Hawkwind - Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974)

Dan:

To paraphrase a common reviewer cliché, if you have room for only one Hawkwind album in your collection, make sure it's Hall of the Mountain Grill. (Maybe make room for Space Bandits too). Those are among the few Hawkwind offerings that I have spent any time with, but I'm glad to have been exposed to this band. Further exploration into their astounding discography of 96 albums between 1969 and 2023 is beyond my reach. 

I had read a bit about Hawkwind in the British jazz magazine The Wire. They covered relevant rock bands and were excited about Hawkwind. Steve, as usual, was way ahead of me and gladly loaned me some of his Hawkwind CDs. It didn't take long for me to home in on Hall of the Mountain Grill, which satisfied my need completely. I also got a lot from Space Bandits (1990), mostly from the first three tracks: "Images," "Black Elk Speaks," and "Wings."

Hall of the Mountain Grill is a coherent suite of songs that manifest hard rock sensibilities alongside more prog-like music. Violins, synthesizers, saxes, kalimbas, mellotrons and flutes all find their way into Hawkwind productions. I prefer to think of their approach as progressive rather than space-rock, which is how they're often typed, but I'm also not interested in playing the classification game. (As Duke Ellington once said, there are only two kinds of music - good and bad.) Hawkwind are unique and consistently good. Leader Dave Brock clearly knows what he wants from the band and each album succeeds on his own terms. To me, Hall of the Mountain Grill sounds like their pièce de résistance.

What I like most about Hall is the contrast between the individual songs, which flow naturally as part of a suite (another telltale prog sign). Thus, we begin with the rocking "The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear in Smoke)" which segues into the mysterious "Winds of Change," which precedes the rocking "D. Rider," and so on to the end. Some of the instrumentals appear to be conceived as transitions, such as the title track and the lovely "Goat Willow." The rock songs are great, especially "Lost Johnny" and the closer "Paradox," but their impact is enhanced dramatically by the shorter tracks featuring wind sounds, acoustic piano, and flute. In other words, Hall of the Mountain Grill is a wonderfully conceived album, not just a set of rock songs. I'd recommend it to the faint of heart who might normally avoid noisy metal bands. Hawkwind can rock with anybody, but on Hall of the Mountain Grill, at least, they created something special for all to enjoy. 

Steve: 

Hall of the Mountain Grill was the first Hawkwind album I came across in a CD store, and thus was the first one I bought. It's a little hard to know if it's my favorite of their albums because it was my first or because it really is the best. I did learn later that this album is very highly regarded in their discography among fans, so I consider myself lucky that it happened to be the first one I saw. All these years later, I've acquired another dozen or so Hawkwind albums, and every one of them is entertaining, which is the sign of a band that knows its job and gets it done.  

"D-Rider" (track 3) is possibly my favorite Hawkwind song - it was written and sung by sax player and second vocalist Nik Turner, and I've discovered that many of my favorite moments from the original Hawkwind lineup were driven by his macabre proto-New Wave sensibilities (see also "Brainstorm" and the classic "Masters of the Universe"). Hall of the Mountain Grill works extremely well as a unified piece, as it flows organically from start to finish, making it an easy continuous listen with no dull patches.