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Hawkwind - In the Beginning (1971)

Track listing:
  1. Maser of the Universe 6:07
  2. Dreaming 4:06
  3. Shouldn't Do That 6:03
  4. Hurry on a Sundown 6:24
  5. Paranoia 2:59
  6. Seeing It As You Really Are 9:31
  7. I Do It 6:36
  8. Came Home 7:21

Notes

Editing down the earlier Text of Festival double album to fit onto a single CD, In the Beginning is the Hawkwind At the BBC album that never was. All but the final four tracks, "Paranoia," "Shouldn't Do That," and the otherwise unavailable "I Do It" and "Come Home," date from sessions recorded for John Peel's Top Gear on August 18, 1970, and fellow DJ Stuart Henry on May 27, 1971, and — the distinctly off-air sound quality notwithstanding — represent some of the finest available recordings of early Hawkwind. That's the good news. The bad news is, the live jam that makes up sides three and four of Text of Festival is not the only casualty. Scissors have also been taken to several of the BBC performances, creating short but noticeable edits, while the minimal sleeve information that attended the earlier release seems even more minimal here. It's still a crucial release, at least in a historical sense, but only if you can't find the original double album.