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Thread: Hawkwind compilations - where to start?

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    Hawkwind compilations - where to start?

    Hawkwind seem to have so many compilation albums out there, that they vastly outnumber the official studio albums, and given Hawkwind's longevity that takes some doing.

    But if you were to pick one, would it be The Anthology (From Atomhenge to Earth Ritual)?

    Here's my take on this well curated box set, put together with approval and input from the band (ie Dave Brock!)

    https://momentstransition.wordpress....ogy-1976-1984/

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    ^If you want one career-spanning anthology covering various record labels, then the EMI Epoch-Eclipse is the only one there has been, I think.

    https://www.discogs.com/Hawkwind-Epo.../master/203811

    There's also a 3-cd set covering the period before the ones in your link, called Parallel Universe. However there is a caveat in that there is nothing from 1975's Warrior On The Edge Of Time is on it. Although it was on United Artists, same as the ones before it, there seems to have been some convoluted legal stuff involved with that album.

    https://www.discogs.com/Hawkwind-Par.../master/656898

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    Member wiz_d_kidd's Avatar
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    The subject lines should have been... "Hawkwind compilations - when will they stop?"

    I did a check of their releases on Discogs, and this is what I found:

    261 unique releases (albums, singles, compilations, videos, misc) -- not counting re-releases of the same album
    1060 different compositions (i.e. named songs)

    So, by my calculations, any one release contains only, on average, 1060/261 = 4 new tracks -- the rest being repeats!

    It's actually even worse considering that many of the named compositions are actually repeats, but are counted as different because of spelling variations, or errors in Discogs bookkeeping. So there are actually fewer than 1060 unique compositions spread out over the 261 releases.

    I mean, consider "Master of the Universe". It appears as 125 different recordings (a total of 351 different tracks) on their 261 releases. Almost one out of two releases will contain this song.

    I like Hawkwind's music. I just don't like how they keep recycling the same music over and over. This Anthology album is just more recycling.

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    A heads-up...most of the enormous amount of Hawkwind compilations out there are drawn from live recordings of often bootleg-level quality. Not from their 'proper' album releases on Liberty/UA, Charisma, Bronze and beyond. The Atomhenge label brought virtually everything from 1975 onwards under the same umbrella.

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    Estimated Prophet notallwhowander's Avatar
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    Epoch Eclipse is an excellent anthology.

    I haven't picked up the anthologies by Esoteric/Atomhenge because I began picking up their individual album reissues at that time. I generally endorse anything by the Esoteric/Atomhenge imprint, because everything I have bought from them has been excellent.
    Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.

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    ^I don't have too many of their releases- my interest in Hawkwind albums wanes after the 70s- but the scale of what Atomhenge achieved with this catalogue cannot be underestimated. Many of these albums (including Warrior... and all the Charisma ones!) had very patchy availability before they got involved with the band.
    Last edited by JJ88; 01-21-2019 at 11:41 AM.

  7. #7
    I too was a primarily 70's Hawkwind fan and am unfamiliar with much that came after. The Epoch Eclipse compilation is one that I tend to return to, and think this is the go to comp for me. Other than that Space Ritual will forever be my favourite Hawkwind release.

    I have not heard the hawk lords release from last year, but a mate told me it is excellent, and I now feel I am missing out.

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    A heads-up...most of the enormous amount of Hawkwind compilations out there are drawn from live recordings of often bootleg-level quality. Not from their 'proper' album releases on Liberty/UA, Charisma, Bronze and beyond. The Atomhenge label brought virtually everything from 1975 onwards under the same umbrella.
    I'm not clear on the meaning of this post - are you warning against these Atomhenge compilations as well?

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    The first Hawkwind compilation, Roadhawks, has never had an official CD release. I believe it had segues and different mixes a la This Is The Moody Blues.

    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I'm not clear on the meaning of this post - are you warning against these Atomhenge compilations as well?
    No I'm not. Most things that are not EMI or Atomhenge can be avoided though, frankly.

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    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sunlight Caller View Post
    I too was a primarily 70's Hawkwind fan and am unfamiliar with much that came after. The Epoch Eclipse compilation is one that I tend to return to, and think this is the go to comp for me. Other than that Space Ritual will forever be my favourite Hawkwind release.

    I have not heard the hawk lords release from last year, but a mate told me it is excellent, and I now feel I am missing out.
    I love the '80s albums: Levitation, Choose Your Masques, Chronicle of the Black Sword, and The Xenon Codex. And don't miss 1990's Space Bandits!

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    ^^^ I will have to check out the 1980s releases. I admit I don't know much about them. I was a 70s-only Hawkwind fan like some of you until I heard "Electric Tepee" from the early 1990s. The title is worthy of Spinal Tap but I think it is some of the best space-rock ever recorded. By anyone. If the 80s stuff is close to the quality of ET then I'm in.

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    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    Go to YT and listen to Space Bandits ASAP!

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    Quote Originally Posted by dropforge View Post
    I love the '80s albums: Levitation, Choose Your Masques, Chronicle of the Black Sword, and The Xenon Codex. And don't miss 1990's Space Bandits!
    Exactly those! Levitation is the second best Hawkwind Album after Warrior. Would add some live stuff: Live 79, Live Chronicles

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    I really like the 80s live albums The Business Trip and Love In Space. I also like the studio album Alien 4, as well as It Is the Business of the Future to be Dangerous. I actually like most Hawkwind I've heard except those albums from 2010/2012 which were horrible. There are some in there before those I've never heard (the ones that were very overpriced), and also I've never heard the band's first couple of albums

    Live Chronicles is another live favorite of mine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I really like the 80s live albums The Business Trip and Love In Space. I also like the studio album Alien 4, as well as It Is the Business of the Future to be Dangerous. I actually like most Hawkwind I've heard except those albums from 2010/2012 which were horrible. There are some in there before those I've never heard (the ones that were very overpriced), and also I've never heard the band's first couple of albums

    Live Chronicles is another live favorite of mine.
    Actually I think I really like all their phases till (and including) Alien 4.

    From then on it goes down the drain.

    I strongly prefer to listen to their live Albums, love their older stuff with Lloyd Langton's lead guitar.

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    When I first heard Chronicle of the Black Sword I thought it was terrible (I think it was my first exposure to the band, not a good first choice but it was new). Then later when I heard Live Chronicles I really liked it, and was sort of able to back and enjoy Black Sword.

    I agree, I prefer their live albums.

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    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheH View Post
    Exactly those! Levitation is the second best Hawkwind Album after Warrior. Would add some live stuff: Live 79, Live Chronicles
    Hell, yes to both, especially Live Chronicles.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    When I first heard Chronicle of the Black Sword I thought it was terrible (I think it was my first exposure to the band, not a good first choice but it was new). Then later when I heard Live Chronicles I really liked it, and was sort of able to back and enjoy Black Sword.

    I agree, I prefer their live albums.
    That was before you discovered earwax removal kits!

    Seriously, if you've not heard Space Bandits — Chop! Chop!

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    A heads-up...most of the enormous amount of Hawkwind compilations out there are drawn from live recordings of often bootleg-level quality. Not from their 'proper' album releases on Liberty/UA, Charisma, Bronze and beyond. The Atomhenge label brought virtually everything from 1975 onwards under the same umbrella.
    Unfortunately, some of the Atomhenge stuff is already out of print. Oy!

    I wouldn't bother with compilations. Most of the best material by any band or performer rarely appears on a best of.

    As for the "bootleg quality live" things, there was a three CD set that came out in the 80's called Anthology, it was three separate releases. That's got most of the better "unsanctioned" live material. Not sure where you'd get that material now.

    Whatever you do, steer clear of something called Bring Me The Head Of Yuri Gagarin. Great title, awful recording of a very subpar gig.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by dropforge View Post
    I love the '80s albums: Levitation, Choose Your Masques, Chronicle of the Black Sword, and The Xenon Codex. And don't miss 1990's Space Bandits!
    Sonic Attack is pretty good too. If one is new to Levitation, try to find the 3 CD edition that came out about 10 years ago. Aside from having assorted B-sides, demos, etc, it also has a full gig recorded on the Levitation tour, with Ginger Baker on drums, but unfortunately also after Tim Blake got sacked from the band. A number of tracks from this show turned up later on This Is Hawkwind Do Not Panic and Zones.

    I actually introduced to Hawkwind mostly through the 80's era material, mainly because that was all I could find circa 1989, on the east side of Cleveland. I had heard of Hawkwind, because I knew Lemmy had played with them, and I remember that line on The Young Ones, when Neil implores the BBC (presumably) to "get some good groups on, like Hawkwind, or Marillion!".

    But The Xenon Codex was literally the first Hawkwind recordings I ever heard. And for awhile, it was the only one, because nothing else was bobbing to the surface. Then a CD copy of Levitation materialized in the used bin at Wax Stax. Around the same time I got Anthology Vol. 1.

    Then someone apparently traded in a bunch of the Flicknife era records, Zones, Independent Days, This Is Hawkwind Do Not Panic, and the Earth Ritual EP. I ended up buying them all, except for Zones, because when I went back to the store to get it when I had more money, it was gone (I eventually got a copy of it on CD when it was reissued in the 90's, I was right to leave that one for last).

    the two EP's, Earth Ritual and Independent Days, turned out to be real scores, as they both had some cool track son it. Of course, Earth Ritual had Night Of The Hawk and Dragons And Fables, and Independent Days had one of my favorite versions of Who's Gonna Win The War.

    At the time, I thought This Is Hawkwind Do Not Panic was really cool, but in light of the deluxe version of Levitation, which has most of this material, presented in it's correct order (I was really surprised to find out how many of the segues on sides one and two of TSH, DNP were manufactured in the studio), the Flicknife release seems a bit redundant, except for the two tracks from 1984 (one being a synth based jam recorded at dawn during that year's Stonehenge festival, and yet another version of Watching The Grass Grow). Still, it was a nice record to have at the time.

    Also in that cache, was a copy of 25 Years On, aka Hawklords (apparently, there's at least one pressing that gives no album title, which is where mine came from), which gave me my first glimpse of the Calvert era.

    Then as time went on, I laid hands on all the 70's and 80's era albums, either on LP's or CD's. And yes, for a long time the Charisma era stuff was a pain in the ass to find on CD. I must have lucked out in the early 90's, because I walked into a Tower Records in San Diego (no, not the one on Sports Avenue Blvd, the other store), and found Quark, Strangeness And Charm, so I bought that. But it wasn't until the Atomhenge deal kicked in that I managed to get 25 Years On\, and Astounding Sounds Amazing Music on CD (I had both on LP already).

    And I'll agree that both Space Bandits and Electric Tepee are both really great, as is Palace Springs. As far as I'm concerned those three might have been their last great albums. I remember not really liking It Is The Business Of The Future To Be Dangerous, and unfortunately, after that, the one really good record store that I could always count on to get new Hawkwind material in when it was released went out of business. So there's a great big question mark for me after 1993 or whenever it was. I think they kinda went really hard on the techno thing during the 90's, apparently trying to prove they weren't just a bunch of "boring old hippies", but failing to do anything impressive. At least not impressive to me.

    Oh, and yeah, Dave Brock does reuse a lot of old material, using new titles, for publishing reasons, e.g. Assassins Of Allah is actually Hasan I Sabah, Mask Of Morning is a totally re-imagined version of Mirror Of Illusion off the first Hawkwind album, The Camera That Could Lie is a very misguided reggae remake of Living On A Knife Edge (the original of which is one of my favorite Hawkwind tracks), etc.

    And just to demonstrate that it wasn't just Dave doing this, there's a Harvey Bainbridge track from one of the early 80's albums, I think it was originally called Blue Dream, which appeared with a new title at least once (Acid Test on Palace Springs). But I guess that's what happens when you sign dodgy contracts with record companies, managers, etc.
    Last edited by GuitarGeek; 01-21-2019 at 11:08 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    The first Hawkwind compilation, Roadhawks, has never had an official CD release. I believe it had segues and different mixes a la This Is The Moody Blues.


    .

    Roadhawks
    was a fine introduction to the band, with a mix of non-album singles, an unreleased live version of You Shouldn't Do That, and a tasteful segue of the following tracks:

    Space Is Deep (Doremi), Wind Of Change (Mountain Grill), and Golden Void (Warrior)

    They've been mixed so well that as a first timer I thought it was one continuous piece.

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    Always thought it was weird that only Masters Of The Universe came out on CD when it seems to have been a sequel/companion to Roadhawks. I can only assume it's something to do with the inclusion of 'The Golden Void' on Roadhawks, although EpochEclipse contained that song and a couple of others from Warrior...

    Indeed, the live 'You Shouldn't Do That' recorded at one of the Space Ritual shows made its debut on Roadhawks. That's been added to both Space Ritual remasters (the 90s one and then the 00s one), at least.

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    I steer clear of HW compilations, far too confusing. I only listen to their studio albums. That said I do own one compo, Roadhawks on vinyl.

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    I think the Atomhenge anthologies mentioned in the original post have various singles which are not necessarily extra tracks on remasters. Similarly the EMI Parallel Universe anthology has a few single mixes not on the 90s remasters, if that sort of thing appeals to you.

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    Member TheH's Avatar
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    Little quiz: which prominent Hawkwind guy played for this guys for seven years


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