Robyn Hitchcock

Certain Songs #1991: Robyn Hitchcock – “Time Coast”

December 23, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Robyn Hitchcock
Year: 2017

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The fourth (or sixth, if you count the Tower Records in-store and the song from Big Star’s Third) time I saw Robyn Hitchcock in concert was on May 3, 2017 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

Starting off with five acoustic songs and then bringing out his touring band, The L.A. Squires, his set covered his entire career, featuring as many songs (four) from Underwater Moonlight as it did from Robyn Hitchcock.

Certain Songs #1990: Robyn Hitchcock – “Raymond and The Wires”

December 22, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Robyn Hitchcock
Year: 2017

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Robyn Hitchcock’s father, Raymond, was a screenwriter, cartoonist and novelist who nearly had his leg amputated following the invasion of Normandy. Other than siring one of my all-time favorite musicians, his first novel, Percy, was the catalyst for one of the Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, British Invasion Divison, “All God’s Children” by The Kinks.

However, Raymond himself was the catalyst for one of the Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Robyn Hitchcock Division — and a top 5 Robyn Hitchcock song — “Raymond and The Wires.”

Certain Songs #1989: Robyn Hitchcock – “1970 In Aspic”

December 21, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Robyn Hitchcock
Year: 2017

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Robyn Hitchcock was recorded in Nashville, where Robyn Hitchcock had moved with his partner, Emma Swift, in 2015. And it showed: not so much with the country, though “I Pray When I’m Drunk” is definitely the most country thing he had since since “Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus” way back in 1984, but because the pedal steel guitar, as played by Russ Pahl, was a pretty big part of the sound.

And nowhere was it a bigger part of the sound than “1970 In Aspic,” where it rings and comments from the start.

Certain Songs #1988: Robyn Hitchcock – “Mad Shelley’s Letterbox”

December 20, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Robyn Hitchcock
Year: 2017

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After Love From London, Robyn Hitchcock put out an acoustic album half-full of covers called The Man Upstairs, which didn’t quite cohere for me, and after that, relative silence for a couple of years, though we did get to see him when Big Star’s Third hit Glendale in 2016.

Certain Songs #1987: Robyn Hitchcock – “End of Time”

December 19, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Love From London
Year: 2013

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And so if you’re Robyn Hitchcock and your previous album was entitled Goodnight Oslo, then obviously your next move is to go to Norway and record and release an album there. Obviously. Which is exactly what Robyn did in 2011, with the relatively weak Tromsø, Kaptein, which mostly stood out for a remake of “Raining Twilight Coast” and the closing “Godnatt Oslo”, which, of course, was “Goodnight Oslo” sung in Norwegian. Of course.

Certain Songs #1986: Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 – “The Afterlight”

December 18, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Propellor Time
Year: 2010

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Robyn Hitchcock’s third straight album with the Venus 3, Propellor Time, came out only a year after Goodnight Oslo, but it was pretty different from that record, in that it was more acoustic-oriented than the previous two. Which is a weird parallel to the final Egyptians album, Respect, 17 years prior.

Recorded with the same cast of characters plus guest ringers John Paul Jones, Johnny Marr and Nick Lowe, Propellor Time was a much more relaxed affair than either of its predecessors, as was born out by its best track, “The Afterlife,” which had originally gotten its first go-round in a live version on a 2007 EP Sex, Food, Death … And Tarantulas.

Certain Songs #1981: Robyn Hitchcock – “Don’t Talk To Me About Gene Hackman”

December 13, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Jewels For Sophia
Year: 1999

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This is my second-favorite song in what is perhaps the all-time smallest category: “Late-90s Songs About Gene Hackman as Sung By 1980’s College Rock Icons.”

The other song is, of course, The Hoodoo Gurus “Gene Hackman,” which we discussed a little over four years ago, back before the world blew apart.

Certain Songs #1980: Robyn Hitchcock – “I Feel Beautiful”

December 12, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Jewels For Sophia
Year: 1999

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The exact opposite of the jovial “Viva! Sea-Tac,” was the song that followed it on Jewels For Sophia, the all-acoustic, spooky “I Feel Beautiful.”

Like I mentioned yesterday, Jewels For Sophia was recorded in London, Seattle and Los Angeles. “I Feel Beautiful” is from the Los Angeles sessions, which were produced by Jon Brion, who was pretty much everywhere at that time.

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

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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.