the new compilation

[Ductor, Dan [NEUUS]]

Doug-

Thanks for the in depth review  Your comments and great emails always bring
a smile
to my face; especially on a work day!

So, when are us West Coast folks going to join forces and travel over to the
UK to see Hawkwind??!

Dan Ductor (Recently married and soon to be a father of another HW fan....)


        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Doug Pearson [SMTP:jasret at MINDSPRING.COM]
        Sent:   Wednesday, May 01, 2002 1:05 PM
        To:     BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU
        Subject:        HW: the new compilation

        Nobody seems to have mentioned it on-list yet, so here's some info /
        opinions ...

        Hawkwind - 'Masters of Rock' CD EMI 5377652

        A compilation covering the UA era, culled entirely from the EMI
remasters
        except for two more recent bonus tracks.  Interestingly, this seems
to be
        a "replacement" for the 'Masters of the Universe' compilation - it
includes
        5 out of 6 cuts from that one (only "It's So Easy" is omitted), plus
3 cuts
        from the 'Roadhawks' compilation ("Hurry on Sundown", "Silver
        Machine", "Urban Guerilla" ... it would have been nice to have the
edited
        version of "Paranoia" (parts 1 & 2) and the "Space Is Deep"/"Wind of
        Change"/"Golden Void" medley from that comp on CD ... oh well ...).
The
        other UA-era tracks are "Mirror of Illusion", "Lord of Light"
(single
        version), and "Paradox".  Nothing from 'Warrior' (and only two songs
from
        HotMG).

        Of the new tracks, the first is mis-titled AND mis-credited!
Although the
        title is "Love in Space", you only get one verse and one chorus from
that
        song, followed by four minutes of Capt. Rizz doing "Rat Race" (which
fades
        out before the transition back to "Love in Space").  And then the
        songwriting credit reads "Davey" (since this is a live version from
1997,
        Alan/Ali doesn't even play on it)!  Pretty un-essential if you
already
        have 'In Your Area' or 'Hawkwind 1997'.  "Lighthouse", from last
October's
        Royal Festival Hall show, is actually fairly different from the
'Yule
        Ritual' version (in more than just the different lead guitarist).
Pretty
        good, as long as you can tolerate Tim's vocals (of course).

        So now we get to the fun part of the review - savaging the liner
notes!
        While the sentiment of the notes (basically, "Dave Brock wants you
to open
        your mind") is entirely worthy, the usual amusing inaccuracies are
        present.  Although there are no track credits, the notes list the
musicians
        as Brock / Lloyd-Langton / Turner / Lemmy / DikMik / House / Dettmar
/ King
        & Calvert ... even though Huw & Simon House each appear on only 3
tracks
        (same as Terry Ollis, who isn't mentioned), one of which is the
        new "Lighthouse".  More amusingly, the notes list some quotes "from
Dave
        Brock" supporting the "open your mind" thesis ... the only problem
is that
        the quotes are from "Coded Languages" (lyrics by Moorcock)
        and "Aerospaceage Inferno" (lyrics by Calvert) - neither one a Brock
        composition (not even the music).  And even though the lyrics to
"Urban
        Guerilla" are (unfortunately) as topical as they ever were, I'm not
really
        sure that that's something you'd want to brag about (especially when
plenty
        of Dave's & Bob's other songs are still equally topical) ...

        ... and did Hawkwind REALLY play for five hours at Stonehenge in
1977 (at
        which the summer solstice is the LONGEST day of the year, not the
        shortest)?!?

        VERDICT: As good an introductory compilation as any (unless you want
a
        career-spanning one, in which case 'Epoch Eclipse' would be the
right
        purchase).  But of little use to fans unless you're a hardkore
kollektor,
        or you just gotta have the new version of "Lighthouse".  And the
credit for
        the two new songs is very telling ...

            -Doug
             jasret at mindspring.com