Album: Element of Light
Year: 1986
. . .
The first time I saw Robyn Hitchcock & The Egpytians was in November, 1986, just a week after my 24th birthday. It was at the Berkeley Square in, yup, Berkeley, and the opening band was the Young Fresh Fellows, who I never loved as much as they deserved, especially considering Scott McCaughey’s post-YFF career.
In any event, I think it was another one of those one-night roadtrips where we drove up from Fresno that day, and back home afterwards. In between was an awesome concert: I remember really enjoying Robyn’s surrealistic stories before and after songs — hinted at during Gotta Let This Hen Out!, but taken to extremes during an actual show — and just the awesome musicality of the Egyptians.
The widows of a lifetime keep a warning in their eye
The widows of a lifetime can do anything but cry
They never stop bleeding
And I think after the show was one of the first times we drove up to see the view from the Lawrence Hall of Science — and there may have been some pilfering of a sign that said “Strawberry Lot” — which meant that by the time we made it back to Fresno in the pre-dawn hours, we were deep into serious fog, which if you rolled down the window, kinda sounded like the spooky keyboards in “Never Stop Bleeding.”
Pervert in the bushes and the dope-fiend on the street
They’ve got one thing in common: They’re all crying out for meat
They never stop bleeding
They never stop bleeding
It’s basically just those keyboards and Robyn’s guitar, playing an mobius strip of notes that — like bleeding – never stops. At some point Robyn plays a guitar solo of the melody line, but then it’s right back into the song.
I’m sorry for the future and I’m sorry for the past
I’m sorry for the sailor who is lashed before the mast
They never stop bleeding
Given the fact that it was beatless and drumless, I guess that “Never Stop Bleeding” might have fit on either I Often Dream of Trains or 1990’s Eye, except that even without a rhythm section, “Never Stop Bleeding” has a weird rock energy that both of those albums often rebelled against.
Now you can bleed internally or you can bleed outside
The groom is always edgy when he’s standing with the bride
They never stop bleeding
They never stop bleeding
On Element of Light, “Never Stop Bleeding” served as a perfect transition between the floaty “Airscape” and the doomy “Lady Waters & The Hooded One,” a near-perfect three song run that went a long ways towards Element of Light still being one of my favorite Robyn Hitchcock albums.
“Never Stop Bleeding”
“Never Stop Bleeding” (Live 2016)
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