Back in the late sixties there were lots of space-rock bands in the UK, most of them now mercifully all but forgotten. For me, though, there were two stand-outs: Pink Floyd, of course, but also Hawkwind. As pretty well everybody surely knows, Floyd developed away from their original hard(ish) rock roots to their characteristic expansive, sweeping sonic landscapes. On the other hand, Hawkwind, it could be argued, stayed closer to their original style.

That style is very well demonstrated here in one of their most popular and frequently played compositions, which originally appeared on the ‘In Search Of Space’ album in 1971.

By then I’d already seen Hawkwind live, at University in October 1970, when they played to about 100 people in my college’s Junior Common Room. That was the first time I’d ever seen strobe lights, so that was weird…

I am the center of this universe
The wind of time is blowing through me
And it’s all moving relative to me
It’s all a figment of my mind
In a world that I’ve designed
I’m charged with cosmic energy
Has the world gone mad or is it me?

I am the creator of this universe
And all that it was meant to be
So that we might learn to see
The foolishness that lives in us
And stupidity that we must suss
How to banish from our minds
And if you call this living I must be blind.

Written by Dave Brock and Nik Turner

Song Lyric Sunday 6 February 2022