HW/OFF: oh how cool-Hawkwind/Captain Beyond
Jonathan Jarrett
jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK
Thu Dec 20 04:22:55 EST 2007
On Sun, Dec 02, 2007 at 11:40:03AM -0600, Mike Coleman typed out:
> OMG
> never noticed before
> "as the moon speaks to the sea" clearly has "you know you're only dreaming"
> in it
> has to be a direct influence
> right??
> also, proud to think the drummer was from Johnny Winter and he sure does
> sound awfully great to my un-drum-trained ear
I can't help thinking that that chord sequence is easy for
someone else to find by mistake. It would have to be a very fresh
influence if that's what it was, but I guess XISoS could easily have
been on their collective turntables ("because the groups all live
together") by the time they were writing. I'm not sure I pick up very
much similarity of approach though, even if I'd love to think it was HW
that helped make that first album as it's one of my absolute
favourites.
The drummer, OK my ear isn't trained either but I like to think
it has some discernment, the drummer's name is Bobby Caldwell and he was
effing fantastic. Attacking from all quarters of the kit and time
signature at once kind of excellent, never know where he's going to be
next excellent, gives that album the pace and flexibility that makes it
such a classic. All that is kind of lacking, for me, on _Sufficiently
Breathless_, which is basically hard AOR if such a thing's possible.
Caldwell wasn't there, and I think that's all the explanation that's
required. He came back for a third album, _Dawn Explosion_, but unlike
the others (which are hard enough to get hold of) I've not managed to
get that one, because it's exceedingly rare and currently Amazon won't
sell me one for less than £45.00... It's got to be worth a go some time,
but at that kind of price it's competing for my madness with the first
Outskirts of Infinity album and the Bevis Frond I don't have. Some day I
guess. Yours,
Jon
ObHW: they were good last night and did at least a stanza of `Dreaming';
proper review will follow.
--
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
(Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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