HW 40th Anniversary Show - Huw

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

Despite years of pretending to be a musician, my technical knowledge  
of music is virtually nonexistent :) so I will bow to those with a  
deeper knowledge of Huw's forays across jazz modes!  Still, there is  
definitely something about Huw that makes him sound like Huw,  
traversing across the face of the song like some crazed sonic rock  
climber on a string.  In the last weeks, I'm been going back and  
trying to revisit the bits of "Huwwind" that I have, and even though  
it _still_ sounds to me like a remarkably distinctive and creative  
bunch of covers with Huw on board, rather than what is burned in my  
mind as classic Hawkwind, I have to say that I do appreciate his work  
with the band!  I mean, I can scarecely imagine "Shot Down in the  
Night" being played without Huw, and my favorite version of "Psy  
Power" is that rocked up Huw-fueled one (always wanted to cover that,  
too).

And, you're right -- Jerry, for all his evident merits, didn't really  
seem to bring such a distinctive voice to the proceedings.

Cheers,
Carl

On 17 Apr 2009, at 08:01, Jonathan Jarrett wrote:
> I once made an ex of mine who didn't care much for the treble
> register listen to one of Huw's breaks, possibly the _Live '79_
> `Brainstorm' or maybe even live with Litmus once, and she actually  
> paid
> some attention and then said, "he's not even in the same key as the  
> rest
> of them". And I listened and thought, he's not, is he? He's cutting
> across them in a minor key in some way that fits perfectly but sounds
> really affecting. And since I noticed that I've found that this is,  
> for
> me, Huw's big trick, he's really good at playing across the band. This
> is why Jerry Richards, despite being very good too, never really
> replaced Huw as lead for me, because he just sounds like Brock on  
> speed
> and without as chunky an amp set-up. Huw sounds like no-one else (much
> like Dave himself), but I'm not sure that it's particularly because of
> his technical skill, which does vary somewhat in performance these  
> days,
> but because of his ear for the best route across the rest of the  
> music.
> And of course, doing that makes him stand out in a way that Jerry
> doesn't.
>
> 	I don't know if that actually has much musical basis, but maybe
> someone who can speak to such things will tell me if I'm wrong.

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/