Did you know…
Which musicians dedicated songs to the German Starfighter?
Short answer
The best-known is Robert Calvert, former singer of the British band Hawkwind, who in 1974 created the satirical concept album Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, built around the German air ministry's purchase of the F-104G. The German band Welle:Erdball titled a 2000 track "Starfighter F-104G."
A concept album about an arms purchase
Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters is a satirical concept album released in 1974. Its content mixes songs with comic spoken interludes. The overall concept revolves around the German air ministry's purchase of the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter. Luftwaffe pilots ended up nicknaming the aircraft the Widowmaker. Of the Luftwaffe's 916 Starfighters, 262 were lost in accidents during their operational life, which ran from the early 1960s to the mid-1980s.
Who was behind the record
The project was credited to Robert Calvert, who had been the singer of the British space rock band Hawkwind. The album featured contributions from Brian Eno — credited as Brian Peter George St John La Baptiste De La Salle — Arthur Brown and Adrian Wagner. The spoken segments were mainly handled by Calvert, Viv Stanshall and Jim Capaldi. Both Hawkwind and Monster Magnet later recorded tracks from this project for their own albums.
A German echo two decades later
The German band Welle:Erdball released a track titled "Starfighter F-104G" in 2000.
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