Hawkwind 1976-1981

BaldFriede wrote: I must admit I like the "amateurish" Gong and Hawkwind a lot. Let's face it: All bands were pretty amateurish back then. This is true for warhorses like Genesis and Yes too. Being in a band was an amateurish thing back then. That does by no means mean the musicians could not play their instruments (there were some extremely excellent musicians back then already). ...

And yet I wouldn't say Gong weren't very, very influential on future directions in music - some of the material on You in particular seems to have set a precedent for future bands on the hippy festival scene, which eventually developed into the rave scene and through that route exerted a profound influence on modern dance music (to the point where Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy could have a second career in dance music by the time the 1990s swung around).

Yet even the first three Led Zeppelin albums have that amateurish flair, to a certain extent even the fourth.

Edited by BaldFriede - May 31 2012 at 09:59

No they don't ... they may reflect the limitations of the 4 and 8 track studios used at the time, but they are not amateurish.

Of course the studios had severe limitations back then. But that is part of the amateurishness; it is inextricably intertwined with the status of the bands back then. No-one could book a studio for a whole month and record a "flawless" album.

Since Hawkwind were mentioned: With the elaborate stage show they had in the early 70s (Hawkwind had the by for most advanced stage-light system) you might as well call them the "ultra-professionals".But their music retained that amateurish charm, as did the music of Led Zeppelin back then. At least in my opinion.

Mark that I regard this amateuric approach as something absolutely pöositive

We definitely have a different understanding of what "amateurish" means. Once again: "Amateurish" does not mean "bad". In the case of Genesis you only have to read the book about them by Armando Gallo. If the circumstances under which "Foxtrot" was recorded are not amateurish, then I really have to ask you what you call "amateurish".

We were talking about the amateurishness of the early recordings, and of course the circumstances of these recordings play an important role for that.

dr prog wrote: BaldFriede wrote: I must admit I like the "amateurish" Gong and Hawkwind a lot. Let's face it: All bands were pretty amateurish back then. This is true for warhorses like Genesis and Yes too. Being in a band was an amateurish thing back then. That does by no means mean the musicians could not play their instruments (there were some extremely excellent musicians back then already). But the music business was not what it is today in these early days. By 1975 or 1976 the record industry had established itself, and from about that time the music became more professional. But also a lot more boring, since all risks were eliminated.   There was alot more to Yes compositions and playing between 1970 and 73 than there was to Gong and Hawkwind in that period

 

Snow Dog wrote: Dean wrote: No they don't ... they may reflect the limitations of the 4 and 8 track studios used at the time, but they are not amateurish. Totally agree this time Dean.

Amateurish merely implies they sounded like they didn't do it for a living. Whatever that really means..

There's also a difference between something sounding a bit rough and ready, and something that sounds like the musicians and producer have conspired to make something sound a bad as possible.



Edited by Blacksword - June 01 2012 at 07:34