One Rabbit Hole After Another

I read another chapter of Lemmy’s book last night after slacking off on my reading for nearly a month. I still haven’t got to the formation of Motorhead yet but I like what I’ve read so far. Lemmy tells so many great yarns about his absolutely bonkers life and the many colourful, eccentric characters he met along the way. Last night’s chapter was all about his time in Hawkwind. If you’re not familiar with Hawkwind… well, they’re basically the textbook definition of “space rock” and they also did that one song you may have heard of, “Silver Machine”, which was a surprising hit — it hit #3 in the UK and the band even appeared on Top of the Pops at the time, which must’ve been so strange for anybody watching back then — but aside from that, I think the main reason people know of this band nowadays is the fact that Lemmy was a member for a couple of years.

I do wish Lemmy went into more detail about his experiences with Hawkwind in his book, but the chapter did pique my interest in the band, so I decided that I’d listen to some of their music today. I’m currently listening to their live album, Space Ritual, at the time of this writing and… yeah, I’m kind of digging it, although it’s probably one of the weirdest and trippiest fucking albums I’ve ever listened to. That can only mean one of two things — either it’s really saying something as to how out there of a band Hawkwind is or I need to listen to other weird artists. Probably both. Either way, the album is a fucking trip — pun very much intended — and well worth listening to if you like your music more on the psychedelic, spacey or even the nerdier side of things.

Also, if I do get the chance to build or acquire a time machine, seeing Hawkwind during their heyday is on my list of things to do.