A vintage selection from Musashi’s bookshelf…
I love Hawkwind. A friend of mine once asked me what rock band I considered to be the most influential, and without hesitation I chose Hawkwind. I mean, every single English rock musician in the sixties or seventies was in Hawkwind, or at least partied with Hawkwind, at some point or another. And seriously - with a discography the size of Hawkwind’s, I think their track record is self evident.
So - my brother and I were hanging out the other day, and he was perusing my bookshelf and pulled out a tattered copy of Michael Moorcock’s ‘The Time of the Hawklords‘ that’s been gathering dust. Not one of Moorcock’s finest works, mind you, but it is his only out-and-out homage to Dave Brock and the boys from Hawkwind, and in a wierd way pefectly captures the band at the height of their power.
Here’s how the back cover copy reads:
From a ruined London on a burnt-out Earth, the Hawkwind group beams out its last, defiant concert. The Children of the Sun, the tattered remnants of the Hippies gather to listen. But when the music ends, withdrawal symptoms begin - dreadful, retching illness only the Hawkwind sound can allay.
This new malady may be more than debilitated mankind can withstand. Desperately the rock group begins research: first, with the few electronic instruments miraculously still intact; then with a book whose existence is an even greater miracle - an ancient, magical tome, The Saga of Doremi Fasol Latido, whose prophecies seem to be coming true.
My brother gave me a funny look and asked, ‘So Hawkwind are trying to save mankind from a hangover?’ Funny, that - I suspect Hawkwind created more hangovers than they ever solved, but there you have it.
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