Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1977
Quark, Strangeness and Charm (song)
Buy Quark, Strangeness and Charm (song) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'Quark, Strangeness and Charm'" is a 1977 song by the UK rock group Hawkwind, being the title track from the 'Quark, Strangeness and Charm' album.
The title references quarks which are sub-atomic particles; "strangeness" and "charm" are playful terms used by physicists to refer to how many strange and charm quarks are within a particle. The lyrics take a humorous look at certain famous physicists' romantic failures.
1977 single
It was released as a single in the UK (CB305) on 29 July 1977, being a slightly different version to the one on the album. Some European copies had a different B-side, such as Germany, which featured "The Iron Dream" instead. The single version was subsequently included on the 1980 'Repeat Performance' compilation album.
At the time Hawkwind shared the same management as Marc Bolan and so were given a slot on the 'Marc' Granada Television programme to promote it. For some reason Brock declined to appear either being unwilling to drive to Manchester for the filming or because he held a long time grudge against Bolan. For the pre-recording of the music on this show, Shaw played guitar whilst Calvert mimed playing guitar during the filming.The Saga of Hawkwind, Carol Clerk, p.179.
Track listing
# "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" (Calvert/Brock) 3:06# "The Forge of Vulcan" (House) 3:05
Personnel
* Robert Calvert vocals, percussion, morse and strangeness* Dave Brock guitar, synthesisers, sound FX, vocals and quark
* Simon House keyboards, violin, anvil, vocals and charm
* Adrian Shaw bass guitar, vocals and hand-claps
* Simon King drums, percussion and no-vocal
Credits
* Recorded at Rockfield Studios, February 1977* Produced by Hawkwind
* Engineered by Dave Charles
Live versions
The song only briefly featured in Hawkwind's live set in 1977 with one recording surviving, released on both the 'Hawkwind Anthology' and 'Weird Tape Volume 2' albums. It was briefly resurrected at the end of 1993 for the tour of the 'It Is the Business of the Future to Be Dangerous' album and remained until the end of 1994.
1994 EP
In 1994, Hawkwind recorded a new version of the song with significant rewriting of the music. This version was also included on the album 'The Business Trip'.
Track listing
#"Uncle Sam's on Mars" (Red Planet Radio Mix) 2:43#"Quark, Strangeness and Charm" (Calvert/Brock) 6:24
#"Black Sun" 9:34
#"Uncle Sam's on Mars" (Martian Conquest Mix) 6:53
Personnel
*Dave Brock guitar, vocals, keyboards, synthesisers*Alan Davey bass guitar, vocals, synthesisers
*Richard Chadwick drums, percussion
*Astralasia remixes
Release history
*Sep 1994 UK Emergency Broadcast Sysrem Records 12" vinyl (EBT 110) and CD (EBCD 110)*Nov 1994 USA Griffin CD (GCD 312-2)
Other versions
A new acoustic version of "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" was included on 'The Road to Utopia' (2018), produced and arranged by Mike Batt with additional orchestrations.
Cover versions
The Stranglers' Jean-Jacques Burnel has long been an admirer of the song, stating it was "a song I'd really fucking wish I'd written". He has performed versions of the song with Three Men and Black.The Saga of Hawkwind, Carol Clerk, p.176.
References
Category:Hawkwind songs
Category:1977 singles
Category:Songs written by Robert Calvert
Category:Songs written by Dave Brock
Category:1977 songs
Category:Charisma Records singles
Category:1994 EPs
Buy Quark, Strangeness and Charm (song) now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1977