The Perfect Quark? (by request!)

Hawkwind's seminal 1977 album Quark, Strangeness and Charm remains one of my favourites, but as I've previously discussed in these days of digital music, it's possible to curate your own 'version' of anything. 
And with that in mind, I've been 'fiddling' with my digital bits and bytes to create my own 'best' album. Culled from the remaster of the actual album, from live bits and out-takes, as you'll see.

I'd call it 'definitive', except I keep fiddling further, so it's always being changed in some small way.

Happily, the original album, especially in super-clear remastered (by Steven Wilson) form, is so good that there's not quite as much needing doing as on some other albums by this or any other band.

Side 1, in particular, is editing to perfection. The 11 minute 'take one' 'Spirit of the Age' was stripped back to verses 2 and 3, 'Damnation Alley' is complete and perfect in itself, and 'Fable of a Failed Race' is edited down from about 7 minutes to 3, to make the extended intro and outro less of a chore (to the uninitiated!) At the heart of the edits was to get these three tracks, each segued into each other, all fit on one side of a vinyl record. And they did a great job. Possibly the greatest single side of vinyl ever recorded.

Side 2 is patchier and there's only one segue. The title track 'Quark, Strangeness and Charm' was originally a 9 minute epic with jam section leading to a 'proto' version of 'Uncle Sam's on Mars'. I can see why this was edited to single length, but I'm also very fond of how the jam builds and builds, so I think we can go for the full thing. Plus the whole Uncle Sam thing fits in well with the futuristic/tech themes of side 1.

'Hassan I Sahba' is perfect as it is, of course. The only other versions I know of are live and either unfinished or inferior. 'Forge of Vulcan' is a studio instrumental and any rare live attempts couldn't get close. While 'Days of the Underground' has various demos and different vocal tries, but the album version is by far the best.

Finally, 'The Iron Dream' is interesting in that it's the only Hawkwind song credited solely to the drummer, Simon King. Yet, despite lots of crashy drum emphasis, there aren't any of Simon's trademark fills. Which is a shame, which is why I was happy to come across a kick-ass live version with fills a-plenty, from the Leicester live set on 'Days of the Underground'. This was previously released on one of the Weird Tapes (cassettes!) as the closing coda section of 'Uncle Sam's on Mars'. Anyway, it was crying out to be liberated and remastered a little. And finishes 'Quark' very well. (I know, I know, by putting this in, I've lost the nice segue from the previous track, but I think it's worth it.)

But not artistically, I'd argue. Which is why I went one step further and wanted the superlative closing four minutes of the 'take one' version of 'Spirit of the Age', material which wasn't used at all, to provide a 'reprise' and to take the album out on the same vein in which it started. So many classic albums have this topping and tailing, after all.

Then there are extras, tracks recorded in the same timescale that deserved inclusion as bonus tracks in my digital, curated master album. But I'll come to these later.

So to the running order, with notes and legal (where possible, though sorry about YouTube sticking in ads here and there!) play links:

1. Spirit of the Age. As is, see here to listen.
2. Damnation Alley. As is, see here to listen.
3. Fable of a Failed Race. As is, see here to listen.
4. Quark, Strangeness and Charm/Uncle Sam's on Mars. See here to listen. 
5. Hassan I Sahba. As is, see here to listen.
6. Forge of Vulcan. As is, see here to listen.
7. Days of the Underground. As is, see here to listen.
8. The Iron Dream (live), grab this from my remixes page.
9. Spirit of the Age (reprise), grab this from my remixes page.

So that's the album around 45 minutes of super music. 

These days everything has bonus tracks, and the traditional addition to Quark is the excellent 'A Minor Jam', which you can listen to here. In my own digital copy, I've also added the remastered demo of Fahrenheit 451, grab this from my remixes page. Plus a few bits I won't bore you with.

I haven't done a huge amount to Quark then. If nothing else, for a quick fix(!), just add the Spirit reprise and you're done!

If all this seems a little OCD for an album that's 47 years old then you guys on Facebook did ask!

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