Ghost Echoes is a music history podcast with secret rules. It begins in 1970 and it will proceed up to the present day, discussing one musical recording per episode. Some of them are famous and acclaimed, others utterly obscure. Some are classical, most are pop. The list of recordings that Ghost Echoes will focus on throughout its run is already decided and set in stone, having been chosen in accordance with the podcast’s non-negotiable rules, of which there are three: 1. REDACTED, 2. REDACTED, and 3. The first two rules are secret.
These rules lead Ghost Echoes down countless historical side streets and blind alleys where it departs from music entirely and passes by Victorian booze palaces, angry Ontarian proletariats, inscrutable paintings about the space race, demolished movie theatres, drunk people, exceedingly large oval rugs, unlikely origin stories of venerable educational institutions, Charlie Brown cartoons, and conspiracy theories about extrajudicial assassinations by MI5.
Ghost Echoes is the story of music -- and everything else
Ghost Echoes is a music history podcast with secret rules. It begins in 1970 and it will proceed up to the present day, discussing one musical recording per episode. Some of them are famous and acclaimed, others utterly obscure. Some are classical, most are pop. The list of recordings that Ghost Echoes will focus on throughout its run is already decided and set in stone, having been chosen in accordance with the podcast’s non-negotiable rules, of which there are three: 1. REDACTED, 2. REDACTED, and 3. The first two rules are secret.
These rules lead Ghost Echoes down countless historical side streets and blind alleys where it departs from music entirely and passes by Victorian booze palaces, angry Ontarian proletariats, inscrutable paintings about the space race, demolished movie theatres, drunk people, exceedingly large oval rugs, unlikely origin stories of venerable educational institutions, Charlie Brown cartoons, and conspiracy theories about extrajudicial assassinations by MI5.
Ghost Echoes is the story of music -- and everything else
Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, Hawkwind singer Robert Calvert's 1974 solo debut, has two stories to tell. One of them is about what became of the German air force after World War II. The other is about a young boy who wanted to be a pilot, but ended up a poet instead. In the sixth episode of Ghost Echoes, we receive two postcards from mid-century Europe.
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-- The Hawkwind tracks heard here are “Seeing it as You Really Are” from their self-titled debut, “Silver Machine” from In Search of Space, and Calvert’s recitation “10 Seconds of Forever” from the Space Ritual live album.
-- Songs and sketches excerpted from Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters include “Franz Josef Strauss, Defence Minister, Reviews the Luftwaffe in 1958. "Finding It Somewhat Lacking in Image Potential”, “Aircraft Salesman (A Door in the Foot)”, “Bier Garten”, “The Widow Maker”, “Interview”, and “Catch a Falling Starfighter”.
-- A treasure trove of documents relating to Robert Calvert can be found on Aural Innovations. Other useful writing includes Joe Banks’ piece in the Guardian, and The Saga of Hawkwind by Carol Clerk.
-- General information about the state of the German air force after WWII came from this piece in Aviation History. More specific information about the Starfighter bribery scandal and its aftermath came from this 1976 New York magazine piece and this post from The Aviation Geek Club.
-- The episode of The Adventures of Dan Dare excerpted here is “Revolt on Mars” from 1953, originally broadcast on Radio Luxembourg. The documentary about Germany after the war is “A Defeated People,” produced by the British War Department in 1946.