HW: Voiceprint, and How do you like your Hawkwind sir?

[Doug Pearson]

On Tue, 20 Aug 2002 01:04:26 EDT, Chuck Rosenberg <Chuckrecs at AOL.COM> wrote:
>In a message dated 8/19/02 10:06:47 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK writes:
>
>> That in itself raises another question. There are three verses in
>>  that MotU, the third one muttered while Nik bleats sax over it, but the
>>  vocals sound like Nik to me. Is there over-dubbing even on this ropey
>>  release? If not, whose is the voice? And does Nik sing the rest, because
>>  it sounds like the same voice to me... Confused am I. Any help
>>  appreciatd,
>>  I guess Bernhard can settle my first question at least...
>
>
>I asked this same question here some time ago, no one ever commented.
>Baffled and a big fan of the Texts as well... And what the hell ARE the
>recoding dates?? I always figured 'em to be '71, even though Langton is
>mentioned in the liners... Chuck

Fortunately, there's a simple explanation.

First of all, Mike Holmes kindly assembled a list of source dates for
various Hawkwind live albums.  it's in the archives here:
http://listserv.spc.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9811D&L=BOC-L&P=R1289

The entry for 'Text of Festival' is:
Text Of Festival             18.8.70,19.4.71,19.5.71

for the 'Text of Festival' tracklist:
1) Master of the universe
2) Dreaming
3) Shouldn't Do That
4) Hurry On Sundown
5) Paranoia
6) See It As You Really Are
7) I Do It

And the tracks/lineups from the dates in question are (thanks, Bernhard!):
18.08.1970, LONDON, MAIDA VALE, 20/7 BR/OL/TU/DI/LL/CB (track 4)
hurry on sundown / seeing it as you really are

19.04.1971, LONDON, PLAYHOUSE THEATRE, 30/7 BR/OL/TU/DI/AD (tracks 5-7)
paranoia / seeing it as you really are / we do it

19.05.1971, LONDON, MAIDA VALE, 20/7 BR/OL/TU/DI/AD (tracks 1-3)
master of the universe / only dreaming / you shouldn’t do that

So, to answer the two questions:
1) Yes, Huw plays (along with Thom Crimble) on "Hurry On Sundown"; the rest
of the tracks would seem to be with Dave Anderson on bass (after Huw left,
before Del joined).
2) "Master of the Universe" was recorded at Maida Vale, which is NOT a
venue, but rather the BBC studio.  Anything from "Maida Vale" is actually a
studio recording made for live broadcast.  The studio recordings there were
done "quick and dirty", generally in a single afternoon (as opposed
to "real" studio recordings, which would take days or weeks), probably with
one pass tracking the band as they played their instruments live, and a
second pass for solo instrument and vocal overdubs.  So for "Master of the
Universe", Nik's sax would have been recorded in the first pass, and his
vocal on the second pass.  I would suspect that Dave's vocals on all the
Maida Vale tracks are also overdubs, although it's obviously easier to sing
while playing guitar than to sing while playing sax (unless you're Roland
Kirk), and I would also bet that you'll find instances of simultaneous
sax/Nik vocals on the Maida Vale version of "You Shouldn't Do That".

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com