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Certain Songs #1979: Robyn Hitchcock – “Viva! Sea-Tac”

December 11, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Jewels For Sophia
Year: 1999

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Robyn Hitchcock’s final album on a major label, Jewels For Sophia, took three years and three major cities to put together, and featured a lot of guest stars, including Jon Brion, Grant Lee-Phillips, Scott McCaughey, Kurt Block and — of course — Peter Buck.

Some of it was recorded in London, some in Los Angeles, and some in Seattle, and maybe that’s why it felt kind of disjointed to me. That said, it still had a couple of great songs on it, including one of his best songs ever, the jaunty “Viva! Sea-Tac,” which rides on a Young Fresh Fellows rhythm section (whom you might remember I saw open for Robyn way back in 1986) and a Peter Buck guitar riff.

Certain Songs #1978: Robyn Hitchcock – “Glass Hotel (NYC, December 1996)”

December 10, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Storefront Hitchcock
Year: 1996

. . .

At some point in the mid-1990s, the great filmmaker Jonathan Demme approached Robyn Hitchcock after a show and offered to direct a video for him. That video became a whole concert performance, and Storefront Hitchcock was born.

Demme — who had some experience in directing concert films — conceived the performance as Robyn playing his songs acoustically in an abandoned storefront, thus Storefront Hitchcock.

Certain Songs #1977: Robyn Hitchcock – “I Am Not Me”

December 9, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Moss Elixir
Year: 1996

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My favorite song from Moss Elixir was something that sounded like no Robyn Hitchcock song previously done — always a good sign 15+ years into a career — and yet fit squarely into his catalog. I guess just for the title alone: “I Am Not Me” is a pretty Hitchcockian song title.

Certain Songs #1976: Robyn Hitchcock – “Beautiful Queen”

December 8, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Moss Elixir
Year: 1996

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Moss Elixir came out on Warner Bros, which was the second major label to take a chance that somehow Robyn Hitchcock’s considerable songwriting talent and cult following could somehow translate into a breakthrough, even though the alt-rock “revolution” that had “dominated” the first half of the decade was clearly waning.

Certain Songs #1975: Robyn Hitchcock – “Heliotrope”

December 7, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Moss Elixir
Year: 1996

. . .

After his contract at A&M expired, it was three full years before Robyn Hitchcock released another record, taking some time off to regroup after the death of his father, though it wasn’t like he’d fully disappeared, or even stopped writing songs. I know this, because I saw him for the fourth time at the Bottom of The Hill in San Francisco — one of my very very very favorite places to see shows — on September 23, 1994, and a glance at the setlist for that show shows that he was stockpiling songs for the next album, which finally came out in 1996.

Certain Songs #1974: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom”

December 5, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Respect
Year: 1993

. . .

While people always fixated on the Syd Barrett or John Lennon influences on Robyn Hitchcock, Bob Dylan was also a huge influence, which became formalized when he released an album of Dylan covers that featured the electric half of Dylan’s infamous Manchester 1966 concert. Since then, he’s sprinkled Dylan covers here and there.

And heck, just this year, he played guitar on his partner Emma Swift’s fantastic Dylan covers album.

Certain Songs #1973: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “The Arms of Love”

December 4, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Respect
Year: 1993

. . .

“Arms of Love” is on the short list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Robyn Hitchcock Division. It was also the first Robyn Hitchcock song I was looking forward to hearing, and it was the rare Robyn Hitchcock song that had been covered by another artist prior to Robyn putting our his own version.

That artist, of course, was R.E.M., who had been intertwined with Hitchcock since 1988 — Peter Buck was basically the fourth Egyptian and Michael Stipe had sung on two of the better of the Perspex Island-era songs, “She Doesn’t Exist” and “Dark Green Energy.”

Certain Songs #1972: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – “So You Think You’re In Love”

December 3, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Perspex Island
Year: 1991

. . .

After the acousticy detour of Eye, Robyn Hitchcock came back in 1991 with Perspex Island, his fifth studio album with The Egyptians, which had a bigger and glossier sound as compared to his previous albums. I mean, as compared to: it still wasn’t a patch on some of the bigger productions of the year: your Guns ‘n’ Roses or or your U2s or even your R.E.M.s.

The R.E.M.s, of course, were once again helping Robyn out. Well, mostly Peter Buck, who is all over the album, including the the first single, the crazy-catchy “So You Think You’re In Love,” a song that went all the way back to the Soft Boys days.

Certain Songs #1971: Robyn Hitchcock – “Raining Twilight Coast”

December 2, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Eye
Year: 1990

. . .

My favorite song on Eye was the stark and desolate “Raining Twilight Coast,” a gorgeous elegy for a relationship that is clearly over, but is also on the short list of the Prettiest Song Ever Recorded, Robyn Hitchcock Divsion.

“Raining Twilight Coast” is one of those songs that takes its sweet time to get to where it wants to go — to the point where it’s normally the kind of song I would probably ignore — but the trip is incredibly worthwhile.

Certain Songs #1970: Robyn Hitchcock – “Beautiful Girl”

December 1, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Eye
Year: 1990

. . .

While Eye was mostly filled with longish and downbeat-sounding songs, there was at least one seemingly upbeat tune, “Beautiful Girl,” which is just basically a strummy acoustic guitar song, like you’d imagine a busker somewhere singing while wandering around a BART station.