HW: album slagging

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Fri, Apr 07, 2006 at 09:39:08AM +0000, pete howe typed out:

	<snip>

> Personally i think the reworking of  the song S.A, and S.M(on C.Y.M.) are 
> just plain horrible and you have to ask..WHY??Modernising S.O.T.A.(and 
> Paradox) was far more understandable..although personally,i still prefer 
> the original version of S.O.T.A.

	I don't think the new one has a great deal to say for itself, 
and my favourite is still the _Live '79_ version in fact, I prefer 
Dav'es emotional reading of it to Calvert's robotic one, but at least 
the new SOTA does actually fit into the album concept (perhaps because 
teh album was built around it). No such get-out clause for the two RCA 
remakes.

> Re Sonic Attack..Rocky paths is superb..Angels of Death WOULD be superb if 
> theyd cranked up Daves guitar a bit..dont like "coded languages" (Moococks 
> vocals ..ermm...)..and Streets of Fear, Daves riff sounds too much like 
> Magnu.But the production sound is far superior than that on C.Y.M.,which is 
> muddy with Daves guitar even lower in the mix,and only redeemed by the 
> classic "arrival in Utopia"..Even on the reasonable Fahrenheit 451, the 
> riff sounds like a reworking of 25 years on./silver machine type 
> progression..it was  the start of the "album filler" period, i think, which 
> went right through the 80s.

	I think that particular chord progression is always a winner :-) 
I agree about the mix, though I'm not sure the EBS mastering to CD 
didn't rather lower the bar down to CYM's level as I don't notice 
*that* much difference between them. I still like the actual material 
on CYM a whole lot better, despite the awful drums.

> In the middle of those 2 albums came the interesting Church of Hawkwind,of 
> course, with its great booklet artwork-"Nuclear Drive" is a hugely 
> under-rated track, i think..

	I think that whole album is possibly Dave's greatest solo effort 
:-) It's always nice to have Huw on things even when he hasn't really 
contributed and there he is in a couple of places, and Harvey's there 
but really not pulling his weight on his material (especially if you 
compare it to his tracks on CYM) but Dave's stuff is all pretty much the 
business. I think `Nuclear Drive' is a bit silly though.

> By the way,ive got the rare 10" x8"softback lyric book, released at that 
> time,(green cover, great artwork), little bit scruffy- worn spine,couple of 
> creases to cover, but pretty good condition.. if anyones interested(lots of 
> wrong lyrics, though.."Flying doctor" seems to have had a politically 
> correct makeover done on it!) ..and Daves message that part two will follow 
> in a few years(i dont think it ever did!)..along with a rare sticker sheet 
> of album covers, issued at the same time..all from Hawkfan, i believe..

	I went record-hunting on Saturday in Brighton and found myself 
nice vinyls of _Friends and Relations: Twice Upon a Time_ and _Chronicle 
of the Black Sword_ (The Flickknife issue; do they all have that inner? 
That's a nice thing). The guy had a lot more stuff also, including three 
copies of WotEoT and the 2LP of _Alien4_, the _Quark_ EP, _25 Years On_, 
Castle Masters Collection, nothing terribly rare on vinyl I guess which 
is all he had, but in case anyone wanted me to pick up any of it for 
their Kollections I thought I'd mention it. He had most of the EMI 
albums too, and a small raft of Motorhead stuff (inc. the Headgirl EP 
and _Golden Years Live_), nothing that's not out rematsred on CD though 
except _What's Words Worth_. Street Records on St James's Street, if 
you're local :-) Yours,
			Jon

Ob2LP: Bevis Frond - SUperseeder_
-- 
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
	    (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
 Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk