HW: vote

[Doug Pearson]

On Wed, 4 Sep 2002 16:47:34 +0100, Jobson, Eddie <EJobson at THRUPOINT.NET>
wrote:
>... I would find it difficult to vote on a lot of their
>songs with the exception of some unique one off recordings such as The
>Demented Man or Over the Top. Songs like these were obviously only ever
>done once and in my opinion are classics, but other songs would depend on
>the HW era or line up performing them. For example I might not say that
>Master of the Universe was one of my top ten songs but would prefer to
>say what perticular version of certain songs would be my favourites. For
>what it's worth my top ten (in no particular order), might be:
>
>The Demented Man - Warrior album
>Over the Top - Sonic Assasins
>Back on the Street - Weird 105
>Orgone Accumulator - Space Ritual
>Master of the Universe - Text of Festivals
>Silver Machine - Glastonbury fayre
>Urban Guerilla - Lyceum bootleg 13/7/80
>Shouldn't Do That - Roadhawks
>Reefer Madness - Music Machine '77
>In the Office? - US Tour Video -89
>Damage of Life - Yule Ritual
>
>oopps that's eleven, but do you get where I'm coming from, because some of
>these songs in other versions might just sound ok. I suppose that's what
>makes Hawkwind different.

Those are all (well, mostly IMHO) great choices!  I definitely get where
you're coming from, and definitely agree that the "original" version of a
song isn't always the best.  Some of my favorite versions are the
more "unique" ones, such as:

25 Years - Hawklords live (Griffin/Dojo, with the Elvis Costello rant)
Urban Guerilla - Weird 104 (with the "Wage War" rant)
Sonic Attack/Awakening - Oxford New Theater 6oct78 (thoughtcrime rant)
(yes, I love Bob's freeform rants! someone recommend other good shows!)
Hassan i Sahba - NYC Bottom Line 6march78 (extended House intro)
Born To Go - Birmingham Kinetic Playground 6dec71 (30+ minute version!)
etc.

Or songs from shows with lots of loose jamming, such as Watchfield '75,
Stonehenge '84 (second night), or the much-derided Glastonbury '90.  Those
are my favorite kind of Hawkwind concert ...

>Also someone listed the Nik Turner set recently inc. songs such as MOTU,
>Brainstorm, D-Rider etc the ones Nik wrote/co-wrote and if I remembered
>correctly hasn't HW now dropped these songs, which were over the years
>almost guaranteed at a live performance, but do not remember seeing MOTU
>and Brainstorm listed for Hastings and don't remember hearing them when
>at the Summer Camp. I wonder if this is something Dave has done
>intentionally after the alleged differences with Nik recently, by
>introducing his written songs over ones that Nik was involved in. Just
>wondered.

I have noticed this, too.  Whether or not that's the reason, I think that
dropping "Brainstorm" (or at least giving it a rest for a while!) from the
setlist is a wonderful idea, as it's been played at nearly every show
Hawkwind's ever done.  "Master" hasn't been quite so overplayed, but
Hawkwind have a large enough repertoire that it should be no problem to mix
things from their history up a bit.  One of the cool things about Hawkwind
is that they DON'T play their "big hit" at every show they do, and I
certainly haven't felt cheated by going to a Hawkwind show and not
hearing "Silver Machine".  Although despite Rudolph and the Calvert estate
both being (allegedly) involved in the lawsuit, "Hassan i Sahba" still
appears to be in the current set ... there's another one that could stand
to take a vacation from the setlist (and it'll sound that much better when
it *returns* from the vacation IMHO!), as it's been there fairly constantly
since '86.

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com