Robyn Hitchcock

Never been a fan, but I've decided to reinvestigate his music after a 20-year hiatus (I bought Globe of Frogs when it came out, didn't like it, and haven't listened to the guy since...too light-weight for my high school taste at the time).

So, I listened to Black Snake Diamond Role this morning on LaLa and thought it was pretty good.

What should I listen to next? I plan to just go though his stuff in order, unless someone convinces me otherwise.

Personally, I would avoid Queen Elvis and Groovy Decay/Decoy, but there's at least one great song per album. The new Yep Roc reissues are fantastic, but the Rhino versions weren't bad to begin with.

I'd actually jump to Gotta Let This Hen Out! next, which is a great live album and a decent primer on his solo stuff with some good Soft Boys tunes, too. There's a great Ryko Soft Boys 2-CD retrospective that's worth the effort to find.

I'm a bigger fan of Perspex Island and Respect than most people, but to me, they're fantastic -- a legitimate attempt to make some commercially accessible music that still has his personality all over them. Respect, especially, is one of his best, a very personal album with great production (in his kitchen!), and hooks all over the place. Ole Tarantula is probably his best after Respect, but the ones in between are pretty good, not quite as jangly, and not quite as memorable.

Queen Elvis is too weird for the sake of being weird, and loses my interest pretty quickly, but does have "One Long Pair of Eyes" and "Madonna of the Wasps" on it. Hitchcock's imagery is more surrealistic than anything else, and usually tries to say something about the human condition, but on this album, it doesn't seem to work. I am in the minority on that, though. I'm sure plenty of defenders will pop up.

So, skip Groovy and go to I Often Dream of Trains (acoustic), one of his best, and then continue straight on to Element of Light. Globe and Queen are fair, at best (to me), but each has 1-2 amazing singles. Eye, another acoustic album, is a great return to form, which he continues for Perspex and Respect. Don't be surprised by how "normal" those last two sound. The band is fantastic, and he deals very frankly with emotional issues in a way he usually disguises with his wordplay. After that, the rest of the WB catalog is hit or miss, but Luxor and Spooked aren't bad. Ole Tarantula is a return to the hook-filled songs of old, and contains a song about the film Magnum Force that is beautiful and hilarious at the same time. His latest, Goodnight Oslo, is not quite as good, but still a fine listen.

If you love pop hooks and songs about the evils of humanity, all disguised as songs about fish and vegetables, then you're in for a real treat. Think Syd Barrett crossed with Rubber Soul.

Man, where else can you go for music advice that good ? Blasmo, you should charge for that!

Personally I have only ever heard one (non-Soft-Boys) record of Robyn, and that's Perspex Island, which I think is brilliant. (Columbia House, 12 for the price of 1, circa 1989). I will definitely investigate the other records you recommend, blasmo.

Count me among the defenders of Queen Elvis.

In any event, blasmo's thoughtful advice is indicative of the many rewarding facets of Mr. Hitchcock's career.

I agree that Ole Tarantula ranks among his best.

You know, your post, especially your opinion on Queen Elvis, got me to thinking about my early Hitchcock experiences. Your take on Elvis is the same as what I had on Globe of Frogs, which was my first Hitchcock record. I liked the overall sound of it, but I didn't have much patience then for being overtly bizarre just for the sake of it. (I hadn't heard They Might Be Giants yet.) I almost dismissed Hitchcock as a result.

But I heard "Madonna of the Wasps" on 120 Minutes, which convinced me to give Hitchcock another try. I bought Queen Elvis and that was the one that convinced me that there was more going on under the surface of the weird imagery than met the eye. "One Long Pair of Eyes" went a long way toward that, plus he hosted 12 Minutes one night, playing songs in between his usual lysergic ramblings, and one of them was a quietly emotional take on "Wax Doll" that I wish I had on tape somewhere.

My point being, I find it interesting that Queen Elvis gets accusations of being weird for the sake of being weird (you're hardly the only one with that opinion), when it's the album that convinced me that his music had a stronger emotional undercurrent than I'd previously believed.

"Yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip..."

Well, it's still catchier than most of Roger Waters' output on the same subject matter...

Not that Waters would care much about that.

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he hosted 12 Minutes one night

...

(((Ahem)))

For those of you who are not in the know, MTV's "12 Minutes" was a short-lived show where alternative musicians were invited to beat the living snot out of that annoying-as-the-plague VJ Dave Kendall. Why it wasn't a HUGE, HUGE hit remains an Unsolved Mystery. I can't seem to find any clips of it on YouTube either. There's no damned justice in this world.

There needs to be a "Best-Of" DVD that would include:

- John Wesley Harding going all "El-Kabong" and breaking his acoustic over Kendall's dome.

- Al Jourgensen pinning Dave's hand to the table with a letter opener. Man! That looked like fun!

- Chrissie Hynde just hauling off and kicking Kendall square in the junk.

- The Pixies! Tag-team wrestling! Need I say more?

...

Those are my faves, but you all might have your own. I'd love to hear about them.

...

"All I have to do is dream. Dream, dream, dream, dream, dream."

"John Wesley Harding going all "El-Kabong" and breaking his acoustic over Kendall's dome."

I would be first in line to see such a thing. I'd forgotten the guy's name.

I, too, bought Globe of Frogs years ago and didn't like it, almost dismissing the man's entire catalog in the process. But I went ahead and bought Queen Elvis when it came out, which was my gateway drug for Hitchcock. I still dig it.

I could take issue with some of Blasmo's choices - I think Goodnight Oslo is better than Ole Tarantula and Perspex Island errs too much on the side of making him commercially presentable, think Luxor and Spooked are highly underrated records, agree wholeheartedly about Respect and I Often Dream of Trains. That said, I think Blasmo cuts right to the heart of Hitchcock's artistry, and as such I think you should take his advice - he clearly gets Robyn well.

And thanks, Blasmo, for making me want to go back and listen to the parts of Robyn's catalog I haven't revisited for a very long time.



Post Edited (10-07-09 16:58)

I tried to get into Robyn in the 80s, but he never rubbed off. I still hum Brenda's Iron Sledge every now and then though. Perhaps I'll give him another chance. I know he has a box set out.

> Perhaps I'll give him another chance. I know he has a box set out.

Two, actually. I Wanna Go Backwards combines Black Snake Diamond Role, I Often Dream of Trains and Eye with a couple of discs of rarities. The Luminous Groove box set gives the same treatment to Fegmania!, Gotta Let This Hen Out! and Element of Light. Both boxes are great.

I thought both Luxor and Spooked were terrific.

Yep, can't go wrong with Gotta Let This Hen Out. (It was on this very board that I learned that there was a band called the Higgsons. Had no idea. Figured it was more Hitchcockian lyrical silliness.)

Spooked didn't do it for me, but that's because it was acoustic/folky, and I likes me some rock'n'roll.

Funny, I loved Globe of Frogs when it came out, but no-one else did, and to be honest, I filed it away and haven't listened to it since the '80s. Guess it couldn't have been that great. I actually want to listen to it again so I hear just what was it that I liked so much about it in the first place.


Weird-for-weirdness-sake is fine by me, if you got the tunes. Wish there was more of it nowadays. If I wanted some boringly sincere singer-songwriter, I'd listen to James Taylor.



Post Edited (10-07-09 18:05)

I must be alone in my love of Groovy Decoy/Decay. Maybe it's because I was buying Hitchock albums in order (mostly, I guess - I backtracked to Underwater Moonlight and the rest of the Soft Boys catalog from Black Snake Diamond Role) and therefore any Hitchcock was still so rare that I loved it all. But I rank "Night Ride to Trinidad," "52 Stations," "St. Petersburg," "The Cars She Used to Drive," "Rain" and "America" right up there with his all time best stuff. And the Steve Hillage production on the original version never bugged me in the least.

I'm probably also the only person who sought out Hitchcock because of a throwaway comparison of him (and Julian Cope) to Henry Badowski in the Creem review of the Teardrop Explodes' Wilder.

Maybe weird for weird's sake sounds too much like an insult. It's not intended to be, but I just don't find much depth to the album, which means that I don't think the imagery necessarily supports anything but the imagery. Globe of Frogs -- aside from the amazing "Beatle Dennis" -- is probably his least decent album (backhanded compliment, I know). Queen Elvis has some interesting arrangements -- rock on, Andy Metcalfe -- and the production sounds good, but aside from the two singles mentioned in Michael's post, it just doesn't involve me. Granted, it's not been listened to in a few months, which will be resolved at work tomorrow, but stuff like "Knife" and "Superman", the latter of which I used to cover with a band I was in -- a country thrash band, just seem..."there". Not sure how to explain it, but they just don't involve me. Even something as interesting to listen to as "The Devil's Coachman" has a nice metaphor, but not much else. The actual song "Queen Elvis", which is on Eye, is amazing, as is most of that album.

I do have problems with the original Groovy Decay, but that has more to do with the production -- too much sax up front. The songs breno mentioned are great -- most of the songs on it are really good -- but the production distracts me. The versions on Decoy aren't much better, but the songs really shine on Gotta -- seriously, pick that one up first. It's the one that got me into Hitchcock (thank you David Fricke's review in RS).

Perspex Island is a bit of a sell out, but I still think the songs are strong. The production is a bit boring, though, meaning the songs all sound the same; I'm not a big fan of Paul Fox. To hear what it might have sounded like without the crossover try, track down a copy of the "So You Think You're in Love" CD single, which has a B-side titled "Watch Your Intelligence". They bash the hell out of it, esp. the bridge -- "Is that a TV Set?!!!" -- and the song's full of awesomely dark and funny images: "They hack away the umb-i-li-cal with a bread knife/ That's when somebody turns the tel-e-vision on". Respect is the payoff -- a great batch of songs about death and relationships that peaks a couple of times: "The Wreck of the Arthur Lee" and "Arms of Love", a hit single that never was.

Hey, it's all subjective, isn't it? All of Hitchcock's stuff is good, and we're just chatting over what the best stuff is, which makes those works among the best rock music ever. There aren't many artists whose stuff I immediately buy anymore, and even fewer ones I can claim to own everything by, but Hitchcock's one of them. (Another thread is forming...)

And if you can find a copy of The Soft Boys: Live at the Portland Arms, get it. It's one of the funniest things ever, and has some fantastic playing. It's also acoustic, a rarity for those bashers.


I also keep trying to italicize stuff, but it just makes the words disappear. Sorry. (tried to edit and italicize the post, but it wouldn't let me)



Post Edited (10-07-09 20:04)

Here's a link to the song 'Watch Your Intelligence":
[hypem.com]

Let me know if the link's down. It's the first link for it I could find.

Quote

I also keep trying to italicize stuff, but it just makes the words disappear. Sorry.

Do <i> first, then write stuff in between.

Thanks for all replies, folks. Great insight, which is why I decided to start participating in this message board a few months ago.

I'll probably just listen in order as best I can.

BTW, if you want to italicize, click the <i> button before typing the text, then add between the whatever words you want to display in italics.

Got it!

Respect is a funny one, as I've probably mentioned before ad nauseum. It begins and ends with the two most blatant throwaways in his catalog ("The Yip Song" and "Wafflehead"), but everything in between in gold. My favorite has always been "Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom," but the songs you cite are amazing as well.

I appreciate a board that geeks out on Robyn Hitchcock the way others do on the Beatles.

I think "Yip" is actually much more serious than it seems. It's a very direct description of Hitchcock's father's struggle against and subsequent death from septicemia.

This old man, he was flesh
They wheeled him in upon a trolley
Vera Lynn, Vera Lynn
Draw a window on his skin
This old man, he was next
Blindfolded to face the volley
Vera Lynn, Vera Lynn
Love will come of all our sins
Painted on my tail fin now Vera Lynn
This old man persevered
In his mind he lay with Molly
Vera Lynn, Vera Lynn
Septicemia always wins
Cleanse us with your healing grin now
Vera Lynn
Coma high, coma low
Blood is precious, yes or no?
I believe in surgery-and that's a fact
I believe in making it easy
I believe in surgery, but I never act
I believe in making it easy
Easy...
This old man, he was gone
He was gone and I was sorry
Vera Lynn, Vera Lynn
Down I spiral, down I spin
Forces sweetheart, I'm your twin now
Vera Lynn
Yip

A blasted sad song with one yip of a chanted chorus -- an attempt to supress the grief.

"Wafflehead" on the other hand, is a really silly song, and cool to listen to, but it is certainly the wrong thing to end with on an album this serious and dark -- unless he means it as a lightening of the mood at the end, which is possible. It sticks out too much. The last line of "Then You're Dust" works better as an ending: "Everybody feels..." (and then it just ends.)

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

:::GEEK ALERT:::

Aside from a few odd imports, I own just about everything Hitchcock has ever put out. This is a topic that I feel 100% qualified to talk (endlessly) about.

I was quite literally raised on The Beatles and when it comes to Robyn Hitchcock, I'll resort to quoting Existo:

"I wish I could mainline you!"

Death and sex are Hitchcock's primary subject matter. Forget the alleged shellfish obsession. Forget the "too-weird-on-purpose" charges. The man is all about the grave and the heart. The facade of weirdness is explained by what I feel is his most revealing lyric ever:

"When they set a trap for all that you feel, it's important that your mind is concealed."

Whoa. Talk about a modus operandi. It explains a lot. It's from his first solo disc - so it's a constant, in my opinion.

Draw a triangle between Syd Barrett, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan and somewhere in that area is where Robyn Hitchcock lives. If you want to include his work with The Soft Boys (and you most assuredly DO), you might throw in the GPS coordinates for Captain Beefheart and The Byrds. There are some who also want to use Salvadore Dali and Monty Python as touchstones, and they're functional, if not entirely apt.

If you found Globe Of Frogs to be too lightweight, you might opt for his solo acoustic work, which is characterized by less obvious pop hooks and falls more towards the Dylan Zone (duh!) of Hitchcock's musical triangle. His odds-n-ends collections are also routinely excellent ("Invisible Hitchcock" is still the best of the lot) and they usually outshine his studio albums - which have gotten a little spotty in recent years ("The Cheese Alarm?" Puh-leeze! File Under: "Badly Copped Python Material" and forget about it).

Buying Guide?

His best work ever is probably "Underwater Moonlight." It's easily the best of the bunch from the Soft Boys catalog.

His best album with The Egyptians? Easy. Element Of Light. From start to finish, it's top notch. "Fegmania!" is also a keeper and contains some of his finest compositions, but it's a little too polished to trump it's follow-up. That said, sometimes "I can't decide which one I love the mo-oo-ost"

"Eye" is strictly top shelf. "I thought I knew all about everything, but I'm in love with a beautiful girl" remains one of the best lyrics about the phenomenon (from the male perspective), even if the tune that includes it is a little sing-songy.

My far-and-away favorite of all of his recent tunes?

"Sometimes A Blonde" off of Spooked. An all-time heavyweight classic. The way he sings the line about "heavenly nightshade" is just exactly like a drug to me - I'll tell you about it some time.

Also in the running:

"I Saw Nick Drake" from "A Star For Bram." Never let anyone say that Hitchcock doesn't at least suspect who is audience is. How reassuring it is to think that Nick is doing fine! Kinda chokes me up every time.

"A Day In The Life" from the promo-only "Live Death" CD. It's very telling that he sings the Lennon half with all due reverence, and plays it cute and silly for Paul's part. He even works in a coy nod to the "Paul Is Dead" hysteria at one point. With all the reissue-fever, this one might have seen an official release, I don't know.

"Heliotrope" is getting to be "not-so-new," but it's a real gem. Again, it's about death - the flower above your grave, in fact.

"I lie beneath the ground, my eyes are unseeing - my name is gone from all the files."

Sex, Death, and Bureaucracy!

Addenda:

As far as "The Yip Song" goes, isn't the title and chorus just a blatant admission about having a bad case of the "yips?" It only sounds like a silly tune ... as stated above in another post - it's all about death. Yip!

Oddest Hitchcock-related story: A friend of mine was convinced that Hitchcock was/is gay. He based this theory on one song called "Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl." I'd always point out that he also wrote a song called "I Wanna Be An (Angelpoise Lamp)." That usually shuts 'em up ... and there is always the "Not-Gay-Just-English" defense. Hitchcock alludes to it in reference to his film work, in fact.

Also, if you haven't seen it, RUN and grab a copy of Storefront Hitchcock and prepare to be utterly blown away by what a facile guitarist the guy is. His intricate work on "Glass Hotel" reduces me to spluttering and hushed profanity.

...


I could ramble all day on this topic. Somewhere, I have the insert art for a CD-worth of personal favorites. I'll see if I can find it. And post it.

This post is a mess. Sorry. My objectivity is just out the window on this topic.

Edited to include the "duh!"
Edited to correct the title of that pesky promo CD. Think it's correct now.



Post Edited (10-08-09 14:17)

I saw Hitchcock and the Venus 3 in Austin a few months ago and was also struck by what an underrated guitarist he is.

And I agree wholeheartedly that his main themes are death and sex (or love). More death than anything, frankly.

God, this thread is fun. Hitchcock is one of the few true surrealists still out there, and I'm including STEVE in this category (huge compliment, not insult). Fun moment from 120 Minutes:

Hitchcock is playing outside in NYC, acoustic, with the Egyptians. One of the older hosts of the show asks him what he thinks of Lloyd Cole, to which he replies, "Who?" and begins playing the riff from Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side".

"Oh, so you think he's influenced by Lou Reed?"

"Oh, no. Only in the way that I'm influenced by Syd Barrett and John Lennon."

There's a Syd Barrett documentary that's been playing on Sundance recently -- along with Hitchcock's own doc "Sex, Food, Death, and Insects" -- which features Hitchcock going into depth on his feelings for Barrett and how much he'd been influenced by him. He gets a bit emotional.

Robyn Hitchcock is the artist I've turned more people onto than any other, except maybe They Might Be Giants. Nice to know I'm in good company. Well, I already knew that.

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Hitchcock is one of the few true surrealists still out there, and I'm including STEVE in this category (huge compliment, not insult).

...

In my own mind, our STEVE has always been "Clean Steve." He's a mineral man. Whaddya want?!?

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I popped that mix CD into my car and was really heavily digging it all over again! There are a few lyrical couplets that are just gut-busters:

"The leaves on the table are all turning grey -
the first time she saw you, she hoped you were gay."
(From "Railway Shoes")

"Put your faith in God - he won't expect you.
Put your faith in death - because it's free.
If you believe in nothing ... honey, it believes in you
For God's sake ... don't waste any faith on me."
(From "Sleeping Knights of Jesus")

"When I was dead, I wasn't interested in sex.
I didn't even care what happened next."
(From "When I Was Dead")

To paraphrase George Carlin:

"There's a lot goin' on there!"

...

Love it!



Post Edited (10-12-09 16:47)

finally some love for fegmania! i made my band learn "The Man with the Lightbulb Head" or threatened to quit.
I still have it on cassette!

he's on the october free cd from Mojo or uncut doing a cover of "She's so Heaveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey"from ABBEY RD

the hitchcock doc on sundance is great (a fucked up nick lowe trying to do background vocals after a dinner/drinking party jam is classic)

Thanks, Kay. Awesome insight.

Just to be clear, I thought Globe of Frogs was lightweight ~20 years ago when I bought it, or at least that's my memory of it. I hadn't listened to Robyn since except for 1 or 2 songs that I heard on 120 Minutes in subsequent years (you can probably guess which ones).

The artwork is on a floppy disc, so forget about it. Found the CD ... the track selection is:

01 Visions Of Joanna (acoustic)
02 Glass Hotel (“Storefront” version)
03 Heliotrope (“Moss Elixir” version)
04 You’ve Got
05 I Feel Beautiful
06 September Cones
07 Autumn Is Your Last Chance
08 My Favorite Buildings (“Invisible Hitchcock” version)
09 Trams Of Old London
10 Railway Shoes
11 Flavour Of Night
12 Vegetable Friend
13 Don’t You
14 Raymond Chandler Evening (demo)
15 Ye Sleeping Knights Of Jesus
16 Surgery
17 Polly On The Shore
18 The Ghost Ship (“Balloon Man” CD3 version)
19 When I Was Dead (“Live Death” version)
20 Withered And Died (Richard Thompson cover - forget the source)
21 Broken Heart (Skip Spence "More Oar" tribute, I believe)
22 Not Dark Yet (along with the first track, from "Robyn Sings" - the Dylan thing)

I seem to recall that this was originally given to a friend who only had Dylan as a reference point (hence the first and last tunes) ... also a conscious effort to avoid bootleg material and to keep the contents on the quiet side. All tracks are from the proper studio release unless otherwise blah, blah, blah.

It would be a different beast if it was born today. "Sometimes A Blonde" would be on there somewhere.

...

Wonder if Pauly Shore has ever heard "Polly On The Shore?"

the egyptians were a very fine band.
fegmania is well represented on the live 'gotta let this hen out!' album.

if not similar in lyrical content, i find comparisons to the chameleons at thats bands most intense peak justified.

moreover robyn 'looks' as good as new these days. saw him on the 'jools holland show' recently.
i quite enjoyed the good lad.

cheers

PS to witness a better band GO SEE BUDDY LOVE tomorrow night instead.



Post Edited (10-08-09 16:30)

If you've got the Sundance channel, the "I Often Dream of Trains" concert is on this month. It's fantastic.

One of the weirdest things about Hitchcock is that live all the times I've seen him (8?) he's been anywhere from really good to brilliant, and different every one, and . . . somehow that is not convincingly represented on Storefront Hitchcock. A watched pot never boils? Actually Storefront does, but not with the consistency of the shows I've seen. Maybe it's just that he really likes LA . . . he used to come into town and play shows in the small club Largo with just him and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion, who had a residency there (between movie soundtrack/Fiona Apple gigs) . . .

Maybe he does need a band to push him. I've seen him both solo and with the Egyptians, and although both shows were great, the band setting seemed to be where he really could shine.

Definitely agree on Storefront Hitchcock, though. An interesting, entertaining concept that could've been executed better.