HW: Sabbaticals

[Jez Dacombe]

Hi,
Alan's mimicking of Lemmy is worse than "amusing", it's diabolical and makes
me cringe.
Playing bass ala Lemster is fine, but all this posing with downturned mic
and pretending to have a gruff voice is laughable.
He should just be himself.
Who are these 3 stellar bassists you mention Doug?
I'm stuck on one.
I miss Ron for sheer lunacy & unpredictablity.
Cheers,
Jez




----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Pearson <jasret at MINDSPRING.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 8:16 PM
Subject: Re: HW: Sabbaticals


> 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
>