HW: Emperors New Clothes

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On tor 4 feb 1999 10.54 +0000 DASLUD at AOL.COM wrote:
> personally, i think that the early '90s trio lineup was second only to the
> lemmy era;

     100%!  No, 110%!  If that lineup had brought in Crum to
replace Harvey--so that they had a dedicated synths person, leaving
Brock and Davey free to rule on guitar and bass, they would have
been unstoppable!  Ah well.

> i 'm not terribly enamored of the material dominated by calvert, or
> later langton/bainbridge  (sorry folks)....

     I like some of the Calvert stuff and some of the Huw stuff,
but nearly so well as the early 70s/90s stuff.

> brock has always been less of a
> "generator" than a "conduit".....he doesnt INITIATE so much as he allows
> things to take place around him....this is not a slam; such an approach
has
> clearly served him well, since it's 1999 and he's still being
discussed>>>>>>

     I think that's true now, but wasn't in the early years.  Up
through Warrior, Brock consistently turned out quality material
on his own or in collaboration with Calvert, Nik, whoever.  He's
usually taken a much reduced role since then, especially since
the middle of this decade--it seems every gig people go to they
say, "Good gig, but we couldn't see or hear Dave!"

> biggest difference between '91 and now is that hawkwind has become a
"cottage
> industry" and they are obliged to perpetuate themselves by "moving
product"
> in a way that wasnt exactly the case  in 91, much less previously....

     There is much sitting about.  I appreciate the difficulties in
marketing the unmarketable :) but HW seems short on direction and
drive.  Well, they may yet surprise us--they have before!

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/