the start of something great
Now, I try to be positive every chance I can get, especially when it comes to music, because I've been listening to music for many years and my hope is that I've learned to appreciate that many bands take a LOT of time to properly figure out. Hawkwind's first album is interesting in that it contains both the bands best AND worst songs.
So that's why I give Hawkwind's debut album 4 stars, instead of 2 or 3, because a 4 is just more appropriate for a band that would soon become one of hard rocks very best.
Let's talk about the best songs first- "Hurry On Sundown", with some AWESOME harmonica playing and beautifully brilliant vocals. . . this is truly a spectacular song! "Be Yourself" has some wonderful saxophone jamming that leads into some equally impressive guitar soloing. I love this song a lot. And finally, the CCR-sounding "Mirror of Illusion", with a John Fogerty-like vocal melody that's both melodic and EXTREMELY good.
The bad songs would be the two "Paranoia" tracks. It's NOT a good idea to repeat the same 4 or 5 notes for several minutes. "Seeing It As You Really Are" kind of follows the same idea, with too much of it dominated with repeating notes that don't feel like they go anywhere. Still, this isn't as bad of a problem as on "Paranoia", but Hawkwind was better than this, and they should have known it.
I recommend buying the album for the three songs I mentioned above, but the band would become MUCH more consistent starting as soon as the next album.
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trippy
So I bought this CD more out of historical interest, but I ended up exclusively listening to it (and some other Hawkwind stuff) for the better part of a week. As a long-time fan of Motoerhead, I was curious to listen to some Hawkwind, the band Lemmy previously was a member of.
I've also always liked Monster Magnet, and these guys have clearly been influenced by Hawkwind. Spaced out effects, walls of psychedelic sound, guitars floating in outer space and lyrics detailing the hardships of interstellar travel. What a trippy band! Highly recommended.
IF THIS DISC HAD "SILVER MACHINE" ON IT, IT WOULD BE THE GREATEST LP OF ALL TIME
Great on 'shrooms and hash brownies. Perhaps you've heard of Hawkwind? Perhaps you've heard a song or an album? Well, nothing beats this first disc, originally issued on vinyl in 1970.
Hawkwind - self-titled (EMI)
Every cut here is total awesome sounding!From the trippy opener "Hurry On Sundown" to the rocker "Be Yourself","Mirror Of Illusion",the pre-Hawkwind blues cover "Bring It On Home" and their Pink Floyd cover of "Cymbaline". Only reason I'm giving this CD reissue a five star-rating instead of a four-star one,is BECAUSE of the superbly done remastered pressing of this title,Hawkwind's debut 1970 lp. Now THAT'S class!You get the lp's seven original tracks remastered,plus four(4)bonus cuts. Do keep in mind this record was produced by Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor,plus it's got some chart HW members that are rarely heard from anymore,like Dik Mik on electronics and Terry Ollis on drums. I've always thought as Hawkwind as being 'sort of' Floyd's rival. Listen for yourself and YOU tell me. First rate psychedelia,space rock or head music. Pick up a copy and you decide. Most highly recommended.
A Nice Enough Debut, But Better Would Come
No matter. (Techincally, three and a half stars, but they don't allow you to offer halvesies here. )
If you can imagine the early Pink Floyd ("The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," "A Saucerful of Secrets," "More") as what would eventually become "speed metal" in extraterrestrial wrapping and a peculiar theme of Michael Moorcock (a future contributor, as it happened) meets the Marvel Super Heroes on more than a few controlled substances, that was Hawkwind.
At least, that was Hawkwind as they'd become known beginning an album or two later. This debut set, long enough overdue for a remastering, displays much of what would soon identify the band, particularly its shifting between ethereal acoustic music and transdimensional electronic hard rock, but here it retains the very loose and very random feeling you might expect they'd have shown in their previous days as park buskers known for such performances as setting up and playing free outside the Isle of Wight festival and like appearances. Their future lyric hybrid is yet to be developed fully; here is a band which has found its sound but is trying to decide exactly what it is they really have to say.
Still, it's a charming sounding album with much good music, particularly their three earliest near-signature numbers, the cheerful post-hippie acoustic tapper "Hurry On Sundown," the stark surreal sonic wash of "Paranoia," and the spry jam, "Be Yourself," highlighted by reedman Nik Turner's half-Ayler, half-King Curtis saxophone squonk and guitarist Dave Brock's piercingly melodious break, both over a taut rhythm section and keyboardsman Dik Mik Davies's tastefully understated electronica. (True: erstwhile Pretty Things founder Dick Taylor not only helped produce the set but played some support guitar and bass on it. ) This Hawkwind lineup--Brock, Turner, Davies, bassist John Harrison and then Thomas Crimble, second guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton, drummer Terry Ollis--wasn't destined to last: exit Crimble, Langton, and Davies after the album's release; enter ex-Amon Duul bassist Dave Anderson, keyboardsman Del Dettmar, and poet/vocalist Robert Calvert. Ahead lay "In Search of Space. " And, Hawkwind's truer future.
You can see a complete list of all Hawkwind discography, or go back to the Hawkwind tabs
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