matzaballman's Full Review: Independent Days, Vols. 1 & 2 by Hawkwind
Sometime in the early to mid eighties, British space rockers Hawkwind signed a deal with an independent record label called Flicknife Records, which proceeded to release compilation after compilation of inferior live recordings and alternate studio versions of some of their best songs. Most of us die-hard Hawkwind fans can smell these compilations from a mile and a half away and generally do our best to avoid them.
That being said, there are some gems to be found here and there on some of those compilations and a few of them show up on this CD Independent Days, Volumes 1 & 2, which I consider to be one of Flicknife's better Hawkwind releases. The songs are:
Night Of The Hawks, Motorway City, Motorhead, Angels Of Death, Who's Gonna Win The War, Watching The Grass Grow, Over The Top, Hurry On Sundown, Kiss Of The Velvet Whip, Kings Of Speed, Social Alliance, Dream Dancers, Dragons & Fables
In my grizzled epinion, the two standout cuts are (and please forgive me during this review if the word 'versions' pops up too much....I must purchase a thesaurus...after I learn how to spell it, that is!):
Night Of The Hawks- This wonderful catchy hard rocker was recorded in 1984 and marked the first appearance of bassist Lemmy on a Hawkwind song since 1975. I love how it builds in intensity up to the last line of the second verse, with Brock's vocals getting higher and Lemmy chiming in on backing vocals. Lead guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton provides some of his most inspired guitar playing in many a year. It's a very exciting hard rock song, with a very strong bass line from Lemmy and a great Dave Brock vocal. I think it was Brock's best song in at least four years.
Motorhead- This is my all time favorite version of this song, which would be the last thing Lemmy would write for Hawkwind. This one (which can also be found on the boxed set Acid Daze and the compilation Nightriding, albeit without the little studio chatter at the beginning) features Lemmy on bass, Alan Powell on drums and Dave Brock on vocals, guitar and synthesizer. Brock was always my favorite Hawkwind vocalist and he sounds great singing this. It's very energetic and raw and exciting, etc... The original, full band version can be found on the CD Warrior On The Edge Of Time and features a violin solo and the song's author Lemmy on vocals. I don't think it's nowhere near as good!
The album ends off with the studio version of guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton's Dragons and Fables, which was supposed to originally appear on Chronicle Of The Black Sword, but was left off because of problems with Flicknife. The live version appears on Live Chronicles, which I prefer to this one. This song features one of Hawkwind's more complicated guitar riffs and an okay vocal performance by Huw.
Hurry On Sundown, Kiss Of The Velvet Whip and Kings Of Speed originally appeared on an EP called "Hawkwind Zoo" and was Flicknife's first Hawkwind release. "Hawkwind Zoo" was the 'Wind's name right before they changed it to Hawkwind. "Hurry On Sundown" is an acoustic, slightly bluesy song that would pop up on their first album and features Brock blowing on an harmonica! "Kiss Of The Velvet Whip" is a silly little acoustic and somewhat jazzy number with an awkward vocal from Brock. The version of "Kings Of Speed" here is NOT a live version as the liner notes say, but essentially the original studio version without the vocals and with the violin lower in the mix. The original was a collaboration between Dave Brock and Michael Moorcock and can be found on the album Warrior On The Edge Of Time.
The live versions of Motorway City, Who's Gonna Win The War (both of these can be found on Levitation, which I highly recommend), and Angels Of Death aren't that bad, but the performances are ragged and the sound quality leaves a bit to be desired. Trust me, you're really better off sticking with the original studio renditions.
Elsewhere, Social Alliance is Dave Brock's first single as a solo artist, Watching The Grass Grow is a somewhat punkish hard rocker by sax player Nik Turner's band "Inner City Unit", Over The Top features Bob Calvert on vocals and has him complaining about his mike stand. This was recorded during a brief period in 1977 when Hawkwind were calling themselves "The Sonic Assassins".
I'd say the only thing on here that I would consider crap is Dream Dancers, which has a chant of "Arey, eh Arey" (or at least that's what it sounds like to me!) over a minimal background of synthesizers. Well, at least it's the shortest track here!
Overall, this really isn't that bad of an album...it's much better than I originally thought it was. There are at least half a dozen other Hawkwind compilations, however, that are superior to this one and you're better off spending MUCH MORE cash and buying their individual studio albums.
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