Where's the Space Rock?

                                                    Jurgen Engler 

 

The term itself is a problem.

 

"Space Rock" ... you can do a "Space Ritual" ... and that would be Space Rock!

 

You can get stoned immaculate and senseless and make an album called M. FROGG  ... but you can't call it Space Rock, but you certainly can say that it is really psychedelic.

 

You can put on Yeti by Amon Duul 2 and space out real good ... true Space Rock ... and then you can hear the last cut in the album about Sandoz ... which is almost not psychedelic at all ... but the lyrics might be!

 

Or you can do dope San Francisco style, which is not "space rock" at all! ... that would be Grateful Dead in the days that they did 4 and 5 hour concert blow outs ... with everyone tripping on the stage. It was even said once that they had no idea what they were playing and it didn't matter! ....

 

Or you can do dope LA style ... which is not space rock at all, and you will strip while singing about a young girl in a Hollywood bungalow!

 

Or you can really space out, and it is not called space rock, by being really stoned in Monterey and listening to Santana pull off a 3 hour set that had you just ... off your seats like you could never imagine.

 

But Beaver and Krause can do a couple of synthesizer experiements and do a 3AM at the Okefanokee Swamp ... and while not "space rock" it was always thought as trippy and spacey and psychedelic. Doesn't say much for Tangerine Dream does it ... and they are somewhat inspired by the ultimate surrealist that helped put "psychedelic" in the map!

 

I don't use the term "space rock" ... unless I want to discuss something of the ambient variety which is much later and can be quite psychedelic ... and one of the best of these is a pair of Hawkwind albums in their later period ... Electric Tepee is an incredible rock/ambient and psychedelic assault that is fits the "space rock" only because it feels so personal and strong ... and in the end tells you that we're just an electric tribe (with guitars!) ... so this is just a powow under the stars. I guess that should make it "space rock". The other album is the next one, It is the Business of the Future to be Dangerous ... which is even more ambient bound, and it takes its time to break into a rock piece and does so beautifully. The only odd thing in this album is "Gimme Shelter" ... which to me kills the album. It is also an excellent "space" album for its strength ... but I doubt it will ever be considered "space rock" because the lyrics are not exactly about space and aliens!

 

But you need to hear M. FROGG

 

Which makes sense in a psychedelic way, but doesn't make sense otherwise ... ... and we're leaving for the big bear ...  but remember ... this was before Star Wars! No sky bikes!

 

There was a variation of sunshine acid, btw ... and it was called sky bites. Only saw it in Santa Cruz. 

 

Leaving for the stars was a term used a lot in the Cinerama Dome ... where you could see 2001, A Space Odyssey in 180 degree screen with sound under your chair to buzz you real good, and right after you could cross the street and go catch Hair at the Aquarius Theater. And the joke was that if you weren't stoned you missed out on the show! Heck, and if you wanted some more fun, you could walk up the street, watch some fun theaters and sexy stuff and then go to the Whiskey a Go Go or the Roxy and catch a late show! The Strip didn't used to die until ...

 

Either way you looked at it ... your sky was already blown off and then you left for the stars and Aquarius! There is also a joke that "the Big Bear" is what the map of the stars houses looks like! Not sure all this folklore is/was that big in Germany!

 

I'll email them and ask about that line ... but one could see all kinds of kids on bkies running every which way ... and its meaning would become a lot more literary ... and separate adults from kids ... still fits the song magnificently! Either way, the song is a good bye to old days, I'm pretty sure.

 

And in a way, it was the end of AD2. I love Hijack and parts of Made in Germany and a couple of other things, but in many ways it just wasn't there and you could see that they were not into it anymore and were frustrated with the whole thing. I always thought that what happened with Ahmet Ertegun giving the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin a fortune and killing the distribution for about 300 bands, most of which were progressive and experimental, was one of the major factors in the history of albums/music ... that we do not talk about. Everyone talks and kisses about his millions but no one cares about all the artists that got dumped including AD2, who apparently had been promised a trip to California for a few shows that never happened. It's hard when your inspiration is that California scene and your dream gets killed like that! I think I would have been bitter too! And AD2 were not the only ones that got lost in the shuffle! The majority of "progressive" died in that week, and from that point on only the "biggies" became known ... and distributed! ... and it was that day that "imports" became big! Really big!

 

In his memoir Gong Dreaming 2, Daevid Allen wrote that during the "Radio Gnome" era he increasingly wrestled mentally and spiritually with the issue of drug use, both personally and as a band (as he considered Gong a transformative instrument for expanding human consciousness.)  Considering Allen's stance, it's ironic that You was conceived and recorded with the entire band (Allen and Hillage included) under the influence of LSD! 

 

Hillage wasn't a teetotaler either, at least not in the '70s -- Deeply Vale '78 has a bit where the Hillfish is on the mic thanking someone for the acid...