Mark...
Yeah I can understand that.
But there was so much about Hawkwind that was more rock than hippy.

Album's like "Hall of the mountain grill" are well worth listening to as an introduction.
"Space ritual" is regarded as a classic album,huge heavy rock sound with many of the songs developing into jamming sessions.

Later on in their career they did catch on with the rock audience with albums like Live '79 and Chronicles of the black sword.

Youtube is good place to have a listen to a track or two and see what you like the sound of.