You mean that there are people who have never heard Captain Lockheed?!
A brilliant album for a myriad of reasons - Viv acts out comedy scenes with Arthur Brown and Bob Carvert (probably Viv's most outrageous German accent ever recorded); it was Brian Eno's first album as producer; virtually all of Hawkwind are on it, as are...
- Robert Calvert / vocals, voice, percussion (Hawkwind)
- Paul Rudolph / lead, rhythm, and bass guitar (Pink Fairies/Hawkwind)
- Lemmy Kilminster / bass, rhythm guitar (Hakwind/Motorhead)
- Simon King / drums (Hawkind)
- Brian Eno / synthesizers, electronic effects (Just about everyone since 1974)
- Del Dettmar / synthesizers (Hawkwind)
- Nik Turner / saxophone (Hawkwind)
With:
- Dave Brock / guitar (Hawkwind)
- Arthur Brown / vocal (The Crazy World of...)
- Adrian Wagner / keyboards (Hawkwind)
- Twink / drum (Pink Fairies)
- Vivian Stanshall, Jim Capaldi, Tom Mittledorf, Richard Ealing / voice
Nico was meant to sing one song (The Widow's Song), but couldn't make it. [There is a live version of Calvert doing it with Hawkwind somewhere - if anyone has a copy please, please, please...]
"Captain Lockheed alternates between octane guzzlers in the classic Hawkwind vein and Monty Python-like vignettes that move the story along. For the songs, since all the key members of classic Hawkwind are actually on here (though Dave Brock is only present on one song), this is a veritable Hawkwind album in all but name, with strongest moments including \"The Right Stuff\" and \"The Aerospaceage Inferno.\" Brian Eno also is on board, and as Paul Rudolph and Simon King were with him to record his debut solo album, folks will notice an obvious resemblance in sound to Here Come the Warm Jets.
At their best, the vignettes are deliciously dark in their surrealism (\"Ground Control to Pilot\" would have made a classic interlude on Space Ritual) and humour (\"Interview\"). In the center of it all is Calvert, turning out a manic characterization of the Über-Teutonic Defense Minister with a crazed German accent that might make even Keith Moon slink away."
If you've never heard it you can download it
here for free, but if you like it (and you will), BUY IT!
Lucky Leif and the Longships, the follow-up, didn't have the stellar line-up or the humour (or the German accents), but if you like the idea of 'What would the US be like if the Vikings had survived and thrived there' give it a listen too.