HW: Hawkwind Onward

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 06 Jul 2012, at 11:55 , Jason C. Hillenburg wrote:
> I've read that Ian Anderson regrets using a drum machine in place of Doane Perry on the mid 
> 80's Tull album, Underwraps, and has expressed a desire to re-record it with live drums. It'll 
> never happen, but it's a nice thought. 

Yeah, and the drum machine sounds on _Under Wraps_ are as dated as anything else one might care to mention. But, as in the case of the '80s HW albums, I think that -- well beyond just sorting the drums sounds -- a general re-producing of the album is what would be called for.  

On the other hand, _Under Wraps_ sounds generally much like what it is: a proggy-rocky dalliance in synth pop technology. The stupendously dated drum sounds are really just part and parcel of the package.  In contrast, Hawkwind's _CotBS_ sounds more like a straight-up rock band with stupendously dated production. You could drag the rock band back out of the CotBS by re-producing/re-mixing the album, but I don't think one could do that with _Under Wraps_, no matter how hard you set Doane Perry to try; you could re-record all the songs with rock arrangements (and there are some perfectly all-right songs on there) for what that was worth, but you would need to re-record more, I think, than just the drums.

Meanwhile, BÖC's _Revolution by Night_ and _Club Ninja_ just seem -- with a few notable exceptions sprinkled through the tracklist -- a bit tired and directionless.  Other than the usual complaint of too much sheen and polish on recordings that were drifting into AOR anonymity, the sound on the albums was respectable enough (nothing like as egregiously eightified as CotBS). Some perfectly rocking stuff was being recorded at the time (e.g. Motörhead, Dio-era Sabbath -- though I've never really warmed to the _live_ recordings I've heard/seen of early-'80s Dio-era Sabbath; the studio stuff is solid enough. On the Black & Blue live video, though, I readily choose BÖC!), but it was (generally) not being recorded by BÖC on _Revolution by Night_ and _Club Ninja_. There is a reason that FoTU was the last Top 40 BÖC album.

The production for _Imaginos_ -- many headed beast that it is, with a lengthy and oft-interrupted gestation -- is certainly also a product of its time (and what Sandy Pearlman thought he could do with it at that time), but at least sits reasonably honourably amongst other works from the period. Under (very) different circumstances it could have been ... well, it could have been the album that we imagine it to be. :)

Cheers,
Carl

PS - Heh, I only just recently learned that some of the _Imaginos_ basic tracks were recorded in Port Jefferson, LI.  I grew up in Stony Brook, and knew PJ well!  'Course, I was 11 when those basic tracks were being recorded, and still only 16 when the eventual album was actually released! ;)

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/