Spirit of the Age (song)

Spirit of the Age is a 1977 song by the UK rock group Hawkwind. It was originally recorded and issued on the album Quark, Strangeness and Charm.

The lyrics of the song are composed of two of Robert Calvert's science fiction poems, the first verse being "The Starfarer's Despatch", which he had recited at shows whilst being the "resident poet" in the band in 1971, and the second being "The Clone's Poem". Both of these poems were published amongst a collection of his poetry issued as Centigrade 232, published by Quasar in 1978. Throughout the song is a rhythmic electronic pulse. This repeated sound is the Morse Code for SOS (dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot).

The song was a popular addition to the band's live set and even remained after Calvert's departure from the band in 1979. A more aggressive version of the song with vocals by Brock was issued on the Live Seventy Nine album in 1980.

On 14 November 2019, the group recorded a session for Marc Riley's BBC Radio 6 Music show, playing "65 Million Years Ago", "Last Man on Earth", "Spirit of the Age" and "Silver Machine".