"For The Sake of The Song" is a new periodical segment where I take a look at some of my personal all-time favorite songs, dissect them and try and show you their genius.
I first heard "Hurry On Sundown" as a cover by the folk group Vetiver, I thought it was a pretty good song so I decided to check out the original version by 70s space-rock group Hawkwind and my mind was blown. Hawkwind started by David Brok in the early 1970s were famous for being one of the first groups to bridge the hippie and punk movement. Their albums were heavy sounding, after all Lemmy from Motorhead was their bassist for a time, yet their songs were often about science fiction and mysticism that attracted the flower children of London and other countries. Hawkwind are still around today having gone through an obscene amount of lineup changes and they rarely tour outside of Europe because, well they're not necessarily a household name.
On their self-titled debut album Hawkwind introduce us to "Hurry On Sundown" a five minute jangly acoustic jam that just plain rocks. The guitar and harmonica play off each other quite well while the drums and bass keep this track jamming. The lyrics are fairly simple enough, they evoke a message of peace and anti-war. I am surprised to find that Hawkwind didn't ever do another song quite like this one, which is a shame because it is such a unique and soulful piece of music. I doubt you will find "Hurry On Sundown" on any critics lists, which is a shame because it is an oft forgotten gem of psychedelic rock. There's a reason that every time I deejay on the radio I always close my show out with this song, because you can't go much higher than this.
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