Hawkwind – Silver Machine

Recorded Entirely On Acid With The Wrong Singer

Released on June 9, 1972, “Silver Machine” climbed to number three on the UK singles chart and spent 15 weeks charting. It became Hawkwind’s only major hit and remains one of the most unlikely Top 3 singles in British music history. The track was recorded live at a benefit gig where the entire band had taken LSD in the dressing room before going on stage, and the voice you hear singing isn’t even the person who wrote the words.

The single peaked at number three, held off the top spot by Alice Cooper’s classroom rebellion singalong. Dave Brock later admitted his frustration at missing the number one position, though meeting Cooper years later softened the blow when Alice confessed he was a Hawkwind fan. The track charted again in 1978, reaching number 34, and once more in 1983 at number 67, proving its enduring appeal long after the counterculture moment had passed.

Robert Calvert wrote the lyrics inspired by an Alfred Jarry essay about constructing a time machine, which he interpreted as instructions for building a bicycle. The song was actually about Calvert’s silver racing bike, a cosmic joke on listeners who assumed they were hearing about interstellar travel. Dave Brock composed the main riff while living in Putney, partly inspired by Tomorrow’s My White Bicycle, then added sci-fi elements because the band was obsessed with space at the time. The punchline? Nobody got the joke.

The track was captured live at the Greasy Truckers benefit gig at the Roundhouse in London on February 13, 1972. The band took LSD that afternoon in the dressing room, then stumbled on stage completely out of their minds. Drummer Simon King later confessed it was only his third gig and he thought they were playing a Chuck Berry number. When they listened back to the tapes, Calvert’s vocal performance was deemed unusable. Manager Doug Smith’s description became legendary: it sounded like Captain Kirk reading Blowing in the Wind. Everyone in the band tried singing it in the studio at Morgan Studios, but nobody could hit the notes. Finally, as a last resort, they asked Lemmy to have a go. He nailed it in one or two takes.

The single was only Hawkwind’s second ever release and never appeared on an original studio album, though it was later included on the 1972 compilation Glastonbury Fayre and subsequent reissues of In Search of Space. When NME put Lemmy on their cover with no bandmates in sight, it created the false impression that he was Hawkwind’s frontman and leader. In reality, he’d just joined the band and rarely sang lead vocals. The success gave Hawkwind enough money to buy their own PA system, complete with Captain America and Silver Surfer painted on the side.

When Top of the Pops came calling, the band refused to mime in a TV studio in front of an audience that wasn’t their crowd. The BBC compromised by filming them performing live, dubbing the single version over the footage and capturing Stacia’s silver-painted face and the band’s multimedia assault in full countercultural glory. The Sex Pistols later opened shows with the track, and everyone from Doctor and the Medics to The Church have covered it.

Hawkwind’s claim that this is the only Top 3 single ever recorded entirely on LSD might be impossible to verify, but nobody’s found evidence to the contrary. The song remains a space rock milestone that influenced shoegaze, post-rock, and psychedelia for decades to come. For a track written about a bicycle, sung by the wrong person, and recorded by musicians tripping on acid, it turned out pretty cosmic after all.