Hawkwind & Other Moorcock-Inspired Music
Plus Top Songs of 1979
This week Louder published1 a recommended list of Hawkwind albums. It includes the following description of the band’s classic Warrior On The Edge Of Time 1975 album:
The pinnacle of Hawkwind’s creativity. They worked closely with fantasy author Michael Moorcock on this album, which is based on his Eternal Champion concept, and it has an ingenuity that makes it a classic.
Every song is both self-contained yet part of an overall flow that really does make it a space-rock opera. The band even doffed the cap towards 19th-century poets Percy Shelley and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on opening track Assault & Battery (Part 1), while Moorcock himself contributed three poems, narrating two of them. The album’s artwork added to the fusion of brilliance.
The article also discusses the Michael Moorcock connections to the album The Chronicle Of The Black Sword from 1985:
As with Warrior On The Edge Of Time, the inspiration for this album was a character created by Michael Moorcock. This time it was Elric Of Melnibone, although the song Needle Gun was based on Jerry Cornelius, another Moorcock creation.
The conceptual nature of the album suited the band, who took space rock out of its 70s bubble and reimagined it for the new decade. Guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton and keyboard player Harvey Bainbridge gave it freshness and sparkle, while the lyrics indulged in Moorcockian complexity. After losing their way a little, Hawkwind were back in the groove.
The article leaves out, however, the turmoil going on with the band that ultimately limited Moorcock’s involvement, as he explained in this It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine interview:
“Actually that one was a bit fraught because I’d discussed a lot of it with Nicky and almost nothing with Dave. Nicky was fired again around that point so all the work was in my view wasted. I quietly decided to have less to do with it after that. They were virtually my last gigs with Hawkwind. I saw Dave’s point of view but didn’t think he’d handled it well. Then Dave, without reference to me, got Doug Smith’s label involved.
Given I was at that point in dispute with Douglas, I felt Dave should have told me more about what was going on. So I pulled my numbers. After the dispute with Douglas was partially resolved I let the stuff go back in. I enjoyed doing the Hammersmith Odeon gigs but I have never been as involved with Hawkwind since. It’s a shame really that the ‘Black Sword’ tour was where it pretty much ended for me.”
(For what it’s worth, I’m a big fan of the Brain Surgeons’ cover of “Needle Gun”.)
The last recommendation from the article that I will highlight is Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music, as I think that record would appeal to Critical Hit Parader readers who are fans of pulp-era sci-fi. Here is the description of the album from the article:
In a way, this was a concept album, paying tribute to the pulp science fiction magazines of the 1930s and 40s, with each song telling a self-contained sci-fi story.
It worked, too, because, for the first time, all of the members of the band were involved in the songwriting and musical arrangements. The performances took Hawkwind to a new level, pulling them out of the underground. Reefer Madness, Kerb Crawler and Steppenwolf were highlights, while the cover design added to the sense of sci-fi nostalgia, but with a biting sense of parody.
Other Moorcock-Inspired Music
In the Weekly Geekly Rundown for May 31, 2024 Christian Lindke schooled me on two additional songs that were inspired by Michael Moorcock. The first was “One for the Vine” by Genesis. I knew the song, but I didn’t realize it “was inspired by the novel The Phoenix in Obsidian (known as The Silver Warriors in the US).” The second one was the instrumental “Road to Melniboné” by Stuart Smith, which was completely new to me. As Christian describes, “Stuart Smith may be best known as the guitarist for Sweet, but he too has written songs inspired by the wanderings of an Albino Emperor.” You can listen to those songs along with a few other Moorcock-inspired tunes by clicking the Read more button below:
Christian also included a link to a thorough article by Dave Ritzlin titled Chronicle of the Black Sword: Rock and Metal Inspired by Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse. Check it out if you’re ready for a Moorcock-inspired music deep dive.
Top Songs of 1979
I was a panelist on a recent episodes of The Contrarians Youtube channel in which we each picked our top ten songs of 1979. My selections included tunes by Tubeway Army, Blackfoot, the Cars, and the Clash. You can see the rest of my choices, along with the favorites of author Martin Popoff and the other panelists, here:
The article was posted this week but is credited to the legendary rock journalist Malcom Dome, who passed away in 2021. I suspect the article was published previously, perhaps in Classic Rock magazine.
Time for me to delve deep into Hawkwind. There are a couple of the big prog bands I’ve willingly chosen not to explore since I still want to have new prog to look forward to but I can definitely recognize the time has come for these space rockers.
I remember reading that some of their 80’s records had so many layers of synths that the music bordered on cacophony. I’d really like to explore those so any ideas what albums those may be?
Also, I’m ordering Moorcock’s Elric’s book 1 . It is also time.
I have Hawkwind's 1st, In Search of Space, Space Ritual, and a box set of rarities called 'Acid Daze.' I wouldn't say I am a mega fan, but I like their freakishness and how they experimented with both sound and rock music. Joe Banks' spectacular band bio, 'Hawkwind: Days of the Underground: Radical Escapism in the Age of Paranoia' is also easily one of the best music books I have read. It's a definite page-turner written with a ton of love and respect.