The ultimate Hawkwind compilation, various reviews have claimed.. Lord knows there are enough duff ones out there, so the competition's not exactly intense. There were two versions of Epoch-Eclipse: the 3-CD set, which is being reviewed here, and a single CD version called "Epoch-Eclipse - Ultimate Best Of" I'm not quite sure why anyone would want the single CD version, but no matter. [See bottom of page for reasons why!]
The packaging is really very decent. It comes in a handsome box that's less than the thickness of a double-CD case - slightly slimmer than the double digipack Space Ritual that EMI reissued a few years ago, and noticeably less bulky than the double CD case in which the Griffin release of Live Chronicles made its appearance. Inside the box is a 26-page colour booklet printed on heavy, almost cardstock, paper. It provides a tracklisting (see below), lengthy sleeve notes, and by my count 36 photographs - many of which are familiar, but quite a few I had not seen before. Then each of the 3 CD's features a modern monochrome design on the disc itself (disc one is blue, disc two is pink, disc three is yellow) with classy translucent plastic sleeves to protect them. Disc one covers the period from 1970 to 1974, disc two is 1974-79 and Disc 3 covers 1980 onwards:
Disc 1 Disc 2 Disc 3
Hurry On Sundown Motorhead Shot Down In The Night
Paranoia (Part 2) Assault & Battery Motorway City
Master of the Universe Golden Void Levitation
Children of the Sun Magnu Angels of Death
Silver Machine Kerb Crawler Coded Languages
Seven By Seven Steppenwolf Some People Never Die
Brainstorm Back On The Streets Choose Your Masques
Space Is Deep Quark Strangeness & Charm Night of the Hawks
Urban Guerilla Hassan-i-Sahba Needle Gun
Brainbox Pollution Spirit Of The Age The War I Survived
Sonic Attack Psi Power Black Elk Speaks
Orgone Accumulator 25 Years Right to Decide
Lost Johnny High Rise Sputnik Stan
Psychedelic Warlords Death Trap Love In Space
Uncle Sam's On Mars Silver Machine Remix
In an article at the Hawkwind Museum, I mused as to who exactly Hawkwind compilations are aimed at, and won't repeat the argument. But here I'm trying to see this through the eyes of the casual buyer as well as the committed fan. Surely a 3-CD set should be able to cater for both?
Hurry On Sundown
Surprise number one - it's not the familiar version from the first album, but the demo version featuring Mick Slattery on lead guitar in place of Huw Lloyd Langton. Their styles are pretty different, Slattery going for a gentle wash of wah where Huw did more picking. This is not the easiest version to find on CD and so the committed fan gives it a thumbs up. As for the casual buyer, I suppose this would sound very old fashioned, a burst of late 60's psych, and a kind of music that's just not being made any more. Either way, it's a great way to start the album.
Paranoia (part 2)
Personally, I think this is one of those tracks which proved Nik Turner right when he said "We're all pretty diabolical as musicians". But atmospheric it certainly is and there's a certain purity to it - Hawkwind later became almost 'soupy' and here you can still hear spaces in the arrangement. It's another staging post along the road of their development.
Master of the Universe
Well done to the compiler for choosing the original studio version from In Search Of Space, which is by far the best version of this song, and another one where the early Hawkwind shone by means of sympathetic production. All the elements are here; distorted guitars, inventive bass riffs, synth noise, babbling sax, distant vocals and rock-solid propulsion from the drums with plenty of cosmic effects thrown in. Yet there is still the sensation of room in the mix. And as for demonstrating the development of the band, there could be no better choice to follow Hurry On Sundown and then Paranoia (part 2)
Children of the Sun
A rather awkward segue from Master of the Universe, with the opening guitar chords tacked onto the fading whoosh of the previous track with no gap between. This too is drawn from In Search of Space, and showcases Nik's terrific otherworldly vocals and boasts an excellent flute solo. It's also the last hurrah of the early acoustic Hawkwind, who hereafter (on this album) drive deeper into rock territory, and increase the electronic quotient as they go...
Silver Machine -and- Seven By Seven
A- and B-sides of the original hit single. Silver Machine is utterly familiar and just has to be on a 3-CD Best Of compilation (not that I rate it particularly highly as Hawkwind songs go). In recent years this has become relatively easy to obtain on CD, so the committed fan might find its inclusion here unnecessary. Seven By Seven is a much spacier snapshot of Hawkwind in 1972, though it's not a patch on the live versions to be found on Space Ritual and Space Ritual Vol.2. It's possible that some committed fans won't already have this on CD, and so would be pleased to see it here. Hearing it in terms of the band's development, though, it's a transitional track, combining spaciness with spaciousness, which very little else in their portfolio managed.
Brainstorm
Another good choice - the studio version from the Doremi Fasol Latido album. If any one track lives up to that album's billing as "a collection of space chants, battle hymns and stellar songs of praise", it's this one, a fabulously brutal, primitive piece of spaced-out blanga. Hawkwind only really found their true voice as a band after Lemmy joined, and the Silver Machine single apart, this was in many ways his debut - the opening track on the first album he recorded with the band. The spacious quality is gone from their sound now, but isn't missed as the band lay down a proto-metal space assault with everyone pulling in the same direction. This is another obligatory inclusion for my money.
Space Is Deep
The segue from the previous track is a little more graceful on this compilation than on the original album, where of course Space Is Deep also followed on directly from Brainstorm, but kicked in before that had properly finished. Here, the one stops and the other starts, with a slight but noticeable fade-in on the opening twangs of Dave Brock's guitar. By this stage of the band's career, acoustic guitars had become the exception rather than the rule, and the greater use of synth in place of audio generator also serves to differentiate this from Children of the Sun, a few tracks earlier on this compilation. Hawkwind were becoming more sophisticated perhaps - more capable, certainly.
Urban Guerilla
Follow-up single to Silver Machine, and a decisive moment in Hawkwind's career. It debuted at number 39 on the singles chart and probably would have gone on to net another Top 5 hit had its release not coincided with an IRA bombing campaign, resulting in its withdrawal. As it was, Hawkwind dwindled into obscurity thereafter, as far as the wider record-buying public were concerned, but committed fans might be grateful for that. Urban Guerilla is less spacey than Silver Machine was, being virtually a conventional rock number - personally, I've never thought Hawkwind were much good when they were trying to be normal. This epitomises a certain leaden quality that was characteristic of a lot of early-to-mid 70's rock, which didn't get blown away until the arrival of punk rock, still some 3-4 years in the future.
Brainbox Pollution
Here's another track which illustrates the mainstream direction that Hawkwind might have embarked upon. The B-side to Urban Guerilla, it features a retro 50's style bassline and despite a number of typical Hawkwind touches, sounds like an attempt to dress up a traditional tune in space rock colours. But it's an under-represented number and it's nice to see it anthologised here. The likely reaction of the casual buyer might be "Blimey!"
Sonic Attack
From Space Ritual, recorded in December 1972 and like the other selections from that album, thus predating the four previous tracks on this compilation (though they were all released before Space Ritual was). You can hear, somehow, that this was an earlier, less subtle but more powerful Hawkwind. Thank god they included the Space Ritual version and not the one from the 1981 album of the same name.
Orgone Accumulator
Blanga! This sounds fantastic after the (by comparison) middle-of-the-road single cuts. Of course the Space Ritual album needs to be strongly represented on this anthology, but all the same this is an inspired choice, an all-out, souped-up cosmic rocker. Born To Go is another track that might have done almost as well but something just feels right about hearing Orgone Accumulator at this point in the proceedings. The ending is faded out, but that is no detriment.
Lost Johnny
Never a favourite track, and the pitfalls of Hawkwind taking on a more conventional number apply here, too. But it follows on very well from Orgone Accumulator - the two tracks in succession really illustrate the driving power that Lemmy brought to the band. Again, it's faded out prematurely, but I've always felt this one went on a little too long anyway, so no complaints.
Psychedelic Warlords
And to close out the first CD, concrete proof that Hawkwind were on the cusp of something new after the marrow-warping excesses of Space Ritual and Doremi. This is the single edit of Psychedelic Warlords, another example of one of Hawkwind's songs being enhanced by the greater focus imparted by shorter duration. Here, it's not a fade-out but skilful splicing of the instrumental middle section. The sheer musical quality of the band, with Simon House's mellotron lifting them to a new level, sets this single leagues above the previously featured ones. It's a pity there isn't room here for It's So Easy, the accompanying B-side, for which I might have sacrificed Seven By Seven...
-First Intermission-
Well, disc one could scarcely have been more successful, hitting all the targets along the way: showing the development of the band, including the must-haves for the casual buyer and a couple of more unusual versions for the committed fan. Jolly good show and onto Disc two!
Motorhead
Again, it's a single version (well, it was the B-side to Kings of Speed in 1975) and it's also the rarer of the 2 versions that Hawkwind have done of this number - the other being of course Dave Brock's demo, which basically was a stripped-down version of this. Lemmy sings and we get Nik's sax and a Simon House violin solo to further distinguish it. It was probably the right decision to put this version onto the compilation, but the Dave Brock remix is a stronger rendition in my really not very humble opinion...
Assault and Battery -and- The Golden Void
It would be sacrilege to omit these two, which together comprise ten minutes and twenty seconds of the most fun you can have with your clothes on - I mean, this has to be the best thing Hawkwind have ever done, and the best music ever written. I remember one reviewer back in 1999 saying "you will be amazed" (and appalled by some of the later selections, but we'll come to that). So for the casual buyer, here is the best possible illustration of the power and the glory that is Hawkwind at the zenith of their existence. For the rest of us, well, I could never get tired of this, and still used to listen to it frequently even during my 15-year Hawkwind sabbatical, when I stopped buying every new album and didn't see them play live at all. (Doing this website is my penance for that, by the way.)
Magnu
Another inclusion which is bang on target. If you didn't have time to listen to the entire Warrior On The Edge of Time album, but could only select three tracks, this would surely be the third one after Assault & Battery / The Golden Void. It's from a musical place that Hawkwind didn't dwell in for very long - almost prog, in terms of the lush instrumentation, and definitely "old wave" by contrast with what was to come. But it's also light years advanced from what Mick Farren once called the "clank-honk-tweet" of early Hawkwind. Incidentally, this version seems to have been sourced from the original master tapes, unlike my Dojo CD copy of WOTEOT: the crescendo at the eight minute mark, where Simon King starts pumping out triple bass-drum beats, is not accompanied by a sudden jump in the upper frequencies, as happened on the original vinyl from which the Dojo CD was sourced).
Kerb Crawler
Another year further on, another album, and another style. Here is a more conventionally-based Hawkwind track which for once succeeds on its own terms, successfully integrating the Harley Davidson revving of Brock's guitar with the layers of spacier instrumentation above it. And it was a single too, of course: there does seem to have been a preference for including singles when this compilation was assembled. It's hard to see what else might instead have been selected from the Astounding Sounds album - Chronoglide Skyway might be a possibility, but would conceivably spoil the flow of disc two, which has galloped along splendidly thus far.
Steppenwolf
But now there's a change of pace. A dark and moody classic, this really had to be included. This was the moment when you knew Bob Calvert was bringing something special to Hawkwind - he shines brighter on the Charisma material, IMHO, than on his previous contribution to the band's albums, i.e. Space Ritual - where Bob was just one more element in a fusion of many. Those of us who are in this for the long haul already know it, but to the casual buyer, Steppenwolf is a revelation of Calvert's genius, and therefore an essential track in this anthology. I can't think of any other song that would do that as effectively as this one does.
Back On the Streets
One for the committed fan, as this is not widely available. It's an odd one, when you think about it - harking back to the abortive mainstream direction of Urban Guerilla, or a precursor to punk rock? This must be one of the least spacey songs in Hawkwind's oeuvre but it's always good to hear.
Quark Strangeness and Charm -and- Hassan-i-Sahba
Another career acme...in their end-of-year round-up of 1977's best singles, Melody Maker summarised QS&C with the words "fiercely recommended". The MM was not, of course, a bastion of the New Wave, but in that iconoclastic year, Hawkwind more than held their own with the Quark album and tours: theirs was one name that was never bracketed with the phrase "boring old farts", though it probably helped that they'd given up singing songs about wizards. Dave Brock has since described the Charisma-era material as "armchair Hawkwind", but it remains a favourite period for many fans and needs to have been represented here. Those of a less Hawkwind-centric disposition will hear the perfect musical balance of the Quark material, which was one of those rare times when you felt that everyone in the band was on the same track, and there was a broad parity of musical ability across the board. Me? I'd have traded Hassan-i-Sahba for Fable of a Failed Race from Side 1 of the album.
Spirit Of The Age
I didn't bracket this with the other two selections from the Quark album because it's just so bloody good. And it illustrates something about Hawkwind which rather flies in the face of their reputation as a band who really cut the mustard when playing live. Spirit of the Age is one of those tracks (Master of the Universe and Brainstorm are others) where all the subsequent live versions failed to match what was achieved on the original studio recordings. This is not because they weren't played well when live, but just that they got it so right the first time in the studio. Casual buyers may be bemused at first, but the fact that Hawkwind are re-recording this to be their new single in February 2005 shows the enduring potency of this song. (And their lack of decent new numbers? Have to wait for the album to answer that one ;-)
Psi Power
This is the version from the Hawklords album, something of a departure for this compilation as there was a different version released as a single which has been overlooked here. But this one is superior. Free Fall might have been a better choice, but the Hawklords album was a distinctive juncture in Hawkwind's long, strange journey and is well represented by the inclusion of Psi Power.
25 Years
Hooray! Here at last on CD is the 12" remix single version of this Hawklords track - a much rawer rendition than the one that made it onto the album. Casual buyers will get why exactly it was that the Hawklords were accused of being / acclaimed as fellow travellers of the New Wave. Saddoes like me will listen out for Dave Brock's excellent guitar solo and muscular riffing which runs from 1:31 to 2:07. This track also does something that disc two needed, which was to pick up the pace a bit after the mid-tempo Quark / Hawklords numbers that preceded it.
High Rise
Another classic number, but disappointingly it's the version from the PXR5 CD which is musically almost indistinguishable from the PXR5 vinyl version, except for Calvert's vocals - which here are an inferior, heavily reverb'd portrayal of what had been a sublime few minutes on the original vinyl album. Of course, as High Rise is a slow number, some momentum is lost after 25 Years, but the majesty of this J.G. Ballard-inspired song more than compensates.
Death Trap -and- Uncle Sam's On Mars
Death Trap is the 1977 demo from PXR5. On a Best Of compilation? Why? For the first time I really feel that a mistake has been made. If they wanted to include Death Trap, the Sonic Assassins version would have been of more interest to committed fans, or -a much stronger idea- Jack Of Shadows used instead. And Uncle Sam's On Mars is not the strongest of songs. Robot would have been preferable, though if the intention was to represent the PXR5 album, the version of Robot to be found there is not the best - that distinction belongs to the opening cut on Hawkwind, Friends and Relations Volume 1. (Only the vinyl release - CD reissues of HF&R1 for some reason use a marred truncated version which omits the fabulous closing two-and-a-half minutes.)
-Second Intermission-
So disc two closes with something of a disappointment, after starting out so well. But the album is still, overall, doing a good job of representing the evolving sound of Hawkwind as they progressed towards ten years in being. By now the casual buyer of this compilation is likely to be hearing music that is unfamiliar, but with the exception of the final two tracks, they are by and large high quality selections from this period of the band's development. The cognoscenti may still be in the game too, as there have been a couple of rarer versions of familiar tracks included. Onward flies the bird.
Shot Down In The Night
The horrible possibility exists that this could be the muddy bootleg version from the Complete 79 version. But it's not, and neither is it the 'This Is Hawkwind Do Not Panic' rendition - it's the good old opener from Live 79 - or to be accurate, the single edit of that, with the lengthy instrumental middle section being cut out entirely. This is a welcome shot in the arm after the slightly downbeat closeout of disc two, and indicates Hawkwind's early 80's (unintentional?) flirtation with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.
Motorway City -and- Levitation
Motorway City is from the Levitation album, and a good choice for inclusion here. Amazingly, Huw Lloyd Langton's long and brilliant guitar solo escapes being cut, and this track in some ways is the essence of latter-day Hawkwind, showing their ability to produce the odd "bristling epic" as someone said. Levitation follows, which is a bit odd, as this pairing reverses the order in which they appeared on the album of that name. But they are probably the strongest tracks and that was, IMHO, the last truly great Hawkwind album, so these are essential tracks rightly included here.
Angels of Death
From the 1981 Sonic Attack album, this track makes a good sequel to Levitation, so perhaps that's the reason why the previous two tracks were flipped around. This has never been a favourite of mine, but I do think this is the best version of it - and it'd be difficult to pick out an alternative from the Sonic Attack album, unless you were to go for Rocky Paths, perhaps. Which has the necessary pace to maintain the flow of disc three, but not the bludgeoning qualities which have characterised it so far. Angels of Death has bludgeon in abundance, of course.
Coded Languages
This is verging on horrible and I would have chosen almost anything else from side 2 of the Sonic Attack album. No wonder that reviewer thought some of this compilation was appalling - he or she was probably listening to Michael Moorcock's "singing" while typing that sentence. The Sonic Attack album was where Hawkwind started to show their feet of clay, and maybe the best course of action would have been to move on after Angels of Death...
Some People Never Die
...but not to this. A track from the Church of Hawkwind album featuring tapes of radio commentators at the assassinations of Lee Harvey Oswald and Bobby Kennedy. Either Looking In The Future or Nuclear Drive would have been better choices.
Choose Your Masques
Another mistake. Title track of the 1982 album it may have been, but this simplistic song is not one of the band's finer moments. Why oh why wasn't Arrival In Utopia, the standout track from that album, used instead?
Night of the Hawks
Well, we are into slim pickings here and no error. The entire Zones album is rightfully omitted, but we get this rather lacklustre single from 1984 instead. After the electronic bias of the preceding two tracks, this one sounds anachronistic, a throwback to Hawkwind's mid-70's pub rock leanings. Actually, Night of the Hawks is not a bad song, there are just two things wrong with it. First, the production is poor, it completely lacks any sparkle (in contrast to say, Motorway City). Secondly the drumming is nothing more than wretched tubthumping. I bet you our casual buyer has by now taken the CD off the stereo and is listening to a Jason Donovan album instead.
Needle Gun
A better-produced effort than Night Of The Hawks, but this too sounds seriously outdated, or positively decrepit. By 1985, when Needle Gun was recorded, twelve bar boogie was well and truly dead as a musical form. Putting this here is a real howler when you consider that the Chronicle of the Black Sword album, from which it comes, was chock-full of decent quality material. Though actually I would have skipped it altogether and gone for Moonglum from the follow-up Live Chronicles album.
The War I Survived
The years are slipping by quickly now, and we've reached 1988's Xenon Codex album. On which there was nothing of very much note - Sword Of The East would have done a better job than this, though the band weren't at fault for the failure of the project as a whole. There was a storming live version of The War I Survived broadcast live on Radio 1 in December 1988, which shows that it's a decent song. The problem is that this version comes from Xenon Codex and is cursed by the useless muddy production on that album.
Black Elk Speaks
This is getting ridiculous. One of the most laughable things Hawkwind have ever done, and it's chosen for what will probably come to be seen as the definitive Hawkwind compilation. Images, also off the 1990 Space Bandits album, is not to everyone's taste but should surely have been picked ahead of this piece of New Age drivel. A more conservative, but also doubtless better choice from the same album would be Out Of The Shadows.
Right To Decide
This is the only selection from the 1992 Electric Tepee album, and guess what, it was released a single! Actually it's pretty good, and confirms there was life in the old dogs yet. I would also liked to have seen Mask Of The Morning from that album included here, and perhaps Blue Shift, a splendid Alan Davey-penned piece of ambient synthiness. The opening track from Electric Tepee, LSD, was another life affirmer, but is probably too long to have fitted into this anthology.
Sputnik Stan
As with the Chronicle of the Black Sword and Electric Tepee albums, Alien 4 offered a (limited) choice of tracks for inclusion in this Best Of, and only one from each was actually selected. Sputnik Stan is definitely one of those strong tracks, but it might have been good to use Xenomorph instead, as that featured Ron Tree's vocals and lyrics, where this is an Alan Davey special. As it is, Ron's contribution to Hawkwind goes unmarked on this compilation.
Love In Space
Well this is another obligatory inclusion, and I don't take issue with it. Give or take what's happening with the new studio album, this was the last decent new thing Hawkwind came up with, and that was seven years ago. I think there were three different versions of this and this one would be the one that was released as a CD single.
Silver Machine - Remixed by the Scourge of the Earth
This I have never heard before. It was recorded by Jimmy Cauty of the KLF back in 1999, which made it very up-to-the-minute when Epoch-Eclipse was first released, that same year: showing Hawkwind as modern-day influencers of the dance scene etc. If any casual buyers are still listening by this point, they might be pleased to have this included. Likewise the grizzled old hacks like yours truly. I don't hold with all this newfangled rave nonsense but this is all right - an interesting take on a hitherto threadbare theme. The basics of the song are still recognisably there, supported rather than ruined by an added drum machine track. Snatches of lead guitar and female backing vocals are flown in here and there, and a few interesting modern synth voices insinuate their way in, too. I'm pleased to add this to my collection.
Conclusion
Well, I have no arguments with disc one and only a couple with disc two. One the whole, they're excellent. But this entire collection goes horribly awry on disc three, starting with Coded Languages. From that point on, the compiler almost can't do anything right. To remind you, here is what we got on disc three:
Shot Down In The Night, Motorway City, Levitation, Angels of Death, Coded Languages, Some People Never Die, Choose Your Masques, Night of the Hawks, Needle Gun, The War I Survived, Black Elk Speaks, Right to Decide, Sputnik Stan, Love In Space, Silver Machine Remix
I know there is a problem in trying to select for a Best Of compilation from Hawkwind's 1980's and 1990's output: after all, discs one and two each covered a period of 5 years, when there was plenty of fantastic material available, and disc three gets a time period of, er, twenty years. You do have to look harder but there was some good stuff during those years, and how much stronger a compilation this would have been with a revised disc three tracklist like this:
Shot Down In The Night, Motorway City, Angels of Death, Looking In The Future, Arrival In Utopia, The Sea King, Moonglum, Treadmill (how could this have been forgotten?!), Out Of The Shadows, Mask Of The Morning, Right to Decide, Xenomorph, Sputnik Stan, Love In Space, Silver Machine Remix
In other words, the middle chunk of disc three is what lets the side down and about half of the songs selected thereon need to be changed. So two and a half of the three CD's here are sound, and half a CD isn't - which doesn't sound so bad. But it is worse than it sounds because some of the mistakes in selection result in actively bad songs displacing good ones.
But both our casual buyer and the committed fan should be happy with "Epoch-Eclipse: 30-Year Anthology". It does represent Hawkwind's career well, doesn't forget the absolute essentials and even includes a handful of nuggets for those who already have an extensive Hawkwind collection. I'm in this latter category of course, and would say: don't pay full price for this. I got my copy for £10 on E-bay and feel that this was a good deal. I'd still feel that way if I'd paid £15, but any more than that would be pushing it.
Another excellent review. Certainly disk 3 lets the side down. I also wish they hadn't edited so many of the tracks.
Disk 1: The live version of Seven By Seven from Space Ritual 2 is the one to go for.. it has the added long instrumental section. Brainbox Pollution is perhaps one for the collectors but a far better choice would have been to bring in one of the Captain Lockheed tracks, i.e. Right stuff, Ejection or Aerospaceage Inferno: Hawkwind tracks in all but name.
Disk 2: Definitely Robot in place of the other PXR5 tracks and I agree as well about using the vinyl F&R version
Disk 3: I'm sure you'll get loads of suggestions but I'd have gone with the following (probably spilling over onto a 4th CD of course!):
-Shot Down In The Night - full version
-Motorway City
-5th Second Of Forever (if only for HLL's intro and outro)
-Angels Of Death (agreed, much of the rest of the album, except Rocky Paths, is horrible.
-Transdimensional Man could also have been used)
-Arrival In Utopia - only the best thing they did for RCA and it's left off!!!
-Social Alliance - a controversial choice with its horrible drum sound and shambolic mid-point breakdown but... I like it
-Night Of The Hawks - or indeed one of the other songs off the EP: Green-Finned Demon and Dragons & Fables are both pretty neat
-Song Of The Swords
-Moonglum - definitely. Dreaming City would be a contender too
-Lost Chronicles (Along with "Chronoglide Skyway" this is one of the few things by HW that most of my non-fan friends recognise as being music!! Wastelands of Sleep would be my second choice, or possibly the live version of The War I Survived with HLL on lead vocals)
-Images
-Treadmill - again, unmissable
-Right to Decide - tough call, but it was the single
-IITBOTFTBD (perhaps edited - call this a lapse of taste but I actually like it!)
-Abducted
-Alien I Am
-Love In Space (vocal version)
...and, for the 2003 reissue, the live (Yule Ritual) version of "Damage of Life"
Here are a few reasons why I would highly recommend the purchase:
(1) It's pretty inexpensive over here (new for under 10$ US)
(2) Some of the older cuts, specifically "Master of The Universe" and "Silver Machine" sound better than ever, I mean significant noticable sound improvements, not just for the golden-eared crowd. The version of Motorhead (with engines revving in the beginning) is better than any other I have heard before.
(3) Different edits of these songs: The single version of "Angels Of Death", "Love in Space" and "Alien I Am (Roswell edit)" all different from their 3 disk counterparts (in fact, Alien I Am is not even on the 3 disk set). Additionally, the single version of "Right To Decide" is on here and is a completly different take than the Electric Teepee version.
My only gripe is that they have cut out some of "Motorway City". So for one disk to yield all these goodies is just too good to pass up. Some of these songs are just not available over here outside of this disk.
I stand corrected - thanks for the input, Nick!
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