I'd ever
heard, I think I'd be pretty impressed. But... but... well, to take the
argument to an extreme: if Hawkwind released a 'new album', which turned
out to be 'Hall of the Mountain Grill' with new cover art, new track titles,
and a bit of electronic tweaking here and there, what would we all think? It
would still be great music but it would hardly be a positive step.  OK, this is
more extreme than what's actually happened, but you see the point I'm
trying to make.

OTOH I can think of no rational reason why artists shouldn't rework old
material should they feel like it. However, unless it's done in a truly radical
fashion, it tends to come off as a stalling tactic to cover a shortage of new
ideas. And, as has been pointed out already, some of the material isn't even
being reworked.

I dunno...  at the end of the day it's only rock'n'roll. But I LIKE IT, dammit,
and these things trouble me. (Although whenever I start fretting too much I
think back to the Astoria and remind myself that Hawkwind are still the
rubber ducking business onstage).
--
Nick Medford