[1] The cover is Hawkwind's only design by Hipgnosis, featuring photographs taken inside Battersea Power Station processed by Richard Manning with graphics by Geoff Halpin.

[3][4] A new remix and surround mix of the album by Steven Wilson was released in 2023 by Atomhenge records as part of the Days of the Underground boxed set.

At the end of 1976, after their Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music album and tour, Hawkwind were reduced to a five-piece following the departure of saxophonist Nik Turner and drummer Alan Powell.

They recorded the single "Back on the Streets" and undertook an eight-date tour of England in December which featured embryonic versions of the Quark, Strangeness and Charm tracks "Spirit of the Age", "Hassan I Sahba" and "Damnation Alley".

[5] Guitarist Dave Brock expanded on his leaving with the explanation "You get an idea and you like things to be a sort of unit and we were in the studio and he was in a chair playing his bass and we were doing a high energy number!

Rudolph's replacement was Adrian "Ade" Shaw, bass player from the group Magic Muscle, who had shared Hawkwind's management and been the support act on the 1972 Space Ritual tour.

[10] An extensive 20 date UK tour in September and October was undertaken, with support from Bethnal (who would go on to be Calvert's backing group for his 1981 album Hype).

[13] An abbreviated vinyl release of the live shows followed for the year's Record Store Day as The Iron Dream in a quantity of 2500.

[16] It was first performed live during 1976's Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music album tour, a version appearing on Atomhenge 76, and remained in the set until the formation of the Hawklords in 1978.

[citation needed] The track was typically played live as a climax to "Uncle Sam's on Mars", versions of which can be heard on The Weird Tapes.

The album was warmly received by the British weekly music papers at the time of its release, Sounds noting that "the band are still capable of making a stir",[19] and Melody Maker that they had "gone part of the way [in rehabilitating themselves]".

[21] The critics were less complimentary about the progress in the band's music, with Melody Maker noting that the lyrical improvement "has not been matched instrumentally nor structurally.

The only musician of note... is Simon House for his consistently impressive violin passages",[20] while the NME stated that "musically it's all battering ram riffs and monoplane synthesised drones, with Dave Brock occasionally cutting loose on guitar (rather than just providing frenetic rhythm) and Simon House contributing some hypnotic violin solos".