Captain Lockheed And The Starfighters

Introduction

Although I have always said that the most important thing for me is the music, my reawakened love for vinyl has made me fall in love with some of the more excellently presented albums, and I remember loving the embossed cover of this album as well as a lot of the songs.

This Saturday my vinyl copy turned up from a Discogs seller in pristine condition, and today I played it and was shocked at how good it was. There is farcical dialogue and some excellent almost one-chord relentless songs.

The first song I ever heard from this was "Ejection" in a record shop in Preston Guildhall in the seventies which started with a screaming jet fighter crossing the speakers from one side of the record shop to the other as I walked in. I bought it immediately. Listen to the YouTube video on a big stereo system and you will maybe get how I felt at the time.

The album is a 1974 satirical concept album by Robert Calvert, the former frontman of British space-rock band Hawkwind. It consists of a mixture of songs and comic spoken interludes.

The concept was based on the German Air Ministry's purchase of the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter, which was eventually nicknamed Widowmaker by Luftwaffe pilots. In German service these planes had a poor safety record, with 262 out of 916 Luftwaffe Starfighters lost in accidents during the aircraft's time in service, which lasted from the early 1960s until the mid-1980s.

Musicians who appeared on the album include members of Hawkwind, The Pink Fairies, Brian Eno (although not credited as Eno), Arthur Brown and Adrian Wagner. The spoken sketches are primarily performed by Calvert, Viv Stanshall and Jim Capaldi.

"Ejection" (coupled with "Catch a Falling Starfighter") was released as a single, although both songs are slightly different versions to those on the album. "The Widow's Song" was included in the libretto and Calvert had hoped to record it with Nico singing. It wasn't recorded at the time but it was eventually recorded in 1984 with Calvert's wife Jill Riches on lead vocals and included on the Hawkwind, Friends and Relations Vol.3 compilation.

This is taken from the Wikipedia entry

This is a playlist of some of my favourites from the album.

"Aero Space Age Inferno"

This is the first real music on the album and is a gorgeously relentless four minutes of Hawkwind-style space rock.

"Ejection"

I wanted a piece that shows the original single sleeve. This is the one that you need to listen to in big stereo from the start. This does have three chords but still flies along like a Starfighter crashing out of the sky.

"The Right Stuff"

Continuing in the same groove as "Aero Space Age Inferno" this is more relentless brilliance with keyboards that make me think of Mike Garson on David Bowie's "Aladdin Sane". Nik Turner's sax is also up there in the mix as well. This is another reason why this album is worthy of being in any collection.

"The Song of the Gremlin, Pt. 1"

This one is semi-comedic, sung by Arthur Brown but another great song that brings the first side of this album to a close.

"Hero with a Wing"

This is the first song on the second side of the album and opens with an explosion. A virtual monologue over two bass notes with sound effects and some strings and an eventual snare drum descending into almost Nordic mythology. Ominously brilliant.

"Catch a Falling Starfighter"

This was the "B" side of the single "Ejection" and closes this brilliant album.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this. I was surprised by how good this still sounds and although it is not all here in this playlist, if you like what you have heard it may be worth you getting yourself a copy of the album.

My copy on my record player.