HW: Lyrics

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On lör 15 maj 1999 12.37 +0000 DASLUD at AOL.COM wrote:
> In a message dated 5/15/99 10:55:21 AM, nigel.kew at VIRGIN.NET writes:
> <<If you think 'Space Ritual' is tacky then 'Doremi Fasol Latido' must be
> right
> out there but it's not and I'll have words with anyone who says otherwise.
> The power chords at the start of 'Lord OF Light' just have to be felt live
> to be beleived - Hawkwind with special guest Lemmy Brixton acedemy 1990.
>
> i could be wrong but i think their use of the word "tacky" involved
absurdity
> more than polyester...no way carl-chan would dis "doremi" and "space
> ritual"..

     Quite. _Space Ritual_ has been firmly entrenched on the list
of my favorite albums for a long time, and I've always regarded
_Doremi_ to be much of a piece with it--not least because I count
the bass solo on the _Doremi_ "Time We Left" to be one of the
greatest achievements in the history of the universe.

     My point is that _SR_ (and a lot of other HW stuff) is
basically gonzoid sci-fi with liquid hydrogen thrusters--and,
when you get down to it, pretty "tacky".  High art, it is not.
And don't get me wrong: I _ain't_ sayin' that's a bad thing.
And that's not to say that even gonzoid sci-fi cannot be a
vehicle of the more serious and confrontational side of HW
(which is also a good thing).  For example, "Orgone Accumulator"
does not explicitly discuss either Reich's theories or the
social questions raised by his reception and treatment.  It's
just a bunch of cheezy rhymes which Bob made up by finding
"-ator" in his rhyming dictionary.  Or is it?  Or are phrases
like "no social integrator" and "one man isolator" *actually*
social commentary cunningly disguised under the wacky lyrics
of a song which seems to regard an orgone accumulator as
some kind of cybernetic sex toy?

     Damned if I know. I just made that up :)  Such bizarre
deconstructional games can be played _ad_infinitum_, but I
prefer not to play them.  If they were intended to work at
a subconcious level let 'em.  A little overt social commentary
is fun, but I like it tempered with the gonzoid sci-fi. Similar
with Motorhead--Lemmy writes a lot of excellent and very
serious lyrics and I dig that, but I appreciate them best
because they are delivered by a top notch rock'n'roll band.

     Mostly, I like Hawkwind, music and lyrics, because
they're _fun_. "Shall we travel through space?" "Yeah,
why not?"  They just pick up and *go*.  I like them for
all the reasons I've never warmed to post-Barrett Floyd.
There were some people taking loads of drugs and still
not having fun ;)  Miserable introspective gits! :) Very
pretty, very clever, but it just gets me down. Cue up
"Master of the Universe" please :)

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/