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| Hawkwind – 1973 |
Do not check your portable devices, do not adjust your seats, do not attempt to leave your destination…we’re heading to even heavier space today. I’ll attempt to direct this month’s driving theme into a heavier direction before we descend back to Earth. Hawkwind’s brand of rock is not for the weak…its rock for the orbit seekers. My two picks of the day from 1972’s Space Ritual, their double LP space-rock opus, are “Born to Go” the pummeling track and “Drive Through the Night” the sublime cloaker. Both, like space, provide no quarter but present rampant space for mind travelers to wander.
Listen to Born to Go at Grooveshark.
Sometimes I wonder why I hardly listen to any metal. Then, I realize that nothing quite sounds as dense or intense as when Hawkwind rockets you into sonic space. “Born to Go” is pure rocket fuel to liberate you from the confines of a gravitational pull urging you to stay in place. Intertwining, two searing guitar leads with the massive bass work of Lemmy, you feel the melody constantly surging upward. The vocals just screaming at you to power through. Its a challenge, are you willing to go where few go? They think you can…we all left the inner world of a womb once to the outer world of Earth…there is always time to free yourself again.
Right after you’ve taken this challenge you’re reminded of the pitfalls ahead. “Down Through the Night” is a rocker channeling the speed of the cosmos. The further you want to travel, the more speed you must accumulate and the more weight you must discard. Writ large, its a dark meditation on the risk inherent in exploration. Being in the dark of what lies ahead but presenting the importance on focusing on the ever increasing light which grows as you head into your destination. Sometimes, before the most adventurous of journeys you gotta steel yourself and confront whatever darkness lays ahead…directly. If you can, aurally, your head will remain as your mind gets blow into space dust by the rest of Space Ritual. We keep traveling to other strange and wonderful aural planets tomorrow…
Bonus track, live footage of them performing Silver Machine (which wasn’t done live on this album for some reason):