Hall of the Mountain Grill - Definition and Overview

Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974) is probably Hawkwind's most accessible album.

There is little of the extended psychedelic noodling to be found elsewhere in their music, and there are some excellent songs. Perhaps most importantly, the drums/bass/guitar of Brock/Kilminster/King are as tight as on the live album Space Ritual, while the various experimental whooshings and 'orchestral' (which band didn't have a mellotron in 1974?) additions to the sound filled out the timbre, rather than just filling time.

This album rocks (Psychedelic Warlords, Lost Johnny), but it also has moments of quiet melancholy (Goat Willow, Wind of Change].

The cover art shouldn't be forgotten either. In the days of LPs, album covers helped shape your experience of the music. In keeping with their vision of space travel as being a dangerous, dirty business, it shows a space ship broken and derelict in the mists of an alien lagoon. Only John Carpenter's Dark Star of the same year saw space quite so eloquently as somewhere where people were bored, forgot to shave and maybe took drugs.

Players

• Dave Brock: lead guitar, 12 string guitar, synthesizer, organ, vocals;
• Lemmy Kilminster: bass, vocals, guitar;
• Simon King: drums, percussion
• Simon House: keyboards, synthesizer, violin;
• Nik Turner: sax, oboe, flute, vocals;
• Del Dettmar: keyboards, synthesizer, kalimba.

Tracklist

1. The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear in Smoke) — 6:50
2. Wind of Change — 5:08
3. D-Rider — 6:14
4. Web Weaver — 3:15
5. You'd Better Believe It — 7:13
6. Hall of the Mountain Grill — 2:14
7. Lost Johnny — 3:30
8. Goat Willow — 1:37
9. Paradox — 5:35