Warrior on the Edge of Time

Throughout 1974, Hawkwind heavily toured the UK, Europe and North America with their set being composed predominantly from that year's Hall of the Mountain Grill album. Unusually for them, no new material had been introduced with the exception of some Michael Moorcock poems based on his Elric fictional character, which appeared on the 1974 live album The 1999 Party.[2] In December through to February, the group embarked upon a series of UK dates known as "A Dead Singer" tour after the Moorcock story published in the accompanying tour programme, with support from Dr Feelgood (Wilko Johnson: "Us and Hawkwind were a great bill. We had just been signed by United Artists, Hawkwind's label. UA wanted to give us a little experience in the larger venues. That was where I first met and made friends with Lemmy, who turned out to be a good pal."[3]).

As the band owed one final single to United Artists to conclude their recording contract, during a mid-tour break they entered Olympic Studios on 5 and 6 January where they recorded Brock's "Kings of Speed" which featured lyrics written by Moorcock originally intended for inclusion on his New Worlds Fair album, Lemmy's "Motorhead" and House's "Spiral Galaxy".[4] The first two were selected for the A and B side respectively, and the single was released on 7 March.

On resuming their UK tour, Brock expressed disillusionment with the band's popularity commenting that "it's getting to be like a war", preferring his life with his wife Sylvie and their two children on their ten-acre Devon farm, trading under an alias in a community which knew nothing of his association with rock music. He revealed the growing disharmony within the band, "you wouldn't believe some of the scenes that go on backstage. All the fucking rows, people losing their temper." He was particularly critical of Turner on both a musical level ("Some nights I've unplugged my guitar and marched across the stage to sort Nik out. He keeps playing the saxophone when I'm singing and I've told him a thousand times not to do that") and personal level ("Nik's really gullible, you know. He knows so many people and they always used to take him for a ride. It's so easy because he's not very sussed out"). He was also critical of Lemmy listing a catalogue of on-stage problems with him, and he "lives that [Hells Angels] fantasy. It's what he'd like to be, but he can't", but he's "quite a good front man, though". Of the forthcoming Eternal Champion project, Brock revealed that he wanted Arthur Brown for the title role, and it would be "a complete fantasy trip on every level... and if we did it, that would be the end [of Hawkwind]".[5]

The next contract the group signed was a North American deal with Atlantic Records subsidiary Atco Records. With a scheduled North American tour for April and May, "Atlantic... needed an album to co-incide with our visit".[6] For the only time in the 1970s, the group were due to record without having prepared new material in a live environment, which led to concern that "we're going to be really pushed just to get an album together".[4] The band entered Rockfield studios in March, King explaining "we laid all the backing tracks down in about three and a half days. Then, after we had a couple of days off, we went down to Olympic and added bits here and there, dubbed over vocals and mixed it all. That took about three days, and it was finished."[6]

The band "gave [the songs] their debut on two British gigs at Yeovil and Dunstable [12 and 13 April]",[6] then headed to North America for a tour at the end of April into May, during which Paul Rudolph replaced Lemmy. The album was released by ATCO on 9 May and licensed to United Artists for a UK release. The group promoted the album with tours in Germany and France in June, the UK in July and August including headlining the Reading Festival and appearing at Watchfield Free Festival.

At the beginning of the year, Turner, House, Powell and King had contributed to Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix's New Worlds Fair, which also featured a guest appearance from Brock. In April, Moorcock, House and Turner contributed to the recording of Robert Calvert's Lucky Leif and the Longships, produced by Brian Eno and arranged by Rudolph.

See also the article "Kings of Speed".

"Assault and Battery" lyrics quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "A Psalm of Life". The song is a popular live number, being performed occasionally over the years, and has appeared on numerous live albums, sometimes under the title "Lives of Great Men". It was included as part of the live show for The Chronicle of the Black Sword concept, appearing on the album Live Chronicles.

"The Golden Void" segues from "Assault and Battery", and the two songs are often performed live as a pair as on the albums Palace Springs (1991) and Canterbury Fayre 2001. The song is a popular live number, being performed occasionally over the years, and has appeared on numerous live albums, sometimes under the title "Void of Golden Light", as on 1994's The Business Trip.

"The Wizard Blew His Horn", "Standing at the Edge" and "Warriors" are Michael Moorcock poems based on his Eternal Champion literary figure. The poems are recited to atmospheric soundscapes provided by Simon House, and the percussionists Simon King and Alan Powell. The band had been performing them on stage during 1974, versions appearing on The 1999 Party live album.

"Opa-Loka" is an instrumental that features a motorik rhythm and is strongly influenced by the music of Neu!. It was performed live, but when Robert Calvert joined the band at the beginning of 1976, he would recite the poem "Vikings on Mars" over the top of it, the song evolving into "Uncle Sam's on Mars" on the 1979 album PXR5. Powell, who had lived in Florida in 1970, named the piece after the place Opa-Locka.[7]

"The Demented Man" is a Brock number played on acoustic guitar. (Also listed as "The Demented King".)

The lyrics of "Magnu" are based upon Percy Shelley's poem "Hymn of Apollo".[8] The song is a popular live number, being performed occasionally over the years, versions on the albums Choose Your Masques: Collectors Series Volume 2 (1982), The Friday Rock Show Sessions (1986) and Canterbury Fayre 2001. The first six lines of Magnu are nearly word for word identical to a magical chant that appears in an old Slavic folk-tale, "The History Of Prince Slugobyl; Or, The Invisible Knight", used to summon the magical horse, Magu (sic), first published in English translation in 1896 in "Fairy tales of the Slav peasants and herdsmen."[9][10]

"Spiral Galaxy 28948" is a Simon House instrumental, the title being his date of birth (28 September 1948). It was performed live in 1975 after the release of the album, and again during 2001 when House had temporarily rejoined the band, a version appearing on the album Canterbury Fayre 2001.

The original album sleeve unfolds into a large shield-shape, revealing that the silhouetted Warrior is standing at the edge of an apparently bottomless chasm. The landscape on the other side of the chasm is a mirror image, with another setting sun, a closer inspection of this entire image reveals a helmeted face. The reverse of the cover depicts a bronze shield bearing the 8-rayed emblem of Chaos, as described in Moorcock's books.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[11]

Allan Jones in Melody Maker (10 May 1975) was critical in his review of the album despite it being "probably Hawkwind's most professional record" due to the advance in their "technical proficiency", specifically the contributions of Simon House. The compositions are in the "standard Hawkwind traditions of sweeping synthesiser passages contrasting ethereal space with the violence of monotonous bass and rhythm guitar", and of the poems he says "If Moorcock feels qualified to describe any of these pieces as poetry, then that's his problem" and that they are delivered "with all the emotion of Davros being exterminated by renegade Daleks".[12]

Geoff Barton in Sounds assessed it as "includ[ing] most of their traditional characteristics (leaden guitar, ritualistic chanting, wailing moogs, SF lyrics) but in a much more mature and varied setting", and that "Simon House's influence is strongly felt" making it "rather fuller, more interesting than usual".[13]

Hawkwind

• Dave Brock – guitar, keyboards, vocals, bass guitar ("Opa-Loka")
• Nik Turner – saxophone, flute, vocals ("Standing at the Edge", "Dying Seas")
• Lemmy (Ian Kilmister) – bass guitar, vocals ("Motorhead" )
• Simon House – violin, Mellotron, VCS3, keyboards
• Simon King – drums, percussions
• Alan Powell – drums, percussion

Additional personnel

• Michael Moorcock – vocals ("The Wizard Blew His Horn" and "Warriors")

• Recorded Rockfield Studios, March 1975. Produced by Hawkwind, engineered by Dave Charles. Mixed at Olympic Studios, engineered by Phil Chapman and Steve Owen.
• "Kings of Speed", "Motorhead" and "Spiral Galaxy 28948" recorded at Olympic Studios, 5 and 6 January 1975.
• Sleeve designed by Comte Pierre D'Auvergne (a pseudonym used by Pierre Tubbs).

• May 1975: United Artists Records, UAG29766, UK vinyl – original copies came in gatefold foldout sleeve with inner sleeve. Later pressings retained the inner sleeve but had a normal single LP sleeve based on the outer part of the gatefold.
• May 1975: Atco Records, SD36-115, USA vinyl
• Jan 1981: Liberty Records, UAG29766, UK vinyl
• Oct 1992: Dojo Records, DOJOCD84, UK CD
• May 1993: Griffin Music, 55421 3931-2, USA CD
• 27 May 2013: Atomhenge (Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD1035, UK CD.[18]
• 27 May 2013: Atomhenge (Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD31037, UK 2CD+DVD.[19]
• 27 May 2013: Atomhenge (Cherry Red) Records, ATOMBOX1001, UK 2CD+DVD+vinyl.[20]

• Collectable Records – Original foldout cover and inner sleeve
• Indie music label Cherry Red rocks on at 35, Robert Plummer, BBC, 27 May 2013