Day 7.
Hawkwind:
The Chronicle of the Black Sword
Those
who live in Mass might remember a record store in Cambridge called, Second
Coming (insert your own teenaged depraved variant of the name here, I sure did
back then as I was the right age). Most Saturdays some friends and I would hop
the train to Cambridge so we could record shop. Why did we go there so much
when so many other closer stores were around back in those daze? Two words:
concert bootlegs. Second Coming was a temple for bootlegs both on vinyl and
cassette. They had so many boots that when word would somehow come to the store
that they were due to be raided, the store would have almost nothing left in
it. More than once we were in there to find only maybe a fistful of albums and
tapes were on the shelves. Normally there would be thousands. How did they know
in advance the cops were going to come? Who knows?
So
into this store I walked one Saturday. Flipping through the bins I stumbled
across Hawkwind (they had their own small section). I knew the name of the band
so it wasn’t a stunner. Music writer/critic Jim Sullivan had name-dropped them
in a write up about Motorhead in one of his articles in the Boston Globe. I
knew who Motorhead was and who Lemmy was and that he had once been in Hawkwind.
Hawkwind were also
mentioned in a few episodes of the English comedy show, the Young Ones, which
once also featured Motorhead. What fan of the Young One’s can forget Neal
whining, “Play some Hawkwind or Marillion!” and in the credit sequence Hawkwind
was written on a chalkboard. So yes, I knew the name.
Still
that day, I think my jaw might have dropped. Not because I found a section of
their albums, but because I was staring at an album called The Chronicle of the
Black Sword.
Why
was that a big deal? Well, because I had read the Elric books by Micheal
Moorcock. A wild trippy fantasy series about the weakling, non-human, sorcerer,
Elric and his living, soul eating, black sword, called Stormbringer and here I
was, staring at an album that was devoted to that series.
The
cover was a beautiful macabre painting that outdid all of the Elric book
covers.
So
yes, I bought it without listening to it, or any hesitation at all. As I told
my friends, “I don’t care if the music stinks, at least the cover is great.”
Later
that day when I got home that album was what I put on the turntable. When the
pulsing opening synth barrage hit me in the face I was floored. This album is a
fantasy metal psych attack. My brain wasn’t ready, but it rolled along. After
listening to it once through, I called my friend Paul Armstrong and told him he
had to hear it. I put the album on and held the phone towards it.
Yes
my mind was blown. I will always treasure this album. The Chronicle of the
Black Sword was my stepping-stone into a different world.
If
I hadn’t bought this album, I may never have discovered Aural Innovations the
space rock internet radio show, which led to me writing words for the great
Atlanta band Spaceseed, some of which were performed by Harvey Bainbridge who
played keyboards on The Chronicle of the Black Sword album. Most likely I never
would have wound up recording with the amazing Harts Horn, or recording with
the mighty Tim Mungenast, and even contributing to a birthday song for Michael
Moorcock himself. I certainly never would have gone to Alabama to perform at
Carlo Robet Deshouten’s SpaceRock Con if the Black Sword hadn’t been added to
my collection.
Yeah,
this album changed my life in a profound way.
And
just for the record, the music is still amazing. I could write a lot more about
this album and one day I just might.
Here’s
a taste of the psych fantasy metal tunes.
Yours in the song of the swords,
Count Robot
