HW: Sabbaticals

[Doug Pearson]

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 09:24:37 -0500, nickmedford at HOTMAIL.COM wrote:
>I agree entirely! I just think that, as you say, the comparisons became
>inevitable, because after a while Ron's role seemed to be restricted to
>singing the Calvert songs. I don't think this did Ron any favours.

Yes yes yes.  FWIW, I'll add that Ron never seemed to be trying to be
a "Bob" clone nearly as much as Alan is trying to be a "Lemmy" clone these
days.  Neither of which is necessarily a bad thing (being able to play bass
pretty much as well as Lemmy is a *mighty* good thing!), although I am a
bit amused that he even speaks in a "Lemmy" voice onstage these days (and
did he take voice lessons during his sabbatical from Hawkwind?  His singing
these days is lightyears beyond his vocals in the late-80s/early-90s).

>Like I said, I never saw him when he wasn't either a) encumbered by a bass
>guitar or b) offstage half the time, so I may not be in the best postion to
>judge. And I quite liked his vocals. But I did have a bit of a problem with
>his lyrics. Although I suppose it's fair to say that aside from Calvert,
>lyrics have never been HW's strongest suit.

One thing that Bob could do, which very few singers can (I was in a band
with one once, but he was often as unbalanced and difficult to deal with as
Bob could be), was to freely improvise lyrics.  Some of the free
associations Bob came up with are incredible, and it's fascinating to hear
how he jumps between ideas.  Probably the best example of this would
be "Over The Top", but there are also cool instances at the end of "25
Years" on the 'Hawklords Live' CD, and the middle/end of "Uncle Sam's On
Mars" ('PXR5' version).  I'd love to hear more examples.  Unfortunately,
the few times Ron attempted this, he'd usually end up repeating some
catchphrase over and over.  Definitely NOT the same thing.

I'm also of the opinion that Ron was underrated on bass.  Understandable,
when you consider that Hawkwind has had at least three absolutely stellar
bassists throughout their career.  But I thought he brought as much energy
to the band with his bass playing as with his singing.  It's tough to do
both at once, though ...

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com