HW: hawks/fantasy

[Doug Pearson]

On Tue, 22 May 2001 13:34:08 +0100, Jon Jarrett
<jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK> wrote:
>On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, Chuck Rosenberg wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 4/27/01 5:21:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>> ejobson at THRUPOINT.NET writes:
>>
>> on "worst line-ups"...
>> > Harvey Bainbridge - Bass/keyboard
>>
>> I'm a little confused when i see Harvey bashed for his bass-playing.
>> I'm not one to no anything about bass-guitar virtuosity really,
>> but "Free Fall" sounds to me like some of the more challenging bass
>> heard on any HW album.
>> I've also always loved his synth/kybds, though I can't always distinguish
>> between him and Dave...
>
>        I think Harvey is *great* on synths, inventive, weird, and
>individual

Those adjectives also apply to his vocal/frontman work IMO!  There's nobody
else like him, and his dry/deadpan, yet outrageously humorous, delivery
suits Hawkwind perfectly.  He's not a *great* keyboard player (like Simon
House) or even *great* synth player (like Del/Tim), but he's still very
competent at both and again, suits Hawkwind perfectly (being a virtuoso is
definitely NOT a requirement for being an excellent member of Hawkwind).

>(though I too never really know how much Dave is putting into
>it; the guitar hardly stops on _California Brainstorm_ but when
>pre-programming and MIDI switches in the guitar and Richard setting off
>routines from teh drum-kit are added into the equation a lot of that noise
>could still be sort of Dave's work). I do however think he's a lousy
>bass-player. Probably Hawkwind's worst, it's difficult to say what John
>Harrison could actually do compared to what he had the need to play on the
>really early stuff. It's not that Harvey can't write for the bass, as you
>say `Free Fall' isn't easy and he plays it fine,

Actually, the "Free Fall" bass line *sounds* much more difficult than it
really is.  It is definitely a very cool, well-written bass part, but it's
really quite easy to play (utterly trivial compared to some of Lemmy's and
Alan's parts!).  I'm not a great bass player, but I can handle any of his
parts no problem (not true for all of Lemmy's/Alan's/Adrian's).

>some of the most musical
>bass parts in HW are his work, but he just doesn't leave the
>bass-line. Plod plod plod, note for note the same. _Live '79_ or TIHDNP
>show you just what I mean here. Anyone else is more interesting.

Agreed, but I think his bass work on 'Live 79' is quite good (but not
TiHDNP or Masques/82) ... I get the impression he sort of lost interest in
playing bass when he started playing keys/synths.

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com