Now I know that in reality fire is pretty frightening, and I don’t take the current fire warnings lightly, but for songwriters, flames represent love, dancing and, above all, passion. And that just can’t be a bad thing.  

In reggae and punk, however, fire has a moral – almost purging – quality to it. Recorded as riots swept Britain in 1979, the Ruts incredibly tense BABYLON’S BURNING foresees the demise of western civilisation. Extra points, too, for starting the song with a fire alarm and siren. Excellent. 

DISCO INFERNO from the Trammps, would normally be a scary newspaper headline but when you’re grooving away to very this funky track, you know that it’s more about burning up the dance floor, rather than burning down the building. Here’s a clip from the song that is probably best remembered from the film Saturday Night Fever :

The Pointer Sisters know all about passion. Cause when they kiss, its oooooh FIRE. Dido, on the other hand is way more restrained in her rendition of FEELS LIKE FIRE, her contribution to Carlos Santana’s album Shaman. This is a very interesting album and worth a listen with its mix of hip-hop, rap and pop artists.

Last week in our Covers show, Patricia Barber did a great version of the Doors’ LIGHT MY FIRE. I wasn’t beyond playing the tune again, as it suits the theme, but this time it was the very sexy version by the beautiful Julie London.  In complete contrast, M.I.A. came out fighting with FIRE, FIRE as she reckons relationships are more like a battlefield. Fair enough. 

Country fans weren’t ignored. First it was a classic from Johnny Cash – RING OF FIRE - that I teamed with BABY I’M BURNIN’ from the wonderful Dolly Parton. To round out the set, who else but, Bruce Springsteen burning up the airwaves with I’M ON FIRE. 

Time: 1983. Place: Any Disco in Town. Talking Heads creepy dance track, BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE, was inspired by the crowd at a Funkadelic concert shouting ‘Burn Down the House’ but David Byrnes’ penetrating delivery suggests that he may have taken it way too literally. At the same time Madonna was emerging as the next big thing and she exhibits the combination of erotic heat and disco fever that would keep her in good stead for the rest of her career. The song, of course, was BURNING UP. Here’s a clip of Talking Heads with BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE, a great example of art-school punks of the 80’s.

In a show about FIRE we can’t leave out Deep Purple’s SMOKE ON THE WATER. So, we didn’t. Here’s a clip of the original Mark II lineup in New York, 1973. One of the final performances, this is one of the only videos of the band performing it in the 70’s with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. 

The second hour of the show was suitably launched with the Lord of Hellfire himself, Arthur Brown with FIRE. That was followed by Brian Eno’s strange little song, BABY’S ON FIRE. It started Eno’s post-Roxy Music solo career and owes as much to Robert Fripp’s guitar solo as it does to Eno’s sinister vocals. Then it was time for some lovin’ music and Teddy Pendergrass & Stephanie Mills were definitely burning with desire with their song FEEL THE FIRE. 

Last week on our Covers show I played some Elvis, (Presley that is, not Costello), and Mel from BayFM’s Rollin’ program told me that she was sorry that we didn’t hear more of the King on local radio, so who am I disappoint the gorgeous Mel, especially when it fits so beautifully with this week’s theme? So it was one of Elvis’ best: BURNING LOVE. 

Here’s a great triple play: Jimi Hendrix with FIRE, Prodigy with their first UK number one single, the controversial FIRESTARTER and then it was the Stones with PLAY WITH FIRE. This track was the B side to ‘The Last Time’. Released in 1965, it was recorded the night before they left to tour Australia. The video for this track is quite pedestrian, so I’d rather show you something wild – and so, the Prodigy’s official video for FIRESTARTER it is. Enjoy.

There was still time for Nirvana’s LAKE OF FIRE and Natalie Merchant’s THIS HOUSE IS ON FIRE. I really liked the combination in this set. And then it was time to finish up with Aussie made good Daniel Merriweather supported by Adele, with WATER AND FLAME. The final song was a guilty pleasure (as if I didn’t include enough of them already!) – a song that I probably should have included in the program on FAMOUS PEOPLE – Billy Joel’s WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE. Check it out and you’ll understand why:

Here’s the complete playlist:

Arthur Brown, English musician

Esta tarde he estado escuchando uno de los discos menores de Marilyn Manson: “Smells like Children”. Octubre de 1995.

A mí siempre me gustó este album. Es un collage de canciones y sonidos industriales típicos de los 90 donde cupieron tres versiones recordadas enormemente por los fans del Reverendo: la embaucadora Sweet Dreams (de los británicos Eurythmics), el rabioso Rock & Roll Nigger (de la punkorra neoyorquina Patti Smith) y I Put a Spell on You (de uno de los pioneros del rock Screamin’ Jay Hawkins).

Al escuchar esta última, he caído en la cuenta que otros grandes han hecho increíbles versiones del rock de Screamin’ Jay.

Buceando en YouTube he podido encontrar hasta 9 versiones de artistas muy diferentes entre sí. Aquí las tenéis para degustarlas y comparar. Yo me quedo con la que hizo John Fogerty con la Creedence Clearwater Revival, en su primer disco. Vale, me tira el fan de la CCR que llevo dentro, pero sólo la original o la de Nina Simone podrían superarla.

Hay algunas verdaderamente malas, destacar la apestosa del ex líder de los Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1956). La original.

The Animals (1966)

Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968 )

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1984)

Nina Simone (1992)

Bryan Ferry (1992)

Dave Gilmour, líder de Pink Floyd (1992)

Marilyn Manson (1995)

Arthur Brown, superviviente de la psicodelia sesentera más bizarra (1999)

Joe Cocker con Robert Cray, brillante combinación (2004)

oh man! i had forgotten all about this list! micah refreshed my memory earlier today.

check it out: “list of songs deemed inappropriate by clear channel following the septermber 11, 2001 attacks”

it’s so good. clear channel is cool. i cannot wait till they finally take over ALL the world’s airwaves!

some of my favorites:

safe in new york city

wipeout

scott

ps- none of the below links actually LINK to anything cuz it’s just a copy/paste from wikipedia. i might fix it someday!

Artist	Song title
3 Doors Down	“Duck and Run“
311	“Down“
AC/DC	“Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap“
	“Hells Bells“
	“Highway to Hell“
	“Safe in New York City“
	“Shoot to Thrill“
	“Shot Down in Flames“
	“T.N.T.“
The Ad Libs	“The Boy from New York City“
Alice in Chains	“Down in a Hole“
	“Rooster“
	“Sea of Sorrow“
	“Them Bones“
Alien Ant Farm	“Smooth Criminal“
Animals	“We Gotta Get Out of This Place“
Louis Armstrong	“What a Wonderful World“
The Bangles	“Walk Like an Egyptian“
Barenaked Ladies	“Falling for the First Time“
Fontella Bass	“Rescue Me“
Beastie Boys	“Sabotage“
	“Sure Shot“
The Beatles	“A Day in the Life“
	“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds“
	“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da“
	“Ticket to Ride“
Pat Benatar	“Hit Me With Your Best Shot“
	“Love Is a Battlefield“
Black Sabbath	“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath“
	“War Pigs“
Blood, Sweat and Tears	“And When I Die“
Blue Öyster Cult	“Burnin’ for You“
Boston	“Smokin’“
David Bowie & Mick Jagger	“Dancing in the Street“
Arthur Brown	“Fire“
Jackson Browne	“Doctor My Eyes“
Buddy Holly and the Crickets	“That’ll Be the Day“
Bush	“The People That We Love“a
The Chi-Lites	“Have You Seen Her“
Petula Clark	“A Sign of the Times“
The Clash	“Rock the Casbah“
Phil Collins	“In the Air Tonight“
Sam Cooke	“Wonderful World“
Creedence Clearwater Revival	“Travelin’ Band“
The Cult	“Fire Woman“
Bobby Darin	“Mack the Knife“
Dave Clark Five	“Bits and Pieces“
Dave Matthews Band	“Crash into Me“
Skeeter Davis	“The End of the World“
Neil Diamond	“America“
Dio	“Holy Diver“
The Doors	“The End“
The Drifters	“On Broadway“
Drowning Pool	“Bodies“
Bob Dylan	“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door“
Everclear	“Santa Monica“
Shelley Fabares	“Johnny Angel“
Filter	“Hey Man, Nice Shot“
Foo Fighters	“Learn to Fly“
Fuel	“Bad Day“
Peter Gabriel	“When You’re Falling“b
The Gap Band	“You Dropped a Bomb on Me“
Godsmack	“Bad Religion“
Green Day	“Brain Stew“
Norman Greenbaum	“Spirit in the Sky“
Guns N’ Roses	“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door“
The Happenings	“See You in September“
The Jimi Hendrix Experience	“Hey Joe“
Herman’s Hermits	“Wonderful World“
The Hollies	“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother“
Jan and Dean	“Dead Man’s Curve“
Billy Joel	“Only the Good Die Young“
Elton John	“Bennie and the Jets“
	“Daniel“
	“Rocket Man“
Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge	“The Worst That Could Happen“
Judas Priest	“Some Heads Are Gonna Roll“
Kansas	“Dust in the Wind“
Carole King	“I Feel the Earth Move“
Korn	“Falling Away from Me“
Lenny Kravitz	“Fly Away“
Led Zeppelin	“Stairway to Heaven“
John Lennon	“Imagine“
Jerry Lee Lewis	“Great Balls of Fire“
Limp Bizkit	“Break Stuff“
Local H	“Bound for the Floor“
Los Bravos	“Black Is Black“
Lynyrd Skynyrd	“Tuesday’s Gone“
Martha and the Vandellas	“Nowhere to Run“
	“Dancing in the Street“
MC Hammer	“Have You Seen Her“
Barry McGuire	“Eve of Destruction“
Don McLean	“American Pie“
Megadeth	“Dread and the Fugitive Mind“
	“Sweating Bullets“
John Mellencamp	“Crumbling Down“
	“I’m on Fire“
Metallica	“Enter Sandman“
	“Fade to Black“
	“Harvester of Sorrow“
	“Seek & Destroy“
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels	“Devil with a Blue Dress On“
Alanis Morissette	“Ironic“
Mudvayne	“Death Blooms“
Ricky Nelson	“Travelin’ Man“
Nena	“99 Luftballons“
Nine Inch Nails	“Head Like a Hole“
Oingo Boingo	“Dead Man’s Party“
Ozzy Osbourne	“Suicide Solution“
Paper Lace	“The Night Chicago Died“
John Parr	“St. Elmo’s Fire“
Peter and Gordon	“I Go to Pieces“
	“A World Without Love“
Peter, Paul and Mary	“Blowin’ in the Wind“
	“Leaving on a Jet Plane“
Tom Petty	“Free Fallin’“
Pink Floyd	“Mother“
	“Run Like Hell“
P.O.D.	“Boom“
Elvis Presley	“(You’re the) Devil in Disguise“
The Pretenders	“My City Was Gone“
Queen	“Another One Bites the Dust“
	“Killer Queen“
Rage Against the Machine	All songs by Rage Against the Machine
Red Hot Chili Peppers	“Aeroplane“
	“Under the Bridge“
R.E.M.	“It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)“
The Rolling Stones	“Ruby Tuesday“
Saliva	“Click Click Boom“
Santana	“Evil Ways“
Savage Garden	“Crash and Burn“
Simon and Garfunkel	“Bridge Over Troubled Water“
Frank Sinatra	“New York, New York“
Slipknot	“Left Behind“
	“Wait and Bleed“
The Smashing Pumpkins	“Bullet With Butterfly Wings“
Soundgarden	“Black Hole Sun“
	“Blow Up the Outside World“
	“Fell on Black Days“
Bruce Springsteen	“I’m Goin’ Down“
	“I’m on Fire“
	“War“
Edwin Starr	“War“
Steam	“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye“
Steve Miller Band	“Jet Airliner“
Cat Stevens	“Morning Has Broken“
	“Peace Train“
Stone Temple Pilots	“Big Bang Baby“
	“Dead & Bloated“
Sugar Ray	“Fly“
The Surfaris	“Wipeout“
System of a Down	“Chop Suey!“
Talking Heads	“Burning Down the House“
James Taylor	“Fire and Rain“
Temple of the Dog	“Say Hello 2 Heaven“
Third Eye Blind	“Jumper“
Three Degrees	“When Will I See You Again“
Tool	“Intolerance“
The Trammps	“Disco Inferno“
U2	“Sunday Bloody Sunday“
Van Halen	“Jump“
	“Dancing in the Street“
J. Frank Wilson	“Last Kiss“
Wings	“Live and Let Die“
The Youngbloods	“Get Together“
Zager and Evans	“In the Year 2525“
The Zombies	“She’s Not There“

Lataa Ohjelma (MP3)

Musiikkielokuvan maailmaan palaamme jälleen kahden maailman tunnetuimman rock-oopperan merkeissä. Käsittelyssä tietenkin itseoikeutetusti vuoden 1975 Tommy ja vuoden 1982 The Wall. Musiikkimerkkisessä käsittelyssä rivejämme saapui vahvistamaan MusiikkiViikon Erkki Mervaala.

Linkit:
Tommy (Wikipedia)
Tommy (IMDb)
The Wall (Wikipedia)
The Wall (IMDb)

Krautrock-Techno vom Elektronik-Altmeister Klaus Schulze. Ungewohnt groovy für den beinharten Wagner-Verehrer Schulze, der hier durch den Projektnamen “Richard Wahnfried” vor seinem Idol den Hut zieht.

Documental realizado en 2001 polo grego Nicholas Triandafyllidis no que se retrata a vida e a carreira dese freak que se fixo chamar Screamin’ Jay Hawkins a través dos testimonios de seus amigos ou a xente que o coñeceu.

Inclúe entrevistas a (coidado que a asusta): Bo Diddley, Rudi Potrudi (The Fuzztones), Diamanda Galás, Arthur Brown, Eric Burdon ou o cineasta Jim Jarmusch entre outros.

-VERSIÓN ORIXINAL SEN SUBTÍTULOS-

“Take my life, already, please…But I kid my mortal foes…”*

*Cf. Arthur Brown, 1968:

“I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE, AND I BRING YOU – ♫ FIRE…♫“**

**The song is an example of the psychedelic rock of the period, though its lack of guitars distinguished it from many of its contemporaries. The lead instrument in this case was Vincent Crane’s Hammond electronic organ, augmented by an orchestral section featuring prominent brass. The singer’s opening proclamation of himself as “the god of hellfire” became a lasting epithet.

During live performances and in the black and white promotional television clip, Brown performed the song wearing a burning helmet. The helmet was improvised with a leather skull cap onto which was bolted a metal dish that held lighter fluid or petrol. As the cap was not insulated, the heat from the burning fuel quickly conducted through the fixing bolt to the top of Brown’s head, causing him considerable pain.

Extravagant Results of Nature’s Arms Race

In the animal kingdom, a male’s grand display of weaponry can discourage lesser rivals.

Dr. Emlen said he became interested in animal armament after studying a species of dung beetle in Panama that specialized in monkey scat. He broadened his studies to dung beetles worldwide and noticed a pattern in their weaponry. Dung beetles may have started their highly successful career feeding on dinosaur ordure, and seem then to have diversified to that of mammals. They have two principal strategies. Some, like the scarabs, cut out pieces of dung and roll it away for private consumption. Other species dig under a deposit and draw it into their tunnels.

Dr. Emlen noticed that only the tunneling species of dung beetles had evolved horns, which the males use to protect their tunnels from other males. The beetles that push balls of dung away also fight all the time with other males, but are hornless.

“I became fascinated by animals with strange morphologies that make you wonder how in the world they could possibly have mated,” Dr. Emlen said. After collecting papers on “anything that had funky structures,” he began to see a pattern in who developed weapons and who did not. Whenever there was some resource that could be monopolized and used for reproductive advantage, males would develop weapons to fight off other males.

The cost of developing and carrying the weapon, Dr. Emlen inferred, was outweighed by the greater access to females gained by owning some prized possession like a food source or tunnel where females could lay eggs.

Dr. Emlen noticed a tendency for weapons to start out small, like mere bumps of bone, and then to evolve to more ornate form. The small weapons are actually quite destructive since their only role is to attack other males. But the more baroque weapons, even though they look more fearsome, seem to cause lesser loss of life.

The reason is that the more menacing weapons have often acquired a signaling role. Instead of risking their lives in mortal combat, males can assess each other’s strengths by sizing up a rival’s weapons, and decline combat if they seem outclassed. The ornate weapons also lend themselves to ritualized combat in which males may lock horns and assess each other’s strength without wounding each other.

“The most elaborate weapons rarely inflict real damage to opponents, but these structures are very effective at revealing even subtle differences among males in their size, status or physical condition,” Dr. Emlen writes in the current Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics.

Since the weapons still have to be used from time to time, they are realistic signals of a male’s fitness. This information is of greatest interest to females, which are always looking for true, unfakeable signals of a male’s quality. Geerat Vermeij, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Davis, and an expert on the arms race between mollusks and their predators, said he agreed with Dr. Emlen that weapons began as soon as there was something to be defended. But Dr. Vermeij said he was “skeptical of the conclusion that initially harmful weapons turn into display weapons.” Crabs, for instance, lose claws a quarter of the time in combat, he said.

Whether a concept album or a “rock opera”, the Pretty Things’ S.F. Sorrow is by all accounts the first mainstream album of its kind. While Sgt. Pepper and The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn–recorded concurrently in the same Abbey Road Studios as S.F. Sorrow–bested the album and stand apart even today as the preeminent examples of British psychedelia they all embody, it was the Pretty Things’ album that presented a unifying thematic story interlaced within its songs. Released in late 1968, it slipped onto the charts half a year before the Who’s Tommy, damning it to a lifetime of footnote status compared to Pete Townsend’s colossus. The Pretty Things would return to their original, raunchy R&B style (a la the Yardbirds and the Stones) for their next album, but S.F. Sorrow seems to have punctured their balloon, career-wise. (Dig that album-oriented jokery.)

It’s not a very promising start to the burgeoning rock opera genre. Oh, it starts off quite well, really, and it’s a phenomenally entertaining album, but content-wise it’s a bummer. Sebastian F. Sorrow is born on some grey street somewhere in urban Britain. He grows up, falls in love, and so on, goes off to war (the First World War, I assume), comes home, and loses his mind as everything goes horribly, horribly awry. It seems almost obligatory when you remember the album was almost certainly fueled by LSD (and of course his last name isn’t exactly Gigglepants). It’s a rollicking ride, though, and I believe there’s a voodoo doctor at one point.

I’m attaching the first track from S.F. Sorrow, a terrific bluesy bolt that starts off the album very well. It’s the most expository track on the album, though not the sweetest (that would be “She Says Good Morning”). The remainder of the album relies on an interplay between the songs and text originally printed in the LP’s liner notes. You can muddle through decently without the notes, but it definitely helps toward the end. This is where S.F. Sorrow departs considerably from, say, Tommy: whereas the deaf, dumb, blind kid’s story speaks for itself (literally), the Pretty Things’ tale is more…multimedia.

Oh, and there’s a DVD floating around of the band’s reunion to record a live version of S.F. Sorrow. Recorded in 1998, it was pressed on CD seven years before the 2005 DVD release. Best thing, though: Arthur Brown reads the inter-song narratives!!

The Pretty Things “S.F. Sorrow Is Born”

Documentary about progressive music and the generation of bands that were involved, from the international success stories of Yes, Genesis, ELP, King Crimson and Jethro Tull to the trials and tribulations of lesser-known bands such as Caravan and Egg.

The film is structured in three parts, charting the birth, rise and decline of a movement famed for complex musical structures, weird time signatures, technical virtuosity and strange, and quintessentially English, literary influences.

It looks at the psychedelic pop scene that gave birth to progressive rock in the late 1960s, the golden age of progressive music in the early 1970s, complete with drum solos and gatefold record sleeves, and the over-ambition, commercialisation and eventual fall from grace of this rarefied musical experiment at the hands of punk in 1977.

Contributors include Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield, Pete Sinfield, Rick Wakeman, Phil Collins, Arthur Brown, Carl Palmer and Ian Anderson.

Parts 1, 2, and 3 (90min total) below:

What to say. what to do. Well this is the original to an earlier post.. also as awsome.
But with less peadoburning.

id say its a +8 om a scale to be determined later. Enjoy.

Den Typ habe ich tatsächlich live gesehen und er hatte sich wirklich fast den Kopf verbrannt. Scheint ihm nicht gut bekommen zu sein.

Angekündigt wurde er immer mit “The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown”.

An eine durchgeknallte Gruppe wie “Kiss” hat damals noch kein Mensch gedacht…

Fire

En recuerdo de una estupenda fiesta de Halloween.

Este tio es total. Me vienen a la cabeza un montón de cantantes que se han inspirado en él descaradamente. Lo mejor de todo es que ya era así de atrevido en 1968. Una caña. Da entre miedo y risa. No lo sé explicar.

watch?v=UtCk_P67RZ8

(The Commitee,

réalisé par Peter Sykes, écrit par Max Steuer)

J’aimerais beaucoup commencer ce post par autre chose que “The Committee” est un film étonnant, ou une platitude de ce genre. Réalisé par Peter Sykes, et écrit par l’étrange Max Steuer, ce film porte pourtant toutes les marques et les stygmates du film-culte. En grande partie pour son (faux-)aspect dadaiste, incompréhensible, voire, lachons le mot et retirons le immédiatement… surréaliste. En grande partie aussi pour sa bande son, signée par un jeune Pink Floyd, qui ne se foule pas, ceci dit, et pour une apparition, mirifique celle-là, de The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, ce qui en fait un objet pop immédiat et lui vaut sans doute aujourd’hui sa réédition dans la série « Martyrs Of Pop » de la collection « Chalet Pointu ». Alors de quoi s’agit-il? C’est là que les choses se corsent… Non que l’intrigue soit impossible à résumer, ou que les thèmes soient désespérément obscurs… Mais le film n’est pas là. Ecrit dans l’atmosphère intellectuelle des années soixante, un thème comme celui du film, les limites de la liberté individuelle, le bien et le mal vus à travers le filtre d’un contrôle social proto-totalitaire, était alors neuf, mais semble aujourd’hui dépassé. On peut arguer au contraire que, s’il est à présent un peu passé de mode, c’est sans doute parce qu’une bonne partie de la réflexion amorcée alors sur le totalitarisme, le contrôle des masses, et la conspiration des élites, est passée à la trappe des années de plomb. Les thèmes n’ont pourtant jamais été autant d’actualité, mais la réflexion sur le sujet, elle, ou plutôt son illustration narrative, a été abandonnée depuis plus de vingt ans. Inclure autant de politique et de philosophie dans un film a été pendant longtemps à peine pensable dans le cinéma populaire.

Nous avons ici affaire à un film qui donne toutes les apparences d’un film improvisé, presque amateur, et pourtant, il suffit de quelques minutes des suppléments pour vérifier que ce qui est parvenu à l’écran a été décidé par les deux responsables, Peter Sykes et Max Steuer, et est le résultat de discussions qu’on imagine longues et ardues. Rien n’a ici été laissé au hasard. Les dialogues, si étranges à nos oreilles actuelles, sont le résultat d’une contagion, que Steuer regrette aujourd’hui, du théâtre de l’absurde, de l’écriture d’Harold Pinter, ou les théories de RD Laing, si populaires alors. Mais la structure, les ellipses, les effets d’escamotages et le montage halluciné, lui, a été calculé avec la froideur d’un économiste britannique. Max Steuer (dont c’est la nationalité et la profession) s’explique avec une lucidité et une précision étonnante quant à ce film, son seul film. Il le considère comme un exposé, un film d’idée, une traduction narrative issue d’une réflexion sur la vie de l’individu en société, et l’impossibilité d’une vie hors de celle-ci. Il faut concéder à cette époque un certain culot. Combien de films pourraient se faire aujourd’hui avec un tel pitch, un tel synopsis? qui ne soit pas un premier film indépendant auto-financé? Ni dirigé par David Lynch?

Servi par une esthétique glaciale, filmée dans un noir et blanc léché par Ian Wilson, par quelques personnes qui établiront l’année suivante l’esthétique du feuilleton “Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir”, le film est une longue conversation, entre le protagoniste principal, ainsi nommé au générique (central character), interprété par Paul Jones, alors leader du groupe Manfred Mann et le directeur du « comité », interprété par Robert Lloyd. Le film oscille entre l’errance de « L’année dernière à Marienbad » et une excentricité et une froideur britannique développée plus tard par des série comme « Chapeau Melon Et Bottes De Cuir » ou « Le Prisonnier ». Conspiration, non-dit, comité occulte, malgré le côté bavard du film, beaucoup de choses parviennent à n’être que suggérées, ce qui rend le film à la foid profond et bizarrement léger.

This is one of my most loved records,a mad Space Rock concept album conceived and written by one time Hawkwind frontman Bob Calvert,and performed by various members of Hawkwind and The Pink Fairies with contributions from Brian Eno, ex Bonzo Vivian Stanshall,Adrian Wagner and the crazy,crazy Arthur Brown.
The basis of the story of Captain Lockheed is the botched sale of a large number of Lockheed F104 Starfighters to Germany.In the German Air Force,Starfighters had an appalling safety record,the second worst in the history of aircraft,loosing more than 200 aircraft with over 100 pilot deaths.Generally this is blamed on several reasons…
Lockheed mis-sold the plane to Germany,the Starfighter was developed as a fair-weather fighter,Germany wanted an aircraft for heavy duty fighter roles including use as an atomic bomber.So Lockheed made some hasty modifications to the design,without proper testing,to push the sale through.
The aircraft itself was very difficult to fly,even for an experienced pilot,it could become unstable at high angles of attack,was over sensitive to control inputs and very unforgiving of pilot error.
Pilot and ground crew training was also an issue,German pilots were trained in the deserts of the US,a very different landscape from that of Germany.Many German ground crew had never worked on a jet aircraft and had to be retrained to do so,unfortunately,quite minimally.
The album itself is a mixture of Hawkwind style driving Space Rock and Monty Pythonesque searingly satirical comic sketches.A sputtering plane engine starts things off as The German Defence Minister,played by Calvert,builds up a rant about remodernising the German Air Force to messianic pitch and then were off into the first of the tunes,Aerospaceage Inferno,this goes directly into perhaps the funniest of the sketches in which a Lockheed salesman clinches the sale by promising to change the name of the aircraft to the F104 G…”G for Germany”.This is followed by The Widow Maker,classic Hawkwind rock.Two test Pilots chatting about the aircrafts’ performance is next up,linked into another classic tune,The Right Stuff.Side one ends with the first of two Arthur Brown vocal contributions,Song Of The Gremlin is a standout track,Brown is like a man possessed as he takes on the character of The Gremlin,ranting over an almost Techno soundtrack.

Side two opens with a hilarious skit involving two aircrew discussing  a loose part they have found inside the engine of the aircraft.The folk rock of Hero With A Wing follows as Calvert, perhaps wistfully imagines himself as an Icarus figure,this links into maybe my fave skit,in which Ground Control are talking a pilot through what drugs to take before flying.The Prog/Punk of Ejection follows,with a classic Hawkwind/Brock repeating rhyme scheme.The longest sketch on the album follows,an interview for the post of Starfighter Pilot is blackly twisted into something quite perverse,Arthur Brown’s second contribution is next as he reprises the Gremlin song,then the album is pretty much wound up with a tiny skit..
Sounds of singing,glasses clinking
Voice of German Youth:”Do you want to buy a Starfighter?”
Silence
“Then buy an acre of ground……..and wait”
You can find a rough transcript of the album on Starfarer’s site,it’s interesting to note one of Starfarer’s asides on how he mentioned the album to an RAF officer who had been based in Germany,the RAF guy was well aware of the album,but said it was considered a piss take of their German counterparts and no more than that.The satire was totally wasted on our Forces apparently.
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