Fancy a scandal? Here is the short version: Around 1960, the West German Ministry of Defense decided to purchase new fighter jets. Problem number 1: As it later turned out, bribes were paid to a southern German regional party during the purchase. Problem number 2: The Lockheed “F-104 Starfighter” aircraft encountered a really serious enemy – gravity. Of 916 planes, 269 crashed, killing 116 pilots.
The whole affair should have been a great opportunity for West Germany’s political rockers to really attack the “capitalist-military complex”, but it was left to the Englishman Robert Calvert, whose main job was lyricist for the space rockers Hawkwind, to forge a satirical concept album out of it: CAPTAIN LOCKHEED AND THE STARFIGHTERS. The title of the silly opener already makes it clear where the journey is going: “Franz Josef Strauss, Defense Minister, Reviews The Luftwaffe In 1958. Finding It Somewhat Lacking In Image Potential”.
Other, fortunately mostly short radio play passages such as “Aircraft Salesman (A Door In The Foot)” or “Ground Crew (Last Minute Reassembly Before Take Off)” have – it has to be said clearly – aged rather poorly. Skip buttons and forward buttons were probably once invented for such cabaret acts, which can certainly spoil the complete enjoyment of the album a little, 52 years after its initial release.
If it weren’t for the music
If it weren’t for the music. It stands, after all, it’s 1974, with a platform-soled leg still deep in glam rock, but already – for example with “The Right Stuff” – it takes a step towards proto-punk, which fights with noise from Nik Turner’s saxophone and the synthesizers of Del Dettmar and Brian Eno. “The Widow Maker” may still sound like something contemporary by Alice Cooper, “Hero With A Wing” presents itself as gothic folk, while “The Song Of The Gremlin (Part One)”, appropriately manically sung by Arthur Brown, almost anticipates the New Wave aesthetic with an electronically accompanied motoric beat, and “Part Two” awakens its own associations: an apocalyptic avant-garde musical from hell.
Producer Roy Thomas Baker, who worked with Queen at the same time, undoubtedly valued progressive sounds and unusual arrangements. “The Aerospace Inferno”, assuming a little more hard rocking broad-leggedness, would also have suited Calvert’s regular and on-again band Hawkwind. “Ejection” probably comes closest to pure glam rock, while “Catch A Falling Starfighter” sounds like a ritual incantation. Two single edits and the long version of “The Right Stuff” round off the new edition. Is it one of those albums that you have to hear before you drop it in the bin? Definitely if you appreciate glam rock with neo-tone ingredients – and are not afraid of British eccentricity.
This review appears in Musikexpress 4/2026.
