Chronicles Of The Black Bong Hawkwind

[Doug Pearson]

Came back to my dorm room, high as a kite, about a month after I started
college (10/84).  Turned on the radio, tuned into the campus station (WJHU
RIP), just in time to hear the DJ announce, "'Psychedelic Warlords' by
Hawkwind".  The combination of synthesizer drone & swoosh, funky yet
driving rhythm guitar, relentlessly-pummeling bass, random sax bursts, with
the gradually-shifting mellotron chords holding things together melodically
was like NOTHING I'd heard before.  The prog-ish grandeur (without the
pomposity and pretensiousness), mind-blowing psychedelia, and two-fingers-
to-society punk/DIY ethic & direct musical simplicity was exactly the kind
of music I didn't even know I was looking for.

Took the bus downtown the next day to scope out the used record shops and
came back with copies of 'Space Ritual', 'Roadhawks' and 'Live 79'.  Within
a couple years, my Hawkwind LP connection numbered about 40.

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com