HW: Weird CDs

[Doug Pearson]

Hi Nick,

Welcome to the list!

On Tue, 24 Oct 2000 21:36:27 -0400, Nick Medford <nick at HERMIT0.DEMON.CO.UK>
wrote:
>For all I know this subject has aleady been done to death here but anyway..
>what do people think of the Weird CDs? Any specific recommendations? I
>picked up no.4 (live '78) at the Academy,

This is the only one I have, only on tape (the CD's haven't shown up in the
US of A, at least in the Bay Area, yet - I'll be getting the whole lot when
they do, except maybe for 101 since all the Sonic Assassins stuff is
available elsewhere).  This is actually the Hawklords one, right?

>I'm a sucker for anything with Calvert on it.

Me, too.

>Only played it once so far but not overwhelmed, doesn't
>sound as good as Thrilling Adventures on first listen. Any views on this or
>the other Weirds?

Weird 104 (Hawklords '78) is one of my absolute favorite Hawkwind live
releases.  No other live Hawkwind recording matches it for sheer energy.  I
think the versions of "Death Trap" and "Spirit of the Age" are great.  But
the version of "Urban Guerilla" is a step up even from those - thoroughly
killer!  I very much like the way Bob incorporates much of the "Wage War"
poem into his rant in the middle of the song.  And the synth-noise blasts
near the end of the song that coincide (I would assume) with Calvert's
shooting off his toy machine gun.  I think it's pretty great to at least
hear the way the music could interact with his stage persona.  I'd still
love to hear a recording of him snorting shampoo during "Waiting for my
Man", though!

I can see why one might prefer the 'Thrilling Adventures' versions of some
of the songs.  "Steppenwolf" is one that's better-suited to the '76
prog-ish treatment than the '78 punk-ish lineup, and as a big Neu fan, I
certainly have a soft spot for the '76 version of "Uncle Sam's On Mars".
But then again, all 3 versions of "Uncle Sam" ('76 Neu-like version of
'Thrilling Adventures', '77 chugging version with the great Calvert rant on
'PXR5', and the '78 Hawklords high energy version of Weird 104) are very
different from one another and each has something interesting to offer IMO.

My only problem with Weird 104 is that it doesn't have "25 Years" (GREAT
version on the 'Hawklords Live' CD), "Flying Doctor" (speaking of which -
is the 'Friends and Relations vol.3' version aka "Drug Cabinet Key"
available on ANY CD ANYWHERE?  It isn't, according to the versions of the
Codex I checked), or "Psi Power".

And some might not consider it a positive development, but isn't the
version of "Micro Man" on Weird 104 the first occurrance of a Reggae rhythm
in the middle of a live Hawkwind song?

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com