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Certain Songs #1963: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “Never Stop Bleeding”

November 21, 2020 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

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.

Certain Songs #1962: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “Airscape”

November 20, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Element of Light
Year: 1986

. . .

“Airscape” just might be my favorite Robyn Hitchcock song.

It’s most certainly one of his favorites, from all accounts, and it’s the centerpiece of the second side of one of his greatest records, Element of Light, floating in on a backwards guitar, already in progress.

Certain Songs #1961: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “If You Were a Priest”

November 19, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Element of Light
Year: 1986

. . .

I guess it could have gone either way, couldn’t it have? When Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians recorded Fegmania! they were just coming together as a band — keyboardist Roger Jackson didn’t play on half of the songs — and you could kinda tell it.

Of course, by the time they recorded Gotta Let This Hen Out! they’d figured out how to gel together, but it was a bit of a question as to whether or not that cohesion would continue the next time they went into the studio.

Certain Songs #1960: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “Listening to The Higsons (London 04-27-1985)”

November 18, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Year: 1985

. . .

But probably my favorite song on Gotta Let This Hen Out! was the penultimate track, and it was barely a song at all, but rather just a really big riff and a massive hook.

Which was good enough for me.

Certain Songs #1959: Robyn Hitchcock – “Heaven (London 04-27-1985)”

November 17, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Year: 1985

. . .

So while I played Fegmania! a lot on KFSR, I utterly wore out Gotta Let This Hen Out! playing pretty much the whole record: things like “Kingdom of Love,” “Brenda’s Iron Sledge,” “The Cars She Used to Drive,” “My Wife and My Dead Wife,” were at least the equal and usually much better than their original studio versions as pared-down arrangements plus the excitement of live performance pushed them higher..

And the highest push was for “Heaven,” which went from being one of the better songs on the relatively weak Fegmania! to being one of the better songs on one of Robyn Hitchcock’s masterpieces.

Certain Songs #1958: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “Acid Bird (London 04-27-1985)”

November 16, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Year: 1985

. . .

The 1980s were not a good time for live albums.

When the subject comes up, of course, people usually cite Stop Making Sense, but in my TED Talk, I will show that while Stop Making Sense remains an absolutely superlative concert film, the original issue of the album remains underwhelming. Not only did they repeat three titles from 1982’s superior The Name of This Band is Talking Heads, two of them — “Take Me To The River” & “Life During Wartime” — were inferior to the the ones they captured with the Adrian Belew version of the band.

Certain Songs #1957: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl (London 4-27-1985)”

November 15, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Year: 1985

. . .

Last week, I pointed out that one of the charms of the songs on Robyn Hitchcock’s I Often Dream of Trains was that you could tell that he was still kind of writing some of them for a band, which is totally borne out by how easily “Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl,” the opening track of his 1985 live album, the extraordinary Gotta Let This Hen Out!, translated to a full band.

Certain Songs #1956: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “Goodnight I Say”

November 13, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fegmania!
Year: 1985

. . .

It wasn’t until Robyn Hitchcock’s fourth album that he broke through in America.

Of course, by “broke through,” I meant “had an album released,” as none of his first three records were released here. And by that time, he’d hooked up with an official backing band, The Egyptians, two of which — drummer Morris Windsor and bassist Andy Metcalfe — had been in the Soft Boys (though Metcalfe left before Underwater Moonlight.)

Certain Songs #1955: Robyn Hitchcock – “I Often Dream of Trains”

November 12, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: I Often Dream of Trains
Year: 1984

. . .

Framed by an interlocking pair of ghostly electric guitars, the title track of I Often Dream of Trains is a weird will o’ the wisp of a song, so understated in it’s presentation that you don’t even realize how funny it is.

Certain Songs #1954: Robyn Hitchcock – “Autumn is Your Last Chance”

November 11, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: I Often Dream of Trains
Year: 1984

. . .

“Autumn Is Your Last Chance” just might be my favorite Robyn Hitchcock song.

One of the things I love about Robyn Hitchcock is that he’s written some of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard: things like “Airscape,” “Madonna of The Wasps,” “I Am Not Me” and “Raymond and The Wires” are just lovely. That said, I’m going to have to go with “Autumn is Your Last Chance” as The Prettiest Song Ever Recorded, Robyn Hitchcock Division.