HW: Kings Of Speed Instrumental

[Doug Pearson]

On Fri, 1 Dec 2000 14:54:53 -0000, david hall
<dave at PARMA29.FREESERVE.CO.UK> wrote:
>This was released by Flicknife in the early 80's when was it recorded 74
or 75?

The short answer is that, to me, it sounds exactly like the released track,
minus any vocal overdubs, so that would put the recording date as early '75
(same as the rest of the 'Warrior' LP ... I don't know the *exact* dates
they were in the studio, but the album was released in May? 1975, right?).

What I *suspect*, is that during the recording of 'Warrior', the band (or
at least Dave, and presumably the "soloists"/vocalists - Nik, Simon House &
Lemmy), received rough mixes of the basic tracks, before any overdubs were
recorded (definitely standard practice in multi-track recording).  That
would explain why the version of "Motorhead" doesn't have the original sax,
violin and vocal overdubs.  The Flicknife versions of both "Kings of Speed"
AND "Motorhead" would have come from these (hypothetical) tapes - the
former in its original form, the latter with Dave's vocal & synth overdubs
done contemporary to the release, NOT the original recording.  The giveaway
for that hypothesis (overdubs done late 70s/early 80s, NOT '75) is the
"popping" synth noises.  Had they been recorded in '75, the synth used
would have been either EMS (Synthi AKS), Moog (Minimoog), or possibly ARP
(Odyssey or 2600).  The sound is clearly an LFO-modulated resonant filter,
and it sounds nothing like the filters of those instruments.  However, it
does sound A LOT like the resonant filter of a Korg MS-20 (first
manufactured in 78 or 79), which Dave & Hawkwind were using extensively
circa 80/83 (it's listed on the 'Church of Hawkwind' gear list).

I prefer the synth overdubs of the Flicknife version to the violin & sax on
the original (those instruments just don't seem right for the band that was
named after the song, but the synths are sufficiently aggressive ... and
the synth "notes" [as opposed to "noises] sound awful close to the guitar
solo Fast Eddie played on live versions the song - 'No Sleep Til
Hammersmith' etc.), but nobody can sing that song like Lemmy can!

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com