Robyn Hitchcock - Painkiller-Song, from Readymade: Sartorial Sampler II
Just came across these curated collections of Robyn Hitchcock oddities, curios, covers and the like. I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but from the tracks I know they should be pretty great.
Thanks for the crablings, Victorian Squid!
Unhatched Crablings, Vol 1 - Moments In The Orchard
Unhatched Crablings, Vol 2 - Who’s Got All The Tunes
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Soft Boys, Vegetable Men
Robyn Hitchcock once said of his former band the Soft Boys: “We could … sound like the Byrds or the Beatles, or whoever it was we wanted to sound like at the time … We sort of became a very high-grade covers band, combined with this sort of psychedelic coven.” Robyn was being slightly disparaging, I think, but the Soft Boys were indeed a very great covers band. Case in point, this compilation of live recordings and rehearsals I’ve thrown together, featuring the band tearing through a wide range of tunes by the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd and Roxy Music, among others. The whole thing kicks off with two manic renditions of Sun Records-associated songs that sound about a galaxy and a half removed from Memphis, and concludes about an hour later with an (inter)stellar jam on “Astronomy Domine.” Climb aboard the Mystery Train!
1. Mystery Train
2. Heartbreak Hotel
3. Caroline Says
4. We Like Bananas
5. Cold Turkey
6. Poor Will & The Jolly Hangman
7. My Evaline
8. That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
9. The Book of Love
10. In The Mood
11. All Shook Up
12. Leave Me Alone
13. Over You
14. Vegetable Man
15. Run Run Run
16. Gigolo Aunt
17. Train Round The Bend
18. Bells of Rhymney
19. Outlaw Blues
20. Astronomy DomineSpecial thanks go out to the Man With The Lightbulb Head for supplying a lot of the material for this comp!
I wore this song out a few years ago and I’ve had a moratorium on it ever since, like the cod in Newfoundland. With the exception of the extraordinarily vivid “1974”, I’m not sure his lyrics have ever been better. It’s a pleasure just to type them out and look at them, so I will.
No, I don’t remember Guildford.
What, was there something? Jog my memory—
Not the cathedral or the pool,
If there’s a pool.
I’m a little past it,
I’m near enough to be scorched, not blasted.
But no, I don’t remember Jenner Road,
Even though we lived there
And things came through the letterbox thick and fast.
It’s in the past,
It’s in the bracken.
Did something happen? The sky just blackened.
Now there’s a butterfly on my face
And I’m a number in a drawer…
Hang up your net, child. Show some respect
To the ghosts that are ruining your life.
It’s your life.
No, I don’t remember falling
From a flagpole onto a taxi
To leave my imprint and my entrails
For you to kiss
In the morning sun.
The abandoned versions are interesting in that a lot of the dropped lines were more explicitly about grief (although some, of course, were just about Vera Lynn as a guitar-playing shark). He was mulch / he was roses, ash, and holly is so pretty I wish it had stayed.
This old man — he was gone
He was gone, and I was sorry
Vera Lynn, Vera Lynn
Where do all our ends begin?
Forces’ Sweetheart, I’m your twin, now
Vera Lynn nin nin nin nin nin nin nin nin nin
Vera Lynn n-nin nin nin nin nin nin nin ninThis old man — he was mulch
He was roses, ash, and holly
Vera Lynn, Vera Lynn
She played punk rock with her fin
Notify my next of kin, now
Vera Lynn nin nin nin nin nin nin nin nin
Vera Lynn nin nin nin nin nin nin nin nin
ROBYN HITCHCOCK
Chronology (Yep Roc)
Robyn Hitchcock is one of those rare musicians that there just aren’t enough of—or maybe there are. Maybe there shouldn’t be too many like him. Maybe it would get a little too crowded in the pantheon of highly prolific artists with decades-spanning…
(Source: reglarwiglar.com)
Robyn Hitchcock, “Surgery” (Invisible Hitchcock)
I don’t love this song, because I don’t think it lives up to its first few lines (You’ll never have the damn thing out / or meet the Pope / and kiss his neck / and like him more than you expect). But it reminds me of some of my relatives who are now dead, which is as good a reason as any to listen to a Robyn Hitchcock song.
Check out a great interview with Robyn Hitchcock over at The Quietus on the link above. Robyn plays ATP curated by Jeff Mangum where he will perform his classic album I Often Dream Of Trains.
